What's happening to me. Help please!

A discussion on all aspects of Theravāda Buddhism
befriend
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by befriend »

Try doing some metta. One of the eleven benefits of metta is that animals will love you.
Take care of mindfulness and mindfulness will take care of you.
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JamesTheGiant
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by JamesTheGiant »

BlueLotus wrote: Thu Dec 13, 2018 1:37 pm
"There is no reason whatsoever why anything in your life should change because you are meditating. It's not like you can even set your mindfulness on the body straight for 2 minutes. So, even if there is a force like Mara trying to prevent you from the path, you won't be in his radar yet. So off you go, silly man!"
Sounds like the teacher has common sense! :thumbsup:
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xofz
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by xofz »

The meditation just makes the past kamma come up quick instead of slow. We seek to end the past kamma and arrive at present-moment kamma only. Patient forbearance is required and if one can maintain a heart of good will or even begin to barely develop one during such times, the merit is supreme. Laughter is inappropriate.
becoming aware!
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cappuccino
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by cappuccino »

BlueLotus wrote: Wed Dec 12, 2018 3:00 am I went to my first meditation retreat. After 2 days, I started experiencing all kinds of drama.
at least something is happening

a good sign
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BlueLotus
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by BlueLotus »

dharmacorps wrote: Thu Dec 13, 2018 6:14 pm Crows are fascinating creatures. They can be very playful and naughty. The crow may be trying to tell you not to take yourself or meditation so seriously. Take the crow as your ajahn :)
I wish I knew what they are trying to tell me, if they are...
Sam Vara wrote: Thu Dec 13, 2018 2:12 pm Notoriously impudent creatures, crows...
I'm convinced they are onto me. They are targeting me. One dropped its droppings right into my shoulder today. THIS CANNOT BE A MERE COINCIDENCE. There's something going on. My gut isn't wrong. I just can't put my finger on it.

Towards the evening, there was another one making a weird noise from its throat right near the window of the meditation hall, looking at me the whole time. It was such a disturbance, finally, a gentleman who cleans had to come and chase it away.
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cappuccino
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by cappuccino »

https://www.theastrologyweb.com/spirit- ... -symbolism
A crow symbolizes power, intelligence, creativity, courage, determination, flexibility, enchantment, broad-mindedness, playfulness, and mystery.
chownah
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by chownah »

Do you know the difference between crows and ravens?
chownah
justindesilva
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by justindesilva »

BlueLotus wrote: Wed Dec 12, 2018 3:00 am I went to my first meditation retreat. After 2 days, I started experiencing all kinds of drama.

1. Uncontrollable bodily pains. My whole body is in pain. When I stop, after 2 days, it goes back to normal. I start meditating again, and the pains return. It feels as if my whole body is a wound.

2. External disturbances:

[*] A crow tried to sit on my head while I was in walking meditation. TWICE! They target me out of about 30 others in the same area peacefully walking.

[*] I went to another area, one building away. What happens? A bee almost stung my eye while I was walking. It came directly at me.

[*] Then the next day, a guy threw a fit over me parking just an inch over the line. Called me names. It was so bad I couldn't settled my mind for the whole day. Nobody has ever spoken to me like that before. I was shocked. Best part is, he asked "are you sure you still want to meditate after this?" It's as if he was asking me to stop. He came out of nowhere. He wasn't a meditator or anyone attending to the monks or other monastery duties. The guy has... vanished.

It's as if all hell has broken loose. Can someone please explain WTF is going on?

I want to tell this to my meditation master, but I don't want him to give me the common answer "your life was like this even before. It's just that now you are meditating, you have learnt to notice things more." No, birds and bees and as****es didn't attack me like this before.
:computerproblem: And don't tell me about this guy Mara.
Please read why lord budda advised the meditating monks who returned from the forest in fear of disturbing elements to use metta meditation to unseen beings as described in Karaniya metta sutta. Our own hidden perceptions of sensual pleasures disturb us in the form of psycho kinetic energies. Only by pursuance of our will (viriya) can overcome these disturbance.
Please go back to meditation understanding this.
( This ecplanation is very brief)
JohnK
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by JohnK »

BlueLotus wrote: Fri Dec 14, 2018 1:02 pm ...There's something going on...
Yes, you are making up stories rather than following meditation instructions. Period.

You are so caught in your stories that you are posting to DW while you are on retreat -- can you see that?
I think everyone here is trying to encourage you to stop the story (and dukkha) creation.
Of course, you will do what you will do, but I hope you can settle down and find some relief.
I've been on retreats where something will happen to snap me out of my fabricating.
Sometimes, I think it just gets to the point where the story-telling completely exhausts itself and gives up.
May you find some ease.
(And stop posting -- while on retreat.)
Those who grasp at perceptions & views wander the internet creating friction. [based on Sn4:9,v.847]
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Cittasanto
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by Cittasanto »

Sometimes things happen.
I try to frame things in a context that help to understand things in a useful light. Odin's ravens (or big crowd) are though and memory simulate to the satipatana refrain 'ardent alert and mindful setting aside pain and distress in regard to the world. I would advise framing the birds and bees as an external reflection of the refrain.
As for the pain issue it could be you are simply noticing it while focusing on your body instead of your mind being distracted, or it is simply mind made distractions. I have had both forms.
In truth
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...
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Garrib
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by Garrib »

Crows are indeed interesting creatures. They recognize individual human beings and memorize their faces - they will remember a person for years, perhaps their entire life. If they don't like someone, for whatever reason, they will bother them (with aerial dives and cawing, for example), and even teach their offspring to dislike and distrust that person. They also appreciate kindness and generosity- when I was a student at the University of Washington, I would sometimes walk to my classes with a plastic baggie filled with cat food (crows love cat food!) and dish it out to the crows on campus - there were times that large groups of crows would just follow me around. It must have looked quite strange. I believe they are actually quite sensitive to human emotions/psychic energy. They are fascinating creatures, but if you get on their bad side, it is not pleasant! So do some metta for them!

Anyway, Keep meditating and forget all these synchronicities - there are strange and inexplicable things which happen, thats for sure - but to be captured and sidetracked by them is probably not the path, fascinating as these things may be. I have a similar tendency to get fixated on seemingly bizarre events and will be attending a retreat soon - hopefully the crows and angry people will leave me in peace!
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BlueLotus
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by BlueLotus »

cappuccino wrote: Fri Dec 14, 2018 2:34 pm https://www.theastrologyweb.com/spirit- ... -symbolism
A crow symbolizes power, intelligence, creativity, courage, determination, flexibility, enchantment, broad-mindedness, playfulness, and mystery.
Interesting!
;)
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BlueLotus
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by BlueLotus »

chownah wrote: Fri Dec 14, 2018 2:51 pm Do you know the difference between crows and ravens?
chownah
Okay, so maybe they are ravens. It's hard to say. They both look the same. This is Sri Lankan suburbs.
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BlueLotus
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by BlueLotus »

JohnK wrote: Fri Dec 14, 2018 5:29 pm You are so caught in your stories that you are posting to DW while you are on retreat -- can you see that?
This is not a stay-in retreat dude! I come to my lodge around 8 pm to eat, check my mail, and sleep. Go back at 7 am to obtain sil (8 precepts) and get back to the meditation. The good monk asks those who want to go back to their own places to observe the 5 precepts around 5 pm and go home or stay and meditate a couple more hours tops. There are others who stay in the monastery but not me. Even those guys have to leave the meditation hall around 9 pm, I think...
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BlueLotus
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Re: What's happening to me. Help please!

Post by BlueLotus »

Garrib wrote: Sat Dec 15, 2018 5:45 am I believe they are actually quite sensitive to human emotions/psychic energy. They are fascinating creatures, but if you get on their bad side, it is not pleasant! So do some metta for them!

Anyway, Keep meditating and forget all these synchronicities - there are strange and inexplicable things which happen, thats for sure - but to be captured and sidetracked by them is probably not the path, fascinating as these things may be. I have a similar tendency to get fixated on seemingly bizarre events and will be attending a retreat soon - hopefully the crows and angry people will leave me in peace!
Thanks for that explanation. I think I was pissed with the chief monk cause he has mandated that we wear white at all times. wow! Maybe I had that angry vibes all over me. And the crows probably like the monk... How fascinating.

I wish you have a good meditation at the retreat! Mine ended but I will go back again in January. :anjali:
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