how to develop visualization ?

[hydrogen]

I've also read about taking a picture of a guru, gazing at it and 'memorizing' every detail and then closing the eyes and recalling the image as a bonified practice. You do that regularily for weeks until you can clearly see the whole picture in your mind's eye.

 

If I do that, I'd take a picture of myself. Why waste your precious mind on some "guru"?

 

Mayby a human skeleton picture works too. You can do skeleton meditation later on.

[ralis]

For visualization, the alpha brain state will put you there. The modern technology is excellent. Transparent Corp. Monroe's Hemi-Sync and Immrama.

[Mandrake]

According to Alan Wallace, the average person, with a toned down environment (no TV or activities which are too simulating), with diligent practice (3 to 4 hours a day) and by maintaining mindfulness between sessions, can achieve samatha in about 6 months. He also mentions the 'degree of ripeness' concept, where some people will achieve it sooner with not much effort, and others may take years to achieve, if ever..

 

TI:

 

Interesting. I've followed pretty much all of Wallace's podcasts and read many of his books. He quite frequently mentions that for the modern person, 1-2 years is expected if all prerequisites are met. I lived in a monastery which specialized in shamatha. The western monks there confirmed that this is what the majority need if they want the classic shamatha and not just a mental taste of it. And now we're not even speaking about dhyana/jhana, which every second bum on the street seems to claim to have nowadays.

 

 

Mandrake

[Jetsun]

Read books

 

Yeah, or listen to story books on your mp3

 

Another technique is to read out loud to yourself, when Gurdjieff wrote his books he instructed his students to read his books normally like they would anything else but also out loud to themselves as then you are invoking a different part of your being to receive the teachings, the part which imagines and visualizes, so both sides of your being get the transmission of knowledge.

[Tibetan_Ice]

TI:

 

Interesting. I've followed pretty much all of Wallace's podcasts and read many of his books. He quite frequently mentions that for the modern person, 1-2 years is expected if all prerequisites are met. I lived in a monastery which specialized in shamatha. The western monks there confirmed that this is what the majority need if they want the classic shamatha and not just a mental taste of it. And now we're not even speaking about dhyana/jhana, which every second bum on the street seems to claim to have nowadays.

 

 

Mandrake

Hi Mandrake,

Have you listened to the Dzogchen retreat podcasts? All 30 of them?

Where exactly does Alan Wallace say 1 to 2 years? I have quoted 2 books previously in this thread.

I didn't know there was a difference between 'classic shamatha' and a 'mental taste of it'.

Perhaps, since you've lived in a monastery which specialized in shamatha, you could tell us something about your experience of attaining shamatha. What are the experiences leading up to it? What is it like for you? Have you experienced the vividness, the clarity and luminescence? Did your coarse consciousness collapse into the substrate consciousness, and then the substrate? I'm very interested in hearing about it. What was your experience?

 

TI

[Tibetan_Ice]

what are some good gazing technique to achieve shamtha ?

Hi NTF

Gazing is not shamatha.

 

Gazing is an energetic event, whereby you fix your sense of sight in one location and maintain that focus. It is an excellent practice for gaining stabilization, training the mind, activating the third eye and kundalini. It is not a shamatha practice. It can, however, be a precursor to shamatha practice.

 

In shamatha practice, if I put my tongue on the roof of my mouth, the nimittas don't appear. If I attempt to have any goal at all, other than just watching the mental representation of the breath, it does not happen. It is only when I let everything else go (except watching the breathing) that all of a sudden the bright white light will break through. The breath is the only thing that continues on it's own, without volition. That, and the beating heart.

 

The main point according to Alan Wallace is that you can't get to shamatha by focusing on an external form, an external object, something through the five senses. You have to eventually be able to focus on the mental representation of that object. Even in the more advanced Dzogchen practices such as taking the mind as the object, the five senses drop off on their own. If you support attention through one of the five senses, you prevent that sense from falling away.

 

Here is a good set of instructions for gazing:

 

The Stages of A-Khrid Meditation

Dzogchen Practice of the Bon Tradition

by

Bru-sgom rGyal-ba g.yung-drung

(1242 -- 90)

 

( THE GAZE

The mind conforms to the eye, as the great dGongs-mdzad33

says: "If the eyes are fully open, one will grasp external objects; if

they are shut, one sinks into drowsiness." Therefore one should

staringly, unblinkingly, without looking \lP or down or to the right

or to the left, directly in front regard the " A" without opening fully

nor closing the eyes; without being distracted by thoughts of the

past or imaginings regarding the future, by sudden reflections or

thoughts and recollections of good and evil-as if one were rolling

one's spear on one's shield;34 or as if one were shooting an arrow at

a target; controlling one's mind so that it becomes one-pointed,

subduing it by means of discipline-staring down uninterruptedly

as if boring a hole, being straight like the shaft of a spear,

being tense like the string of a bow, being insensate like a corpse;

without wavering, without recollection, without forgetfulness,

without mental vacancy,35 without thinking of anything in particular,

without being tired even for a moment.

 

Shamatha practice is "being so calm and quiet, so detached, not grasping, not interested in anything that the mind calms right down. The best indicator is that the breath slows. As you continue, the breath eventually stops. There is a direct connection between mind and breath. That is one advantage of using the breath as the object of attention. It is a barometer of calmness.

 

I had to laugh when I read someone's post that said that they were practising shamatha and reverse breathing in the same sitting. Reverse breathing requires thought, intention, will power and the mind has to direct the whole procedure. How can you calm the mind when you are stirring it up like that?

 

TI

[Tibetan_Ice]

Feeling.

 

 

Get the heart and emotional power involved. Developing the feeling of being, and experiencing is much much more powerful and important than focusing on the visual aspect.

Feeling is good. But getting the emotions involved is just stirring up winds.

 

You don't need to develop the 'feeling of being'. It is buried underneath all the veils. One only has to learn to relax and drop the veils for the true presence of being to shine through. Love can sometimes do this very easily.

 

The funny thing about layers of consciousness is that the deeper (or finer) you go, everything becomes visual. But it is not sight. It is it's own kind of knowing.

 

There is not one method for realization that is better than the other. There is a method that is better for each individual person. The main thing is to understand this:

The true you lives in the little point, the indestructible drop in the heart. That little drop manifests your being, your body, mind, and speech through the five lights, the five elements. You are creating yourself, and have been all along.

 

The heart is sacred. It has unbelievable powers. It uses the five senses to manifest your world. You can use any of the five senses to collapse the structure. There are many methods. Inevitably it comes down to living from the heart, realizing that it's creation is a dream, and realizing that it has that power to create, over and over and over again.

 

The only problem is that mind thinks it is the center and does things to maintain that focus. Don't believe the mind for a second. Hold firm in your heart, the magic, the sacredness, the power and the love that is the source of your being. Don't forget it for an instant.

 

TI

[JustBHappy]

This is how my lama taught me, it's fine if you disagree, but my experience confirms my lama's teachings on the subject and nothing could sway me now.

Before going into 3 year retreat I had thought just as you and most others, that visualization was about seeing. This is an extremely limited view and will stunt ones practice.

It is about feeling and emotion. This is what unlocks the power of the heart. It's quite magical actually, the 'visualization' comes effortlessly after this and includes smell, touch, taste, hearing, and of course seeing but in an almost effortless way. When one has developed the practice to the point where overwhelming emotion is experienced while doing the creation stage, the visualization will come as a result. It's not about focusing on a diety's body, implements, consort, or mandala, it all about feeling the presence of and the resulting emotion which opens the heart and mind in a powerful magical way.

People misunderstand concentration and think it comes from effort, and focus. It doesn't, it all comes from relaxation and letting go. The intense focus actually causes tightness and thus distraction. For most westerners, what is needed is relaxation and letting go, not discipline and concentration and focus. It's ironic, but truly, when you finally stop trying, you will have meditation.

[nine tailed fox]

but as far as i know, clear visualization comes first which gives rise to associated emotions and feelings

[Tibetan_Ice]

This is how my lama taught me, it's fine if you disagree, but my experience confirms my lama's teachings on the subject and nothing could sway me now.

 

Before going into 3 year retreat I had thought just as you and most others, that visualization was about seeing. This is an extremely limited view and will stunt ones practice.

 

It is about feeling and emotion. This is what unlocks the power of the heart. It's quite magical actually, the 'visualization' comes effortlessly after this and includes smell, touch, taste, hearing, and of course seeing but in an almost effortless way. When one has developed the practice to the point where overwhelming emotion is experienced while doing the creation stage, the visualization will come as a result. It's not about focusing on a diety's body, implements, consort, or mandala, it all about feeling the presence of and the resulting emotion which opens the heart and mind in a powerful magical way.

 

People misunderstand concentration and think it comes from effort, and focus. It doesn't, it all comes from relaxation and letting go. The intense focus actually causes tightness and thus distraction. For most westerners, what is needed is relaxation and letting go, not discipline and concentration and focus. It's ironic, but truly, when you finally stop trying, you will have meditation.

Hi JBH

I'm having a hard time understanding what you are saying.

 

My conventional interpretation of the term "emotion" is this: "mental states that cause suffering and distress" such as anger, jealousy, lust, pride, fear etc.. They are hinderances..

 

In the Buddhist writings that I"ve read, there is mention of the practice of recalling or generating some emotional subject in order to see through it and dissolve. I've also heard of practices of transmuting emotions with the heart. But I have never read about any practice that uses emotions as the main component.

 

Are you saying that your practice is to generate 'overwhelming emotion', thereby activating the visions of the heart?

 

Who is your lama and what is the body of teachings that he/she is teaching? Are there any books on it? I really would like to learn more about that, and the background.

 

What types of meditations did you do on your 3 year retreat?

 

TI

[JustBHappy]

You are mixing up emotions with kleshas.

There are positive emotions that are extremely powerful and transformative such as love, compassion, and devotion. Also, the creation stage is not about directly seeing through and dissolving kleshas in the same way as completion stage practices. From your response it seems like these are being blurred together. So of course one would not use feelings/emotions while doing those practices.

I am not comfortable revealing personal information on the internet. The same goes for teachings and practices from retreat. I can only discuss the Njondro and things like the basic daily schedule etc...

[Simple_Jack]

Hi NTF

Gazing is not shamatha.

 

Gazing is an energetic event, whereby you fix your sense of sight in one location and maintain that focus. It is an excellent practice for gaining stabilization, training the mind, activating the third eye and kundalini. It is not a shamatha practice. It can, however, be a precursor to shamatha practice.

 

The main point according to Alan Wallace is that you can't get to shamatha by focusing on an external form, an external object, something through the five senses. You have to eventually be able to focus on the mental representation of that object. Even in the more advanced Dzogchen practices such as taking the mind as the object, the five senses drop off on their own. If you support attention through one of the five senses, you prevent that sense from falling away.

 

Depends on what he means by "gazing". Are you guys also including gazing at an object placed in front of oneself? In the Vijnanabhairava Tantra there is a technique of gazing at the night sky in order to enter the jhana of infinite space [http://www.meditationexpert.com/meditation-techniques/m_yoga_meditation_technique_cultivating_samadhi_of_infinite_space.html - there are also a couple of meditations listed from Buddhist sources.]

 

"One should cast his gaze on a region in which there are no trees, [while] on [a] mountain, [or] on [a] high defensive wall. His mental state being without any support will then dissolve and the fluctuations of his mind will cease."

 

In Bodri's book "25 Doors To Meditation": he mentions in the introduction, a list of meditations from the Surangama Sutra, which use each of the six senses as an object of meditation. He has a chapter devoted to a meditation on sound from that same sutra. He gives an example of its use by Ch'an master Hanshan (aka. 'cold mountain') where he describes deep absorption into the object of meditation (in this case the sound of a nearby waterfall), to the point where external sounds cease [http://books.google.com/books?id=eSOBzRbvkJkC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false].

 

I think it's a good idea to read and compare what different teachers from different traditions, have to say on the subject of jhana. Most of all, I think it comes down to the individuals experience in the equipoise period.

 

 

Feeling is good. But getting the emotions involved is just stirring up winds.

 

In what context are you guys mentioning 'feeling' or 'emotion'? I'm wondering because using the 4 brahmaviharas entails using as a meditation object, certain generated 'feelings' to enter jhana. Xabir mentions his experience in this thread [http://thetaobums.com/topic/20555-primary-and-secondary-enlightenment/page-3]:

 

"Oh incidentally, recently I was practicing metta (for the first time, lol) and noted this:

 

I wrote to Thusness some time ago:

 

I was reading the book 'beyond mindfulness' by bhante gunaratana, its a book about jhana practice. He recommends either metta or breathing mindfulness to reach jhana.

 

He said metta can lead to jhana cos the feeling of metta is very close to jhanic bliss. I didn't understand this until I practice metta today... Just thinking over, may others be well, happy, and free from afflictions... Then there's this feeling of metta like emanating from the heart region and its blissful, I can definitely see how this can lead into jhana. There is also a freedom from all unwholesome mental states, aversions, etc... Even tho I wasn't practicing that in a meditation setting, just standing.

 

When you experience metta, everyone who do harm to you, you don't feel a bit of aversion at all - you see the worse person as friend. There is an uber transcendence from all mental afflictions - its almost a kind of altered state, but not really.

 

You need to truly experience this.

 

p.s. Thusness said,

 

Yes and indeed an important practice. Do not think of the experience of jhana but rather relax and with utmost sincerity practice and metta.

 

May others be well, happy and free from affiictions. "

Edited May 16, 2013 by Simple_Jack

[JustBHappy]

Yeah exactly. Metta, or Maitri as I'm used to, is another great example of using the power of the heart, or emotions and feelings in meditation.

People always seem to think for some reason that meditation and cultivation is about the head. They only want to intellectualize and theorize what needs to be experienced in the heart.

Even modern science has verified that the heart has a much stronger magnetic and electrical field than the brain. I stress again, that if you truly want to develop your visualization or any other cultivation practice you need to engage the heart.

[Tibetan_Ice]

You are mixing up emotions with kleshas.

 

There are positive emotions that are extremely powerful and transformative such as love, compassion, and devotion. Also, the creation stage is not about directly seeing through and dissolving kleshas in the same way as completion stage practices. From your response it seems like these are being blurred together. So of course one would not use feelings/emotions while doing those practices.

 

I am not comfortable revealing personal information on the internet. The same goes for teachings and practices from retreat. I can only discuss the Njondro and things like the basic daily schedule etc...

 

 

Ha ha. That is funny. I thought you were doing that.. "emotional power"

Ok, then, we agree, now that we have the terminology right..

 

Kleshas (Sanskrit, also kleśa; Pali: kilesa; Tibetan: nyon mongs), in Buddhism, are mental states that cloud the mind and manifest in unwholesome actions. Kleshas include states of mind such as anxiety, fear, anger, jealousy, desire, depression, etc. Contemporary translators use a variety of English words to translate the term kleshas, such as: afflictions, defilements, destructive emotions, disturbing emotions, negative emotions, mind poisons, etc.

 

 

I must comment, though, it has been said many times that you can use the heart to transmute negative emotions. Also, the practice of tonglen is using the heart to do such a transmutation.

 

That is too bad that you don't want to disclose at least which practices you did for three years in retreat. A three year retreat is a great opportunity and I hope you were successful in your practices..

 

I am the opposite. My practices and experiences are an open book. I don't believe in secrecy. I keep thinking, in fifty years, after I am dead and gone and returned, perhaps I will come accross my writings and learn something from them that nobody else was willing to tell.

 

TI

[WillingToListen]

-

Edited May 19, 2013 by WillingToListen

[Mandrake]

Hi Mandrake,

Have you listened to the Dzogchen retreat podcasts? All 30 of them?

Where exactly does Alan Wallace say 1 to 2 years? I have quoted 2 books previously in this thread.

I didn't know there was a difference between 'classic shamatha' and a 'mental taste of it'.

Perhaps, since you've lived in a monastery which specialized in shamatha, you could tell us something about your experience of attaining shamatha. What are the experiences leading up to it? What is it like for you? Have you experienced the vividness, the clarity and luminescence? Did your coarse consciousness collapse into the substrate consciousness, and then the substrate? I'm very interested in hearing about it. What was your experience?

 

TI

 

 

Hi TI:

 

Yes, I listened to them (thank you very much to the person who introduced them, perhaps it was you ;-) ).

I've also followed the recordings from Wallace's 1-2 yearly shamatha retreats. In pretty much each one of them the question "How long does it take?" pops up; each time, the answer has been, realistically ca 2 years for people of this age (hectic lifestyle, information overload, addiction to thinking and doing etc.). In a couple of episodes he also speaks about the year long retreat they had in the states, where Gen Lamprimpa taught, and Alan helped out. Gen Lamprimpa was one of Allan's teachers if I remember correctly. In that 1-year retreat, at the end, there was a meditator who each day had two sessions of 7 hours each. But, she hand't achieved shamatha yet. So it is not so very easy!

 

You can listen to the retreats here:

http://podcasts.sbinstitute.com/

 

I suggest for example (just some from my notes):

 

80 Mindfulness of the mind (3)

Posted on October 10, 2012

 

58 Mindfulness of the body (4)

Posted on September 27, 2012

 

83 awareness of awareness spring 2012 45:00

(about jhanas - if so, show me a miracle)

 

1:00+ How you need jhana to achieve the stages after stream-entry.

(once returner, non-returner, arhat)

 

12 Mindfulness of the body (5)

August 31, 2012

"Q6. How long does it take for people of varying faculties to attain shamatha?"

 

73 Settling the mind in its natural state, part 3

Posted on October 7, 2011 by diego

Q1) if it takes 2 years to achieve shamatha...

 

From the book,

The attention revolution, page 214:

"... the Tibetan oral tradition states that unders such optimal conditions, a person of'sharp faculties' may achieve shamatha in three months,..., and a person of 'dull faculties' may achieve it in nine months. This may well be true for monks and nuns who begin their shamatha practice after years of study and training in ethics. But in the modern world, this appears to be an overly optimistic forecast.

 

This rhymes with what the monks told me.

 

What do I mean with "mental taste"? Just that in the end the jhanas are bodily transformations as well since the body is a part of your Mind. In the Theravada, and in the Indo-Tibetan traditions it is noted that a meditator who has achieved jhana, can stay with the object for 24 hours with full vividness, senses imploded etc. and then rise up refreshed (one example in modern time is Dipa Ma). This is also referenced heavily by Indian yogic traditions where great samadhi masters could stay in samadhi for months.

 

In the end, the great yogis of the past used these designations for certain states and achievements. We may use the same names to point to something different, but what the yogis had in mind stays the same, no matter our Orwellian word-tactics.

 

 

May all inclined so attain shamatha. 'tis not a pissing contest, but something that just takes practice.

All the best

 

 

Mandrake

[dogson]

Do you guys remember the X-Files? The episode where we go into the backstory of the smoking man. There's a scene where Smoking Man is sitting on his bunk as a new Army recruit, reading a novel. His fellow bunkmates are teasing him, suggesting he go see a movie.

"I would rather read the worst novel ever written, than watch the best movie ever made."

Why did Smoking Man say this? The writers for the X-Files must be very illuminated indeed. Watching stuff erodes our ability to visualize, where reading is literally transforming abstract symbols into images in our mind. Al Gore talks about this a bit in his book "The Assault On Reason."

All of the most powerful people visualized and had total control over their thoughts. Napoleon was known to just think on a single subject for hours at a time, and would image his battles months in advance, down to specific events happening on specific terrain. He would see it all happening in advance and then literally Project that reality outward; and this has been spoken of as the secret to his power.

Of course, he was also an emotional basket case and manifested some pretty horrendous stuff for himself. But if you study powerful people you will find this visualization ability in common.

Damo's Cave is *amazing*

I learned about it from a book called Secrets of an American Ninja Master, where he has an entire chapter called "Meditations for becoming Enlightened." He talks about the Secret Smile, Da Mo's Cave and several others.

[silent thunder]

Here is an exercise that can help triggering third eye, or inner visualization.

 

It's the black box method.

To do it, you need to create a dark room environment... no visible light at all.

 

I use a box that is big enough to sit in comfortably.

I keep the box in a closet. I blanket the window in the room, go into the box in the closet, shut the closet door and then pull another blanket over the opening of the box, then I close the box itself. Pitch dark.

 

Once in a pitch dark environment you simply sit with eyes open until visualization starts. Be patient and relaxed.

No effort, just relax and breath. Boredom is your friend here, soon your bored monkey will be giving you a light show.

 

The signal of sitting there with your eyes open plays on the conditioning of expecting to see something when our eyes are open. After a bit of time, that conditioned response is what I suspect triggers 'the lights'. For me it started with flashes of colored light. Flowing inward and outward. Then it quickly shifted to streaming colors tunneling out or in, flowing from the center, or to the center, changing color in a seemingly random flow. Then all hell/heaven broke loose and the images were full stories, or snapshots of places or faces, creatures, patterns, you name it.

 

I tend to be a very visual person anyway, so this method really blew the doors off the car for me.

 

Recently, I've been getting pulsating, organic, multi-layered, radiant, geometric forms, or characters that appear to be sanskrit or tibetan, cascading, spiraling and oscillating. Pretty intense stuff.

 

I'm thinking of building myself a lying down version of my dark box, which is awesomely like a coffin and can provide dual duty as a death contemplation chamber. lol My ideal would be to make a full sensory deprivation chamber. drool.

 

I've got another method for inducing visions with eyes open, let me know if you want that one too.

 

Enjoy the trip!

[silent thunder]

Damo's Cave is *amazing*

 

I learned about it from a book called Secrets of an American Ninja Master, where he has an entire chapter called "Meditations for becoming Enlightened." He talks about the Secret Smile, Da Mo's Cave and several others.

What is Damo's cave? I'm intrigued.

[nine tailed fox]

Here is an exercise that can help triggering third eye, or inner visualization.

 

It's the black box method.

To do it, you need to create a dark room environment... no visible light at all.

 

I use a box that is big enough to sit in comfortably.

I keep the box in a closet. I blanket the window in the room, go into the box in the closet, shut the closet door and then pull another blanket over the opening of the box, then I close the box itself. Pitch dark.

 

Once in a pitch dark environment you simply sit with eyes open until visualization starts. Be patient and relaxed.

No effort, just relax and breath. Boredom is your friend here, soon your bored monkey will be giving you a light show.

 

The signal of sitting there with your eyes open plays on the conditioning of expecting to see something when our eyes are open. After a bit of time, that conditioned response is what I suspect triggers 'the lights'. For me it started with flashes of colored light. Flowing inward and outward. Then it quickly shifted to streaming colors tunneling out or in, flowing from the center, or to the center, changing color in a seemingly random flow. Then all hell/heaven broke loose and the images were full stories, or snapshots of places or faces, creatures, patterns, you name it.

 

I tend to be a very visual person anyway, so this method really blew the doors off the car for me.

 

Recently, I've been getting pulsating, organic, multi-layered, radiant, geometric forms, or characters that appear to be sanskrit or tibetan, cascading, spiraling and oscillating. Pretty intense stuff.

 

I'm thinking of building myself a lying down version of my dark box, which is awesomely like a coffin and can provide dual duty as a death contemplation chamber. lol My ideal would be to make a full sensory deprivation chamber. drool.

 

I've got another method for inducing visions with eyes open, let me know if you want that one too.

 

Enjoy the trip!

 

i want that method also, pls pm me or post here, whatever you wish

 

btw i doubt its visualization because you are not actually visualizing but seeing visions, its like developing remote viewing probably

 

you are not intentionally trying to visualize anything here, its coming on its own

 

but this could also be a meditation technique

 

Vigyan Bhairava tantra says

 

 

IN RAIN DURING A BLACK NIGHT

ENTER THAT BLACKNESS AS THE FORM OF FORMS.

WHEN A MOONLESS RAINY NIGHT IS NOT PRESENT,

CLOSE EYES AND FIND BLACKNESS BEFORE YOU.

OPENING EYES, SEE BLACKNESS.

SO FAULTS DISAPPEAR FOREVER.

WHEREVER YOUR ATTENTION ALIGHTS,

AT THIS VERY POINT,

EXPERIENCE.

 

this is actually a meditation technique, which requires pitch black night but you can probably also do it in a pitch black chamber

[Tibetan_Ice]

Here is an exercise that can help triggering third eye, or inner visualization.

 

It's the black box method.

To do it, you need to create a dark room environment... no visible light at all.

 

I use a box that is big enough to sit in comfortably.

I keep the box in a closet. I blanket the window in the room, go into the box in the closet, shut the closet door and then pull another blanket over the opening of the box, then I close the box itself. Pitch dark.

 

Once in a pitch dark environment you simply sit with eyes open until visualization starts. Be patient and relaxed.

No effort, just relax and breath. Boredom is your friend here, soon your bored monkey will be giving you a light show.

 

The signal of sitting there with your eyes open plays on the conditioning of expecting to see something when our eyes are open. After a bit of time, that conditioned response is what I suspect triggers 'the lights'. For me it started with flashes of colored light. Flowing inward and outward. Then it quickly shifted to streaming colors tunneling out or in, flowing from the center, or to the center, changing color in a seemingly random flow. Then all hell/heaven broke loose and the images were full stories, or snapshots of places or faces, creatures, patterns, you name it.

 

I tend to be a very visual person anyway, so this method really blew the doors off the car for me.

 

Recently, I've been getting pulsating, organic, multi-layered, radiant, geometric forms, or characters that appear to be sanskrit or tibetan, cascading, spiraling and oscillating. Pretty intense stuff.

 

I'm thinking of building myself a lying down version of my dark box, which is awesomely like a coffin and can provide dual duty as a death contemplation chamber. lol My ideal would be to make a full sensory deprivation chamber. drool.

 

I've got another method for inducing visions with eyes open, let me know if you want that one too.

 

Enjoy the trip!

Hi ST,

These events occur without the help of the black box as, if sitting perfectly still, the senses will automatically shut off all by themselves, usually after about 40 minutes.

 

And, I am not bragging here, but, if you want to see visions and lights, geometric shapes etc., real fast, do this:

1) Sit with spine straight on a comfortable chair with arms (in case you do pass out).

2) Roll the eyes upwards and inwards and fix the gaze at the point between the brows (pretend like you are going to pass out or fall asleep)

3) Focus your attention in from between the brows (about 1 inch) and 'suck inwards' from there.

4) Pretend like you are falling asleep.

5) Keep your inner attention at that point about 1 inch behind the center of the brows and watch.

 

I usually see one or two faces almost immediately. The more intensely I suck inwards and then downwards (intensify the feeling of passing out), the more light and geometric shapes I see. Oh, and the sucking motion moves downwards towards the heart..

 

In esoteric terms, this technique could be called dissolving into the sushumna from the brow. It is a forceful method, so don't do it too often otherwise you will get nauseous and sick feelings in the solar plexus area when you return. . .

 

The concern that I have is that I hope that you aren't slowly suffocating.. I hope you have fresh air coming into your black box..

 

TI

Edited June 7, 2013 by Tibetan_Ice

[silent thunder]

i want that method also, pls pm me or post here, whatever you wish

It's easier than the previous method: Pick a spot on a blank wall and stare at it.

There's a little more to it, but that's the gist.

 

I happened upon it when I started doing my practice eyes open.

I was usually practicing at dusk in low light and to give my monkey a banana, I chose one spot on the wall and stared at it.

Painted a really tiny yin/yang on my focus wall in my meditation room. So small in the low light you can't really see it.

Other than that spot, the wall is bare.

 

So I relax and settle into staring at the spot.

 

No matter what distractions come along, I just keep my focus on that spot.

I stand about 9 feet from the wall so that it pretty much fills my vision, but it's not that important.

I don't find the things in the peripheral vision like my book shelves and the couch to be a distraction.

 

What I've noticed is that keeping focus on one spot is really helpful.

As the eyes naturally get tired of holding this spot, you relax into soft focus, but hold the spot.

Other spots will suddenly start to pop out, as my mind struggles for something 'new', I just hold the spot.

Sometimes my eyes will quickly shake for a moment or two, I just let them go back to the spot when they stop.

I do end up leaving my eyes open for quite a while now, but not intentionally, so just blink normally.

 

Eventually the shadows will started to shimmer and oscillate a bit. Very soon after this, the patterns emerge and then the full blown images appear. Faces, very detailed, mundane places, forests. It was pleasantly shocking the first time.

 

btw i doubt its visualization because you are not actually visualizing but seeing visions, its like developing remote viewing probably

I've wondered about that as well. Some of the images are so detailed while being so mundane. Like the front porch of an old house with a broken railing, a rusty swing and well pump.

 

you are not intentionally trying to visualize anything here, its coming on its own

 

I haven't tried guiding the images at all no. All organic and spontaneous.

 

but this could also be a meditation technique

 

Vigyan Bhairava tantra says

 

 

 

this is actually a meditation technique, which requires pitch black night but you can probably also do it in a pitch black chamber

 

Very cool! Thanks!

[Republic Of Zen]

Imagine that you are visualising.