Alex's experiment with the grounding of emotions

Walking down the street you feel an ecstatic current of *Piti* (rapturous joy) flowing along you spine and entire nervous system. Nothing embarrassing here. Don't get me wrong, what I am talking about is at the very the core of Vajrayana Buddhism. The purpose is not to cultivate lust for its own sake, but only to transmute it (as well as anger and other passions) into bliss and emptiness.

The union of bliss and emptiness is the Mahamudra. The union of bliss and emptiness is the Mahamudra as defined by Je Tsongkapa. What does it have to do with "supreme, perfect, unexcelled Awakening"? Let's say that it is just the highest teachings of Vajrayana.

I realize today that Kenneth was right. There is a 6th stage where unwholesome emotions cease to arise. At least this is how it feels now.

"
The union of bliss and emptiness is the Mahamudra. The union of bliss and emptiness is the Mahamudra as defined by Je Tsongkapa. What does it have to do with "supreme, perfect, unexcelled Awakening"? Let's say that it is just the highest teachings of Vajrayana.
"

"With enough intention and perseverance anyone can learn to generate bliss in their own bodies or create mystical experiences or develop extraordinary powers, but that doesn't necessarily make them human or even benign characters." -- Adi Da Samraj

Bliss and mystical experiences are just a means to an end. The topic of this thead is my experiment with the grounding of emotions within the body. What happens when we keep our attention within the body, especially after awakening or technical 4th path) is that what used to be felt as unwholesome emotions or passions are gradually experienced as physical sensations. These can be pleasant, but are often unpleasant and being unpleasant generate more doubt, anxietey and fear. Cultivating blissful sensations within the spine is therefore a skillful means (upaya) to stay grounded within the body, simply because the attention is naturally attracted towards what feels good, ecstatic, blissful or felicitous. As a resut, lust is transformed into bliss and anger fails to arise, simply because we feel good. Over the weeks, I just did all that because it felt good. Doing is was the reward. What I realize these days is that even in conflictual and stressful situations (I happen to co-manage a law firm, preside a professional association, raise two kids, take care of my mother who is now back in a mental institution, work on a book and teach magick and mysticism amd renovate a house, almost other things...), unwholesome emotions have ceased to arise. What remains is a constant sense of equanimity, peace, joy and wellbeing. Since I implemented the Tibetan practice of Tummo from the Six Yogas of Naropa, the need for sleep came down to about 5 hours, instead of 7 or 8.

I will however wait a few weeks to make sure that I am not deluding myself. My conclusion at this stage is that Kenneth was right and that what he has experienced about a year ago with respect to self-referencing emotions seems to be the fruit of the natural unfolding of what Adhyashanti calls the embodiment of awakening through the chakras.

I take the opportunity to thank all those who, directly or indirectly have helped me with their tips, advice, interest or concern.

Alex, thanks for your detailed response in #270:) Eric

"Alex, thanks for your detailed response in #270:) Eric"


You are welcome. Tell me it is worked for you. I have a friend/student who was almost new to meditation. With just this followed by 20 min of centering prayer she made amazing progress in less than 2 weeks.

I will still have to test it through extreme situations, but as far as I can tell self-referencing emotions, namely emotions that imply and feed a sense of separation and self-preservation like anxiety, fear, disgust, anger, annoyance, etc. have ceased to arise as emotions. They now only manifest in the form of physical tension. The default mind states seem to be peace, equanimity, joy or love, namely emotions that are compatible with a sense of oneness and non-duality.

What happens actually is not that that the unwholesome emotions are suppressed, repressed or eradicated. It is just that they are seen as they really are, namely as a cluster of physical sensations and thoughts.

Years ago, the idea of 'not thinking' or 'thoughtless awareness' sounded like trying to become as numb and stupid as a rock. In the same way, the idea of gaining freedom from unwholesome emotions sounded like losing one's humanity. But emotions are 98% thoughts. We can think whenever we need to, but do not need to perpetuate mental proliferations and self-referencing thoughts when we have clearly seen there the self is and has always been an illusion. Same with these so called negative emotions that are nothing but self-obsessed thoughts arising together with physical sensations.

Depending on one's goal being the ending of being/becoming, perhaps this might be interesting territory to investigate those mind states of peace, equanimity, joy and love.

"Then again, the disciple of the noble ones considers this: 'Sensuality here & now; sensuality in lives to come; sensual perceptions here & now; sensual perceptions in lives to come; forms here & now; forms in lives to come; form-perceptions here & now; form-perceptions in lives to come; perceptions of the imperturbable; perceptions of the dimension of nothingness: all are perceptions. Where they cease without remainder: that is peaceful, that is exquisite, i.e., the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception.' Practicing & frequently abiding in this way, his mind acquires confidence in that dimension. There being full confidence, he either attains the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception now or else is committed to discernment. With the break-up of the body, after death, it's possible that this leading-on consciousness of his will go to the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception. This is declared to be the practice conducive to the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception.

When this was said, Ven. Ananda said to the Blessed One: "There is the case, lord, where a monk, having practiced in this way '” 'It should not be, it should not occur to me; it will not be, it will not occur to me. What is, what has come to be, that I abandon' '” obtains equanimity. Now, would this monk be totally unbound, or not?"

"A certain such monk might, Ananda, and another might not.'

"What is the cause, what is the reason, whereby one might and another might not?"

"There is the case, Ananda, where a monk, having practiced in this way '” (thinking) 'It should not be, it should not occur to me; it will not be, it will not occur to me. What is, what has come to be, that I abandon' '” obtains equanimity. He relishes that equanimity, welcomes it, remains fastened to it. As he relishes that equanimity, welcomes it, remains fastened to it, his consciousness is dependent on it, is sustained by it (clings to it). With clinging/sustenance, Ananda, a monk is not totally unbound."

"Being sustained, where is that monk sustained?"

"The dimension of neither perception nor non-perception."

"Then, indeed, being sustained, he is sustained by the supreme sustenance."

"Being sustained, Ananda, he is sustained by the supreme sustenance; for this '” the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception '” is the supreme sustenance. There is [however] the case where a monk, having practiced in this way '” 'It should not be, it should not occur to me; it will not be, it will not occur to me. What is, what has come to be, that I abandon' '” obtains equanimity. He does not relish that equanimity, does not welcome it, does not remain fastened to it. As he does not relish that equanimity, does not welcome it, does not remain fastened to it, his consciousness is not dependent on it, is not sustained by it (does not cling to it). Without clinging/sustenance, Ananda, a monk is totally unbound."

www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.106.than.html

Thank you, Nick, for this interesting quote. As I see it, the cultivation of 'Piti-Sukkha' was necessary or at least helpful to uproot the roots of unwholesome mind states.
I suspect that the ongoing physical sensations of rapturous joy (Piti) experienced in the body, will gradually give way to an ongoing feeling of ease and happiness (Sukkha), followed by equanimity (Upekkha).

If I understand you well, all three are then to be investigated from the perspective of the arupa jhanas, especially from the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, in order to eventually let go of clinging to unwholesome mind states, rapturous joy, happiness and equanimity, leading to actual freedom from bondage.

I am just amazed as how much sense Theravada Buddhism makes from this perspective.

The problem with masks is that we tend to forget that we are wearing one. Observing, grounding and actualizing the feeling of existence, I realized that this "I" is just a mask. This feeling of existence is like the silicon human mask worn by the Invisible Man to appear as a normal human being.

Quotes from Nisargadatta Maharaj:

"All hangs on the idea '˜I am'. Examine it very thoroughly. It lies at the root of every trouble. This '˜I am' idea was not born with you. You could have lived very well without it. It came later due to your self-identification with the body. It created an illusion of separation where there was none. It made you a stranger in your own world alien and inimical. Without the sense of '˜I am' life goes on. There are moments when we are without the sense of '˜I am', at peace and happy. With the return of '˜I am', trouble starts." (...)

"Immortality is freedom from the feeling: '˜I am'. Yet it is not extinction. On the contrary, it is a state infinitely more real, aware and happy than you can possibly think of. Only self-consciousness is no more."

These days I have been practicing the following exercise:

I look around the room, aware of the fact that objects around me exist. I extend my awareness to feel and sense them. Now I do the same thing with my body, which is basically another object in the room. Having done that, I bounce back and forth between the two to see whether they feel the same. Does this body feel exactly like other objects in the room? Does it feel different? If different, does it feel more like me or mine? How? Why?

This is very useful to identify what we mean by a lingering sense of self. Because if you ask an awakened person whether he or she still feels a sense of self, he or she is likely to respond 'when I look inside, I see nothing, emptiness'. And this is true. But this is not the point. Once-returners, and even stream-enterers, know that there is no one home. The point however is to realize that there is still a sense of self that arises from time to time and that this sense of self is that which feels special and more like 'me' or 'mine' when we compare the awareness of the body with the awareness of other objects.

The advantage of this simple exercise is that we can practice anywhere anytime. Moreover, it paves the way to the "Actualization of Jhanas", which is basically the same thing on a subtler level.

Now when this sense of self is clearly identified, the easiest thing to do is to see where it manifests with the greatest intensity within the body. When this is done, all that I do is to see how this feeling of existence manifests physically. I examine its texture, whether it is hard or soft, warm or cold, etc. And then, miraculously, the illusion vanishes in plain sight. What felt like a feeling turns out to be purely physical sensation. What felt like 'me' or 'mine' turns out to be just that, a mundane, ordinary physical sensation.

One of the most efficient form of Zen practice is the investigation of koans or huatou. As an example, one may repeat "what is it that hears and sees?", "who drags this corpse?" or "what is wu?" again and again, allowing a sense of wonder to grow after each repetition of the question to cultivate the great doubt that, once shattered, triggers kensho or awakening. After awakening one may still use for same method to maintain and allow the awakened state to grow into deep enlightenment.

Experimenting with "How Am I Experiencing This Moment Of Being Alive?" (HAIETMOBA), I realize that it works in the same way. I first repeat it again and again like a mantra and then allow more and more silence to settle between two repetitions, allowing to question to trigger a sense of wonder at the very fact of existence. Sooner than expected, the sense of self starts to dissolve and eventually vanish. The great thing with this method is that it is not limited to the sitting posture. Furthermore, the practice is cumulative.

Yesterday night, it soon triggered a EE/PCE-like experience that lasted for about 30 minutes after formal practice. I will see how it goes over the week-end.

Yes, I agree, questions are great, and just recently I also discovered that koans have similar effects. I posted this in Jackha's MM practice thread:

"One other thing I do with doubt: when asking a question, the question itself has an open quality attached to it. Why? Because there is no answer yet. When one answers, we impose concepts to whatever we're observing, so instead of desperately trying to answer or find the answer, we can investigate AND abide within the nature of questions, doubts, etc.

What I do is:
1. I genuinely ask a question like, for example, "who am I?" I sincerely feel my curiosity, my sense of wonder, as if I were an anthropologist, investigator, scientist, etc.
2. I repeat the question (without answering) while observing myself to cultivate curiosity without answers.
3. I let the question mutate to other questions: who am I? what am I? What is this I'm feeling? How am I feeling myself?, etc. (this is actually in a way similar to AF's HAIETMOBA).
4. After a while, doubting becomes open observation without answers (concepts), it feels like a wordless noting. Little by little this takes you into emptiness and MM."

Hi APrioriKreuz,

Kenneth called similar technique journalistic self enquiry, great technique! See posts #185 and #186:

kennethfolkdharma.wetpaint.com/thread/44...et=180&maxResults=20

@Antero Yes, one becomes a journalist, anthropologist, scientist, investigator. This technique teaches my mind how to be curious