Welcome!

Welcome, Dan!

Good to have you join us, Dan. Welcome.

Nice to meet you Dan!

Hello,

I don't plan to post much. But you guys are such interesting people and have such interesting discussions that I decided to join to see what was hidden from me on the member's boards. You have very interesting discussions there, too! I really appreciate the gender balance of the group and you guys seem to care about one another or at least appreciate each other enough to make pains to communicate clearly.

I got into meditation because everyone who claims to have "powers" recommended it as a way to develop them plus science was recognizing other benefits to meditation. I lost a lot of interest in powers upon discovering MCTB and the pragmatic dharma movement. For about the past 10 months, I've been doing insight meditation and pursuing 1st path, whatever that is, and find myself in EQ a lot these days if I'm mapping myself correctly. Regardless of the doubts I sometimes have about the pragmatic dharma movement, the paths seem to lead to some sort of awakening. So that's what I'm doing.

I grew up Catholic but haven't considered myself to be one for quite a while. I've been interested in non-drug-induced altered states of consciousness for the past 15 years or so after my first OBE and a few powerful hypnotic experiences though I've pretty much dropped that stuff while pursuing 1st path. Jeff Warren's "The Head Trip" almost felt like my own personal diary when I read it. And I'm such a sucker for "enlightenment porn" that I find myself reading your practice journals for hours at a time in the wee hours of the morning.

So anyway, there's a little bit about one of your lurkers. Blame Tom for letting me in if I somehow manage to break something.


--Kirk

Nice to meet you!

Glad to have you here, Kirk.

Thank you for the lovely wry wit, Kirk.

Hi Kirk, welcome!

Kirk, nice to have you join us.

Welcome, Kirk!

Hi, Kirk!

Hi everyone! -
Nice site...I look forward to talking to you guys.

Dark NIght Yogi pre-path here, just puttering along doing my thing. My heart pulls me towards concentration practices but that seems to be not where I am at, so I continue to note, on and off the cushion when it feels right. Progress seems slow and painful so my goal is to make progress without getting too messed up or messing up my life in some way - I seem to be balancing that OK at the moment. Have discovered some PTSD stuff buried in the body so I am also working with an experienced psychologist/somatic exeperiencer/meditator on clearing it out. Not a quick process but it seems to be working, slowly.

main toolbox - outloud noting, concentration
Other practices as I see fit - metta, HAIETMOBA, 6R or other practice that allows me to see dependent origination (a bit), releasing tension and letting go practices.

I hope everyone had fun in Colorado - sounds like a wild time. I used to think that I had no Sangha anymore after I stopped going to the Zendo but now I realize that perhaps 'pragmatic' is becoming a valid tradition of awakening and that there are quite a few of us out there, just moving towards that 'goal' using whatever tools we know/find/discover. Its exciting to see how many directions this path can take (while at the same time realizing I may have less control over this than I want)

Hi, Bill. Welcome.

Hi Bill, good to see you here. How's the cycling going? I've got a 4-day 320 mile tour coming up over Labor Day weekend, myself.

Hi Bill!

320 in 4 days eh? Nice.
Im heading towards the race circuit myself - training up for my first time trial in a few months and looking forward to my first Cat5 criterium race next year. Working hard

Hi Bill, welcome!

Glad to see you here. Looking forward to reading your posts.

Welcome Bill.

Great to have you here Kirk.

Hi everyone! After lurking here for a pretty long time, I decided to finally join this community. I'll share some info about myself here.

I'm a 26 year old guy from the Netherlands, I'm married to Susanne, I just finished my studies half a year ago, and now I work as a secondary school teacher.

Before 2 and a half years ago, I didn't have any spiritual practice: I mainly just read stuff on the internet about various new agey subjects (mostly while being stoned), got very fascinated, maybe tried a guided meditation or something like that, and then lost interest and moved on to the next thing. But after quitting smoking weed/hash in 2011 and having what seemed like a drug induced A&P, I decided to start a regular meditation practice. Not long after that I discovered Daniel Ingram's MCTB, and started my noting practice. Since October 2011 I'm a student of Ron Crouch, and under his guidance I've gone through what seems like the dukkha nanas, and in spring 2012 I had my first taste of equanimity. Since then, I feel like my practice has stagnated somewhat. Sometimes equanimity seems to deepen, but although I'm sitting between 1 and 2,5 hours a day, I feel a bit stuck. The goal oriented and determined attitude that got me through the dukkha nanas is probably getting in the way now.

I've really enjoyed reading your discussions sofar, so it feels natural to join this community now, even though I don't know if I have anything to add to the conversations. I tend to be pretty shy around people I don't really know, even on internet forums... But regardless of how active I'll be, thank you for creating this wonderful place and for allowing me to be a part of it!

Welcome, Marc. Glad you decided to join us.

Hi Marc, welcome!