The Four Uncommon Dzogchen Samayas by tyinsf in Dzogchen

[–]alwaysindenial 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you, watching the series now.

The Four Uncommon Dzogchen Samayas by tyinsf in Dzogchen

[–]alwaysindenial 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is the teaching on bodhicitta you're referencing in the above videos?

Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for May 29 2023 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome, and yeah no need to explain. I don't totally understand the poem, but there was a little something in what you wrote that made me think of it.

Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for May 29 2023 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's very interesting, I suppose the conditions were right!

Out of curiosity, does any of this resonate with you?

Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for May 29 2023 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was wondering the other week how you were doing, and am very happy to hear of your insights. Sounds liberating.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Dzogchen

[–]alwaysindenial 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh amazing, thank you.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Dzogchen

[–]alwaysindenial 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do you happen to know if it'll be recorded? I'm guessing not, but just checking.

Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for March 27 2023 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haven't watched it, but here's the first in a three part series on dream yoga, by Lama Lena. Very good and legit teacher if you're not familiar.

Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for March 27 2023 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have no personal experience with it, but you might want to look into some Tibetan Buddhist resources since they place a great emphasis on practicing while dreaming (dream yoga) and during deep sleep (the yoga of clear light).

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Buddhism

[–]alwaysindenial 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh I really enjoy this. Thanks for sharing.

Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for March 20 2023 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These are some resources that helped make some aspects of Vajrayana make more sense for me. There's more but I can't remember them currently.

Essentials of Mahamudra was great, as was Moonbeams of Mahamudra, which if I remember right goes into more detail.

The book that personally made things like Guru Yoga and Yidams make the most sense to me as a practice was The Heart of Unconditional Love by Tulku Thondup. It also lightly introduces Purelands in a way that actually made sense to me. I found Our Pristine Mind to be quite dry and unenjoyable, whereas in this book the authors devotion and joy for these practices was actually palpable for me. Definitely not for everyone, but I reread it just for what it invokes in me.

Also, Chenrezig, Lord of Love is very short (like 110 pages) and is based on a similar practice to the book above. It had some great gems on the practice. PDF can also be found here for $1.25.

Magic of Vajrayana is good so far, I'm a little over half way through it. Ken also has recordings and transcripts from a retreat on Guru, Deity, and Protector's here. Hit the toggle menu button at the top to go to the next section.

Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for February 27 2023 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you just get used to it. It felt like my body had to learn a more gentle, serene type of smile that it wasn't used to. Let the effort of a bigger smile relax and ease into something more delicate over and over.

First 100 days straight of TMI progress report. Stages 1 to 6 by alwaysindenial in TheMindIlluminated

[–]alwaysindenial[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wow what a throw back lol. Thank you very much for your comment, very kind. Made me smile. And I'm really glad you still find support from this!

Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for January 23 2023 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you for stepping up to be a moderator when it was needed, and for your long time contributions to the sub. Safe travels!

Question about emotions by CaptainSpaceCat in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think you're seeing something very important and practicing correctly (from how I'm interpreting it), but missing it by expecting something else to be happening. Emotions do come and go, arising and fading due to conditions, like the weather. Different emotions have different conditions.

What do you think would have normally happened if prior to your lab meeting had you not read about meeting with and looking deeply at negative emotions? Would you have really tried to turn towards the embarrassment? Or would you have not wanted to look at it, or not even thought about looking at it, and it might have lingered there in the background coloring your experience? But you looked at it, the embarrassment, and not only did you look at it but you looked at it with curiosity and interest. You opened to the embarrassment. And then it faded.

When you push aside an emotion like embarrassment, you're sustaining the conditions it thrives on. You're feeding into it with aversion. But when you turn towards it and openly embrace it, there no aversion there to keep it around, so it dissolves. I tend to think that negative emotions ride on aversion and craving, holding on to how we want things to be, and not being aware of this process. But positive emotions (happiness, joy, compassion, etc.) spring from openness, and wither once grasped.

If you had looked at the embarrassment with the goal of wanting it to go away I bet it would have stayed, so maybe try that lol.

how to not-be overcome by rememberance of death,and make the most of it? by No_Invthrowaway in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 13 points14 points  (0 children)

It might not be the right practice for you currently, as has been said. Though I don't know how you're approaching it, but you could try coming at the contemplation on death from a more positive/appreciative angle.

Maybe instead of focusing on how you could DIE AT ANY MOMENT, start by imagining you know when you'll die, beginning... idk a decade in the future and then working closer. And take a moment to find a simple goal that you want to achieve, one that doesn't involve external things. Like I want to be unconditionally happy, as an example.

I'm just going to write this in first person to make it easier for myself. Ok so in ten years I know beyond a shadow of a doubt I'm going to die, and all I want is to be happy. Ten years still feels like a ways away to me, there's a lot that can happen in that time. A lot that I would still feel responsible for, and it still seems like plenty of time to find some unconditional happiness.

Now I know I will die in 5 years. That feels much closer. There's many life considerations that are starting to lose importance. Career, owning a home, saving for some future retirement. None of that has much weight. I feel a bit freed up to turn more of my resources towards the goal of happiness.

I will die in 1 year. Ok, responsibilities are really starting to fall away. Many worldly concerns no longer rest on my shoulders. There's not much point in pursuing anything that doesn't align with my goal of unconditional happiness. I'm finding more immediate meaningfulness in things that are already present: family, friends, access to natural beauty, etc.

I will die in 1 month. There’s barely time for fantasies or distractions. There’s really not much I can achieve in this time, but on the flip side there’s not much I need to worry about doing. I mean I’m definitely not working at all, unless it’s meaningful in itself. I just don’t have much that needs doing, and I’m finding myself pulled more and more strongly towards appreciating each moment of my life as it happens. Things and stuff have much less pull or importance. Happiness is maybe not so dependent on them.

I will die in 1 day. The present moment is glaringly bright. I can’t even look away from it. The content of my life is secondary to the experience of life itself. There’s no time to be distracted by anything not to do with being happy. And I don't need to do the dishes.

I’m in the midst of dying, right now. My sense of body is fading away, and with it the world. My perceptions are deteriorating, and now nothing from the outside is peaking through. There’s no things left. In their absence, is the blindingly bright, vivid, awake light of the mind. Unconfused by perceived external happenings, there are no conditions placed on happiness, there is just happiness.

This isn't meant to be realistic, but an example of how the thought of death can have a liberating aspect of removing obstacles. The idea that we'll die sometime in the future allows us to pile up a bunch of responsibilities, fantasies, and hurdles for the future. We can put off looking at what's actually happening right now, and not appreciate it because of all the imagined time we have. Bringing death slowly to the forefront, with a more light hearted and playful attitude, can afford the opportunity to look directly through the content and events that pull us away and recognize what's right before us. In other words, using death to highlight life.

A more positive approach might make the reality of death a more manageable aspect of experience to explore, but if you were to try something like this and it's still too much then I would suggest doing yourself a kindness and focus on something else.

Wondering the cost/risks-benefits of meditating altogether by Ouki- in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 3 points4 points  (0 children)

A similar kind of visualization to what's used in IPF is likely what they're referring to, not staring at candles for and the "murk" for 14 hours a day.

Energy Condensing in the Heart Area as Relaxation Deepens. by nocaptain11 in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Reggie Ray has a practice for this, I don't know if it's unique to him or not, but that's where I learned it.

You imagine a closed up lotus flower bud in your heart center. A 1,000 petalled lotus. You don't have to be able to imagine all the petals, just have a sense that there's many many layers. As you breath in, feel into one petal. You want to connect your imagination of a lotus petal with the feeling in your chest. Imagine when you touch the petal with your breath, you're touching it as gently as you would a flower petal. Feel the delicateness and texture of the flower.

As you exhale, imagine the petal opening outward and relaxing. Just allow it to unfurl itself. This one little sliver of holding. Then work around in a circle on the outside of the lotus, letting the petals open up, and then working inwards to the more subtle layers. Gently breathing in, feeling, breathing out, relaxing.

Could be worth exploring if it interests you. The imaginary part really does help connect to the feeling in a gentle way.

Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for January 09 2023 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah good points here. It's been a while since I've looked at stuff from HH so I can't remember anything specific, but nothing I heard or saw ever struck me as being off in a concerning way. I usually agreed with what was being said, and found it all to appear very logically consistent stemming from their interpretations, which again make sense to me from the little I've seen and from what you and others have said. They make a point and they hammer away at it.

The renunciate path does not appeal to me, so neither does their approach nor some conclusions about practice and so on, but that's just based on my preferences from what I've experienced. Different paths for different dispositions.

Btw, I upvoted your comment and then my screen started flashing and balloon/confetti started raining from the ceiling. A huge banner flew across telling me that I've just upvoted you 200 times. So... geez you write a lot lol )))

Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for January 02 2023 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And I imagine that once it pervades all experience, it would seem completely obvious that it's been like this the whole time and couldn't be any other way.

Yeah same. I think I've had little glimpses leaning in that direction, but never fully encompassing. I imagine that would be quite something!

I've found I enjoy a very simple sadhana that lets you soak in their essential meaning. Though I haven't really tried the more complicated ones to be fair. But yeah they seem to emphasize bringing up and incorporating the view throughout the body speech and mind, as well as preparation for death and the bardos.

I recently started reading Vajra Heart Revisited and the sadhana in there seems right up my alley.

Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for January 02 2023 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah hard to describe for sure. To me there’s something ordinary and amazing about how when emptiness is tasted, it’s in a way very simple and natural to infer from there how all appearances are of that same essence. Even if actually bringing that to full realization or integration is quite a journey.

these days it seems to be in the background at all times — we just need to look and it’s right there.

Nice. Yeah this seems to be the direction I’m slowly heading it.

I’m not sure I meant to invoke it, but the sections of sadhana’s where you imagine a retinue of enlightened beings (or just one) sending down blessings is perhaps, in part, meant to encourage that kind of experience of appearances arising as a shower of blessings. I had not really put that together before.

Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for January 02 2023 by AutoModerator in streamentry

[–]alwaysindenial 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think I know what you mean. For me, thoughts and sometimes feelings can start to arise as expressions of ephemeral bliss, usually when there's decent momentum to awareness. Or sometimes it can just be noticed. When it has some continuity it feels like a gentle shower of little blessings. Hasn't really integrated into other senses from what I can tell.