The Planet's Sangha: Buddhist discussions, thought, etc.

[mariamma]

You've discovered a deep truth. It's not uncommon, what you describe Martina. It is difficult to manifest without a teacher though. My foster-parents are Buddhists and practice Vipassana meditation and yoga for back pain. When they meditate 2 hours every day, everything else in life flows and the pain and struggle and misery is significantly less. It has to do with perception as you imply. If you focus on the possibility and expectation of pain, you will experience more pain. Meditation can significantly increase well-being and happiness (serotonin). All that focus is healing your body, little by little. Over time, you probably will find you're maintaining mobility as where others with arthritis who rely on medication solely may have decreased mobility.
Namaste ~ the Light in me honors the Light in you

Originally Posted by Martina

I doubt that this is true for people in very serious chronic pain, but one thing I have noticed as a meditator who lives with arthritis pain is that first, because of your awareness, the pain gets much worse. You had no idea how much pain there was. It's damned near everywhere. Your body practically throbs with it. And then it recedes. I imagine that the same number of neurons are firing -- or however pain works. But the pain seems to rest almost. I know that the pain is there. But I am neither distracting myself from it nor focusing on it, and it becomes less significant. I wish I could explain it better. But I am impressed with how much meditation helps my arthritis pain. And sorta surprised that the process begins with the pain seeming to get much worse.

A friend of mine goes to the chiro -- a good one -- and after he hasn't gone for a while and goes back again, he realizes how much pain he has been enduring. It's not till the pain is less or even gone that he realizes how much there was.

I don't know what the research says, but I doubt that meditation lessens my pain. It's just that if I meditate, more of the time my reaction to it is, "Oh. That's pain," not fear and self-pity. I then move around more, which I think DOES help the pain long term.

[girl_dee]

i've often wanted to learn to really meditate, REALLY meditate. i've tried so many times but i just can't get to the level i want to. i am a hypnotherapist and i think that somehow interferes with my inability to really get to the level i want . i keep putting myself in the role of the person putting the other person under.

i know that there are different levels of meditation, and sometimes when people say they are meditating they are doing other things, or actually just relaxing... in reading those books a couple of years ago i learned about mindful meditation etc... but that is not what i want,

i want this:

[sylvie]

i am new to this thread, and fairly new to exploring my spiritual side. It feels like i have already been walking a Buddhist path for a very, very long time, as i read literature and visit the journey within, it all feels so familiar and i am nodding in agreement ... In these passed few weeks, though...i have had much self exploration, meditation time and am very much on a very deep journey of self, and looking forward to sharing more as i explore and walk this path..

[Glenn]

Cajun; If you really are serious about going deeper, you can learn how to stop your breath and heart rate. You must find an adequate teacher you can really trust, and there are'nt many in the USA I would trust with this. But I have found one of the best here, and his name is Brother Achalananda Vice President of Self Realization Fellowship (SRF).
Has anyone heard about/ been able to activate the pineal gland to produce DMT? (Dimenthyltrptamine) The only resource I have ever run into about this is Dr. Rick Strassman's stuff on the web.
Rick Strassman on Dmt the pineal gland-YouTube.
DMT:The Spiritual Molecule(2012)-Hulu

[girl_dee]

Originally Posted by Glenn

Cajun; If you really are serious about going deeper, you will have to learn how to stop the breath and heart rate. You must find an adequate teacher you can really trust, and there are'nt many in the USA I would trust with this. But I have found one of the best here, and his name is Brother Achalananda Vice President of Self Realization Fellowship (SRF)
Has anyone been able to activate the pineal gland to prduce DMT? (Dimenthyltrptamine) The only resource I have ever run into about this is Dr. Rick Strassman's stuff on the web.

Hi Glenn and thank you.

in my work, Reflexology we tap on the pineal gland (and much more) and i see the effects of doing so. i've never thought of doing that in Meditation but i would love to.

[girl_dee]

Ironically in my teaching certification program I was asked to set out goals, one of them was to learn to really meditate within the next year. Like take a real life course, not read books about it. Words without action are worthless!

and I prefer the real life experience

[sylvie]

Daddy and i visited Tashi Choling here in Oregon last week, on Mt Ashland.
It was so wonderful, touching, the energy and peace there is amazing.. Since visiting the Prayer Garden it has helped me so much on my spiritual journey. It has been so important to me to walk this spiritual path on my own.

In the beginning, i was unsure about my openness to accepting and embracing spirituality at all.. But i didn't want to base anything on anyone else's beliefs, and wanted to really discover what i had and felt within me. So this spiritual journey has been one that's been extremely emotional, warm and comforting, but haven't been sharing much with anyone.. It's felt very private.

Visiting Tashi Choling brought everything together for me, it was very thought provoking and peaceful and i so look forward to revisiting, the meditation and coming into my own with Buddhism.. i'm starting to share this journey now after much self exploration...

my early morning meditations set my day wonderfully...

[aishah]

Originally Posted by Cajun_dee

i've often wanted to learn to really meditate, REALLY meditate. i've tried so many times but i just can't get to the level i want to. i am a hypnotherapist and i think that somehow interferes with my inability to really get to the level i want . i keep putting myself in the role of the person putting the other person under.

i know that there are different levels of meditation, and sometimes when people say they are meditating they are doing other things, or actually just relaxing... in reading those books a couple of years ago i learned about mindful meditation etc... but that is not what i want,

i want this:

in my experience that feeling only comes after a LOT of mindfulness and insight meditation. to be honest you kinda have to get past the boring suck with basic forms of meditation to get to the good stuff, and even then it goes in circles/waves. i've always been taught that in the context of buddhism, feeling attachment to the good meditation experiences is an unskillful emotion though. that may or may not help, hehe.

i've also felt a strong sense of deep meditation sometimes when in dhikr circles. muslims - particularly sufis - have a tradition of reciting parts of the qur'an or the names of allah and in a powerful dhikr circle the recitation actually changes the energy in the room. and sometimes when listening to synchronicity meditation - it is supposed to actually change your brain wave patterns and it definitely does SOMETHING to my brain because i can feel it really deeply.

[girl_dee]

Originally Posted by aishah

in my experience that feeling only comes after a LOT of mindfulness and insight meditation. to be honest you kinda have to get past the boring suck with basic forms of meditation to get to the good stuff, and even then it goes in circles/waves. i've always been taught that in the context of buddhism, feeling attachment to the good meditation experiences is an unskillful emotion though. that may or may not help, hehe.

i've also felt a strong sense of deep meditation sometimes when in dhikr circles. muslims - particularly sufis - have a tradition of reciting parts of the qur'an or the names of allah and in a powerful dhikr circle the recitation actually changes the energy in the room. and sometimes when listening to synchronicity meditation - it is supposed to actually change your brain wave patterns and it definitely does SOMETHING to my brain because i can feel it really deeply.

Wow that is so true. like once i was told to *go meditate*... i can't meditate on command. i need time out to do that. i can stop what i am doing, try to clear my head but not to achieve the level that moves me deep inside. i also learned about the different types of meditation in the readings i was doing. i think some may think they are meditating when actually they are just being still, and sometimes we meditate when we are deep inside our own self.

When i would kneel, really kneel, there was nothing else to do but focus, and for me a little added pain helped bring me to such a quiet state, but still i always wanted that blissful peace that i never could reach, where everything just shuts down. Maybe i was just in subspace, for me i'm flying at that time, but still would not consider it meditation.

[aishah]

Originally Posted by Cajun_dee

Wow that is so true. like once i was told to *go meditate*... i can't meditate on command. i need time out to do that. i can stop what i am doing, try to clear my head but to achieve the level that moves me deep inside. i also learned about the different types of meditation in the readings i was doing. i think some may think they are meditating when actually they are just being still, and sometimes we meditate when we are deep inside our own self.

When i would kneel, really kneel, there was nothing else to do but focus, and for me a little added pain helped bring me to such a quiet state, but still i always wanted that blissful peace that i never could reach, where everything just shuts down. Maybe i was just in subspace, for me i'm flying at that time, but still would not consider it meditation.

for me meditation is like exercise. it sucks and i don't wanna, but when i do it, i feel better. and when i do it on a regular basis, i notice changes in my life and behavior, like the ability to be mindful with normal tasks, be a better listener, respond more with compassion. and eventually i become more at peace in meditation and outside of it. sometimes that leads to more intense meditation experiences, but i was taught that that shouldn't be the focus or goal of meditation (for me at least).

i definitely agree that flying in subspace has some connections...i love that blissful feeling. it's different than what meditation feels like for me. but it can also be a state of heightened awareness.

[girl_dee]

Originally Posted by aishah

for me meditation is like exercise. it sucks and i don't wanna, but when i do it, i feel better. and when i do it on a regular basis, i notice changes in my life and behavior, like the ability to be mindful with normal tasks, be a better listener, respond more with compassion. and eventually i become more at peace in meditation and outside of it. sometimes that leads to more intense meditation experiences, but i was taught that that shouldn't be the focus or goal of meditation (for me at least).

i definitely agree that flying in subspace has some connections...i love that blissful feeling. it's different than what meditation feels like for me. but it can also be a state of heightened awareness.

Yes, being a hypnotherapist and an energy worker (i do this in conjunction with bodywork) i love watching people at peace, relaxing and *flying*... so you would think simple meditation would come easy for me. Maybe i'm just fighting it.

[Jaques]

I dont i.d. as Buddhist but would say that I have been Buddhist minded for around 20 years. I have visited a local monastery on numerous occasions and when I lst went was taken aback when a monk said to me "there's no such thing as an innocent child" I felt "how nasty is that" - it took me quite a while to understand what he meant, though he never elaborated on his statement - maybe it was to get me thinking - it certainly did. Of course, it was there all the time, that old thing Karma, natural law, what we sow we reap, however you want to put it. We are all born by our own desires and "blessed" with the karma of previous lives, so as that beautiful, wide eyed baby, we are there by our own doing. In Buddhism (and many other religions/beliefs) its thought that our actions in the present life (& sometimes those past) create the reality of our next one - who we are, how we are, to whom we are born, whether we are well or ill, whether rich or poor - all designed by ourselves to finally and hopefully "get it". This is my understanding of life anyway, obviously not shared by everyone.
That made it easier for me to understand the difficult lives and death of my parents who were practically saints yet had it so hard, my gender dysphoria, the confusion and pain and reality of it. The pain, cruelty and injustice humans inflict upon one another. I was able to accept these things and see that they are all the karmic result of the lives we lead and our inability to understand natural laws. So now when im tempted to do something naughty, illegal etc. Im a little ashamed to admit that its not always the goody two shoes in me that decides "better not" - its the self preservation - thinking, "nope, im not going to reap the rewards of that one" and keeps me (mostly anyway) on the straight and narrow. When I try to push it all aside, low and behold, i get a reminder right on the chin and know its time to get back on track.............there really is no way out - lol!:hangloose