Meditation

Patreon Q&As

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Retreat in California part 7/13, Guided meditation - January 23, 2009

Guided Meditation - Culadasa, California Retreat #2, Part 6

Pdf handouts: http://dharmatreasure.org/wp-content/uploads/jhanas-and-mindfulness-handout.pdf & http://dharmatreasure.org/wp-content/uploads/instructions-for-entering-jhana-leigh-brasington.pdf

The Jhanas: The Original Practice of Mindfulness and Insight.
Culadasa explains what Jhana is and why it is so important. There is a profound relationship between Jhana practice, Mindfulness, and the cultivation of Insight. How Jhana practice relates to the goal of achieving Insight and Awakening is described. Through a series of guided meditations, participants have an opportunity to learn about and experience Jhana first hand.

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The Jhanas, Part 1 - Culadasa

Timestamps:
2:24 - Could you comment on [fire kasina or trataka] practice and say whether or not you see it as useful, in particular for working on TMI stages?

19:51 - Is there anything you retain from [your earlier Advaita Vedanta and TM practice] that you found beneficial to you on the path that you'd like to share? What are your thoughts in general on supplemental meditative practices outside of our regular TMI practice?

26:30 - Is it allowed to apply the techniques of a higher stage to achieve the goals of a lower one?

33:15 - How do right effort and equanimity fit together?

48:36 - Why do you think that those functional aspects of the mind -- information exchange and reflexive quality -- solve the hard problem of consciousness? Is your reasoning in this area intellectual, based on philosophical or scientific understanding, or rather based on the insight you've had into the ultimate nature of the mind?

57:46 - [Stage 5 practitioner describes meditative driving practice.] What do you think of this approach and is there a better way to support my practice while I am driving?

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Culadasa March 2018 Patreon Q&A

Timestamps:

0:03 What is the distinction between (1) awareness, (2) consciousness, (3) mind and (4) buddha nature. 

19:40 Is it possible to progress through the 10 stages and become awakened through using walking meditation as the main practice? 

26:30 How does the Stage 5 body scan and the cultivation of awareness of prana in Indian yogic practices and qi in Chinese practices such as Tai Chi and Qigong relate to each other? How are they related to the phenomenon on piti/priti? Can one experience piti at stage 5? 

36:40 Are there different degrees(intensities) of craving (or the hindrances in general)? If so, are this degrees related with the amount of conditioning that is beyond their manifestation? 

45:20 There are retreats where people may be asked to stay awake for 24 or 48 hours or even longer. What is your opinion on this? 

48:55 Description of a state of tranquility. What happened to me, and how can I achieve this again? 

52:40 Characteristics of access concentration, one-pointedness and absorption. Can metta practice assist in achieving and sustaining these mind states?

1:07:20 What role do perceptual and sensory changes ("centerlessness", an opening up of the visual field and Luminosity amongst other things) play in the path? 

1:17:35 Can you speak about your experience of going through the awakening process as a lay person in a committed relationship? 

1:21:15 What advice would you give someone who is is suffering from complacency due to recent stream-entry? 

1:23:30 What is your take on why there is so few people at and beyond third path? 

1:30:00sTinnitus.

1:33:40 Culadasa's health and projects. 


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Much more at: culadasa.com

Culadasa February 2018 Patreon Q&A

Timestamps:

00:00 - [Please] talk a little bit about the arising of piti, spontaneous body movements, and how it relates to purification of the mind.

04:45 - Could you please talk about mindfulness in daily life and how one could use it to reduce craving and procrastination?

09:44 - Do gross distraction and strong dullness always occur independently from one another or can they ever exist simultaneously?

14:15 - To what degree should a TMI meditator care about or be familiar with the [Progress of Insight] map? Would it be useful or a hindrance?

30:42 - What do you have to say on location optimizing/tailoring (in Jeffrey Martin's Finder Course model)?

46:29 - Sometimes I am wondering how to handle stress at work or stress in general?

53:45 - I am uncertain about the comment regarding the characteristics of subtle dullness.

56:38 - I found it interesting that you talked about locations as a state kind of phenomenon. Also Jeffrey speaks of sub-locations and that the four locations each contain infinite amounts of sub-locations or sub-states.

57:48 - It's often said that Awakening is a recognition or understanding, not a state that's subject to passing away. Even today though, some prominent people and researchers continue to view it as something more state-like...

1:07:34 - I'm having trouble applying mindfulness to my health conditions off the cushion.

1:14:23 - Mostly in stages 4 and 5 inclining the mind to the breath sensations at the nose shows bubbly vibrational sensations even off the cushion.


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Much more at: http://culadasa.com/

Culadasa October 2017 Patreon Q&A

Timestamps:

2:34 - What makes people not achieve Stage 10 in one year? How much time do meditators take [to get to] Stage 4?

22:07 - What are some strategies and techniques both on the cushion and off that you've discovered are particularly effective for weakening and ultimately eradicating [the fetters of sense desire and ill will]?

40:00 - TMI says that long months or years of retreats are not critical for achieving Insight since regular diligent practice of one to two hours a day is sufficient for progress. At the same time, Ajahn Chah said that solitude is essential for a meditator's progress, especially for novices. Likewise, the Anapanasati Sutta begins the explanation about a monk that goes into the wilderness to be alone.

48:44 - As practice progresses, and suffering declines, questions begin naturally to arise as to what practice and dharma might mean beyond insight into annata and emptiness of phenomena, beyond the end of suffering.

57:19 - I'd really appreciate an explanation of how somebody can be an adept meditator and also engage in physcially and sexually abusive behavior.

1:08:39 - Can you talk about the importance and benefits of super slow walking meditation?

1:16:35 - Could you talk more about how analytical meditation can be used in the development of piti?

1:24:07 - Do you have any recommended sources for practicing the formless jhanas and the powers as TMI does not give much information of them except to say that it is beyond the scope of this book?

1:25:10 - What practices or techniques would one do to remember past lives?

1:41:14 - How does the use of mindfulness to train wholesome behavior and virtue apply to livelihood? 


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Much more at: http://culadasa.com/

Culadasa December 2017 Patreon Q&A

Timestamps:

01:26 How do I know when I move from stream enterer to once returner? Are there any practices to accelerate the progression.

08:50 |follow up question| Is it considered craving if I intend something to happen?

13:55 What is the most likely progression on stages of awakening? (first path - second path - ...)

18:31 In TMI you emphasize not to conciously change the breath. What do you think about adjusting the breath to allow positive feelings to arise?

24:50 Since you said there is no reincarnation, does the believe in karma provide any benefit or has it any role in TMI?

32:43 Pain and suffering are two different things. If we remove the suffering is pain just a sensation?

39:05 Have you heard of or experienced the transfer of conciousness? From what or to what is the conciousness transferred?

43:01 There are so many "awakened" people who seem to behave poorly in different ways. What can a practitioner do to keep from following into that trap?

53:08 Doing stage 6 practices I noticed a change in perception of the breath at the nose (descending into the sensations, even feeling them in other parts of the body). Is this a characteristic of the acquired appearance?

55:36 |follow up question| If the perception of the breath shifts, how/where do I define the scope of attention?

59:35 What do you know about koan practice and its nature and function on the path? Are there any parallels to Terravada or Tibetan Buddhism?

1:05:16 Would have TMI been approached any differently if one were already a stream enterer?

1:07:12 Does someone doing TMI go through the stages of insight in a different way than a dry vipassana practitioner? (dark night and dukkha nanas)

1:13:12 |continuation| Does one cycle through the stages repeatedly and does insight ever end?

1:17:13 I didn´t read about first path and so forth in the book, but it gets mentioned quite a lot. Do I have an old version? Culadasa then talks about his upcoming book (on different stages of awakening).

1:20:35 Culadasa talks about the deepening of jhana , the first luminous jhana and fire kasina.

1:28:45 Do the skills that are developed in meditation spill over in daily life?


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Follow Culadasa on Facebook: www.facebook.com/Culadasa.John.Yates

Much more at: culadasa.com/

Culadasa January 2018 Patreon Q&A

Buy Culadasa's books on Amazon: amazon.com/author/culadasa

Follow Culadasa on Facebook: www.facebook.com/Culadasa.John.Yates

Much more at: http://culadasa.com/

Culadasa December 2019 Patreon Q&A - Nº 1 (Sunday)

Culadasa (John Yates, Ph.D.) is a meditation master with over four decades of experience in the Tibetan and Theravadin Buddhist traditions. He taught physiology and neuroscience in college for many years. Later, he worked at the forefront of healthcare education and therapeutic massage, serving as the founding director of the West Coast College of Massage Therapy. Culadasa retired from academia in 1996, moving with his wife into an old Apache stronghold in the Arizona wilderness, where they deepened their spiritual practice together. He currently leads the Dharma Treasure Buddhist Sangha in Tucson, Arizona and holds retreats across the United States.
 
Culadasa’s book, The Mind Illuminated, is the first comprehensive guide to Buddhist meditation for a Western audience. It combines age-old teachings with the latest research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, providing meditators with step-by-step guidance for every stage of the path – from your very first sit, all the way to mastery of the deepest states of peace and insight. This is the clear, friendly, and in-depth meditation manual that people have been waiting for.

Culadasa December 2019 Patreon Q&A - Nº 1 (Sunday)

Culadasa, Dr. John Yates