Over-engineering your practice

[Spotless]

It is good to be cautious regarding a great many words used when speaking of Practice.

It can also be a very good reason for a group setting because often words and ideas will be very clearly defined.
Obviously their are exceptions to the utility of this as some well defined concepts can box in ones thinking if the
choices are not well refined. That said - you will find that about 99% of the quotes within these walls are from teachers who had teachers and group settings at least for a time.

The word Bliss is one of the most misunderstood words and actually a very real barrier-word for many regarding Awakening.
How can an Awaken one claim as they all do (in our translations) that they maintain a bliss state even in the face of the deaths of children, famine etc???!!!
Because:
"The Sun does not dim because the Earth is having a bad day."
(D.Doyle))

Rather than Bliss which connotates incorrectly a quality associated with Good Feeling vs Bad with the addition of a sort of carefree-ness.
Think instead of a constant high vibration - it is neither good nor bad - it is a high vibration - so high that it is light.
The note is always there - it is a pervading note of light.
This note is not recognized as Bliss by a great number of Awakening Beings because the word Bliss is far from the actual texture and tone. And many who feel Bliss - a bliss more in line with the connotation are more frequently not in an Awakening state.

"Awakened" is another problematic word but it is not because the teachers have given it such a poor translation.
It is because we have given it our typical Christian patina of impossibility like a Virgin Birth.
At the same time - a few - a very few - have lowered the bar so far that you might as well say that if you have a body you are already in the process of Awakening.

When your past falls away in chunks and you enter into a full phase of no-thought with no effort and a tremendous peace and power within - you could be said to be at least entering upon Awakening. It may be accompanied or preceeded by a massive and immeditate change or a change over a few days, weeks or months - even several years. It will then take you some time for your body to work with this - it is said 3 years at minimum.

Meditation
This simple thing - sitting and meditating.
Yet sitting and doing is the primary practice most have when in what is called "meditation".

Or - as is often the case - sitting and leaving the body or going into trance. (trance is another amazing area of misunderstanding but I do not have time for that arguement here)

The following clip is one of the best I have seen regarding meditation and the "general whole story".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWttCv0p6WQ

Everything needed to Awaken regarding meditation can come from nothing more than sitting in a good posture with your awareness in the center of your head and breathing from the belly. Most of the time our practice is centered on blocks, constrictions and fear that would otherwise not be present with enough meditation.
We arrive with certain energy compressions when we start our practice - often it is because of these that we are drawn to our practice. Our first and most primary fundamentals should be properly adjusting our diet, preparing for sleep well, studying and practicing a balanced approach to life within and without, and meditation.

What we often see is absurd dieting ideas, over zealous adjustments to everything, fundamentalist viewpoints (meaning I am right and you are wrong), unbalanced practice, advanced techniques above all else and very dangerous breathing exercises.
And at all times - we think we "need a HEALING!" (which is code for I am not moving forward fast enough)

Much of the time we need a healing from trying to ram a square peg into a round hole - over and over and over again.

 

-----

Being aware of your breathing during the day is perhaps the quickest way to Awakening.
Seeing yourself in everything.
Know that you know nothing.

Edited November 7, 2013 by Spotless

[Cueball]

Rather than Bliss which connotates incorrectly a quality associated with Good Feeling vs Bad with the addition of a sort of carefree-ness.

Think instead of a constant high vibration - it is neither good nor bad - it is a high vibration - so high that it is light.

The note is always there - it is a pervading note of light.

This note is not recognized as Bliss by a great number of Awakening Beings because the word Bliss is far from the actual texture and tone. And many who feel Bliss - a bliss more in line with the connotation are more frequently not in an Awakening state.

 

Hi Spotless,

 

On the bliss/vibration thing, can you say more? This is really interesting to me because I recognise what you're talking about but I've not come across it expressed this particular way before.

 

I'm finding - as you said - that this is far from the 'actual texture and tone' of bliss as I might have thought, might have believed, once upon a time. I could describe the texture and tone as I experience it, but to be honest it's mostly a really annoying thing to have to work with. Or to work around. I haven't figured out which yet.

 

Thanks

Edited November 7, 2013 by Cueball

[Coaster]

The following clip is one of the best I have seen regarding meditation and the "general whole story".

Before I focused on the video player, my thought was "If this is longer than.... about 10 minutes... it's a fail."

[Coaster]

On the bliss/vibration thing, can you say more? This is really interesting to me because I recognise what you're talking about but I've not come across it expressed this particular way before.

 

I'm finding - as you said - that this is far from the 'actual texture and tone' of bliss as I might have thought, might have believed, once upon a time. I could describe the texture and tone as I experience it, but to be honest it's mostly a really annoying thing to have to work with. Or to work around. I haven't figured out which yet.

 

Thanks

Existence and Awareness and Bliss are three words for (or "aspects of") the same thing. This is the meaning of "Satchitananda".

 

Someone can write 200 pages about how many Dzogchen masters can dance on the end of a pin, but that is mainly because publishers live in a culture where a book is 200 pages.

 

Bliss is. And it is aware. And there is no other awareness.

 

BTW, this is not to say that anything said above in the thread is false, on the contrary, very fine stuff. But at the end of a one hour sermon, everyone has forgotten what was said in the first 55 minutes.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Coaster

[9th]

like, Epic bliss FTW d00d