The Deep Self

Difficulty 1: an aggravation

I have to attend a pointless meeting every month. I dread it. I can hear the manager now, saying: “So how’s it going?”  — it seems like a small thing,  but the way that she says it and the fact that there is no point to the meeting infuriates me. So, what I realize is there is a chain: (1) the thought of her saying that (2) my evaluation of her saying that (3) the negative emotions (4) the physical clenching on the body. Now, how does one apply the Raw Mechanics of Zazen to this painful thought/memory? Well, I say, we go for the root. Let’s look at the thought of her saying that. Then acknowledge it. Then let it go. Then deliberately and consciously go back to counting. So, let’s give ol’ Zazen a run for it’s money.

Difficulty 2: doing this by myself

I have an urge to partake of the services of Swami Ganga-Puri Kaliuttamananda-Giri. I saw her on Youtube giving Shaktipat and was impressed. She definitely cuts to the chase and has results. But I am sick of relying on others. thoroughly sick of it.

Tags: meditation, Uncategorized // Add Comment »

1. sit down
2. tongue up
3. center attention at hara
4. count the breaths. inhale, 1, exhale, 2, etc.
5. if a thought comes up:
   1. look at it
   2. acknowledge it
   3. deliberately and consciously return to the breath

Should you manage step #4 without effort or interfering thought:

#2 becomes count cycle of inhale and exhale instead of separately

Should you manage this step #4 without effort or interfering thought:

just follow the breath

Should you manage this step #4 without effort or interfering thought:

Go on to koan study or shikantaza

How is that for a chart of abilities and awareness, Scientology?

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Herein is the suggested daily schedule for a weekend meditation intensive mixed with floatation tank work.

Zazen instructions are here

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I am proud to be an active participant in the floattalk discussion list. On this list, we discussion floatation tanks, also known as sensory deprivation tanks, float rooms, isolation tanks, or REST devices.

Whether you are a business owner or just want to discuss floating, please join this forum and make the floating community bigger and better.

We discuss all aspects of floating — building tanks, promoting a business, amazing experiences, healing stories and even more.

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Funny isn’t it? We do and have in order to relax into blissful being.

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There is a wanting in me to achieve Self-knowledge. Therefore, I lose the game. How can you find yourself by wanting to find yourself? You have run right by yourself in the process of trying to find yourself. This is vanity but a hard to find vanity.

Now, floating has never failed me. But I have failed to take it to the next level. So far, my wins have been primarily physical… but they are great physical wins. I have had a few mental wins… managing to drop out of injecting 400 million “I” thoughts into this body per millisecond.

I read “Reality in 40 Versions” Ulladu Narpadu and want the end result.. NOW! But don’t realize that wanting is a form of tension and only relaxing and allowing gets me to what I want. In fact, I cant get to what I want.

I wonder why I would do weekend long Buddhist retreats and not give the same respect to floating? Buddhism is man-made… by Gautama. The Arunachala ashrama system is man-made, by Maharshi. The float tank is man-made by John Christopher Lilly. A controlling belief is at work — milliions of people do these other systems. These other systems are “traditional”.. they are closer to the beginning. They come from a less materialistic society. It is amazing the number of things I use to make those other man-made systems right and floating unacceptable.

“Your goal is to make your mind silent”

— Acharya Kedar

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As I write this, I feel “fine” — but it only takes an hour or so in the tank for me to realize the issues I have in my left shoulder blade. And I am so amazed by the power of tank to smoothly correct them.

The lesson for me is: float when you feel like and float when you don’t. In either case, there is work to be done, but you simply dont see it.

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Today I put on Symphonies of the Planets when floating and boy oh boy. I went way out. And at one point the sounds stopped and I felt like I was watching stillness. I was completely still and just basking in stillness. It was comfortable.

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Awhile back, when I was doing Silva Ultramind, I would fall alseep during the sessions. Now, an advanced Silva practitioner would not do that. What I have discovered in that I need way more rest than I have ever gotten. If I were “awake” and then had a massage, I would end up asleep on the table whereas otherwise I would not have.

Until a person can listen to Silva Ultramind without falling asleep (after a good nights sleep), then she needs to continue the journey to Standard Relaxation. And every time you fall asleep prematurely, rejoice! For you are closer to a very useful state of being!

Now enter diet.

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One reason I dont want to run a highly commercial float center is that floating is a very personal experience and people may need time to recover. Or they may need to float some more.

A day or so ago, after a long float I came out onto land… and my body was whimpering like a weaned puppy dog. It implored me with all its heart to return to the tank, which I finally did. I never felt such agony and pleading for something in this body in 38 years.

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