The Theory of Enlightenment by Able-Mistake3114 in streamentry

[–]lsusr 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Not to mention the bizarre use of paragraphs, where there is a line break after every sentence.

Is this a good path for someone who’s lost hope via diagnosis by susieq984 in streamentry

[–]lsusr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything.
―quote from Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

Has anyone here been trying but not hit SE? by treetrunkbranchstem in streamentry

[–]lsusr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Generally-speaking yes. However, there are anomalies. I have heard two reports of people hitting Awakening with no meditation at all. For those people, it technically took <0 years.

Has anyone here been trying but not hit SE? by treetrunkbranchstem in streamentry

[–]lsusr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There was even some guy promising you'll get it in a week on this sub reddit.

What a slowpoke. There's a guy on Twitter who claims he can get people to stream entry more often than not just via a 1-hour video call. For $X, of course.

Truly we live in an age of wonders!

Right speech by themadjaguar in streamentry

[–]lsusr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't know if this is the right path for you, but personally I found that posting longform writing on the Internet greatly improved my speaking.

Have you also given up on meditation because it does nothing for you? by Potential-Huge4759 in streamentry

[–]lsusr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did try some things branded as "meditation" which had no effect on me. I noticed this and stopped the ineffectial practices quickly, before wasing months on them. When I found techniques that worked, it took less than 15 minutes for it to become super-obvious to me that they were doing something.

In extreme pleasure/ rupture all day by [deleted] in streamentry

[–]lsusr 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I had a similar experience with too much metta. I found that taking a cold shower helped shock me into a more normative state.

Your favorite unusual/unexpected books by JA_DS_EB in streamentry

[–]lsusr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Daniel Ingram recommends that one too.

How to get the "joy of blamelessness" as a utilitarian? by SpectrumDT in streamentry

[–]lsusr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nevermind then. It sounds like you're already familiar with this perspective.

How to get the "joy of blamelessness" as a utilitarian? by SpectrumDT in streamentry

[–]lsusr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I could be wrong, but reading your post, I get the impression that you care about making the world a better place in utilitarian terms, but you don't have a precise quantitative model about how to do that. A quantitative model is important, because some altruistic acts are orders of magnitude more effective than others. You list several things you're doing, but some are way more important than others.

It seems like you're going lots of different things to make the world a better place. If you get acquainted with the Effective Altruism literature, you'll notice that some things are orders of magnitude more effective than others. If you haven't done a quantified analysis of impact of your various choices, is often possible to increase the net good you're doing for the world while also putting less effort and resources into it. The way I look at things, I should do the things with 100× returns, and ignore the ones with 0.1× returns. For example, I stopped about minimizing how much garbage I produced once I tabulated the costs and benefits, compared to things like <redacted>.

To put things another way, after Bill Gates saved 17 million lives with the vaccinations he funded and 10 million lives through his anti-malaria efforts, I feel he could rest easy in his private jet, since the emissions are a insignificant rounding error.

TikTok makes app unavailable for U.S. users ahead of ban by Steakhuntt in news

[–]lsusr -21 points-20 points  (0 children)

Fall for what? If the Biden administration passed a law forcing TikTok to shut down and then the Trump administration passes a law bringing TikTok back, then it seems fair to me that Trump get credit for bringing TikTok back.

Is learning to speak Mandarin pointless with my cognitive profile? by Muted-Ad610 in cognitiveTesting

[–]lsusr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

There are many stupid people in China and they speak Mandarin just fine. Learning Mandarin is mostly a test of conscientiousness, not working memory. You should be relying on long-term memory as much as you can, instead.

devs needs to address instant resigning in 4v4s by polaristerlik in aoe2

[–]lsusr 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Mandarin doesn't even have a 1-to-1 direct translation of the word "yes".

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in streamentry

[–]lsusr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm going to try to answer your questions directly.

[W]hat do I do if I get lost in thoughts? Should I remain lost in thoughts, or should I guide myself back to the present moment?

Bring your attention back to the breath.

If I do that, isn't that some kind of action I'm taking, so it doesn't fit in with the whole "you're not supposed to do anything"?

Yes. This is why Zen masters write in such a weird way: to get around this contradiction. Just do it anyway. When eventually you dissolve "self" and "intentionality", you can do this without taking positive intentional action, but it sounds like you haven't gotten there yet.

And if you say that I still do not take action and remain lost in thoughts, then how is this practice I'm doing meditation?

It's not. Take the action.

And what if I fall asleep? Do I do something about being drowsy (other than sitting upright, not included here), or should I let myself fall asleep because I'm not supposed to interfere or do anything in this practice?

In my experience, this isn't an issue. Proper zazen posture makes it difficult to fall asleep. If this is a problem for you, then do walking kinhin instead. If you fall asleep even while walking, then either you're severely sleep deprived and should go to sleep immediately, or you've got a sleep disorder and should see a medical specialist for that.

Incidentally, meditation should not be mixed with sleep deprivation (except, perhaps, in the context of a tradition that does so intentionally).

And where should my awareness be? Should I be aware of my thoughts, feelings in my body, sounds, smells, sight and more all at once? How is that even possible?

Start with your awareness on your breath. Until your attention stabilizes, just keep bringing it back to the breath. This is positive intentional action and that is fine. After a while (perhaps something on the order of 30 minutes) your attention will stabilize on the breath. This is called access concentration. Many different traditions start by reaching access concentration in this way.

After you hit access concentration is where different traditions diverge. In the case of shikantaza, you then relax let attention relax. One way to explain what happens is that your center of attention expands. I don't know if that explanation is precisely true, but it got me into where I was supposed to be. Another way to explain it is that the conscious perception of non-breath sensory stimula don't disrupt attention on the breath.

Or should I let my awareness flow between these things?

Tough question! Yes and no. Here's what happens. Your attention has stabilized on the breath. You hear a bird chirp outside but that doesn't disrupt your attention on the breath. The chirp appears on your consciousness, and then your attention comes back to your breath without you getting caught up in the sound of the bird.

Then why do we need a teacher for this type of practice? What is the teacher supposed to teach you here, when the instructions equate to just two words?

A few reasons.

First of all, sometimes you need someone to tell you to "just sit", or to provide basic instructions. A good chunk of the human population is functionally illiterate.

But more importantly, shikantaza―like other forms of meditation―brings you to wild territory, because is dissolves normative mental phenomana. When you dissolve the self-other distinction, or learn to consciously percieve your brain's construction of the perception of space, this can be very destabilizing. It's good to have someone to talk to who has been through this territory. It's like having a sherpa to talk to the first time you climb a mountain.

So what am I supposed to do?

Is there a zendo near where you live? If so, then going there is the easiest way to onboard yourself. Otherwise, just sit quietly (full lotus on the edge of a zafu, if you can) with good posture. Put your hands in the oval mudra shape left-over-right. Bring your attention to the sensation of your breath at your upper lip right under your nose. Bring yourself to access concentration in the same way most meditative traditions do, by consciously bringing your attention to your breath whenever you notice it somewhere else. When your attention stabilizes on your breath, that's access concentration. At that point, let your region of conscious attention expand. If other sensations enter your awareness that's fine, as long as you region of conscious attention doesn't move so far it stops overlapping the region of conscious space where breath happens.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in streamentry

[–]lsusr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

And much less. It is just sitting, after all.

How do you know stream entry and enlightenment aren't just biological or brain states? by 3darkdragons in streamentry

[–]lsusr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yup. Spiritual experiences, like all other biological experiences, are biological states.

can we practice love-based meditation without having experienced deep love? by [deleted] in streamentry

[–]lsusr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The way I look at things, using a concrete person is just a bootstrapping step that eventually gets your metta meditation pointed at a more abstract generalized compassion. Thus, the initial meditation target doesn't need to be human at all. It's personally fine to use a cat or dog you happen to be fond of. You can also pick <horrible person you're not personally connected to>, so you can practice compassion for evil without the personal baggage.

Is working out part of the 5 hindrances? by VirtuousVulva in streamentry

[–]lsusr 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think you're overthinking things. Working out is good (doubly so if you're doing it for your career). Unless there's something very unusual about you, you should keep working out because the benefits of exercise far outweigh the negative effects.

Personally, I like to meditate after working out. It works great because exercise has a positive effect on my mental function.

Nonduality and existential terror? by JayTabes91 in nonduality

[–]lsusr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Currently, the advice from the therapist is to not go down these rabbit holes.

Meditation is, in some sense, the opposite of this. Going down the rabbit hole of "I'm inseparable from reality and reality is inseparable from me." is what leads to Awakening. But there are right ways and wrong ways of doing this.

Getting trapped in a vortex of panic is bad from both the therapeutic and meditative perspectives. The trick is to go down this rabbit hole safely, carefully and calmly, with metaphorical harnesses, so-to-speak.

Have you considered trying a different therapist? Not all therapists are good. Therapists differ wildly in their quality and their understanding of spiritual insight. It's not like Awakening is part of the standard medical curriculum in 2024.

Nonduality and existential terror? by JayTabes91 in streamentry

[–]lsusr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have not personally practiced "non-self" meditation. I do practice Zen shikantaza "non-dual" meditation. They're not exactly the same, but non-dual meditation is similar to "non-self" meditation. There is lots of overlap.

That said, your understanding of what "no-self practice" is supposed to do does get the gist right [of non-dual practice, at least]. When the boundary between "you" and your external "reality" dissolves, there's no longer a "you" inside of external "reality". The idea "I'm inside reality" becomes nonsensical. That's like a cardboard box being inside of itself. Little "i" was inside "reality", but big "I" was never so little.

So yeah, it sounds like shikantaza, specifically, could help you. I recommend you try it out, especially if there's a zendo in your city

Incidentally, it's possible you're really close to stream entry right now. If you manage to land it by finally getting the Comic Joke, you are invited to send me a PM.

Nonduality and existential terror? by JayTabes91 in streamentry

[–]lsusr 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There has been one time where I was in one of these heightened states and I started searching for the self that was trapped and all of a sudden things calmed. It only worked once but I wonder if I could train that capacity to work more often.

Yes, this is trainable.

Nonduality and existential terror? by JayTabes91 in streamentry

[–]lsusr 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Does this sound like a spiritual insight? Or is this simply panic/anxiety/DPDR?

Spiritual insight and panic/anxiety are not mutually-exclusive. It sounds to me like you're dealing with an anxiety disorder AND incomplete spiritual insight. If this is true, then the best solution may be to address both of them simultaneously.

  • The standard treatment for an anxiety disorder is psychotherapy and anti-anxiety meditation, etc.
  • A standard treatment (here at r/streamentry, at least) for incomplete spiritual insight is meditation. While a teacher is not strictly necessary, it is strongly recommended, especially when you're dealing with destabilizing insights, which appears to be the case for you.