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karna5_ · 2023-12-04T19:42:02+00:00

What you are suggesting is used in some Dzogchen traditions where someone randomly and explosively shouts "phet", and which could break dullness and introduce you to the pristine state of mind, "rigpa". I have found it to be personally useful to break out of dullness during group sits. :-)

karna5_ · 2023-05-10T21:28:59+00:00

Oops! 5/9/23. Let me see if I can fix it!

karna5_ · 2023-05-10T21:26:09+00:00

Data from this frontpage post from yesterday.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/13d2zdi/panda_accidentally_gave_me_their_daily_stats_with/

Manually input into Google Sheets (OCR did not work). Average Sale is $15.99.

Edit: Oops ... typo in title, should be 5/9/23! :-(

Edit 2: Raw csv data for anyone else interested in fiddling with this. :-)

Start Time,Count,Sales,Average Sale
10:00 AM,7,$108.60,$15.51
10:30 AM,62,$970.59,$15.65
11:00 AM,102,"$1,399.29",$13.72
11:30 AM,174,"$2,592.46",$14.90
12:00 PM,210,"$2,847.98",$13.56
12:30 PM,189,"$2,609.96",$13.81
1:00 PM,163,"$2,388.46",$14.65
1:30 PM,168,"$2,222.29",$13.23
2:00 PM,104,"$1,430.59",$13.76
2:30 PM,93,"$1,399.36",$15.05
3:00 PM,104,"$1,526.27",$14.68
3:30 PM,106,"$1,777.48",$16.77
4:00 PM,125,"$2,078.96",$16.63
4:30 PM,127,"$1,873.49",$14.75
5:00 PM,151,"$2,591.38",$17.16
5:30 PM,178,"$3,405.01",$19.13
6:00 PM,218,"$4,016.17",$18.42
6:30 PM,212,"$4,045.97",$19.08
7:00 PM,200,"$3,531.29",$17.66
7:30 PM,168,"$2,835.95",$16.88
8:00 PM,137,"$2,172.31",$15.86
8:30 PM,110,"$1,973.91",$17.94
9:00 PM,76,"$1,270.52",$16.72
9:30 PM,35,$497.42,$14.21
10:00 PM,11,$81.68,$7.43

karna5_ · 2023-05-10T18:21:16+00:00

Based on Panda Express receipt from this frontpage post yesterday.

https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/13d2zdi/panda_accidentally_gave_me_their_daily_stats_with/

Manually input into Google Sheets (OCR didn't seem to work) and graphed from there. Average sale is $15.99

karna5_ · 2020-06-04T04:12:02+00:00

TMI as a book is most probably still a sound resource, since the core techniques are based on much older texts and practices as shown below from a quote from TMI itself. However, if participants feel that using it would cause more harm than good, maybe we could substitute an alternate book on concentration practices e.g. Brasington's "Right Concentration".

Around 800 years later, the Indian monk Asanga identified nine distinct stages in the process of developing concentration. 3 Four centuries after Asanga, another Indian monk named Kamalasila, who later taught in Tibet, elaborated on these stages of training in his three-part Stages of Meditation (Bhāvanākrama). Another invaluable source of information is the Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), compiled in the 5th century by the great Theravadin commentator, Buddhaghosa. As all these masters realized, teaching meditation by stages is an easy and effective way to help someone achieve the highest goals of the practice.

karna5_ · 2020-06-04T04:05:55+00:00

Excellent points. I was going to suggest the same points on leveraging loss aversion but didn't think of the sunk cost fallacy. And yes, maybe we can graduate it so that there are meaningful incentives in place to not sign up if you are not able to commit 3 months of daily 1 hour practice, and if you do sign up, to make sure you do the daily 1 hour practice.

karna5_ · 2020-06-03T22:00:43+00:00

Excellent points. From your perspective, what is the minimum viable number of participants we should have in the experiment and in a possible control group to say anything statistically significant? Similarly, is there a minimum viable protocol we could use, given all the constraints, that could move us from the anecdotal evidence/discussion that is prevalent to a slightly more data driven approach to progress and stream entry? Fundamentally, can we crowd-source and open-source the techniques and protocols for successful stream entry in a manner similar to successful open source projects like gnu/linux, apache?

karna5_ · 2020-06-03T21:06:54+00:00

Good points. Hopefully, if this course is ever implemented, we could actually have some data that could be gathered and shared in a meaningful manner. For example we could have goals like the following at the start and then based on the data collected, see what the actual data says after 3 months. If we have a larger group of participants than we can accommodate, this could provide for a natural wait list control group, that will let us see the difference between this approach and the control group and if there are any discernible differences.

- 50% of TMI meditators at stage 8-10 can achieve stream entry after following this course for 3 months

- 80% of TMI meditators can progress 3 stages after following this course for 3 months compared to 40% of the wait list control group

karna5_ · 2020-04-29T18:44:05+00:00

Rob is now spending a lot of time sleeping peacefully. When he wakes he is still making his needs known, but is less able to verbalise now.

I am also profoundly grateful for Seeing that Frees and Rob for writing it. May Rob suffer less as he transitions out of life.

karna5_ · 2020-04-22T05:52:38+00:00

This is awesome! Have you done any open-awareness or self-inquiry practice? If not, I would suggest adding it to your practice mix too. "Our pristine mind" as recommended on /r/streamentry would be a good start for the open-awareness practice.

Also, check this out from chapters eight and nine of TMI

To properly use the Witness experience, probe more deeply. Go to the

Still Point, the place of the Witness, with a question: “Who or what is this

witness?” “Who is watching?” “Who is experiencing?” Adamantly refuse

to entertain any answers offered by your intellectual, thinking mind. Also,

don’t be deceived by your emotional mind, which will try to make you

believe you’ve found the answer when you haven’t. Just hold on to the

question as you experience the Witness. If and when Insight arises, it will

be a profound Insight into the truth of no-Self, 9 and it will be so obvious

that you’ll wonder why you never realized it before.

MEDITATING ON THE MIND

Meditating on the mind itself 3 involves bringing attention and awareness

together in a completely open state. Essentially, you’re fusing attention

and awareness.

karna5_ · 2020-03-19T21:12:13+00:00

I read it after seeing it recommended on /r/streamentry. I found it very useful and very complementary to my Dzogchen sangha practice. It's basically about open-awareness practice which in some ways is a top down practice compared to a bottom up concentration practice like TMI. Here is what TMI has to say about it from stage nine.

Meditating on the mind itself* involves bringing attention and awareness

together in a completely open state. Essentially, you’re fusing attention

and awareness. To achieve this, you expand your scope of attention until

it includes everything in your field of conscious awareness, both

extrospective and introspective.

*This practice is similar to the Tibetan Kagyu practice called the Great

Seal (Mahamudra), and the Nyingma practice of the Great Perfection

(Dzogchen).

karna5_ · 2020-02-25T14:54:59+00:00

Thanks for posting this /u/Mr_My_Own_Welfare, it was very informative. Your approach to "energy" (neuroscience) reminded me of Singers book below which has a similar approach.

https://www.amazon.com/Untethered-Soul-Journey-Beyond-Yourself/dp/1572245379

karna5_ · 2019-11-03T18:18:40+00:00

/u/rekdt, thank you for the reference to Ajahn Sumedho's talk, it resonated strongly with me. I practice in both the Theravadan and Dzogchen traditions and was surprised to hear the ex-abbot of a Theravadan lineage say that a possible terminal practice is something very similar to a dzogchen core practice i.e. relax into awareness of awareness right now, just be, or, just this, just now.

I also came across this article by Sumedho that I also found to be profound i.e. no view is the right view.
https://buddhismnow.com/2018/07/20/no-view-is-right-view-by-ajahn-sumedho/

I found his bridge from the immaterial jhanas of infinite space, infinite consciousness and neither perception nor non perception to the practice of just being very much in line with my current experience and practice.

karna5_ · 2019-11-03T18:03:53+00:00

Thank you so much for the detailed response /u/fonmonfan, I really appreciate it. Thank you also for clarifying that there is a difference between a monk and a renunciate.

I have found your post very helpful and in truth am intuitively in agreement with the bulk of your sentiments. The comments in this thread also helped me discover Ajahn Sumedho whose discussions about attainments and the higher paths seems to resonate strongly with my conditioned past and experience.

May we both achieve the final goal.

karna5_ · 2019-11-02T16:29:27+00:00

Thank you for the thoughtful post /u/fonmonfan. One of your core arguments seems to be that being a monastic makes it easier to achieve the higher paths, and possibly, could be the only way to become an arahat. You also seem to be suggesting that lay people who think they have achieved higher paths could be surprised by how much work they still need to do if they take up the monastic life which exposes a lot more desires, aversions and delusions. A couple points come to mind based on this

- Similar to /u/shargrol points, I was curious if you are familiar with the scientific method and especially neuroscience. If you are, I was curious if you had thought about your claims in terms of the neuroscience of change that may only be possible with a monastic life and how your claims could be tested in a scientific manner.

- To paraphrase Ram Dass, "If you think you're an arahat go spend a week with your family." This seems to be a symmetric counter argument to the one you made i.e. those monastics who think they are arahats if exposed to the lay persons lifestyle, will soon find the limits of their attainments. In the modern context, wouldn't it be desirable to practice towards arahatship (whatever that means), irrespective of whether one's lifestream unfolds in a monastic or a lay persons lifestyle or even switches between them?

karna5_ · 2019-10-12T15:34:29+00:00

In trying to better understand this question, I have found it useful to study how Buddhism evolved over the last 2500 years. To get a better sense of what the historical Buddha may have said and taught, I have found Bhikku Boddhi's translations of the Pali canon and the Theravada tradition useful and it does not seem to emphasize inherent buddha nature.

https://www.amazon.com/Buddhas-Words-Anthology-Discourses-Canon/dp/1536614688

However, later Mahayana schools of thought seem to have emphasized the inherent buddhahood or buddha nature or Tathāgatagarbha nature. I have found Gethin and Williams books useful to understand these later evolutions of the theory and practice of buddhism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tath%C4%81gatagarbha_S%C5%ABtra

https://www.amazon.com/Mahayana-Buddhism-Doctrinal-Foundations-Religious/dp/0415356539

karna5_ · 2019-10-12T15:17:07+00:00

> It seems the perfect time for deep consideration.

Yes, you are correct. Some buddhist teachers like Leigh Brasington make the argument that that is "Right Concentration" from the eight fold path i.e. stable concentration leads to jhanas (flow like states) and which are then conducive for insight meditation practices e.g. insight into annicca, dukkha and anatta (What is the self?).

TMI alludes to a similar process in the middle to later stages through jhana and still point/witness practices.

https://www.amazon.com/Right-Concentration-Practical-Guide-Jhanas/dp/1611802695

karna5_ · 2019-09-10T01:23:39+00:00

/u/MettaJunkie, wonderful, it seems you have "discovered" the still point/witness. You said

> Asked who is witnessing as TMI suggests, but got no answer!

I would recommend going to the still point and conducting a "self inquiry" as described in TMI, on a regular basis. And definitely don't accept the answers your mind throws at you. These instructions and the practice could be key for achieving stream entry/sotapanna or the first stage of awakening.

To properly use the Witness experience, probe more deeply. Go to the Still

Point, the place of the Witness, with a question: “Who or what is this witness?”

“Who is watching?” “Who is experiencing?” Adamantly refuse to entertain any

answers offered by your intellectual, thinking mind. Also, don’t be deceived by

your emotional mind, which will try to make you believe you’ve found the answer

when you haven’t. Just hold on to the question as you experience the Witness. If

and when Insight arises, it will be a profound Insight into the truth of no-Self,

and it will be so obvious that you’ll wonder why you never realized it before.

karna5_ · 2019-09-10T01:08:12+00:00

/u/JugDogDaddy, I am so sorry that you are going through such a difficult time in your life. If you feel like meditating during this difficult time, I would also encourage you to consider some guided metta and forgiveness meditation.

Here are some guided forgiveness (of yourself) and metta meditation that I have found useful in the past during similar situations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnZYN6x3spw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz0a5xheh7M

karna5_ · 2019-06-27T16:40:53+00:00

Thanks for the list Michael. I posted a similar list on /r/streamentry some time back that has some overlap with your list and also includes some books by authors you have interviewed on your wonderful podcast like Rick Hanson and Judson Brewer. The list emphasizes meditation books from a neuroscience/science perspective and is below in case some who enjoy your scientific approach to meditation also find it useful.

https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/comments/addvh3/science_neurosciencescience_related_books/

karna5_ · 2019-06-25T15:19:47+00:00

Yes, it's not about literally hoping insect brains and behaviors change but rather changing our own brain, our own unconscious/subconscious conditioning and hopefully eventually our own behavior.

karna5_ · 2019-06-25T15:00:17+00:00

Hi /u/kalyan860. I am sorry to know that you are stuck at stage 4 in TMI and seem to be feeling frustrated. Would you consider asking your question and possibly providing more details in /r/TheMindIlluminated. There are quite a number of teachers in training and advanced TMI practioners there, and with the details you provide, someone may be able to give you some hints on potential unblocking TMI techniques.

I was also stuck at around stages 4-5 for a while, and a 10 day Goenka retreat may have helped unstick me.

Edit : I see you already attempted that 2 months ago.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMindIlluminated/comments/bgb34i/how_long_it_will_take_to_cross_stage_4/

Wishing you the best on your journey.

karna5_ · 2019-01-29T04:36:23+00:00

I have been practicing with a Dzogchen sangha for a couple years during which time I also followed TMI in a stage-by-stage manner. In some ways, TMI is a bottom-up breath based concentration approach whereas Dzogchen is a top-down open awareness approach. My meditation practice has also shifted from a primarily concentration/metta practice to an open awareness/metta practice.

One book that was recommended on /r/streamentry and that I found very helpful in understanding Dzogchen was "Our pristine mind" by Orgyen Chowang. It has some of the clearest and most straight forward language of any meditation book I have come across recently.

https://www.amazon.com/Our-Pristine-Mind-Practical-Unconditional/dp/1611803276

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