Antero's pactise journal 2

Today I had a chance to take another look at the new jhana that I probably have compounded myself.

I went to the osteopath again (see post #69) and everything went exactly like the first time. I was cycling through the nanas in a Review B fashion. This new state came after the 8th jhana for a brief moment. It felt exactly the same as I described it in the previous post (#74). This time I looked more closely where the attention was pointing. The eye position was almost the same as in the 8th jhana, but the attention was pointing to the crown. A lot of light and feeling nice, then I came back to the 8th jhana and descended all the way down before rising again.

Some key differences when comparing my first and second path sitting practise:

'¢ The nanas are felt more clearly and they are experienced as different kinds of vibration.

'¢ The dukkha nanas seem more powerful. Happily I experience them almost exclusively as rough and discordant vibrations. Although sometimes I get twitches in the body and the facial muscles contract when the conditions are especially bad.

'¢ Finally I am able to stand back and watch how the practise is evolving with no striving and little need to interfere. There is great deal of trust in the process.

I just completed another cycle of insight in the train. They seem to go by faster and faster, this one taking only few days. The fruition was a nice big one with long a and tasty afterglow. It left the mind wide open, spacious and full of brightness.

Jhanic arc behaving strangely

Today after the fruition, the jhanic arc started to do odd things. When sitting, I am experiencing Review B type of cycling through the nanas. Instead of coming down after the 8th jhana, I am kind of rising through the top my head and going to the state I described in my earlier posts (#74 and #75). After that I am getting four other states, which are all luminous and tranquil. I wouldn't call them jhanas. The attention shifts to different positions, but I get the feeling that the tuning is not correct or the program is not running on that channel. The first one is the clearest, but the others are kind of blurry and it is hard to tell them apart, except from the shifting focus of the attention. After going through the five states, I experience them in reverse order, and then come back to the 8th and down the jhanas one by one.

Mapping new territory

It seems to me that the cycles of insight are getting faster. I was in A/P in the evening, in dissolution during the night and I woke up in dukkha nanas. As I sat in the morning, I was soon in the equanimity and stayed there for the rest of the day. In the evening a fruition marked the end of the cycle.

Yesterday evening I sat for 50 minutes spending half of the time in the equanimity while dwelling as the Witness. At the midpoint of my sit the fruition happened and the Review B phase started. It took me up the jhanic arc and after the 8th jhana, came these new states I have been describing lately.

I am starting to believe that these five states I am now accessing are the Pure Land jhanas. I haven't yet compared other people's descriptions with my own experience, because I first like to map them without too many expectations. It would seem that with each new insight cycle these states become clearer and clearer, so I am beginning to think that I am experiencing a gradual development of the PL jhanas.

I moved slowly through these jhanas of immense brightness and tranquillity. I got very absorbed and felt calm and secure in the light. The energy and the vibrations of these states were different from the jhanas 1-8. The central channel was clearly felt, especially in those jhanas which had the focus towards the crown. The sit left me feeling very nice indeed.

Antero, I'm experiencing something similar after 8th as well. Have you seen my last post?

Yesterday I travelled through the Pure Land Jhanas with Kenneth. This is my description of that journey. Quotes are Kenneth's views and explanations on the jhanas and how to move from one to the next.

Kenneth told me that he had found the first PL jhana by accident when he tried if saying 'Namo Amitabha Buddha' three times will transport the yogi to Pure Lands as told in a story. I did as instructed and found myself in PL1 with no delay or extra steps even though I am very far from being devotional kind of guy.

PL1
'Devotional aspect, feeling of gratitude, feeling of subtle bliss and pleasure'
'Perfect balance of mind and body'
Feeling of relief
Feeling like the roof of the house is blown away
Rapid pulsing at the third eye
Eyes focused at the third eye, attention pointing towards the crown
Body very clearly felt
Warm yellow colour

Moving to the second: 'concentrate on the crown'
I felt the brightness increasing and had a feeling like I was rising through the opening of the crown to the light.

PL2
'Like the first one, but more refined'
More subtle and more clarity yet very similar to the first
Feeling of the body less obvious
More energy activity than in the first one, the central channel clearly felt.

Moving to the third: 'concentrate on the circuit of chakras from the third eye down, closing the circuit'

(Continued)

PL3
Feeling more heavy, the attention pointing forward a bit above the horizon
Not feeling the top of the head
Less light than in the second, greyish in colour
Pulsing at the third eye, whole space pulsing in a subtle and strange way

Moving to the fourth 'concentrate on the whole circuit of chakras'

PL4
'The circuit includes the body and the whole universe'
Energy most active in this one, clearly felt rising energy current without being distracting
Feeling the whole body, top of the head included
Bluish in colour

Moving to the fifth 'concentrate on the space around'

PL5
'This one is tricky to maintain, as it falls away easily. One has to surrender to it.'
The space started to become more luminous, very bright
Feeling similar to 6th jhana, a point of consciousness floating in the brightness
The light was pulsing
'Relax the eyes.' I did and the pulsing stopped
Feeling very warm
Bright white light with reddish tones

Sounds like pretty clear and solid PL jhanas manifesting, man. Awesome job!

I have a feeling you are getting very close to something REALLY big! keep it up!

'Sounds like pretty clear and solid PL jhanas manifesting, man. Awesome job!'
-Jorge

Thanks for the encouragement, Jorge! I intend to keep the momentum going and we will see what happens

I have been thinking that I am missing one aspect of jhanas. I get the energy aspect and the tranquillity aspect, but I do not feel the pleasant/unpleasant aspect at all. Kenneth told me that when he discovered PL1 jhana, it felt so good that he would have been ready to trade it for all the other jhanas. I am not getting any pleasant feelings in the Pure Land jhanas or in any other jhana for that matter. Before Stream Entry and perhaps some time after it I remember feeling pleasure and bliss in jhanas 1-3 and unpleasantness in nanas 5-10, but then something has changed. In the early jhanas (1-3) I get the shifting attention and energetic changes (vibrations, rising current, cool tingles) and that's it. The dukkha nanas are felt as changing patterns of irregular and rough vibrations that make my body twitch. No unpleasantness or discomfort at all.

This has made me think, that I am not accessing the jhanas fully after all. Does anyone else have similar experiences of jhanas turning pale and indifferent?

Meditated for 30 minutes in the train. Extraordinary amount of energy was felt throughout the sit. Not just in particular jhanas but in all the nanas and jhanas. Rising current, showers of cool tingling, waves of vibrating energy currents, shudders, jolts, twitches, surges, you name it.

Witnessing dreams

With practise the Witness has become easier and more refined. For couple of weeks now I have applied the Witness as I have been falling asleep. This has resulted in a change that I recognize from years ago when I actively did lucid dreaming and dream yoga. The dreams have become very vivid and memorable and I am close to becoming lucid even though I do not try it.

Kfd Meetup and Nirodha Samapatti

Today I took part in Kfd Meetup with Kenneth, Bruno, Clayton, Ron, Jared and Jarrod. Ron asked a question about Nirodha Samapatti and Kenneth gave very detailed instructions on how to locate it and what happens when concentration is applied on the spot.

While listening to the instructions, I found a spot that I recognized from the description. As I concentrated on it, it felt like I was sinking in blackness and tranquillity, like I was sucked into some black hole, but couldn't get past the 'event horizon' as Kenneth described the point of no return. Kenneth also said that it is hard to get to the blip without doing some concentration practise first and that NS is easily available in Pure Land Jhanas.

After the Meetup I sat and rode the jhanic arc up to the Pure Land jhanas. There I waved the imaginary flashlight from left to right across the inside of my skull to locate the point and started concentrating on it. Slowly the power started to go out and I felt like sinking deep, but could not get past certain point. It was almost like falling asleep as all the tension was drained away.

I rode the arc down and then rose back up to the PL4 to try again. This time the sinking feeling went further than before and I remember thinking at some point 'so that was the event horizon, now I am going to the other side'. I remember falling into a black funnel. There was a point of light at the end of the funnel, a blip and a strange trembling sensation as some kind of shock wave went through me. It was unlike all the raptures and energy sensations I have had so far. Then I slowly emerged from the blackness feeling peaceful and bewildered.

I don't know what to make of this, but will try it again soon.

Nice work man... Keep exploring it. Ill do the same. Like I said I am interested in upping my Niroda game...

"
I rode the arc down and then rose back up to the PL4 to try again. This time the sinking feeling went further than before and I remember thinking at some point 'so that was the event horizon, now I am going to the other side'. I remember falling into a black funnel. There was a point of light at the end of the funnel, a blip and a strange trembling sensation as some kind of shock wave went through me. It was unlike all the raptures and energy sensations I have had so far. Then I slowly emerged from the blackness feeling peaceful and bewildered.

I don't know what to make of this, but will try it again soon.
"

NIRODHA!!!!!!!!!!



Looks like you took it to the event horizon. 3rd path anyone?

Nice. Looks like to first KFD group session really paid off!

I repeated the strange experience this morning a few times: sinking into the black hole with some shaking in the end. I also called up some fruitions just for comparison. This thing is totally different from them.

Nikolai, your enthusiam over other people's progress is truly admirable

Jarrod, I totally agree with you!

Feeling aloof

To quote Nikolai:
'There was more like a bigger space had been created between the pull to mentally react to phenomena so that one could see it all without the need to identify'

This sums up pretty nicely how I am feeling lately.

I stopped reading a magazine. Why bother to read the text when looking at the paper is just as rewarding?

I caught myself just as I was about to react with irritation to something the kids did. Then I realized that I was doing it out of habit and the emotion just was not there anymore.

Some things that really bothered me a few days ago now seem totally irrelevant. Or at least I am quite ok with them.

Very cool stuff! Thanks for all of your reporting!

Thanks Betawave!

Metta,
Antero.

I do not know if this is the result of intensive Witness practise or some other development, but I somehow seem to be much more disconnected to things that would normally cause emotive response. The mind is more transparent and noting seems completely unnecessary at the moment. There is a general feeling of Okayness towards everything.

Although I compare this feeling to dwelling as Witness, there seems to be some differences also. I do not get the feelings of disinterest and indifference that can happen when doing the Witness.

Sometimes a more intrusive emotion appears like a fish jumping in a pond. I may for example see something that reminds me of a situation when I was being treated badly. I observe the emotion with interest and watch it dissolve before my eyes without causing any further reactions. Thoughts that made me feel anguish just some days ago, are seen to disappear just as fast as any other thought.

[edited: clarification added]

A New Discovery

I sat for 30 minutes in the train. I made a resolution to explore Nirodha Samapatti and observed the cycling through the jhanas up to the 8th. There the attention found the trigger point of NS on its own.

I found a total blankness from the bottom of Nirodha. This state was full of light and pleasant tingling. There was no feeling of 'I' in the light, just pure bliss. I learned that I can prolong this state by surrendering to it.

I did several cycles of Nirodha floating up the wave when the power came back on and then going to the bottom again. Instead of blackness, the experience of Nirodha was now full of light. I have never ever felt so blissed-out before.

As I rose from my seat and walked down the aisle, I felt like some otherworldly being filled with vibrating light and radiating peace and compassion to the world around me. I wonder if I am losing it?

Has anyone else had similar experiences with NS? Is this light filled blankness identical to 3rd gear non dual experience?
.

Something like this?

kennethfolkdharma.wetpaint.com/thread/41...et=100&maxResults=20

We called it, for lack of a better term Rigpa NS. You might be in similar territory.

"I wonder if I am losing it? "

Hahaha.. Thanks for the good laugh Antero.
To me it sounds like the exact contrary of losing it