Seeker of Wisdom

I'd also add that as the breath refines in anapana, you should focus more to maintain a clear awareness of it. That's how you train greater levels of vividness, attending to increasingly subtle phenomena. Eventually it will seem like the breath stops - it doesn't, as jb said - and Ajahn Brahm says that, at this point the breath is now a mental, not physical, experience. Focusing on that mental experience leads to a nimitta appearing, and by focusing on that nimitta you can enter jhana.

There are times to analyse and consider the big picture. This is not one of them. This a simple, unhealthy aversion to showers which you need to overcome by pushing through it. Log off and take a damn shower. No amount of thinking or meditation will make that happen, but once you get used to making yourself shower - no problem. Yes, everything has a cause. But that doesn't mean it's wise to look at every little practicality of life from an absolute perspective. Spiritual vs. mundane is a false dichotomy. Being practical on a purely material 'mundane' level is something even a Buddha/Immortal/etc. would do in a wide range of simple situations. If there is a fire in your house, you get the hell out and THEN look at causes and surrounding issues.

Jesus man, just make your stinky ass shower! This is just some weird aversion you need to get over.

You can't practice both at the same time because anapana requires trying to do nothing but focus on the breath as it flows by itself - it's a shamatha practice. Do them as separate practices, and you'll develop shamatha from anapana and also the benefits of circular breathing.

That's great! Deciding to stop is when you start winning.

Understand that there is really no thing which is a feather, there are impermanent fluid phenomena which we label feathers. This is sunyata. The same idea applies to you - there is no fundamental self, just fluid mental and material processes which the mind mistakes for a solid thing, 'I am this owner/doer'. This is anatta. Realise anatta and sunyata, and you may achieve your goal and much, much else besides.

According to Bill Bodri, when the crown chakra really opens there's a chi earthquake in the area around you that affects beings all around. I'm not sure how true that is, but I do suspect that a lot of the time, what people think is a chakra opening, is just the tiny channels around it clearing. Since chakras are pumps, I would expect one truly opening to be associated with an obvious pumping of chi going on permanently afterwards.

I guess learning martial arts is good for discipline and health, and will only actually be used on people in a self-defence situation.

These weird symptoms you're having wouldn't be happening if shamatha wasn't working against resistance in your mind and body, so at least they mean change is happening.

I second this. The other day there was a wonderful silky quality to the breath, which increased my relaxation and stability to a great level. My mind was so clear and had a bigness to it. I think this may have been Ajahn Brahm's 'beautiful breath'. So, dmattwads, keep going. It's a fantastic journey! Shame some people think shamatha is somehow beneath them, or too dull, and bypass it entirely... Something I've found helpful is to try to increase my interest in the breath. That way I automatically increase my vividness and stability - focusing sharply on the transition between inhale and exhale, the length of breath, depth, temperature... every aspect of the sensation of breathing in my nostrils. It also helps with relaxation, by decreasing the tendency to wrestle forcefully with the mind to stay on the breath and suppress or force out other things - the breath kind of pulls your awareness in more, especially as it starts to get pleasurable.

How is focusing on the mind 'outward'? I don't understand why people obsess over chi so much when it's a form thing and enlightenment is formless, and it's not possible to fully develop chi when mental hindrances are obstructing its flows anyway.

If you focus on mental clarity, focus, virtue, wisdom; the chi will sort itself out. So I advise making mind and behaviour the real priority, and only doing a little chi stuff to speed things up.

Back to intelligence - there are some good apps out there: *Memory trainer, by Urbian. *Mensa brain test, by Moshen Limited. *Mind games, by Alexey Khripkov. *Mind games, by Mindware Consulting Inc. With these 4 you can really improve fluid intelligence, working memory and logic. They neglect creativity and stuff, but they're good at what they're designed for.

I am saying you are right, in the sense that it is right to say that a car is an axle; and wrong, in the sense that it is wrong to say a car is an axle.

The wave is not separate from the ocean, but there still is an individual wave which has its own activities and processes. To say 'I am suchness' is just as accurate as 'these skhandas are emenations of suchness', which is just as accurate as 'these skhandas are empty'. Many layers of conventional and absolute truth, all 100% correct! Can you see how these three statements all actually point to the same thing from different angles, but not even all three can really capture the transcendental heart of the matter? There are subtle but important nuances lost when we reduce the truth (or our concepts of it anyway...) to catchphrases we see going around now like 'we are all one' and 'there is only the now'. This is why Hui-neng told his followers to answer questions about light by referring to darkness, questions about suchness by referring to emptiness, and so on. Monk: "What is Buddha?" Tozan: "This flax weighs three pounds." Don't look for a meaning, and you might see it.

Ignoring the benzopyrene which causes cancer; ignoring the tar and carbon which clog your alveoli; ignoring the chemical which stops production of alpha-1 anti trypsin (therefore causing emphysema as the elastin in your lungs dissolves); ignoring the nicotine which makes your teeth shit; ignoring the carbon monoxide which reduces your blood's affinity for oxygen; and ignoring the financial cost... It's an addiction. Even if it was good for your chi, I would tell you to STOP! Trying to cultivate to nirvana at the same time as stoking cravings and attachments is like trying to swim with a bungee cord holding you back. You have to overcome this addiction if you want a calm, clear, and sharp mind, or a hope in hell of unlocking enough prajna to realise Tao. I advise more cultivation, and stopping smoking cold-turkey this very second. Go right now, get your cigarettes, write a letter to tobacco about stopping, burn the letter, bury the death sticks (like a funeral). Go to the shops you normally get smokes from and tell the owner to bar you for a month if you try to ask for cigarettes. Take up jogging as a new habit, which will give you a tangible sign of how your health improves over time for motivation. Best of luck. Keep us posted.

When you were a young child you were much shorter, but now you don't feel very tall. What you are in the present always feels normal for you, because it's your point of reference. These 'new realisations' show that you are certainly progressing, and if you consider how you used to be I think you will see how far you've come. Plenty of people have flashy mystical experiences with next to no wisdom, virtue or clarity. Don't worry about abilities or weird phenomena.

And do you want to achieve anything actually meaningful in your cultivation? You won't become an Immortal/Buddha/Jivanmukta/etc. solely by being great at visualising stuff after a few weeks or months practice. It's cool to have smaller goals along the way, but ultimately why not aim for the pinnacle: to become a being with full realisation of the nature of existence; unshakable virtue; with the mental luminosity of 1000 suns; mental clarity and vastness of the space pervading the universe; on a level beyond levels, beyond comprehension, that makes Tesla, Chuck Norris and Ghandi combined look like an ant? It takes years to achieve shamatha. People can dedicate years to learning the guitar, which is far less worthwhile. Why not dedicate years to a profound mental training that will bring you far closer to liberation from craving, delusion, and ill-will, i.e. nirvana!

Yeah. Though I would still suggest a primary focus on the mind, with chi as an auxiliary to help things along.

In general, I think you're right. The advantage of focusing on the body first is that once you've cleaned up your chi to a reasonable extent, your mental work will go much faster. The disadvantages are greater risk of kundalini issues, and getting obsessed with chi. Having perfect chi is not nirvana. It's just a helpful foundation, which would happen along the way anyway to someone working hard on virtue, shamatha and vipassana. The advantage of focusing on the mind first is you don't get sidetracked, and when you do start on chi there will be little left to do. However it is hard - taking this route all the way would involve great(er) discipline and (more) years in intensive retreat. I advise combining them. However, keep the emphasis on mind (virtue, shamatha, vipassana). About one minute on the body to ten minutes on the mind has served me well so far.

Extrapolating current trends, I think: *Religion will largely be replaced with atheism, and independent cultivation. *People who don't cultivate well will really degrade in intelligence, culture and attention span due to constant technological stimulation. *China will overtake America. *There will be a panicked rush into different energy sources. Hopefully the first fusion reactors. *Vampire romance movies will go out and in of fashion a few times. *More offish-the-grid groups like the Amish will develop, mainly cultivators, some just people sick of the bullshit. *We'll start to build farms on the sea. *More countries will start one-child policies or similar. *Quantum computers.

Concentration is key. Most people have most of their mental capabilities scattered. If you can fully focus on something, suddenly it's like you have opened up 40 IQ points. I finish tasks while everyone else is halfway through, and to a better standard... not because I'm smarter, but because, thanks to SHAMATHA (all hail shamatha!), I can direct all the smartness that I do have into that task, rather than wasting 1/3 of my mind and my time oscillating between other things. Shamatha has also really improved my memory. Reading is good too, and puzzles that challenge your weak areas. Also I feel super-sharp if I retain jing for a while.

Can anything contain more than empty space does?

Let's not make this another thread diverted with an argument about something minor... DRT is probably right.

Interesting experience yesterday. I was chanting the mantra, with prostrations. For a few seconds, I saw little sparks of white/gold light floating around.