I know - same old theme but...
In reply to an interesting posting I wrote:
Dear W:
I much enjoyed your posting, and am impressed with your work with young juvenile offenders. You're a real bodhisattvatudinous dude! I live in San Francisco, and as you point out, it's embarrassingly rich in terms of sangha meditation groups -- despite which I find myself doing my own thing because I tend to snore like a steam engine above the 4th jhana.
I start from Ramana's:
> "That which is not present in deep dreamless sleep is not real."
One indication of deep dreamless sleep is a fully resonant SNORE on the inhale and exhale. For this reason, I snore as much as possible while awake and practicing being aware of being aware of being aware of being aware... zzzzzzzzz (but smiling also)
I'm now calling the snore/snarl mantra "The Lion's Song" although I also see a similarity to the Tibetan Vajra mantra (OM on the inhale, AH on the hold, and HUNG on the exhale) I'm basically focused on exercises that anyone can do easily - I call it the OBEATA (Oceanic Bliss Easily Available To All) Project and currently they include:
The Lion's Song:
Smiling
On the inhale: purr/snarl, resonating all the way from the septum down into the trachea.
On the exhale: gargle a French 'r' but allow the tongue tip also to vibrate, and the lips if they went to go along for the ride.
The trachea resides just behind where the aorta enters the heart. Resonating the trachea resonates the aorat/heart, and in turn the bloodstream transmits the vibration all the way to the extremities. Ten good snarls and my fingers and toes start to tingle. Of course you mileage may vary, and the more I do it the more sensitive I seem to get. But you'll definitely find out why the lamas love to sing 'way-down-there.'
Exercise #2: the Voluntary Blink
Watching H.H. The Dalai Lama interviewed, I noticed he blinked about four times more than I do. So I decided to mirror his blinks. I then realized that my thoughts stopped for a micro-instant every time I blinked. I Google on research in the blinks brought a U.K. scientist who had studied blinks using EEG/MRI stuff. He agreed that
'consciousness shuts down for a millisecond when we blink.' Later I had feedback from a Vipassana/Dzogchen instructor that some lamas use blinks to break out of consciousness states.
Exercise #3: Nursing on the Uvula
I do 200 'tugs' on the uvula/soft palette first thing upon awakening because it puts me back into sleep states but conscious enough to enjoy the rapture. This leads nicely into the Lion's Song before breakfast.
Exercise #4: For social situations, it's important to develop a subvocal version. Actually the baby 'sleep-nursing' cluck works well, as does the 'guh-guh-guh' in the back of the throat - probably where the word God evolved. 'La-la-la' subvocally on the heartbeat also is just beautiful, probably where the word 'Allah' came from. I also use the word "EEAHOOWEHEH" - the breath resonating all vowels, which is probably where the Jewish YVWH came from. I keep thinking the Middle East hassle is an ancient argument about whether God's name is the breath or the heartbeat, although both can be combined very nicely: IN: Yahhhh OUT: weh-la-la-la-la
Recently I found a Christian site (actually my sister, an Anglican nun, reports that it's more Gnostic but whaddo I know). He suggests 'Father' subvocally on the inhale, and "Peace" on the exhale subvocally, but does point out that it's the 'UH' and 'EE' seed syllables that are most important. I've been trying these out, and they also are very good.
http://www.chrmysticaloutreach.com/pages/1/index.htm
I guess EVERYTHING is very good once you've found your groove. But I am definitely interested in finding the easiest possible methods to achieve high bliss absorptions (Jhana states) because I sincerely believe that once you feel very very good you're gonna experience great empathy and compassion for all beings you encounter. That's all the Void contains - compassion. So you don't need the precepts and the preliminaries and the ancient banana leaf slats or whatever. Go straight for the bliss, but once you've found it, always keep going and don't get hung up. The path is the goal, although I prefer to think of it as a dance through a flowery meadow.
Dear W:
I much enjoyed your posting, and am impressed with your work with young juvenile offenders. You're a real bodhisattvatudinous dude! I live in San Francisco, and as you point out, it's embarrassingly rich in terms of sangha meditation groups -- despite which I find myself doing my own thing because I tend to snore like a steam engine above the 4th jhana.
I start from Ramana's:
> "That which is not present in deep dreamless sleep is not real."
One indication of deep dreamless sleep is a fully resonant SNORE on the inhale and exhale. For this reason, I snore as much as possible while awake and practicing being aware of being aware of being aware of being aware... zzzzzzzzz (but smiling also)
I'm now calling the snore/snarl mantra "The Lion's Song" although I also see a similarity to the Tibetan Vajra mantra (OM on the inhale, AH on the hold, and HUNG on the exhale) I'm basically focused on exercises that anyone can do easily - I call it the OBEATA (Oceanic Bliss Easily Available To All) Project and currently they include:
The Lion's Song:
Smiling
On the inhale: purr/snarl, resonating all the way from the septum down into the trachea.
On the exhale: gargle a French 'r' but allow the tongue tip also to vibrate, and the lips if they went to go along for the ride.
The trachea resides just behind where the aorta enters the heart. Resonating the trachea resonates the aorat/heart, and in turn the bloodstream transmits the vibration all the way to the extremities. Ten good snarls and my fingers and toes start to tingle. Of course you mileage may vary, and the more I do it the more sensitive I seem to get. But you'll definitely find out why the lamas love to sing 'way-down-there.'
Exercise #2: the Voluntary Blink
Watching H.H. The Dalai Lama interviewed, I noticed he blinked about four times more than I do. So I decided to mirror his blinks. I then realized that my thoughts stopped for a micro-instant every time I blinked. I Google on research in the blinks brought a U.K. scientist who had studied blinks using EEG/MRI stuff. He agreed that
'consciousness shuts down for a millisecond when we blink.' Later I had feedback from a Vipassana/Dzogchen instructor that some lamas use blinks to break out of consciousness states.
Exercise #3: Nursing on the Uvula
I do 200 'tugs' on the uvula/soft palette first thing upon awakening because it puts me back into sleep states but conscious enough to enjoy the rapture. This leads nicely into the Lion's Song before breakfast.
Exercise #4: For social situations, it's important to develop a subvocal version. Actually the baby 'sleep-nursing' cluck works well, as does the 'guh-guh-guh' in the back of the throat - probably where the word God evolved. 'La-la-la' subvocally on the heartbeat also is just beautiful, probably where the word 'Allah' came from. I also use the word "EEAHOOWEHEH" - the breath resonating all vowels, which is probably where the Jewish YVWH came from. I keep thinking the Middle East hassle is an ancient argument about whether God's name is the breath or the heartbeat, although both can be combined very nicely: IN: Yahhhh OUT: weh-la-la-la-la
Recently I found a Christian site (actually my sister, an Anglican nun, reports that it's more Gnostic but whaddo I know). He suggests 'Father' subvocally on the inhale, and "Peace" on the exhale subvocally, but does point out that it's the 'UH' and 'EE' seed syllables that are most important. I've been trying these out, and they also are very good.
http://www.chrmysticaloutreach.com/pages/1/index.htm
I guess EVERYTHING is very good once you've found your groove. But I am definitely interested in finding the easiest possible methods to achieve high bliss absorptions (Jhana states) because I sincerely believe that once you feel very very good you're gonna experience great empathy and compassion for all beings you encounter. That's all the Void contains - compassion. So you don't need the precepts and the preliminaries and the ancient banana leaf slats or whatever. Go straight for the bliss, but once you've found it, always keep going and don't get hung up. The path is the goal, although I prefer to think of it as a dance through a flowery meadow.
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