Bodhimind's Blog

[Jhanananda]

Very good insight, Bodhimind.  And, this "habit of clinging" is the craving and covetousness that the mystics of the past referred to, which according to the 4 Noble Truths is the cause of "suffering" (dhukkha).

[bodhimind]

So if we stop this craving... will there no longer be rebirth?

On a separate note, I realize more and more... that people I talk to continue to identify themselves from being the body. They think they are their names, or whatever they have constructed within their minds. I try to help them see but sometimes I'm met with their huge skepticism, so I then give up.

I feel like nothing else in life matters anymore. I just need to get done with this life. And I wish to cut my fetters. But first I need to finish my worldly responsibilities.

[rougeleader115]

On a separate note, I realize more and more... that people I talk to continue to identify themselves from being the body. They think they are their names, or whatever they have constructed within their minds. I try to help them see but sometimes I'm met with their huge skepticism, so I then give up.

I feel like nothing else in life matters anymore. I just need to get done with this life. And I wish to cut my fetters. But first I need to finish my worldly responsibilities.

Ugh I have fallen into the same gutter. Purpose in my life has dwindled to just living my bodies sentence and trying to be kind and  loving to those with hearts sensitive enough to feel the pain of living here. Otherwise I'm just trying to dive as deep in the immaterial as I can before I die. It is still very hard at times to even stay a part of this world, suicide looms over me often. But I come back to "I'm going to die anyway" and the only way to possibly not come back to this life involves me living and meditating.

Best wishes bodhimind,
Rougeleader

[Jhanananda]

So if we stop this craving... will there no longer be rebirth?

Well, that is the hypothesis at work in Buddhism and Hinduism; however, that does not explain why I am here.  After all, if my previous lifetime recollects are true, then I have been a mystic with significant attainment in many lifetimes prior to this one.

I propose that the genuine mystics of the world come back for the benefit of others, which makes life in a body no less miserable.

On a separate note, I realize more and more... that people I talk to continue to identify themselves from being the body. They think they are their names, or whatever they have constructed within their minds. I try to help them see but sometimes I'm met with their huge skepticism, so I then give up.

I feel like nothing else in life matters anymore. I just need to get done with this life. And I wish to cut my fetters. But first I need to finish my worldly responsibilities.

Yes, bodhimind and rougeleader115, life sucks and then you die, regardless of how much attainment that one has.  However, one who does not suffer from clinging, craving, attachment, and covetousness, does not dwell upon the misery of life.  A true mystic will keep the mind still in every moment, except when it is needed as a pocket calculator.  Otherwise one keeps one's attention upon the charisms, which make this miserable life not just tolerable, but blissful.

[bodhimind]

I'm starting to think that...Sol = our Sun might be what the old referred to as the Soul.

Could it be that all the stars in the universe are a reflection of this one... thing? Or perhaps that all things in existence are within this One? I don't know why but I feel as if there are greater and greater stars, as if they were entities or groups of existences... Am I deluded? haha

I'm starting to feel like my head has this constant shower... except that it's not water but this very powerful blissfulness... it comes from the crown and then slowly goes downwards.

[Jhanananda]

It sounds like your contemplative life is paying off.

[bodhimind]

Is life just a passing memory? Past lives are just another memory, so will this life. They're all just the same things happening again and again. I don't understand why we have to go through the same thing again and again.

I nowadays simply seek solace in the blissfulness of spirit. It fills with me with huge calm. The outside world is like a stormy ocean, but my inner self struggles to keep still like a submarine fighting its currents.

Nowadays, I am no longer motivated by the vice of lust - I see no point in it and would much rather dwell in the bliss of the jhanas, however, my partner tends to want it, and I do it out of compassion. I feel like it takes out a chunk of me and makes me feel 'heavy'.

I am tired of all the dividing out there. My identity, my pride, my rights, my equality, my this, my that... My god, it feels like a mad-house out there, with everyone trying to grab more "identity" for themselves. These days you can see all kinds of pride parades going around - homosexual rights, ginger rights, women's rights, etc. What foolishness. Can't they see that the more they exclude, the more they exacerbate the problem? If only they could just turn inwards into themselves and find spirit within, what a better world this would be. It's starting to feel like wishful thinking, because a huge chunk of them can't even understand what it means to still the monkey-mind for a bit.

I love nature a lot. If I could, I could sit out there in a mountain for ages without going back into "civilization". I would rather have the company of the wild animals than wild humans.

It hurts me when I see how modern civilization destroys nature and the Earth. Countries building dams that destroy eco-systems, even global-warming itself causing worldwide issues for all the poor beings, etc. And all humans care about is just "my this, my that". And to rise against their ideologies only bring problems, because there are so many of them, and only one of you. You get ostracized for being an "abnormality", simply because you see the world differently from them.

Well, if this life is just a dream, sometimes I wonder if I care too much about something that I'd only see for a few more years. Should I care about the contents of an illusion?

[Jhanananda]

Is life just a passing memory? Past lives are just another memory, so will this life. They're all just the same things happening again and again. I don't understand why we have to go through the same thing again and again.

We keep having to repeat the same nonsense until we learn the lesson.

I nowadays simply seek solace in the blissfulness of spirit. It fills with me with huge calm. The outside world is like a stormy ocean, but my inner self struggles to keep still like a submarine fighting its currents.

Nowadays, I am no longer motivated by the vice of lust - I see no point in it and would much rather dwell in the bliss of the jhanas, however, my partner tends to want it, and I do it out of compassion. I feel like it takes out a chunk of me and makes me feel 'heavy'.

I am tired of all the dividing out there. My identity, my pride, my rights, my equality, my this, my that... My god, it feels like a mad-house out there, with everyone trying to grab more "identity" for themselves. These days you can see all kinds of pride parades going around - homosexual rights, ginger rights, women's rights, etc. What foolishness. Can't they see that the more they exclude, the more they exacerbate the problem? If only they could just turn inwards into themselves and find spirit within, what a better world this would be. It's starting to feel like wishful thinking, because a huge chunk of them can't even understand what it means to still the monkey-mind for a bit.

I love nature a lot. If I could, I could sit out there in a mountain for ages without going back into "civilization". I would rather have the company of the wild animals than wild humans.

It hurts me when I see how modern civilization destroys nature and the Earth. Countries building dams that destroy eco-systems, even global-warming itself causing worldwide issues for all the poor beings, etc. And all humans care about is just "my this, my that". And to rise against their ideologies only bring problems, because there are so many of them, and only one of you. You get ostracized for being an "abnormality", simply because you see the world differently from them.

Well, if this life is just a dream, sometimes I wonder if I care too much about something that I'd only see for a few more years. Should I care about the contents of an illusion?

It sounds like you are making excellent progress in your meditation practice.

[DDawson]

Hello Bodhimind,

I'm a newbie so bear with me.  I began my meditation career in a crisis.  I felt trapped in my life and with no way out.  To me, nirvana was extinction and the solution, but I knew I was incapable of ever understanding the Buddha's teachings.  I decided to turn towards the existence I hated and embrace it with love.  It was like being in a house consumed by flames and the only way out was to move into the fire.  I decided to love and empathize with everything, to try and see things from their points of view.  I felt like a child cuddling with rattlesnakes.  I began to feel alive again.  I dabbled in Samadhi without knowing it.  I thought I was goofing off.  I kept at it and felt like I was being baptized by the holy spirit.  In a moment of rigorous investigation I saw the world as a mental projection and the aspects of nature that make up the world are innocent.  I believe that this innocence is what the Buddha called Nirvana.  If we don't tell the world its bad then it isn't.  This is a really tall order for us because we are really hardwired to opinionate.  The Buddha's path will lead us to a familiar place from childhood.  It was quite a surprise to me.

[Jhanananda]

...I decided to love and empathize with everything, to try and see things from their points of view.  I felt like a child cuddling with rattlesnakes.  I began to feel alive again.  I dabbled in Samadhi without knowing it.  I thought I was goofing off.  I kept at it and felt like I was being baptized by the holy spirit.  In a moment of rigorous investigation I saw the world as a mental projection and the aspects of nature that make up the world are innocent...

You were being "baptized by the holy spirit."  Congratulations.  Now, just keep it going.

[bodhimind]

Is the collective consciousness/knowing the intuitive stream?

I recently heard of an experience of channeling a message that brought tears to a stranger's eyes, which apparently came from her father. It's so strange, so strange...

-

Also, I recently befriended another mystic who told me about how he would have sights of futuristic technological things while going into deeper absorption states. He doesn't experience joy, but he experiences strong vibrations throughout his body. He told me that someone he knew said: Past the cognition aggregate, beings had abilities to create worlds through their minds. Is that true? I have the impression that that would be "Brahma" instead of true annihilation.

[Jhanananda]

Is the collective consciousness/knowing the intuitive stream?

I recently heard of an experience of channeling a message that brought tears to a stranger's eyes, which apparently came from her father. It's so strange, so strange...

It has been my experience that developing awareness of the "collective consciousness" is a product of developing the art and skill of deep meditation.

Also, I recently befriended another mystic who told me about how he would have sights of futuristic technological things while going into deeper absorption states. He doesn't experience joy, but he experiences strong vibrations throughout his body. He told me that someone he knew said: Past the cognition aggregate, beings had abilities to create worlds through their minds. Is that true? I have the impression that that would be "Brahma" instead of true annihilation.

Experiencing "strong vibrations" throughout the body during meditation is evidence of deep meditation.  Often we experience many phenomena during deep meditation.  These phenomena become blissful, when we accept that these experiences are the product of communing directly with the spiritual dimension.

[bodhimind]

Does anyone else find that certain mantras invoke feelings of joy within themselves too? I find that when I hear some mantras, such as "om mani padme hum", it seems to bring out that familiar blissfulness I experience when I go into jhana. Shivers and orgasms up my spine and throughout my body. Or maybe because I've become more 'sensitive'?

I find that I'm able to "feel" the vibes of people... Like if they're having really negative moods, I can feel them... Or if someone is in poor health, I can feel that 'heaviness'... I like the vibes of some people, and then they turn out to be people who follow their joyfulness/bliss, regardless of whatever religion they are in.

I realize that all there is right now is a projection. So if i think of a past, that's a projection from current data - so is the future. They're all projections of mind to go 'somewhere'. If I'm doing anything else but just remaining in the blissfulness of the present, I'm projecting something and trying to "be" something.

As long as I stay silent and stop grasping to anything - no notion of self, no notion of this or that, no perception of pain or pleasure, no dwelling on this or that state... just nothing... then I find myself helplessly bathing in the bliss of spirit and anchored in that light. I feel like there's nothing else I want to do sometimes, but just remain right there, because there is no greater bliss than being spirit.

All of these life's activities... I don't understand... Do I need to finish them? Is that what karma is... a momentum of previous actions? Or a momentum of the conditions that nature has... evolving patterns of cause and effect?

It's so uncanny how spirit works through all of us and in this projection of an 'individuality', it's more like a hologram...

[Jhanananda]

Does anyone else find that certain mantras invoke feelings of joy within themselves too? I find that when I hear some mantras, such as "om mani padme hum", it seems to bring out that familiar blissfulness I experience when I go into jhana. Shivers and orgasms up my spine and throughout my body. Or maybe because I've become more 'sensitive'?

Often we find religious paraphernalia, activities, places and concepts trigger blissful feelings; and we recognize here those blissful feelings are the first jhana.  It is my premise that it is not the paraphernalia, activities, places concepts that are the trigger for blissful feelings, but what we bring to the experience that is that trigger. 

So, if we find being in a temple, or thinking of a religious concept, or engaging in a religious activity makes us feel blissful feelings, then it is what we bring to that experience in an emotional response.  This is what I call "investing the religious experience."  It is useful to do so, or otherwise the many strange phenomena that is associated with the 8 stages of the religious experience become nothing more than a collection of strange and odd phenomena.

I find that I'm able to "feel" the vibes of people... Like if they're having really negative moods, I can feel them... Or if someone is in poor health, I can feel that 'heaviness'... I like the vibes of some people, and then they turn out to be people who follow their joyfulness/bliss, regardless of whatever religion they are in.

This is part of the insight that people acquire from developing deep meditation.

I realize that all there is right now is a projection. So if i think of a past, that's a projection from current data - so is the future. They're all projections of mind to go 'somewhere'. If I'm doing anything else but just remaining in the blissfulness of the present, I'm projecting something and trying to "be" something.

As long as I stay silent and stop grasping to anything - no notion of self, no notion of this or that, no perception of pain or pleasure, no dwelling on this or that state... just nothing... then I find myself helplessly bathing in the bliss of spirit and anchored in that light. I feel like there's nothing else I want to do sometimes, but just remain right there, because there is no greater bliss than being spirit.

Yes, living in the present, with a still mind, is bringing mindful self-awareness to the contemplative life in every moment.  We here find doing so results in saturation in the samadhi state, which results in liberation from our neuroses, and addictions.

All of these life's activities... I don't understand... Do I need to finish them? Is that what karma is... a momentum of previous actions? Or a momentum of the conditions that nature has... evolving patterns of cause and effect?

It's so uncanny how spirit works through all of us and in this projection of an 'individuality', it's more like a hologram...

It is true that the sense of self begins to diminish as we develop deep meditation, and allow it to saturate our life.

[Sam Lim]

I have certain association that used to bring me up to pure rapture. Others have also reported to me about music that they like that brings it up as well. The mantra, music and others are basically empty but the association itself that brings the joy.

When you reached the sensitive stage, that is what I call the empathy stage, sometimes can get overloaded as it's been reported by Naman. I tend to avoid people because of that.

I realize that all there is right now is a projection. So if i think of a past, that's a projection from current data - so is the future. They're all projections of mind to go 'somewhere'. If I'm doing anything else but just remaining in the blissfulness of the present, I'm projecting something and trying to "be" something.

Don't think too much about it, everything will be clear in time.