day++ - garden

[Terrence Brannon]

I'm starting to wonder if this will ever produce results.

I'm just doing it mechanically. Occasionally the mind wanders...

[Mark Palmer]

Mechanically is the enemy.  You are being led.  Of course the mind wanders.  It is the development of bringing it to heel that is being practiced.  Too many, too fast? Be deliberate.  Write the arrows on paper and return to the center, in your mind do this in a paced deliberate way as you would with the body.   Can you recognize when you are not deliberate?  That is when to return to the task.  It is definitely not effortless.  To those of us allergic to work, concentration is hard work.  What form would results take?  I was in the midst of an exercise in concentration and then:

 

I found myself in a basement standing at the top of stairs that was composed of mortared red brick.  The stairs hugged the wall on my right and as they descended there was walls on all sides down the narrow passage.  An entity in the form of the sculptor "The Thinker" blocked my passage to the region below.  My Guide clothed in a purple robe leaned to whisper the password in "The Thinker's" ear whereupon the thinker nodded in approval and we proceeded down the stairs until we came to an ornate wooden door in the wall, again on the right.  My Guide opened the door.  At the first crack of the open door, a piercing distinct clear tone was heard and a hard blue light varying slightly in its intensity, cleared the flickering shadows from the stairs.  Walking thru the door I beheld a wondrous sight.  Low hills were filled with robed figures, thousands of them, as far as I could see were standing on the hills and in the valleys, all looking at the source of the blue light emanating from the Source of the Sound coming from a blazingly hard blue light at the peak of a higher hill.  I looked around for the door and there was none.  One of the robed figures nearest me turned and looked at me.  It was Paulji.  The taller figure next to him turned and looked at me.  It was Rebazar.  Then they smiled knowingly.

[Terrence Brannon]

I cannot help but think about the experience below: 'it happened, now
it's over... impermanence and transitory'

The two basic mind exercises are concentration (single pointed extended
focus) and insight (moment to moment noting of rise and fall).

In insight meditation, there is no attempt to fix the mind. It is free
to rise/fall/free-associate whatever.

In concentration meditation there is an effort to bring the mind to heel.

I think one problem with most of these methods are they are bottom-up
--- they start from where you as opposed to what you are.

I like this calm-abiding meditation (which is a concentration practice)
because you operate primarily from a You that is vast empty space:
http://groups.google.com/group/odd-musings/web/calm-abiding-meditation?msg=ns

[Mark Palmer]

How like me you are.  We both have active minds.  We make our living from our minds abilities.  I envy those who only have to chant the HU and are able to drop the mind.  For me it is never easy to let go of mind.  My very nature wants to know the reasons for and operations of every little thing.  My mind demands it.  If I am happy I want to know why.  If I am sad I want to know why.  If I don't feel well I want to know why so I can change and feel good.

 

And so I must drive my mind to total exhaustion in my bouts of concentration.  Only then does 'das ding an sich' make itself known. http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1293117   Yes, other folk have it easier.  But we are more sensitive.  The goal is not to melt into or be one with God.  The goal is the preservation of the personality throughout eternity.

 

There is a 'stimulus/response' mechanism at work.  Like the weightlifter who asks more of his body than it can deliver, we ask for more control of the uncontrollable mind than we can manage.  In both cases it is the asking for more that is the stimulus that raises the bar in the next trial.  In this there is a lot of mystery. 

 

Body wise, the gold standard is the book by Rob Faigin, Natural Hormone Enhancement.  There is none better.  There is none better sited or referenced.  And the quotes at the start of each chapter grounds the work in reality.  http://www.hormonalfitness.com/

 

There are more dangerous ways to get results as to existence independent of the body.  The least dangerous is to confront the dreams the week before one jumps from an airplane at 3500 feet alone.  But the tandem jump from 10,500 or 12,500 feet should get the heart thumping too!   Write down your dreams.

 

Don't spread yourself too thin.  20 minutes a day is enough for any spiritual exercise. Use earplugs if you have a lot of street traffic, live by an airport, or have other distractions.  Much love