Topic: Keeping the Breath In Mind-Lessons in Samadhi

[Bornamber]

There are lots of amazing free resources out there. He is a link to a full PDF - https://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/breathmind.pdf

[Michael]

The Thai form of Buddhism really pisses me off. I have an acquaintance who is Thai and is deeply into her Buddhist tradition - she gave a session at one of our workshops on it last year, which only reified my previous understanding of locational Buddhism. We in the West have had both Western experts, like Alexandra David-Kneel, and many Tibetan lamas who strived very hard after escaping from Tibet, like Lama Yeshe, to translate Buddhism out of its ethnic entrenchment. But once you dive back into those ethnic sources (of which, btw, there are many and have very different approaches) you soon find a lot of 'rules'. Traditional Buddhism is obsessed with lists and rules. As I have written in another post in Soma, I find this approach essentially one of moral conservativeness: you will reach enlightenment by being a good person according to local social rules. I believe it reflects South-East Asian deep social conservativism.

Anyway, that aside - by all means, dig into this stuff as there is always something worthwhile to find if you know what you are looking for. Problem is Amber, you don't know what you are looking for.

The phase you are currently focused on, which is excellent, is what I call Strategy. There are four phases, or elements and each phase overlaps: Purpose, Strategy, Data, Yeast.

From your posts I sense you are grappling with Purpose, which you should: the Why. And in conjunction with this, you are also seeking to compile Strategy. This phase is SO important.

There are the old classics, which any aspirant should bone-up on:
https://restlesssoma.com.au/soma/index.php?board=16.0

But then there are the new books and influencers. Unfortunately, many of these are American, which follow the rule of 'dumb down and blow up' - that is, make a huge fuss about small bits. Nonetheless, one has to scan the landscape to cohesify a Strategy.

[Bornamber]

I feel as if I am mostly grappling with strategy and purpose is on the periphery bc there is a part of me that knows if I’m successful with my strategy I will need to insert a purpose for continued motivation/direction.

My strategy is intense deconstruction using formal meditation and daily awareness…I’m still attempting to deconstruct the sense of self.  That has been the main goal for a long time but I have veered off and gotten distracted many times.

I don’t care about the religious dogma, rules (except for any rules pertaining to helpful points of view to carry,such as a sense of devotion or honesty that aid in deconstruction).  Extraneous garb aside I like a lot of Buddhist teachings bc I really resonate with the path on a physiological level.  To my core of cores I’m a materialist and it’s helpful to relate as if my being is a meat computer that is getting new programs

[Firestarter]

Just remember on the path there are two types of people (I know anyone starts out with this saying - we brace for the condescending). Disciplined and Lazy People.

Those who are willing to do The Work, at all costs, and discipline themselves. And those who are lazy. Now you were saying many paths. That is right and there has never been a one size fits all. Like even Dramatica - art is a vehicle working for her. This requires intelligence, creativity, and discipline to become the best at it. All of that art is her "wax on wax off" moment and it is working on development. For me, I try to apply discipline into all I do these days. I may write simple things say, doing house in my blog, but that is discipline to get everything done. Just like before I read, I tidy whole house, cause that is like a way of clearing my mind and opening the space for nice things. If I am going to invite spirit energy in the space, needs to be welcoming. Then discipline down to what I eat, way I treat myself. So as you can see, steps toward discipline they will work. But those who are lazy who don't even try to apply things to daily life at all - aren't going to make it. So we go the other way. It might be long or shorter road, but one to free ourselves of this by being conscious is the goal.

[Bornamber]

Ha! I just got this book in the mail called Jhana Consciousness - Buddhist meditation in the age of neuroscience and in the preface it discusses what was lost due to the ordination of a new line from Thailand. 

I’ve been really interested in the Jhana’s. I had never heard of them before and accidentally came across a thread exploring them when I was researching “stream entry” (the beginning of your practice unfolding automatically because you’ve created a feedback loop)… what I’m realizing with this practice is that with enough commitment and practice one can 1. Weed out old karma.  2. Control the mind to produce certain states at will. I’ve even played around with asking my body if it could so kindly produce endogenous painkillers for the pain I experience.  It worked much faster than just “sitting with equanimity” with the pain (although … that has its lessons too). 

[Michael]

Essentially, Jhana meditation, the Jana yoga path, Steiner's meditation methods, Tibetan Naljorpa techniques, Buddhist mindfulness, Zen, Chan, creative imagination, self-hypnotism, etc are all approaches to spiritual development through the mind. Once people step back from the active world and enter a meditative state, there comes a question: what to do now? Practices developed in different traditions to offer a meditator a staged approach. Personally, I have always found exploring all these to be fascinating, and they all expand the meditative mind 'space'.

I don't bother with them these days, though I had a lot of fascinating experiences when I was in that phase. I recommend you explore them, but don't mix-and-match too much, else you lose the evolving energy each provides. Nonetheless, after working on any particular version, try exploring the others. eventually you will find one that resonates more.

These days I simply sit in inner silence, although I have a few personal techniques to get me deeper into it. My sense is that all these meditation techniques are acquisitional. As if, once a spiritual person forsakes material acquisition or adventure for inner focus, they can't help applying the same spirit to their inner world - seeking out the vast array of inner experiences. At some point, a force within us is desperate to step off from a physical or figurative rock, to explore, engage and enhance. That's the nature of this force within us - it wants to go somewhere. For me now, perhaps also because I'm older, I just want to neutralise that force, in whatever way it manifests (unless I have a job to do, like in you pain case), and sustain in self-aware stillness.

Nonetheless, this path of the mind is one of my major critiques of all Eastern spirituality. Sure, they have the other paths of devotion (mainly in India), work (which tends to translate into valuing and offering something to the laity), and shamanistic yogi practices. But none of these are satisfactory. Really, almost all of Eastern spirituality is mind-orientated. In itself, that is fine, but it is desperately lacking in utilising the full opportunity we have as living beings. I feel they therefore suffer in producing one-sided adepts. They all have this look of being aloof and kindly sages, whom you wouldn't employ in your business enterprises. Their 'awareness' doesn't penetrate out of the sinews of their body - no sense of encountering a physical force to be reckoned with (like you see in photos of Gurdjieff).