Center

What is it? To me the void is a realm of potential energy awaiting instruction from it's master, you and me, to become that which it's told. Something to be manipulated.

For one to reach and be in touch with this void you must put all thought aside (condundrum in itself) and allow your 'self' to touch and play in the darkness and solitude (or so it seems) of your deepest recesses of thought. You must trace your thoughts all the way back to the source, which is were you will meet the void.

Once you get to this spot you will have a feeling of complete ease and detachment. You will no longer worry about the things that brought you to seek this void in the first place. Quite funny.

While playing in the void of your mind (the world) you may tap directly into the infinite intelligence that has accumulated over the timespan of life. You attain this knowledge through sheer instinct and vision. It's a strange marriage of the two.

The void is the place a soul may go to to find direction or to find truth. To find love and to find hate. In the void you may find what you look for for your looking at your self.

Find the void and you find the glass ball that looks into worlds.

edit - this is deep!

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"As an organizer I start where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be — it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be." - Saul Alinsky

SageTree

Thanks for sharing Center. What I'm intersted in knowing is how do you get to this place for yourself? What methods or concentrations help you get there? I'm interested to hear.

I feel that in my sitting when I get to a void full of potential sensation when I reach a single pointedness of mind. Generally my breath is the focus or other sensation in the body. What types of insights do you feel you are having, and do you ever enter with intention?

I am not overly familiar with the Buddhist Jhanas, but I just wanted to link that. The other nite at a Dharma talk this was the topic of discussion and while I know what they are, I was really joyed to hear a person who has worked with them for many years.

The Jhanas seem to me as an excercise or a weightlifting if you will for the mind, however aren't considered Enlightenment themselves. They merely developements of absorption, which can lead to higher states of calm and access to looking at the true nature of the rising and falling of all things.

I hope you find that interesting and see why I wanted to mention it, alot of what you described touches on some of them, and it's certainly not only approachable from a Buddhist stand point, which is why I asked about how you enter into this place of mind.

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Center

Glad you asked.

Well, I originally entered the state first through focusing on my breathing. I just followed my breath into a state of calmness. Once there I felt able to call into attention ideas, theories, math problems, architechure, etc.

Since that first time it's much easier to re enter the state. I simply center myself and focus on breathing in an indian style sitting position.

At times I do enter this state with intention. The last time I entered with intention was to help me identify my career path and what would bring about the most success and happiness for myself and others and had various visions showing me potential futures. At least this is how I interpret it.

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"As an organizer I start where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be — it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be." - Saul Alinsky

SageTree

Thanks man, for sharing.

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Jenna_Grows

nice post!

Creation bursts from the void. For me an obvious question to ask myself...What reality are you creating? Who is calling the shots? EGO or our higher selves?

Live in the light

* Glad to see you weathered the solstice Cerebro.. lots of energy fluxes.... Whoa Nelly

Mydriasis

Center, my experiances with meditation(focusing on third eye chakra) or, sensory deprivation(I don't have a sensory depravation chamber, but blindfolds and no nasal breathing and earmuffs is a good launch point) while on hallucinogens has brought me to a similar point.

However when you step into the void at least in my experiences there's no knowledge, or time, or any constructs of reality or of self. There just IS. I believe that is the root of life, or as you referred to the origin. We all are one with this matrix of energy or potential energy, however our mind tunes it out to survive in this realm of existance(to eat, sleep, predict, emotional states, etc) because we have to exist in this realm of existence to fulfill the infinite(that is the course of life).

I haven't found a way to channel anything out of it(career path, spiritual ideals, etc) however it does leave me very glowy for a while, and is an excellent tool for stability and clarity.

also... I've had the counter-balance occur after leaving as well. some of my mental ail-ments trigger a lot harder. I've had card-board cutout visuals of indescribable things and harsh cases of HPPD, and some WEIRD dreams(meeting god etc...). The only thing I've found to cope with those things is to do the meditation in nature, or if you don't go out into nature immediatly after(unnatural structures are far to much from a recently purified mind), and not do drugs to get to that state of mind.

and <3

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The Rev

I think that making something of it makes less of it. Describing a thing is building a duplicate in concepts; ideas as a better substitute for a thing than the thing itself. Even to call it "it" brings diminishment.



The Rev

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Center

The Rev : I disagree. My consciousness and soul is the void. Just by realising it doesn't diminish it's power at all. If anything, in my experience, it has enhanced it. Aknowledging it and starting to use it for a purpose is what I think it's their for.

Mydriasis : Thats how the first few times in this state of mind were for me. Over time though I started reading about people who talk about this kind of thing and realised that this had more relevance and significance then I first understood. You CAN use this kind of stuff to your own benefit; be it good or bad. For me I just am in an intense focus on a project or something I need to accomplish and if I get stuck, I start meditating and around 10-20 miniutes later I'm completely centered and just feel and 'see' the pulse myself. The pulse can flicker thought impluses and vision based on whats in your mind. I kind connect the dots of circumstances and life events significantly greater when I'm in this state. Hard to describe.

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"As an organizer I start where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be — it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be." - Saul Alinsky

Jenna_Grows

I enter through my heart chakra...hand on heart, the warmth explodes through me. That act pulls me from my EGO.. to just "be". Freefloating with a knowledge that all is right..everything is unfolding as my higher self intends and the lessons put in front of me serve a purpose of acsenction and cosmic understanding. I am safe and always will be. This is where the magic lives. We are at a time in our evolution where we need to practice thought control as many of us are manifesting all over the place.

Mydriasis

The Rev I couldn't agree more. I wish there was terminology for it, but your right. You just have to ____ to ____ __.

Center I bet there is a way to tap into it, I hope to attain that ability in the future. It takes me a long time of meditation to get to that state so I usually cut it short(takes me 3-4 hours sometimes even 5-6 to get around there but my mind is a bit troubled and I don't practice frequently). 10-20 minutes that's a gift!!! PLEASE don't ever let it go to waste!!!!!

Jenna I also agree. I haven't done much practice on the heart chakra something I need to look into.

It's so awesome knowing that these sensations I've had aren't astray. Not that they felt that way but in waking reality sometimes it's hard to not feel insane(they tell me I am) with these kinds of experiences.

Thanks yahookan's and Yahooka! This is a great thread I want to hear/learn more. But there's only one way, and that is in practice!

and <3 as always!

Edit: We should have a big meditation thread where we share tips and tricks. I know digitally it isn't so easy to do such a thing and everyone does things differently, but in the very least it'd be interesting.

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SageTree

I believe the Rev was meaning, when we talk about an insight we begin to put our own consciousness on it and the words begin to change the definition of what the feeling may have really been. Keeping in mind that we use the words to be able to talk about the concept and that the words aren't the concept itself, might be what he is getting at. It's paradoxical to try and talk about something that can lose meaning when we verbalize it, but I recognize the need to relate to each other certainly.

It's like looking at the beauty of a flower with someone else. You can just have that nice feeling about the flower without placing labels on it. But when you go back with your friend to talk about it, you might find that you have two really different vocalizations of the same sense object. On the flip side of that, you can also resound in silence the essence at the core of that experience as well. Therein lies trying to talk about it again

I find that when I try to express my insights to others it doesn't come off as profound sometimes. Rather my actions on the experience often speak much louder to my mental states than my words can capture.

Maybe this is what the Rev was trying to get at. 'Knowing the essence and trying to put words on it is redundant, just live in that essence and know words are just words, not the thing themselves.'

Captain, go a searching in the SS forum and you will find alot of topics on meditation. There are alot out there, I believe I moved 6+ from the lost forums. Search meditation in the engine, you will find something, or just go back a few pages.

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Jenna_Grows

kewl Mydriasis..

i enter through the heart chakra because its my emotional doorway. While the third eye is also a good choice as it is the doorway to the higher realm, I don't have much luck entering through that one. Once my heart chakra is activated, I can move freely and activate my other chakras. Not the same for everyone I find. For some of those I do energy work on I have to start at the feet and clear the chakras moving upward...

Center

For the record, I know VERY VERY VERY little about chakras, meditation and all that good stuff. This is something I developed on my own and AFTER the fact found other people who do the same thing. Hopefully that helps someone.

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"As an organizer I start where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be — it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be." - Saul Alinsky

SageTree

I started meditation one nite after I read some Bible verses and was smoking a joint. I thought ' I just want to shut my eyes and rest in these thoughts for a while. '


Shortly after I started reading about meditation and found the Buddhist approach very inline with how I was trying to proceed with my life and the meditation tech. was so approachable.

For the sake of telling my door opening to sitting story as well.

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hijabihippie

If I understand correctly what you all are talking about, I believe what you are trying to describe is what Robert Heinlein called "grokking" in Stranger In A Strange Land.

SageTree

I'll allow it I had to search it out on Wiki, but feel that closely relates to what I am saying.

Suchness, is the term used by the Buddha. Basically all words are there for conceptual understanding, but isn't the final means of attaining knowledge of a situation or sense object. Using words to talk is obviously fine within the suttas but it's advised to always be aware the words aren't the thing itself, only a means or tool. This plays inhand with dependent origination which is, that phenomena arise together in a mutually interdependent web of cause and effect.

So when a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound? Or is sound only something that exists when something perceives it?

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Center

Agreed.

I think thats a very important point. When you delve into the depths of mind like this, and really internalize some of the things you find, you don't come out the same. You will be a changed man/woman. I think that is ONE of the effects associated with playing in this arena.

That isn't to imply that taking this route of discovery is a negative. On the contrary, assuming you entered these 'zones'/mindsets with a understanding of what you were getting into then you will be very pleased and happy with your results, usually. If you dive into your mind with an objective 3rd eye pointed at yourself without knowing what your getting into it can take some adjusting time and getting used to (I know from 1st and 2nd hand experience).

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"As an organizer I start where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be — it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be." - Saul Alinsky

SageTree

I agree Center, that when I started reading about concentrations and entering with intention my meditations deepened in time and value. In other words, I might not have known what to expect, but I had a grasp on what I could do with that space in time.

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