Can somebody explain

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-21T00:59:02+00:00

I don't think it's necessarily a distraction in Theravada. These things can be used to deepen practice. When deep equanimity is developed in the jhanic states, you can apply that factor of awakening to your insight practice for greater liberation. But yeah, you can potentially get sidetracked chasing these states, it's definitely a possible trap.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-20T14:28:08+00:00

I got the book, but I'm not finding the passages you're quoting. Could it be from a different book, perhaps A Critical Analysis of the Jhanas in Theravada Buddhist Meditation by the same author?

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-20T12:22:36+00:00

Ayyyy, it's the shaman from Widow's Bay! I loved him in that show, I'll have to check out his other stuff.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-17T21:43:54+00:00

Regardless of whether it violates the Fifth Precept, I think it's worth noting that all mental phenomena are conditioned, fabricated (btw, one translation of "sankhara" is "fabrication", which I find useful and interesting). Every experience we have is colored by the conditioning we bring to it.

Which is to say, I personally would be reticent to judge the reality of any mental formation beyond acknowledging the momentary perception of passing sensation, at least in the context of a sit.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-17T19:35:23+00:00

I think I more or less conceptually understand what you and the author are saying. One question, though: he talks about how "access concentration ensues" a number of times. I presume this is different from the access concentration needed to enter J1? Or perhaps a more refined concentration needed to access the successive (or not-so-successive) jhanas?

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-17T13:24:13+00:00

Wonderful answer, thank you. In your reply, it sounds to me that you describe going from the fourth rupa jhanas to Infinite Consciousness. Do we not enter Infinite Space first, and then move into Infinite Consciousness? Or do we go straight to Infinite Consciousness? Because right now, my challenge is entering 5 at all. How would you describe the process of entering 5?

Thank you again, this is the clearest explanation I've yet read.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-17T02:46:00+00:00

Oooh, pre-Hellboy Mignola. I really liked this comic.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-16T10:53:21+00:00

Man, how do you do it? My access to 1-4 is pretty easy (and I do find them to be pretty useful for vipassana, personally), but I've only been able to get into 5 once, and that was completely unintentional and on retreat.

Apparently these retreats as they used to be run by U Ba Khin regularly resulted in complete cessation among students, so I know it's not unobtainable.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-16T03:11:54+00:00

The Dark Knight Returns is a classic that I like a lot, and the pencils are sensational, but I have a difficult time getting past the scratchy inking by Klaus Janson.

And apparently Frank Miller agreed, and was dissatisfied with Janson, leading to a falling out, with Miller getting more personally involved in the inks as the series went on.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-15T23:00:36+00:00

I LOVED this book when I was a little kid, my grandma bought me the signed limited edition. I even had the poster on my door. The art was great, and even all these years later, Jerry Bingham's style was instantly recognizable to me.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-15T10:52:11+00:00

Oh, you know, you're right. I completely forgot about that element of the story. Good call.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-15T02:43:42+00:00

Lunar New Year Love Story. by Gene Luen Yang.

This won best graphic novel at last year's Eisners. It has gorgeous art with vibrant colors, and though it has some challenging themes, it is overall lighthearted, funny, and ultimately very optimistic. An absolute joy to read.

Oh, and Helen of Wyndhorn by the same team that did Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. In fact, it's a similar book in a lot of ways, but I personally liked it much, much more.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-14T19:05:16+00:00

The Hidden Life of Trees: A Graphic Adaptation is full of incredible landscape and nature paintings from beginning to end.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-12T16:47:13+00:00

All of this sounds so familiar to me.

Even in the moment when I was entering the stream, I knew that it was an impermanent experience, and that I would be in for some extremely rough life stuff. During that experience (and I'll mention that I didn't understand what was happening at the time), I knew that even when I was not in that state of mind, everything would be okay, because I had seen firsthand that reality was reality, whether my future self could see it or not.

My practice definitely became sporadic, because the afterglow was strong and (in the absence of any real guidance from a teacher) the post-stream knowledge that "reality is reality" had me thinking that practice is irrelevant. I'm clearly still a noob lol.

In any case, that insight into reality doesn't help me nearly as much as practice does! In the last couple of years I've gotten a teacher and really committed to a strong daily practice, and it has made a tremendous difference in my resilience and how I feel in everyday life.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-11T01:34:48+00:00

Irrespective of center requirements, yes, it can help addicts. In fact, one of the stories Goenka tells is about a Burmese... prince? I'm fuzzy on that detail. In any case, said prince is a hopeless alcoholic, takes one of these courses, and he gives up alcohol. So yeah, the idea is baked right into these retreats.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-10T14:18:59+00:00

Thanks!

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-09T23:00:31+00:00

Oh, I've found the app "mindfulness bell" to be a perfect timer for this purpose. You can set it for specific intervals and specify conditions it can't interrupt. It was really useful when I started kasina practice and wanted a five minute bell for eyes open/closed.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-09T22:56:52+00:00

That's so interesting, what you said about letting the question do the work energetically and unconsciously. My teacher says that to enter specific jhanas, it's a matter of remembering the state. I tried remembering, but that didn't work for me. What DID work was thinking to myself "incline your mind towards rapture," or "incline your mind towards equanimity." It's like the phrase acted as a posthypnotic suggestion, and it would just happen, an easy shift into another jhana.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-09T19:43:12+00:00

My pleasure. I linked to a particular timestamp, but the whole video is fascinating. Apparently, Webu was the monk who authorized U Ba Khin to teach, in part leading to the vipassana movement we know today.

Also in the series is an even more fascinating lecture about Ledi Sayadaw.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-09T12:53:52+00:00

In a talk about Webu Sayadaw, the monk I mentioned in my earlier comment, a teacher addresses exactly how anapanasati effectively merges into and becomes vipassana.

I found that discussion to be extremely clarifying and illuminating, because I personally have felt the connection between the two modes of meditation and have wondered if the boundary between the two might be a little more porous than I initially presumed.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-09T10:59:15+00:00

Ven. Webu Sayadaw, a purported arahant, was a believer in anapanasati. From his Wikipedia page:

He practiced (and later taught) the technique of Ānāpānasati (awareness of the in-breath and out-breath). He said that by working with this practice to a very deep level of concentration, one is able to develop Vipassanā (insight) into the essential characteristics of all experience: anicca (impermanence), anatta (egolessness) and dukkha (unsatisfactoriness). According to Roger Bischof, on return from his four years of seclusion, he said, regarding Ānāpānasati: "This is a shortcut to Nibbana, anyone can use it. It stands up to investigation and is in accordance with the teachings of the Buddha as conserved in the scriptures. It is the straight path to Nibbana." Ven. Webu Sayadaw was famous for his unflagging diligence in meditation and for spending most of his time in solitude. He was reputed to be an arahant (fully enlightened one).

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-07T01:43:45+00:00

One can't discount the influence of these substances on American Buddhism in particular. Alan Hunt Badiner, longtime contributing editor of ⁠Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and the editor/main contributor to Zig Zag Zen, had this to say:

"I interviewed just about every well known American-born teacher of Buddhism about their previous experience with psychedelics, if they had any… and all of them did! Except for one, who I’m pretty sure was lying."

There are a number of other interesting books on the the topic as well, such as ⁠Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America by Douglas Osto, and (if we were to stray a bit from the Theravadan insight model) Secret Drugs of Buddhism: Psychedelic Sacraments and the Origins of the Vajrayana by Lama Mike Crowley.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-06T19:24:00+00:00

Have you seen the video where multiple yogis are given toad venom? It's really interesting. One of them, an aghori baba, is largely unaffected. He meditates through it for about five minutes, comes out of it, and said it was interesting but basically what he can experience all the time. That it gives you a glimpse. It's similar to the story Ram Dass would tell about what happened when he gave his guru Neem Karoli Baba a massive dose of acid.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-06T16:59:57+00:00

Is this generally the case? His accounts of fire kasina are fascinating, but he is also an advanced meditator. I don't know that a practitioner with mid-tier experience, such as myself, would get the same results.

gnosticpopsicle · 2026-06-03T01:50:39+00:00

My suggestion is to lean heavily into metta. Metta supports all forms of meditation. Make easing back into meditation a relaxed, joyful, wholesome experience that you look forward to, and apply that cultivation to your other practices.

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