How Can I Improve My Practice

[VeganAwake]

12 hours ago, The0Self said:

But it’s not like in the story there isn’t basically a hack that can open the sense of separation up to the boundlessness.

Self inquiry when done very simply and skillfully, simply can, in the story, lead to a shift out of identity.

Ultimately it’s an airtight illusion, because it’s not there, yet nonetheless, this hack is available.

Better to know about what awakening really is and yet not be there, than to be unaware of the possibility at all.

Yep it's both, there's a way and there's not a way! 

Self-inquiry/spiritual practices can perpetuate and prolong the illusion of separation AND/OR it can illuminate the futility of an unreal individual attempting to become awakened!

There's nothing right or wrong better or worse with any practice or inquiry, there's just no one that's actually doing it!! ? 

❤ 

 

 

[VeganAwake]

3 hours ago, Consilience said:

A self isn‘t what drives the continuation of practice, purification, and awakening.

Exactly, it's an illusion of a self endlessly seeking for a better experience in the future.

It stems from the experience that something is currently lacking.

❤ 

Edited May 12, 2022 by VeganAwake

[The0Self]

21 minutes ago, VeganAwake said:

Yep it's both, there's a way and there's not a way! 

Self-inquiry/spiritual practices can perpetuate and prolong the illusion of separation AND/OR it can illuminate the futility of an unreal individual attempting to become awakened!

There's nothing right or wrong better or worse with any practice or inquiry, there's just no one that's actually doing it!! ? 

❤ 

 

 

 Yeah the appearance is so intimate, a self separate from everything is amazingly somehow believable -- it's just so damn engrossing.

And yep, the seeking setup will constantly use the practices to survive (it will incessantly co opt any technique and assume a reason for it that is valuable to itself), but after this is seen directly (and in real time), and especially if there are glimpses or flashes of what's really going on, a motivated (by desire rather than choice) one-pointed inquiry can then work to short-circuit it.

Edited May 12, 2022 by The0Self

[VeganAwake]

21 minutes ago, The0Self said:

 Yeah the appearance is so intimate, a self separate from everything is amazingly somehow believable -- it's just so damn engrossing.

And yep, the seeking setup will constantly use the practices to survive (it will incessantly co opt any technique and assume a reason for it that is valuable to itself), but after this is seen directly (and in real time), and especially if there are glimpses or flashes of what's really going on, a motivated (by desire rather than choice) one-pointed inquiry can then work to short-circuit it.

Yeah man it's a total trip & completely ridiculous!

What else to say right!

Just WTF....?

 

❤ 

[softlyblossoming]

On 09/05/2022 at 11:31 AM, GreenWoods said:

the main releases from shaktipat would start once the kundalini is awakening and doing it's purification process

Hi, Greenwoods, how do I know my kundalini is awakening? What signs and symptoms should I look out for? Thank you, brother! 

[Raptorsin7]

9 hours ago, Consilience said:

@Raptorsin7 If you don’t see the deulsion of the Neo Advaita movement, I’m not sure anything can be said or any advice given, it’s something you must experientially grasp. After a certain level of attainment, the trap this group has fallen into becomes very clear. They’re still not only identified, but clinging to self in one of the most counter intuitive ways. The tragedy is they’ve fully convinced themselves they’re free. All I can offer is a heart felt warning not to fall into this delusion, and instead, walk the path of transforming the mind until the mind truly, honestly, experientially, sees not only its own nature, but the nature of all phenomena and reality. That is happiness. 

I'm don't know for sure. Part of me thinks they are deeply deluded and not helpful or useful, but also i'm not enlightened and maybe they know something I don't know.

But what they are preaching does not coincide with my peak experiences from psychidelics so I am deeply skeptical.

[GreenWoods]

2 hours ago, softlyblossoming said:

Hi, Greenwoods, how do I know my kundalini is awakening? What signs and symptoms should I look out for? Thank you, brother! 

Hi 

It can be very different from person to person.

Some people have strong kundalini symptoms and crazy kriyas, and for others it might be very subtle or they feel nothing at all.

Just having kundalini symptoms also doesn't mean the kundalini is awakening for real.

From what I know, stuff like vibrations and pulsating in the spine and bliss energy going up to your brain, and bliss in general, belong to the more reliable signs of actual kundalini awakening.

When the kundalini is fully awake and has completed it's purification process then you might intuitively feel that the job is done. (The process probably keeps going, on ever more subtle layers, but relatively speaking, the big stuff is done.)

Someone who is very psychic or a good kundalini teacher might be able to tell you where you are in the kundalini process.

[Jordan]

I found it useful to switch from trying with all your effort and willpower to focus doing mindfulness with labeling then relaxing your effort and letting your subconscious take over. Eventually you will be able to focus much without putting effort into it and your consciousness will increase over time. It helps to have a good reason to meditate to help motivate you to keep that willpower strong. The recent video on levels of consciousness was a good reminder for me to spend some time with 100% effort on focusing. 

[ardacigin]

@JonasVE12 Let's not fully blur the lines between 'egoic forceful trying with desire and aversion' to 'setting and holding intentions with your mind' which is how you actually improve in meditation and create a good balance of concentration and awareness.

Letting go strategy helps you to see that there is no do-er. It is advanced. Prior to such awareness developing, nudging your mind to stabilize attention and expanding awareness is the first step. And such a practice will allow the OP to improve his practice tangibly. 

In fact, right after this, going for self enquiry will extremely fruitful and is my key recommendation for people at that stage. Letting go of 'effort' develops that understanding.

 But not right now when the meditator doesn't even have proper full body awareness, understanding of mind and some level of inner joy and pleasure.

Edited May 13, 2022 by ardacigin

[ardacigin]

On 10.05.2022 at 8:35 PM, Consilience said:

Shinzen’s unified mindfulness system is far more complex than “just do mindfulness” and therefore, not simple. This lack of simplicity is both it’s greatest weakness and strength. 

You should read his articles on Mindfulness and the See Hear Feel technique. If you’re looking to cultivate/manipulate/investigate energetic phenomena, Shinzen’s SHF flow techniques are what you’d want to explore. But it’s all connected. As one becomes more mindful, the entire perceptual field becomes increasingly energetic. The mind can see the moment by moment arising and passing away of all phenomena, impermanence, so clearly, that all solidity, objectivity, and dullness evaporate. High levels of mindfulness are what create psychedelic like experiences during practice. Please note, this is not the ultimate goal and can turn into a roadblock for advanced practitioners. 

Another immediate and crucial way to improve your practice is to go on a meditation retreat. The necessity and importance of this seems to be commonly ignored on this forum. Which given Leo’s recent criticism of meditation makes sense, the collective ego just adopting new belief systems. If you watch his older videos though, he stresses the need to go on retreat. 

Ill just say, the liberating power of spirituality has very little do to with energetic phenomena even if in the beginning this direction feels appropriate and helpful. Getting fixated or stuck in the wrong frameworks, such as fixation on energy, is another way to be a seeker for 20 years with nothing to show for it. 

On top of this, I see crazy levels of benefit in Shinzen's visual field techniques you can utilize in daily life. In Culadasa's term, he is stabilizing attention on the visual field (or letting it move around) while developing introspective awareness of sensations and mental states. The exact skills you need to maintain mindfulness in daily life.

Even when the attention constantly moves around in daily life; that introspective of awareness of sensations and feelings are maintained and tied into the understanding of no-self, impermanence and suffering. This transformation is slowly but surely understood.

Getting a little taste of all 3 characteristics while eyes open in the world absolutely transforms many assumptions and starts a new tier of spiritual development.

So regardless of skill, doing almost any visual field technique is extremely important. Especially for us westerners who don't spend 12 hours eyes closed to develop introspective awareness.

Edited May 13, 2022 by ardacigin

[Ulax]

Hmmm maybe consult with your protectors on this.

Also, you checked in with your protectors after that recent unburdening? That might clear up some need for control or something.

Re meditation itself, not my forte, too many protectors atm for it to be useful for me.

[ardacigin]

On 11.05.2022 at 3:56 PM, Consilience said:

For those who believe applying a meditation technique contradicts surrender, I would point to a lack of clarity around the dynamics of intentionality and the composition of the self activity and ignorance of the nature of impermanence

Great way to put it. As a meditator, your job is to see even when you form and hold intentions, there is no do-er and 'you' were always getting in the way of this elusive 'effortlessness'. That understanding, however, requires deep introspective awareness + insight into no self which is why you are meditating to develop these skills.

So don't just sit on the cushion, rationalizing 'do nothing' thinking it is helping you going deep. More likely, for most people, it can be a waste of time unless you understand what I've written above intuitively.

Edited May 13, 2022 by ardacigin

[Raptorsin7]

35 minutes ago, Ulax said:

Hmmm maybe consult with your protectors on this.

Also, you checked in with your protectors after that recent unburdening? That might clear up some need for control or something.

Re meditation itself, not my forte, too many protectors atm for it to be useful for me.

Hmm yeah that's a good point. 

I got in touch with my protector/critic a long time ago, but I haven't gone in depth with my ifs therapist.

How do you get in touch with your proctors? And how many do you have and when do you know your in touch with certain ones?

[Ulax]

@Raptorsin7 Overall, I'd recommend listening to 'Greater than the sum of your parts' audiobook. Seemed  simplistic book to me, but really helped me with IFS. Even though I've gone through a lot of content on it.

How many do I have?

hmmm, I've mapped at least around 50 parts so far I'd say. Maybe like 30 are protectors. But numerous parts ive only really just identified and haven't gotten to know. I have with quite a few tho.

How do you get in touch with protectors?

Honestly, the fire drill meditation has been a game changer for me: 

Really helped me get in touch with some of the big boy protectors.

Here are some questions too for parts mapping:

1. What is your role? 2. What would you like me to understand? 3. What would you like me to know? 4. When did the part first start to feel this way? 5. What heavy energies or burdens have you been carrying? 6. What are identifying markers of these protectors. 7. Are there any parts you are protecting?, 8. What is your name, 9. How old are you?, 10. How old do you think I am.

I'd recommend getting a journal where you ask parts about all these things and write down the answers. I'd just keep in mind the potential for systems to have well meaning guessing parts.

I think its really useful to get more into self too, prior to doing these questions and IFS meditations.

A bit of a mind fuck recently has been finding out about my more meta protectors. Like there's one which shows me things that I ordinarily take as completely true, or ones that doubt the process of IFS and for a while I didn't realise they were parts. So myb those would be interesting ones to focus on too, if you have similar ones.

The way i ended up identifying a few of them was kind of random. I decided to sit down with a notebook and just get into contact with my parts. Part of me decided that it would be really useful to try and write everything in my mind down, in a parts perspective. I.e. any images that come up, any voices that tell me to write a certain thing down and not another thing down and get into contact with those parts. That was really incredible stuff for me. I ended up sitting down journalling for like 4 hours, and learnt a lot about parts i hadn't really come across before, or parts I didn't really want to acknowledge. Myb that's something you'd be interested in doing too.

Also, can go watch content of people you dislike and then try and start a dialogue with voices that come up.

When do you know you're in touch with certain ones?

To my understanding, every thought/ voice in your mind is attributable to a part.

Some parts have v particular voices or identifying markers, particularly some of my child parts. But I do have great difficulties with some protectors who understandably try to disrupt the process, or who try to aid the process by  guessing answers because, i.e. they are impatient to heal. The funny thing is I'm talking from a part now hehe, so I probably protect in various ways too. But, sincerely, this is a bit hit and miss for me, except with some of the more meta protectors.

Hope this helps. Always interested to see where you are on your journey.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Ulax

[Consilience]

@The0Self I never replied but wanted to say thank you for such thorough replies man. Your views are very interesting and paradoxical on the surface yet totally congruent in the depths. ❤️

 

@ardacigin Great additions! Thank you man! I have a feeling many readers on this forum benefit from your perspectives. ?

 

[The0Self]

5 hours ago, Consilience said:

@The0Self I never replied but wanted to say thank you for such thorough replies man. Your views are very interesting and paradoxical on the surface yet totally congruent in the depths. ❤️

No problem, thanks! And yep. 

5 hours ago, Consilience said:

@ardacigin Great additions! Thank you man! I have a feeling many readers on this forum benefit from your perspectives. ?

Yeah thanks @ardacigin that's really good guidance.

Edited May 13, 2022 by The0Self

[Raptorsin7]

@Ulax Thanks man. 

I think I'll try to get into these protectors more during my IFS sessions. After reading your post I remember just thinking about why I don't feel shame or guilt all the time because according to my own belief system I should be feeling guilty and ashamed all the time. Then I just thought there must be a part that protects me from all those feelings, and in that moment I could instantly feel tears come up. So there's definitely something here to explore.

I have 2 IFS books that specifically talk about the critic I wonder if going through those books can be enlightening too. I think there are specific parts/protectors that carry a lot of our suffering so finding the big boys and working with them is probably going to lead to really good returns.

The parts model is the best explanation i've seen for why some people don't get much out of meditation. If you have a part of your mind that is fighting and resisting all the time and you have no awareness of it, then any meditation you do will just be blocked by the part of your mind that won't let you access and deeper and healing material.

[Ulax]

@Raptorsin7 Sounds great dude.

Glad that you were able to connect with your parts there.

And ye im right aligned with your thinking.

I think if you're psychic system allows for it, do nothing meditation can be real useful.  As it lets the parts flow. However, it might be that some protectors need talking to. But that's just me brainstorming