I once took lsd while meditating and had an absolute downer, a bum trip extraordinaire that went on and on. Never again. Certainly not a middle path thing. With an extensive experience of psychedelics and (later) meditation I can understand what appears to be a thoughtless naivety regarding the inte...

relax and find your own middle way

To put it simply, for the meditator intent on liberation, to be ignorant is to not be aware of truths like what the breath is doing and other changing processes like constantly changing (anicca) feelings. The abandoning of ignorance is becoming aware of anicca. The result of that is true knowledge, ...

A different way to look at it is as a lesson Perhaps he can be seen as someone who has fallen through the cracks. When he was most in need of guidance it was not understood and he ended up in a situation he was incapable of dealing with correctly. There are self correcting mechanisms built into the ...

The section posted is preceded by an introduction telling how a monk approaches the breath meditation with a constant, thorough attention to anicca. First ‘atapi sampajano satima’ is established, then the breath is noted in whatever state it is in, short long deep etc. It’s not possible to have a co...

When these topics arise it reminds me that as a youngster I came across the free food of the hare Krishna groups and inevitably saw their book ‘chant and be happy’. Whether it’s counting beads while reciting a mantra or controlling breath the result is the same. While distracting the mind in this wa...

The mind is a sense organ. When the mind, mind-objects (thoughts, delusions etc) and mind-consciousness occur together, there are mind-feelings. Mind-feelings are things like wanting or not wanting or the subtle neutral usually ignored feelings. These (wanting, not wanting and ignoring) are conventi...

‘how’ becomes truly known to any one who practices insight meditation. ‘I feel…’, ‘my feeling is…’ etc ‘my money’, ‘my child’, etc are usual ways to I-make. With practice it is noted that all these things are changing and disappearing, yet the knower of this remains, so it becomes easy to say : ‘aft...

It’s simple. There is no complicated trick. The tendency is to do whatever it is that one tends to do, or is used to doing. Whatever one does in response to anything is in line with what the habit is, so that habit needs to change if that alignment is not with The Dhamma. It’s an ongoing process of ...

Thank you, it might help to look at it this way. Somewhere you do know. If you study truth as it is, it makes sense that at some time you will come to know a truth. The tendency to try to figure it out before the fact is possibly a part of the barrier one erects in order to not know. Maybe. However ...

Don’t worry about it. Relax. Keep it simple. Whatever you’re feeling, thinking etc is what is happening at that time. Just train to be aware and equanimous. As much as you can calmly see to be what is truly happening at this moment, now, without getting caught up in it, just continuously, moment to ...

A wise position is to be respectful of elders. As such, a wise position is to assume an bhikkhu who appears to misrepresent The Blessed One is not at fault, but rather, with humility, widen one’s own perspective and try to understand. For example, after considering context ( which I haven’t done, bu...

The introduction to anapana in this book https://archive.org/details/UChitTinKnowingAniccaAndTheWayToNibbana/page/n14/mode/1up In these courses the technique you are talking about starts with the development of one pointedness : awareness of breath and the touch of the breath, in the area below the ...

The key word here is ‘every’ (command). The fact is that when it inevitably passes away, no amount of attempt at control can make it stay or return. However, what is left is the knowledge of this. Thus one can say with confidence that that aspect after all never was me, mine or my self. This continu...

It is possible to see the exchange between the Venerable and the King as a gentle rebuke for all those in a position to not heed The Blessed Ones’ enjoined to lay down the rod.

I vote neither and both