doc benway

I've had a similar experience since beginning meditation practice about 17 years ago. There seem to be always more things to come up. Not surprising given how full of stuff my day to day life is - work, relationships, habits, hobbies, "news," etc... There are also things that come up that are not at all new, things I thought I'd let go or transformed. These persistent patterns that are resistant to change are the more frustrating for me currently.

This is very natural and will go on for a long time if you continue to practice. Methods like meditation (of which there are many) and mantra help us to quiet and rest the active mind. When that very familiar mind and its content rest and begin to open up all sorts of new, unexpected, and unfamiliar territory makes itself accessible. This is the proverbial "peeling the onion."

Sure, that's part. Another way to look at it is simply that the mind tends to grasp things - complex activities and tasks, memories, fears, desires, shapes, colors, sounds - anything and everything. More than anything it grasps at a "self," a permanent entity that is the narrator, the doer, our very own frame of reference. But even that frame of reference is a movable, temporary construct. The one thing the mind does not know how to do is simply rest. That's not at all in its wheelhouse. Partly that is because the mind is specifically that aspect of us which does anything other than rest. So we must show it what a resting mind looks like and then give it the opportunity to see value and develop some familiarity with that. In the Tibetan Buddhist and Bön traditions, this method of "leaving it as it is" was the single most inaccessible and secretive of all practices. It was considered very radical and even heresy by some, such is the power of the mind that does not understand or value rest.

The peril of meditation is simply that we will get to know ourselves as we truly are. What we find can be very beautiful and liberating but along the way can be very ugly and frightening. One of my favorite teachers is Anthony Demello who was both a spiritual teacher and a psychologist. He talked about his struggles finding balance between the two. As a psychologist, the goal is often to ease suffering. As a spiritual guide, the goal often must lead through that very suffering. Regarding uncharacteristic thoughts, they are all a part of you. We collect so much along the way from birth to the grave. Much of that is suppressed or repressed, we often don't even realize it's something we've collected. When it expresses itself it can be quite surprising, even unwelcome. Our work as practitioners is to honor its presence without hanging on, just to allow it to do its dance and carry on.

The core practice of the tradition I follow is just this - resting in one's own nature. We refer to it as resting in the Nature of Mind and the proverbial pith instruction is - leave it as it is. It is interesting that something so simple, so mundane, can be the source of so much disagreement and secrecy. The reason is that to do this practice properly requires a great deal of precision. It is extremely easy to miss the mark and getting it wrong often leads to significant problems. Missing by a hair is just as bad as missing by a mile, in some ways worse because the practitioner doesn't know they've missed and follows a mistaken direction of their own creation moving every farther form the truth. So while I resonate deeply with this practice and have a sense of its value, I also have a solemn respect for it. I recognize that it is not something anyone can simply access and yet it seems so simple on the surface. So when one does encounter challenges they are magnified by the apparent simplicity, leading to frustration, anger, even bitterness.

Brilliant

I think it is a large and interesting topic. I see trance more as an alteration of mundane consciousness, often requiring stimulation through sound or psychotropics, used to connect to spirits, entities, or beings that are not readily accessible otherwise. Meditation is more related to the purification and clarification of mundane consciousness itself. Of course there are many exceptions, variations, and overlap, and our definitions have quite a bit of flexibility.

They will come and they will go...

@VonKrankenhaus2 If you want to access your old account send me a PM and we should be able to get that back and delete the new one.

@Giles Your personal practice discussion forum has come into existence. Let me know if you have any questions

@Knowthing Your PPD is set up here - https://www.thedaobums.com/forum/616-knowthing/ Please let me know if there are any questions.

The causal paths which include the shamanic practices have a view rooted in cause and effect. The sutric path has a view of emptiness. The tantric view is that of the divine. The dzogchen view is generally referred to as the open view.

What is the relationship between trance and meditation in your opinion? For me they are not equivalent.

From a Bön perspective (quite consistent with Buddhism and with which I'm most familiar), there are several ways or paths each of which has a unique perspective and paradigm - causal paths (shamanism would fit here best but overlaps with others), sutric, tantric, and dzogchen paths. Each has a unique view, practice, conduct, and fruition with unique characteristics.

We are awash in lies, innuendo, misinformation, and disinformation at a time when so many are so desperate for something they can hold onto to keep from drowning. It’s painful to watch.

I feel that the two, one's natural aptitude for healing and an inclination to escape society and contemplate spiritual things, go hand in hand. Furthermore, one need not escape society to engage in spiritual practice and transformation. It is far easier, and therefore recommended in many traditions, for many of us to escape to solitude than it is to transform oneself in the thick of samsara but it's not the only way. If you are called in that direction by all means follow that calling, but don't shy away from spiritual investigation simply because you cannot escape from society. In my own tradition, that very practice and transformation we seek is found by going directly through samsara, not around it. There is nothing that makes one a better healer than to first heal oneself. The last line of a dedication prayer that my teacher wrote for his Western students is - In liberating my own being may I benefit others. Connecting with one's own dharma, the truth of one's nature, is liberation from suffering. Liberation is the ultimate healing. If you are called to look for that, regardless of the circumstances, I highly recommend you heed the call.

I practice whenever possible outside, often in my yard below. I often practice indoors in a small meditation room. My dogs frequently sit in the meditation room, with or without me.

I’ve been largely disengaged from news since 9/11. At the time I was absorbing news voraciously. I began looking at multiple sources from around the world and realized that news is largely propaganda or, at best, stories told through the limited geographical, cultural, and political filter of the reporter, producer, and publisher. Much distortion is intentional, much is not. Since last Wednesday I’ve been looking at some reporting and find PBS and BBC to be fairly neutral and intelligent.

Be equally careful with "news" about Covid, or anything else, coming out of China.

I think there are fundamental and important differences between the world view of Buddhism and the world view of shamanism. Each can be used to understand the other, IMO. Each are valid from their own perspective. The two are merged in the Tibetan Bön tradition, one of the reasons I feel so strongly drawn to it. For me, the scientific aspect of Buddhism is related to how we apply it to our own experience. We start with a hypothesis, the methods of Buddhism can ease our experience of suffering and lead to personal growth and liberation. We test that hypothesis by engaging in study and practice and observing the effects they have on our lives.

Canadian lynx (Lynx canadensis)

Please join me in extending a warm welcome to @dwai who has volunteered to join the mod team. Thank you for offering your services dwai, I look forward to working with you on the team!

Me too... It always irritates me to see people dressing up their pets for photos.

Cute your ars too...

I practice Bön dzogchen. Before that I spent about 12 years practicing in a Daoist system - Kunlun Xian Zong Pai (Kunlun Immortal School). Different people respond to different methods so you really need to try things and see for yourself. For me, the Bön methods are simpler and more direct. I would also say they are more integrated in the sense that they apply more directly and immediately to my day to day life as compared to my experience with Daoist methods. This is in part because my teacher simplified the practices to make them more accessible to a secular Western audience. I do not say this as a general statement regarding Bön and Daoist systems, just sharing my personal experience. Obviously it will depend on what systems we are comparing, how they are taught, and how we approach them as practitioners - YMMV. Here is a link to a free introductory, self-paced course that introduces you to basic meditation and energetic methods in Bön. It's a good way to get a taste for the system. If you decide to try it and have any questions or need support, feel free to get in touch by PM. https://ligminchalearning.com/starting-a-meditation-practice/