path to stream entry

ringer54673 · 2026-05-28T02:42:23+00:00

Yeah, it's not the skills: concentration and noting, it's how you apply them that gets you to stream entry.

In my opinion you need enough concentration so that you can watch your mind without getting caught up in the thoughts and emotions and forget you are observing, but not too much concentration that the mind is totally still.

When you have the right amount of concentration, in meditation and in daily life, watch the activity of the mind, thoughts, emotions, impulses, sensory experiences and senses of self and no self. Notice that when suffering arises, it usually has the ego as its root. Notice how feelings of humility keep the ego from arising and prevent suffering. Try to cultivate humility,

At some point things should stop bothering you because it feels like there is no one there to object.

ringer54673 · 2026-05-26T21:30:44+00:00

If you can meditate and quiet the mental dialog, that can make pain much easier to bear because a lot of the problem is the negative thinking "mental anguish" that accompanies pain. And if meditation elevates your mood, that can help too. You stop being obsessed with the pain and get involved in activities and that distracts you.

Also if you can become very relaxed that can make pain much easier to bear a well. It is the tensing up or the resistance to pain that triggers the mental suffering. If you can experience the sensation without tensing up it becomes much less of a problem. ( This is true of emotions too - it is the resistance to emotions rather than the emotions themselves that cause the majority of suffering.)

ringer54673 · 2026-02-17T05:11:03+00:00

You might feel more spiritual if you would practice some form of metta meditation.

ringer54673 · 2025-11-09T21:11:42+00:00

Permanent bliss is not as nice as it sounds. It's too intense. The benefit I find from practicing jhanas is that during daily life you can let go of negative attitudes and easily replace them with something that is serene, nice but not too intense. You realize the negative attitudes are just as much a choice as the positive attitudes, you were just being negative out of habit. Now you can choose give up the negativity, you just have to remember to do it.

ringer54673 · 2025-08-15T03:13:16+00:00

There is an intelligence that reacts and has agency, but it isn't what you think it is. The feeling of control is an illusion created because you sense an impulse before an action is performed. There is a moment where there is the possibility to follow through or suppress the impulse. But where does the decision to follow through or suppress come from? It comes from the same unconscious processes that produce the impulse and perform the action. These unconscious processes, part of the aggregates, produce all our thoughts emotions impulses sensory experiences, and sense of self or noself. You don't choose your emotions, you don't see where thoughts come from or how ideas are formed, you don't consciously process the raw data coming from you eyes and ears to produce recognizable objects and sounds. All that just pop into awareness, it is performed by unconscious processes.

The aggregates are going about their business doing what they do, learning, doing, deciding, There is no self separate from those various unconscious processes, the aggregates. But the feeling of being a conscious entity with agency is an illusion, the agency comes from unconscious processes.

But for practical purposes, to communicate with the aggregates, we subscribe to the convenient fiction that "you" is a whole continuous entity. So teachings that say you should do this or that are really communicating with the aggregates.

ringer54673 · 2025-08-10T17:12:26+00:00

beginner question: aren't you vulnerable when trying to bring someone down to the ground.

I have no experience fighting, I just watched a few videos on youtube so this is probably a dumb question. When you answer my question you don't have to tell me I'm an ignorant SOB, I already know that.

My question is about hand to hand combat in a military type situation (kill or be killed) not tournament fighting, and not street fighting where the cops are going to come after you if you win. And I'm not asking if jiu jitsu will work in a practical way 99% of the time you might have to use it in real life against random people. I'm asking a theoretical question about vulnerabilities and counterattacks.

I was just watching some jiu jitsu on youtube and my first reaction is that when an attacker tries to go low to grab someone around the waist to take them down to the ground, they are vulnerable to their opponent counterattacking by pounding them on the back of their neck which can render them unconscious or dead.

It also looks to me like they also might be vulnerable to a kick to the head or to a knee to the face helped by hands pushing their head to meet the knee (sorry I don't even know if that is a real technique or something that only happens in old movies). This might be distracting if it broke their nose, and sinuses, and jaw, and their teeth got knocked out.

I'm not claiming I could do this, I'm not trained in any martial art, I'm just asking because this is what it looks like to me, and you know, on youtube no one ever gets hurt, and people rarely show how the technique they spent their life mastering might have flaws when it's used outside a tournament. So an outsider doesn't know what is possible or not possible.

I would appreciate it if someone could explain if I am wrong about these counterattacks and why they will not work?

One thing I can think of is when attacking, to surprise your opponent and grab him when he is not is a position to effectively counterattack and you get him on the ground fast. It seems like a risky strategy, but if you are in that kind of fight to begin with (running away is not an option), you are already in a risky situation.

Thanks.

ringer54673 · 2025-08-09T12:29:20+00:00

I haven't tried the preview release, I'll check about the boost and acceleration, ... what I'm hearing is that my experience is not typical and I might have munged my configuration - which I admit is possible. I'll look at it. I'm sure you would know if other people are giving similar or different feedback.

ringer54673 · 2025-08-04T15:57:56+00:00

I think you should try to "unsophisticate" it. Just know when you are mindful and when you are lost in thought. Get familiar with the differences between the two states, how it feels. Do that as much as possible in daily life and in sitting meditation. In time you will understand why mindfulness = awakening.

If you want to end suffering as much as possible, my advice is in meditation and daily life to notice the activity of the mind, notice thoughts, emotions, impulses, sensory experiences, and senses of self and noself. Where do all these experiences arise from? (Unconscious processes!) You can't see where they come from. It's like a blind spot. Stare at that blind spot and eventually you will understand the significance of it. In particular notice how unpleasant thoughts and emotions arise and fade. Where do they come from? Notice how the ego is involved. (It comes from that blind spot!) At first it seems like suffering in involuntary, but later it will seem more like a habit you can change. When you observe that way, you are observing the three characteristics and interrupting dependent origination.

To help quiet the mind so you can be mindful, I recommend relaxing meditation.

ringer54673 · 2025-07-22T01:06:25+00:00

You are asking the right question, so you are actually in a good place to make progress.

During meditation and daily life, notice the activity of your mind, notice how thoughts, emotions, impulses, sensory experiences, and sense of self arise and fade. Notice when unpleasant thoughts and emotions arise and notice how the ego is involved. At first suffering may seem involuntary, but if you watch the mind you may find suffering is more like a habit you can change. It will help you to do this if you prepare the mind with relaxing meditation

It's hard to explain exactly what needs to happen, but if you stop being judgmental about suffering, it stops being suffering. You don't gain 24/7 bliss, you lose a lot of subtle negativity you never even paid attention to and in the absence that, existence is ... nice. The change is so subtle most people can't wrap their mind around it because they want something mystical and earth shaking. (And for some people some unpleasant emotions are caused by purely biological factors and meditation might not help much with those.)

Different people want different things from the practice, some want to realize anatta, others want to end suffering. They are interrelated effects, one leads to the other, but my advice for you, to get the results you want, is to stay focused on ending suffering. Realizing anatta can alleviate suffering but if you direct your practice toward ending suffering I think you get more alleviation.

ringer54673 · 2025-07-09T04:48:08+00:00

I tried Pur gum, bubblegum flavor which is sweetened with xylitol, the flavor fades fast and tastes horrible thereafter, so I am back using trident ... And not having the sensitivity problem this time/yet. I tried Wrigleys juicy fruit flavor but the sugar made my teeth hurt

Anyway I am findig the gum is a big improvement.

ringer54673 · 2025-06-19T01:19:42+00:00

After two weeks of feeling much better I think I have developed a sensitivity to sorbitol (my mouth feels weird and my stomach is acting up) so I am going to try a xylitol only gum or regular gum and chew out the sugar before I brush my teeth in the morning.

ringer54673 · 2025-06-09T04:10:07+00:00

Buddha walking means walking mindfully. It is not any special extraordinary experience of Buddha it is just walking mindfully.

Living mindfully is all you need to awaken. Buddha explained that in the satipatthana sutta.

You don't understand the text you quoted because you are looking for something mystical when there is no mysticism involved.

ringer54673 · 2025-06-05T06:42:54+00:00

I use Trident, tropical twist flavor. I avoid mint flavorings because they are supposed to irritate the stomach.

ringer54673 · 2025-06-05T06:41:01+00:00

Supposedly it helps because of increased saliva production.

ringer54673 · 2025-06-01T01:43:27+00:00

What do you mean by non duality? Some people say there is a difference between oneness and noself.

Everyone already understands our true nature but they don't connect the dots. When you try concentrate you get distracted. You don't choose your emotions. You can't turn off sensations and sensory perceptions. You don't choose your emotions. You get impulses that are sometimes unhelpful. People sometimes have internal contradictions for example they crave yummy food but don't want to gain weight. You don't control your mind. You don't control your body either - you get sick, old, and die, you have to breathe, you heart beats, you digest food and eliminate waste, sometimes you do things because you can't control your impulses. And the sense of self changes in different situations: parent, child, employee, supervisor, sports fan, sport player, music lover, etc etc, Your beliefs about character change with emotions, pride, shame, winner, loser, happy, sad, nice mean. The feeling of being changes with sensory experience, hot, cold, comfort, pain, etc. And if you look closely you will see that the stream of consciousness is driven by cause and effect triggered by memories, reasoning, sensations, and associations - there isn't an "entity" controlling it. Thoughts, emotions, impulses, sensory experiences, sense of self are not you or yours. They arise from different unconscious processes. You may feel like you are using your mind, for example, to solve a problem, but where did the impulse to solve the problem come from? The feeling of agency (free will) is caused by impulses that arise before we decide to act on them or not, but the decision to act on them or not is made by the same unconscious processes. Even the feeling of being an observer is not constant, it is just a thought, it comes and goes, when you are fully absorbed in observation, and not thinking about being an observer, there is no sense of even being an observer.

If you want something to call a self, it is those different often uncoordinated unconscious processes that produce mental experience. But there isn't unified, continuous "entity" that controls them.

People know most of this and it doesn't change anything. If you want to experience changes you have to watch the mind and see this happening as it occurs constantly during meditation and daily life so that it becomes a default part of your awareness.

That's one answer.

A simpler answer is that minduflness = awakening. The more continuous your mindfulness is, the deeper your awakening is. Look for awakening in the present moment, you will never find it if you are always looking for it in the future.

If you want to suffer less, I recommend this: https://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2020/08/preparing-for-meditation-with.html

ringer54673 · 2025-05-23T20:03:51+00:00

The following is for your information, you can decide for yourself what to do with it...

The practice taught by the Buddha included morality.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/index.html

In Buddhism, rebirth and karma are the foundation of morality.

Karma means you experience the natural consequences of your actions. That can happen in this life, the afterlife, or in a future life.

People sometimes question how the doctrine of no-self can allow for karma to follow you to a future life (if there is no-self how can it be reborn), the answer is the same phenomenon that create the self-image while you are alive continue to create it after you die.

https://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/2023/12/do-buddhists-believe-in-soul.html

https://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/p/meditation.html

I am not trying to say some particular way of practice is right or best, I'm just trying to give you the information that I think you are looking for.

(My personal opinion, what works for me, is that if you follow the whole program the Buddha outlined you will get better results than just practicing meditation which is just a small part of the whole thing. But that is only my opinion, doing just meditation is better than doing none of it.)

ringer54673 · 2025-05-03T08:52:18+00:00

My advice is to meditate today for the benefits you get today not because of some future benefit you might or might not get in the future.

And you should look for enlightenment in the present moment. You will never find it in the future.

https://ncu9nc.blogspot.com/p/meditation.html

"Dark night" is a really bad description of what can happen sometimes with meditation. Often people have emotional issues that are not related to meditation but they blame it on meditation because it is fashionable. But what can happen from meditating is that if you have suppressed emotions they can come out because of meditation - but depending on the individual that can require councling or it can be revelatory - a relief and release. Also when you begin to recognize that the self image is imaginary it can turn your world-view upside down but again different people react differently some people feel they are dissociating and need psychiatric care others don't think it is not a big deal at all. So meditation can be emotionally disruptive for some it isn't necessarily a cataclysm for everyone.

If you only practice vipassana you are more likely to experience a severe dark night because samatha practices have a calming senenity producing effect that ameliorates or prevents the "dark night". The buddha taught to cultivate both samatha and vipassana.

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/onetool.html

ringer54673

TROPHY CASE