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There is nothing supernatural about chakras. They are psychosomatic phenomena; they exist only in the subjective world of a person. That's why you can't photograph a chakra, or measure its "field intensity" with some kind of device.
If you inspect your subtle tactile perceptions, you will surely notice feelings in and around your chest, stomach, forehead, ...
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First of all, I think your question has gotten worse at explaining your condition through your edits (sorry!).
In Theravada Buddhism, and really I think I speak for all of Buddhism when I say, the object is to understand reality as it is. This means you actually have to understand the experience before you can "fix" it. Actually, it means once you ...
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This feeling is Piti. It is also in sphere of the sensual world hence has the 3 marks of existence. It arises and passes away. You should try to look at it more and more closely until you see it. At some point this will also disappear and turn into either pain or a neutral feeling. When you get the neutral feeling you should be very careful as not to loose ...
answered Sep 12 '14 at 14:09
Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
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11
Here is a physical problem: Knee injury from sitting postures without requisite hip flexibility. This applies to almost any floor-sitting posture, depending on the meditator's hip flexibility. This is based on my own experience injuring my knees in sitting meditation.
The knee injury occurs when insufficient hip flexibility causes the knee joint to rotate ...
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I'm a software developer and practiced different kinds of meditation (first - sit for 5-10 minutes with open eyes and pay attention to inhaling and exhaling, second - 16th Karmapa meditation in the Diamond way Buddhism).
From my subjective experience I can say that (other things being equal), on average, I am more productive on days, where I do meditation ...
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Supposedly it is used to help meditator fight drowsiness. It is said that drowsiness comes from stiffness, from meditator trying to artificially restrict their micro-movements and to severely narrow their scope of attention. While right concentration is said to feel open and flexible, with body actively balancing in meditation posture and attention wide open ...
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Since you are asking from a specific tradition, I can give a pretty specific answer:
Is this feeling expected at any meditation stage ?
Yes, it is expected at the stage of bhaṅga-ñāṇa (knowledge of dissolution). Though generally available texts don't mention this phenomenon, teacher manuals make reference to it. Here is the general state that leads to ...
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While this may sound similar to the second jhana, I don't think it is. In second jhana the rapture (piti) is enveloping all body, it may be somewhat more bright around chest, or head, or armpits, but not to the point of being specifically localized. You can move the ball of excitement up and down the spine at will, right? I did this. It is a kind of winds-...
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There are two types of meditations - calm abiding (Tib.: Shine, Skr.: Shamata) and insight meditation (Tib.: Lhaktong, Skr.: Vipassana).
The meditation of calm abiding directs mind towards one location to calm it and techniques involve focusing on an object (a stone or a Buddha form) or a formless breath. Practitioners learn not to follow one's thoughts ...
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The "passion" you talk about sounds like a craving for something which you haven't defined. Your question seems to be asking, "I crave something (I crave something to feel passionate about), but I don't know how to find the object of my craving. Can Buddhism tell me how to find what I crave?"
I think that basic Buddhism teaches one to recognize that "...
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Yes, passing through what you called "dark night" is a prerequisite for Enlightenment.
The term refers to existential crisis experienced around the time of fully realizing Emptiness and the Three Marks of Existence. In Vajrayana tradition this is also referred to as the death of the ego. As Chogyam Trungpa said,
Enlightenment is ego's ultimate ...
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Yes the sensation is a normal condition.
It is just muscle/nerve spasms. They may be happening throughout the day but go largely unnoticed. They are also at level of neuron firings so you typically will not be able to see them physically. During meditation you are probably more aware of the tiny changes in your body. One thing I notice during meditation is ...
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This is the way the mind is, uncontrollable. Acknowledge their presence and gently try to return to your usual object of meditation. If this fails, acknowledge the failure and gently try to return to your usual object of meditation. If you get frustrated, acknowledge the frustration, et cetera.
Being gentle and acknowledging whatever comes are important. ...
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Yeah, initially you may experience all kinds of glitches. When you don't meditate a lot of energy is stuck at different layers of your body-mind, and when you start meditating those layers start connecting to each other and energy starts flowing up and down.
So you may get a headache or feel like you are flying or see some flashes of colors, or get various ...
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Re: mind feeling "very slow", "very slow to think of anything" -- when someone tells you something, can you reply immediately without thinking? That's a sign of good meditation.
If your "very slow to think of anything" just means you are going around basically without thoughts, and you can respond to anything spontaneously with no blockages / no doubts - ...
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The sensation of the body 'feeling heavy', very relaxed, 'numb' or almost as if it's disappearing is quite normal. When there is nothing new happening, sort of, when bodily sensations don't change, the mind 'loses interest' and kind of deactivates those sense inputs. This can be beneficial for focusing on the mind experience, since there are no longer as ...
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(Disclaimer: Take this answer as a -means- to explore further and -not- as a definitive answer since the range of descriptions of meditative experiences varies quite a bit from person to person.)
1. What is that feeling called?
From what you are describing, I would say it is the ease (Sukha) that comes from a rapturous (Pīti) meditative experience.
2. Is ...
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During a weekend retreat I attended at a Zen monastery, the explanation I heard was that the sensation provides a point of focus for meditation. At this monastery (or at least at this retreat, which was for beginners), receiving a hit from the wand was voluntary; I don't think they used it to wake up participants.
Other sources (including other answers to ...
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This is your 1st glimpse of arising and passing away. When you practice more you will see there is no solidity any where and your body is completely a mass of arraigning and passing sensations which manifests them self are vibrations. If you not be attached or averse to them as this creates negativity.
answered Nov 20 '14 at 9:58
Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
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5
There's an old (2004) article from the CBC: INDEPTH: MEDITATION
The Pursuit of Happiness
It includes:
Using an MRI to test monks who are meditating
Using meditation to help olympic athletes and stressed-out office workers
Meditation courses being offered by hospitals (e.g. St. Joseph's in Toronto)
One way to look at it would be from the point of view of ...
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When a meditator achieves e.g. the 5th jhana of infinite space, is he
or she still in this world?
Yes, he doesn't disappear. When you sleep, you are not aware of what's happening around you. But that doesn't mean the world is gone.
Obviously the body is, but what about the mind?
Yes, the mind is still associated with the body. Just that it's focusing ...
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If "slow to think of anything" means less distracted thoughts then that's good. But if that means your overall awareness/mindfulness decreases instead of increases then you might want to check your meditation technique. A nice effect of meditation is a decrease of the Five Hindrances: desire, ill-will, sloth/torpor, restlessness/worry, and doubt. (ref: The ...
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There are a few mental cultivation techniques which involve breathing. E.g. there is Paranayama which pre-dates Buddhism. Here you do try to regulate the breath.
In Anapana there is no regulation of the breath. Hence you do not breath out and try to rain in that state. (It is also suggested that one breathes out and remains in this state for a moment, to ...
answered Oct 25 '15 at 6:33
Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
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5
The experience you describe is not a common experience but meditators do get very uncommon experiences due to sudden outburst of past Karma / Snakhara. When you have stopped creating new Karma though Vipassana sometimes deeply hidden karma suddenly pops up to give results. (Many times cited by S.N.Goenka in his lectures.)
Also if would be an idea to also ...
answered Dec 26 '15 at 15:33
Suminda Sirinath S. Dharmasena
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5
Mr/ Mrs Jyo Soudagar - Ajay should not cultivate it, if he/she meditates, but should abandon it, when ever such comes along. Listen to or read, Mr/Mrs Jyo Soudagar - Ajay, what was said in the Bhikkhuni Sutta: The Nun, by Ven. Ananda.
Just considering the foulness of the body should help; or you may think on the drawbacks (disadvantages) of sensuality, to ...
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THE BROADER CATEGORIES ARE MENTIONED WITHIN SOME OF THE TYPES OF MEDITATIONS LISTED BELOW, and ALSO IS LISTED HERE:
Reflective meditation
There are a series of meditations that can put you in the right frame of mind. The guardian meditations are one tool to reduce the power of the hindrances.
Buddhanussati (reflection on the qualities of the Buddha)
...
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I did my first longer vipassana retreat while I was a postdoc researcher (applied math and numerics), and did many more since then. I found it beneficial to have days/weeks dedicated for intense practice (which are tough, but you're in a protected environment) and then off-retreat time for work & other stuff. After retreats, I was mostly much more ...
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I believe that even Shamata meditation can be counterproductive in certain phases of mental illness (i am not any kind of health professional though)
For instance meditation is now regarded as beneficial for depression. However in the acute phases of depression it might not be as effective or even counterproductive. To quote from the Wildmind website
As ...
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