Bodhimind's Blog

[Alexander]

Thank you, gentlemen, for the very interesting posts. :)

[bodhimind]

Just something I found which sounds similar to the auditory charism...

https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

I turn it up to 14000 Hz +.

[bodhimind]

A short blog about current practice.

I've found a difference between "striving without understanding" and "striving with understanding".

The former is like throwing a pie onto a wall and hoping that some of it sticks for the long-term, which of course doesn't. So there is active striving, more and more, until one point it is 'too much striving' for the person and he gives up.

The latter is like gravity. The understanding makes the striving effortless. Also, it is as if there is no other viable path but going down this path. The path is clear and the gravity pulls you towards it, making sure and definite progress.

I've found myself shifting towards the latter more and more. The understanding of anicca, dukkha and anatta are so essential that I may even describe it as the requisites for the path. The dropping away of wrong views (as in Bramajala sutta or Maha Chattarisaka Sutta ) are even more essential. Without them, there cannot be any progress.

Along the path, the indicators that you are doing something right is the blissfulness that arises is translated as "unworldly joy" (reference is the Niramisa Sutta or Sujato's translation alongside Pali). Entering the jhanas gives 'unworldly joy' and release from the taints of hatred/greed/delusion are 'greater unworldly joy'. The three grades as follows:

1. sāmisā pīti = material joy

2. nirāmisā pīti = spiritual joy from jhana <---- The indicator

3. nirāmisā nirāmisatarā pīti = greater spiritual joy from release of taints

Striving with actual insight into reality shifts the entire thing. The path is so solid and clear, and it can only be done with the removal of the asavas.

[Jhanananda]

Thank-you, Bodhimind, for posting another interesting blog entry. Lately I have been using the metaphor that we are a soul in a biological creature's body.  When we meditate deeply we become in contact with the spirit.  When we are in deep meditation, then we experience charisms, and it is those charisms that tell us we are now in contact with spirit.  The "other worldly bliss," that you mentioned, is defined by those charisms.  When we experience this "other worldly bliss" then we know that we are "striving" correctly, because we should never forget that "We know a tree by its fruit,"  and the fruit that we are discussing is that "other worldly bliss."

[bodhimind]

Thank-you, Bodhimind, for posting another interesting blog entry. Lately I have been using the metaphor that we are a soul in a biological creature's body.  When we meditate deeply we become in contact with the spirit.  When we are in deep meditation, then we experience charisms, and it is those charisms that tell us we are now in contact with spirit.  The "other worldly bliss," that you mentioned, is defined by those charisms.  When we experience this "other worldly bliss" then we know that we are "striving" correctly, because we should never forget that "We know a tree by its fruit,"  and the fruit that we are discussing is that "other worldly bliss."

Thank you for that wonderful metaphor Jhanananda, reminds me of some traditions calling humans "half-animal and half-spirit".

Also from MN93 (Assalāyanasutta):

"The descent into the
womb takes place through the junction of these three [conditions]:
there is a union of mother and father, the mother is in season and
the gandhabba is present."

I assume the gandhabba refers to the manomayakaya (mind-made body) also called the soul, the silvery/white body that leaves the body like a snake shedding its skin (as described in the Samannaphala Sutta).

I've actually met someone who described his out-of-body travels after following the teachings of the Buddha (Pali Canon) from Sri Lanka. He told of his experience of leaving his body and corresponds it with the Abhidhamma. He describes it as follows:

The "hadaya vatthu" is the place where thoughts arise in the manomayakaya, which overlaps the physical heart of the flesh body. The manomayakaya leaves the body at death and searches around for a new body.

He was able to see the manomayakaya which was like a sheet of white paper like what we see in X-rays, resembling a comet. It is translucent and white, with eyes and ears. The manomayakaya is a replica of the body - upon death, the body becomes as dead as a log. It is slightly illuminated and pulsatile. There are also differences between animal and human manomayakayas. While meditating in Jhana in Bodhgaya, he was able to see the manomayakayas of everyone else in Jhana.

[Alexander]

I don’t know if I have mentioned this before bodhimind, but I have always been impressed by the uniqueness and clarity of your thought. :) To me, it seems absolutely clear you are an example of what they call in mysticism a “deified” man: and if not, certainly someone of great moral, emotional, and intellectual excellence.

Jeff’s post reminds me of an OOB account I read recently. It was about a son whose father died. This sent him into a deep depression. One night he had an extremely vivid dream. He dreamed he was in the cemetery at his father’s grave. Suddenly his father appeared next to him. The father reached down (while the son was in his gloom) and pulled his shirt up - and when he did so it revealed a big “S” (like Superman) underneath.

I quite like this story as it has a distinctly modern feel to it. Yet it is also expressing an important truth. That our real nature is not this limited, fallible, deluded creature. But, something very different. :)

[bodhimind]

I don’t know if I have mentioned this before bodhimind, but I have always been impressed by the uniqueness and clarity of your thought. To me, it seems absolutely clear you are an example of what they call in mysticism a “deified” man: and if not, certainly someone of great moral, emotional, and intellectual excellence.

Jeff’s post reminds me of an OOB account I read recently. It was about a son whose father died. This sent him into a deep depression. One night he had an extremely vivid dream. He dreamed he was in the cemetery at his father’s grave. Suddenly his father appeared next to him. The father reached down (while the son was in his gloom) and pulled his shirt up - and when he did so it revealed a big “S” (like Superman) underneath.

I quite like this story as it has a distinctly modern feel to it. Yet it is also expressing an important truth. That our real nature is not this limited, fallible, deluded creature. But, something very different.

You are too kind Alexander, thank you for your kind comments. This flesh body (and brain) is going to die in any way... so I'm not going to attach that much importance to what these conditions are. 

Spirit is so inconceivable, yet She takes care of us.

---

Name and Form

Today I was contemplating about how useless it was for words to attempt to describe reality. It was like using a hand to grab some sand, and foolishly thinking that with this hand, I have already grasped the desert itself. We do this so much with an illusion-like ability to name things.

We say the apple is so and so - Red, Crunchy, Size of my hand, Round...

Yet it cannot ever capture the real essence of the Apple. Intuitively, there is something even simpler, even before words. The apple itself is not the "concept of apple", not this limited idea of what we superimpose upon things in our reality. It is inconceivable, non-graspable, and insatiable.

But yet we continue to grasp onto things in this reality.

The eye is like an immense ocean, unable to be filled with sights. The ears, tongue, nose, body and intellect are equally insatiable, unable to ever be satisfied with sounds, tastes, smells, sensations and thoughts. Yet we stubbornly cling onto them. Instead, if we turn to Spirit - it is already complete in Herself - We don't need to grasp the non-graspable. Acknowledging this insatiability, we understand, we 'give up' the futile struggle, and this very surrendering is like a prayer to Spirit.

The world is filled with madness. Everyday, I see people who can't understand how from birth, they have always tried to "obtain something", not knowing that they are already complete with Spirit. They fail to obtain things, they lose what they've obtained and plunge into suffering. But yet, they foolishly do not see that the very method is wrong for attaining any form of relief/satisfaction. They pick up what has failed, retrying again and again and again... Until time runs out.

Looking at an apple, a dad may love an apple. His mind is filled with habits of desire for the apple. On the other hand, a child would look at the same apple and his mind may be filled with habits of aversion for the apple.

Same apple, same object, same things in the world → But different responses because of not understanding the Dharma.

Likewise, we are so ready to grasp notions of ourselves. We think we are this limited form of body, feelings, thoughts and mental qualities. Just like the apple, we can never truly grasp their essences. This is because we are going about it the wrong way. Instead of 'giving it up' into Spirit, these 'names and forms' have become our crutch to stubbornly attach into this world.

The futility of grasping sounds leads me to the auditory charisms. The futility of grasping any part of experience leads me to the charisms. I truly hope one day that I may finally leave these hellish planes for good.

[Jhanananda]

Yes, Bodhimind, the gandhabba refers to the manomayakaya (mind-made body). 

What I see around me is people becoming attached to things, instead of immersing themselves in spirit.

[bodhimind]

I was reading Alexander's post here:

Your post encourages me to resume my practice. I was doing long sits as well recently, but to no avail. I confess I get quite discouraged. I often read the posts on here about people's ecstasies and I think to myself, "why do these experiences not happen to me?" Then I sit there for hours motionless, in the same state of consciousness as the waking state, and end up feeling like a fool. "Nothing is happening," I think, "there is no bliss or joy or energy..." I think I have to rededicate myself - expect nothing to happen - but just do it straight through for a full 30 days.

Just wanted to give a short response on my blog. I think the best way to think about it is that we are continuously disconnecting ourselves from Spirit. If we let go, we are naturally reunited with Spirit. Therefore, we need to identify the ways we are separating ourselves from Spirit. We often indulge in the animal-side of man, investing deeply in this flesh-body and hence the concept of 'spatial existence' and when we let go, we don't truly let go.

I remember when I used to sit long without any results too.

I find the best portal for me is "experience-stuff". One of the best portals for me is thought. When thought arises, we become hyper-aware of it happening. But instead of paying attention to the thought content, try to feel and sense the energy of the thought and what it is made out of. Suddenly, we become aware of this sense of a transparent-like, holographic-like energy that seems to form a thought. The paradox is that when we follow the "thought-stuff" instead of its contents, we actually disengage from the stories of the mind and start to pay attention to what is really happening right now, like what Eckhart Tolle calls the 'power of now'.

As we sit there, simply just watching thoughts arise and bubble away, I don't just focus on the nothingness, but I focus on the entire experience without rejecting it. Almost like a dance of energy. And you're not separate from the dance, you're just being one with this 'experience-stuff'. As we examine more deeply this 'experience-stuff', suddenly the other senses start to "unlock" too.

The next easiest sense for me is really the tactile sensations. If you find the sensation, you also start to realize that we impute ideas of space and time over just pure sensation. For example, if I feel tingling, how do I know "where" and "how intense" it is? It is just tingling - and before even a name, that pure experience of tingling. Slowly we then start to find that this entire field of tactile sensations happens 'nowhere', not 'inside a body'. It is also made of the same 'experience-stuff'.  Then as we go on, sound is the next easiest for me, especially when the auditory charism arises. In a sense, it is almost as if awareness has become less fragmented. After sound, sight - but I don't really pay much attention to that because the senses start to converge into a singular field of "pure consciousness stuff". The 'one eye' or 'one taste' or 'one sense'.

So when I sit, it is not just an experience of a 'body'. It is the experience of sight, sound, taste, smell, touch and thoughts, as if it was made of a "pure experience material" - I hesitate to really call it anything, even 'energy', maybe spirit would be a nice word. That which breathes life into experience in a dance. So as the practice goes on, strangely, it doesn't become 'blankness' - instead it becomes dynamic presencing of everything - full of life and the charisms.

I remember when I had that spontaneous light bursting forth from the heart, I could not locate my body, just one expanse of white light. But it wasn't that I couldn't locate it - it took effort. So it was almost like I needed effort to impute a thought in, to "find my body", to "define the edges". Kind of like post-jhana and you get out of a deep state and it takes a while to recalibrate.

About accessing this 'now' (which is later gone beyond), I guess it is like the sense of combining these approaches:

1. having the perception of things not even "rising" completely and passing away as soon as they arise, hence every effort we strive for in the world of sensory pleasure falls to naught - that acknowledgement is renunciation imo. (Girimananda sutta has a good list of "perceptions")

2. being completely immersed in experiencing, be it paying attention to the charisms or meditation object, away from indulging in thoughts

3. not falling prey to thought content and its stories

[Alexander]

Thank you, Bodhimind, for the interesting thoughts. I will try to apply them. I have also had a problem with my lungs recently, which has disrupted my practice, though hopefully they are getting better now. I will see if I can recommit this month. I do indeed often feel like I am sitting there like a fool for hour after hour. It would be nice to not experience this for once. :)