Follow up on last post
Been busy - but a follow-up on the last post re: Stuart Davis article.
It's funny - I know so much about Indian advaita, and various yoga
practices.  I know quite a lot about Western synchronistic magic
and meditation.  I am fairly experienced in Christian ecstatic
mysticism.  And I am familiar with Tibetan Buddhism, as well as
have gone on Vipassana retreats.
But my knowledge of the Zen tradition is limited. 
However, Stuart's description of being in witnessing awareness, while
waking and sleeping, and deeper,  describes to a tee where I go in
meditation, and have gone, at various times in life.
When I spent six months in India, devoted to meditation, beaches and
hiking in the Himalayas (in that order) I reached a point where two
things were happening in my consciousness.  
1.  The "witnessing" awareness was fairly constant, in waking, and was also in and out in sleeping.
2.  At the end of the trip, (last month or so, after trekking in
the Himalayas), a conscious recognition of non-duality was always
present, and arising.  This also lasted into sleep. 
It was quite jarring to have, especially, point 2 above, fall away,
after a couple of months back in the U.S.   As well, point 1,
as I got busy with the western life, experiencing the "crystalline"
nature of awareness, for lack of a better word, comes in moments,
rather than for hours and days.
(Then I got into emotional ecstatic mysticism, which was probably a
huge mistake, as in these practices you can throw the witness out the
window, but I'm not going to go into that now...was useful in terms of
a very mind-y person's (me!) emotional growth, but very different that
the "empty" awareness state.  A profoundly different transpersonal
state.)
At any rate, there was quite the resonance for me, of the description
of  witnessing in the waking and dream state.  I know I've
heard it before, but I have related my experiences, to a different,
Indian model.
So for me, was an "aha - that's me!" moment.
That's it!
more...
More about meditation here
It's funny - I know so much about Indian advaita, and various yoga
practices.  I know quite a lot about Western synchronistic magic
and meditation.  I am fairly experienced in Christian ecstatic
mysticism.  And I am familiar with Tibetan Buddhism, as well as
have gone on Vipassana retreats.
But my knowledge of the Zen tradition is limited. 
However, Stuart's description of being in witnessing awareness, while
waking and sleeping, and deeper,  describes to a tee where I go in
meditation, and have gone, at various times in life.
When I spent six months in India, devoted to meditation, beaches and
hiking in the Himalayas (in that order) I reached a point where two
things were happening in my consciousness.  
1.  The "witnessing" awareness was fairly constant, in waking, and was also in and out in sleeping.
2.  At the end of the trip, (last month or so, after trekking in
the Himalayas), a conscious recognition of non-duality was always
present, and arising.  This also lasted into sleep. 
It was quite jarring to have, especially, point 2 above, fall away,
after a couple of months back in the U.S.   As well, point 1,
as I got busy with the western life, experiencing the "crystalline"
nature of awareness, for lack of a better word, comes in moments,
rather than for hours and days.
(Then I got into emotional ecstatic mysticism, which was probably a
huge mistake, as in these practices you can throw the witness out the
window, but I'm not going to go into that now...was useful in terms of
a very mind-y person's (me!) emotional growth, but very different that
the "empty" awareness state.  A profoundly different transpersonal
state.)
At any rate, there was quite the resonance for me, of the description
of  witnessing in the waking and dream state.  I know I've
heard it before, but I have related my experiences, to a different,
Indian model.
So for me, was an "aha - that's me!" moment.
That's it!
more...
More about meditation here
posted by Andy Penbram at 2:10 AM
<< Home