Vibrations when noting

On the cultivation of insight/wisdom
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amasakho
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Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:03 am

Vibrations when noting

Post by amasakho »

Hey guys I am dealing with a little dilemma here. For a while now whenever I applied minfulness (to see when phenomena arise and pass away) I would sense vibrations when I note, sometimes regular other times irregular, sometimes fast sometimes slows (depending on how I focus). Such vibrations can happen anytime, sometimes it seems that I need to focus to see them which make me believe that I am the one generating them but sometimes I do not need to make them happen for them to occur. One thing I noticed is that when I focus lets say on the nostril somehow I can make the vibrations occur which make it harder to sustain a samatha-like concentration but I can also make them disappear which facilitates concentration. My doubt is that sometimes I get the feeling that I am the one making the vibrations even though I think I am noting. What do you think? Does it happen to you?


With Metta,
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retrofuturist
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Re: Vibrations when noting

Post by retrofuturist »

Greetings,

It is good you are aware of the role attention (manasikara) plays in the fabrication of dhammas. This knowledge, once fully realized, is essential to actual vipassana.

As for samatha, it is best to still and calm manasikara. This in turn, will reduce the arising of dhammas.
SN 47.42: Samudaya Sutta wrote:With the arising of manasikara there is the arising of dhammas. With the cessation of manasikara there is the cessation of dhammas
Note also, that manasikara is part of the nama in nama-rupa. Ven. Nanananda has an interesting analogy where he compares the different aspects of nama to fingers on a hand, which helps to explain their relationship. If you're interested, but are unable to find what I'm talking about in his free online works, let me know and I'll have a look next time I'm at a PC.

Metta,
Paul. :)
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."
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Goofaholix
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Re: Vibrations when noting

Post by Goofaholix »

What I would suggest is an experiment too see if you are generating the vibrations or whether you are becoming aware of what is naturally occurring.

Just practice in exactly the same way but with the idea that you want to stop generating these vibrations.

After some time you will probably find that you are not generating them, attention merely amplifies them in the mind.
Pronouns (no self / not self)
“Peace is within oneself to be found in the same place as agitation and suffering. It is not found in a forest or on a hilltop, nor is it given by a teacher. Where you experience suffering, you can also find freedom from suffering. Trying to run away from suffering is actually to run toward it.”
― Ajahn Chah
amasakho
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Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2017 9:03 am

Re: Vibrations when noting

Post by amasakho »

For retrofuturist, unfortunately I haven't found anything by Venerable Nananda but I am really interested by the topic

For Goofaholix, I see what you mean. It is interesting because more and more I get to see the ambiguous relationship between willpower and attention and the paradox that one or the other do no really seem like to be in our control.

Merry Christmas guys,
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