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good point matthew ,i started a diary a while back mostly on how certaian sessions felt .I think i will go back and listen to the entire program again from day one and make myself a general outline to follow with a timeline maybe extended sessions 30 to 45 minutes one or to days to cover each weeks assignment again might prove useful!and then pick up again in preperation for month 4!
Im still having trouble understanding how we are to “connect” our LDT with the physical parts of our body. Does that mean focus on the body part and feel a response or sensation in the LDT, vice-versa , both at the same time or none of the above.
For the last part of month 2, I spent a few days on the LDT and did not feel like I felt any discernable connection.However, I found my focus improving when I visualized breathing in and out of my LDT. Is that advisable? Breathing into the various parts?
I can feel the energy of my LDT strongest after closing a DT chi gung set; but focusing my attention on it and connecting it to physical parts is something I dont feel I have recognized yet.
I dont expect results immediately and dont mean to sound negative. In fact, I love the challenge that meditation brings and look forward to each session.
Also, it is rediculously helpful having read everyones post after listening to the audio. And the varying levels of experience give a well-rounded perspective.Thank You All.
I felt my LDT a long time ago before I new of it’s existence and it was a very strong feeling. It felt like energy pouring into my body just below my belly button and then from inside it radiated out. I never found an explanation of what had happened to me and when I would ask people they would look at me very strange. I found a small reference to this in one of Bruce’s books, don’t remember which one, which is why I started this program. I have not been able to repeat this since that one time. What I have found that helps me to find the connection from my LDT to body parts is that when I start to feel uncomfortable in some part of my body I go to my LDT, if my attention has shifted to the body part, and I “feel” around my LDT until I find a spot that when given attention helps relax the body part that is uncomfortable. I still wouldn’t say that I feel like there is a line or energy that makes a line from my LDT to my body parts but I can usually change the feeling in my body by concentrating on the LDT. I don’t know if this helps you or if this is the way to do it but it has worked for me.
Im still having trouble understanding how we are to “connect” our LDT with the physical parts of our body. Does that mean focus on the body part and feel a response or sensation in the LDT, vice-versa , both at the same time or none of the above?
For the last part of month 2, I spent a few days on the LDT and did not feel like I felt any discernable connection.Thanks
……..mmm, I hope a few more people than I respond. Personally, even after many years practice my LDT awareness is still largely anatomical coupled with a sense of ‘comfortable grounded space’. My approach to connection is to have a significant part of my attention/intention focused on the LDT whilst simultaneously connecting my attention/intention with whatever the exercise suggests. Sometimes this leads to a viceral level of connection via an awareness of shared movement or shared sensitivity to other sensations – sometimes not! Most often my monkey mind distracts!
Near the end of the Month 3 week 1 and 2 audio, Bruce says add 1 to 3 parts each session or group of sessions and I think he says to do the front as well; Top of head, Third eye, throat, etc. adding each one as you go along ending up at the soles of the feet connecting the body to earth.
Does that sound about right? I just want to make sure Im on the right track.
Cheers
……yep think so, but I’m working to the overall framewok and flavour rather than the absolute details of the instruction
That’s pretty where I’ve headed. Like taiji most of the learning seems to occur in the doing of it. As long as I’m working at it I’m not going to be too anal about following the instructions exactly.
Thanks, Matthew – that was very helpful, and I’m sure it will be to other people as well. I also feel like I’m a bit “slow” and still the tantien mostly feels like just another part of my body sometimes. I do feel as though I’m getting little ‘hints’ of its potential as a central location in the body, though, from time to time. Sometimes it feels like it might be my imagination, but I know from experience now that this almost imaginary feeling will in time blossom into something more concrete. Even though there are plateaus, there is also progress.
Very good point about building on the smallest sensation. Although I think this was pointed out before somewhere, it’s also helpful to refrain from forming too much of an idea of what it ‘should’ feel like. I find I am taking a little extra time now on the lessons, but still move on before anything feels really stable, knowing that could take years. I just move on when my instincts tell me to move on…something inside me eventually says, “Hey, you. Time to move on.” …and I do.
I hadn’t thought about this before, Matthew, but I think it’s true that we often feel our center is somewhere in the head. I’m sure this has to do with our strong association with the brain and our thoughts. Good point. No wonder we’re so off-balance.
Okay, so I just started Month 3 a few days ago. I wanted to make sure I am understanding the instructions for the first two weeks correctly. I know some of you have passed this point already, but a little feedback on my interpretation of the directions would be helpful here…
It seems like the first part involves connecting your lower body to the lower tantien, and connecting your lower body to the earth. I am starting at the tantien and working my way down – hips, thighs,etc – keeping some of my awareness in the tantien as I reach down to each lower body part. Then I’ll see if I can connect the whole thing to the earth.
Then – we start at the crown of the head, ending at the soles of the feet, doing the front of the body only so that everything is connected. Does this sound close to what everyone else is doing…??
It’s been a very interesting process. Sometimes the tantien just feels like another body part, but at times I can get a sense of it’s hologram quality (I think), and can feel some connection with the rest of my body. But I really have to relax and soften my mind and my intention to get that to happen. I feel like I’m playing a lot…playing around with what works and what doesn’t work, playing with my focus…a lot of exploring and experimenting.
Interesting, interesting stuff…
…………yep, I think your on the right track – I find the lower dantien ‘connection’ very challenging. Whilst I get a sense of comfortable rooted space there, an easy focus for abdominal breathing, and it’s position as the centre of gravity, most of the time it just feels like another body part (and I’ve been practicing tai chi, qigong and meditation for decades!). I find it much easier to connect my awareness energetically with the tips of my fingers and toes, palms, soles of my feet, top of my head and perineum.
Well, I’m back at month 3 after a hiatus due to traveling and then reintegrating into work. I kept up my practice, but didn’t advance any til now. I see there’s plenty of discussion about feeling the LDT. I also find that problematical. The other problem I have is with the notion of grounding. What is it to “sink down” into the LDT, or the feet, or whatever? I’m already sitting down, focusing on those areas.
In a practice from another tradition, one grounds by getting a good sense of the whole lower “warmer” (basically the whole lower body from just below the umbilicus to the hip bones in back and down to the perineum and out to the sides of the belly) and then (by visualizing/imagining) project the energy through a column as wide as the hips down to the center of the earth. That’s “grounding” according to that practice. But what do we do to ground in this practice?
Hi, John – I’m also on month 3, due to both travel and spending some extra time on some sections. You brought up a good question, and that’s something that I had been wondering about as well. There are a few places in the instructions where Bruce kind of leaves the exact details of ‘how to’ up to us, it seems. I think this is one of them.
The way I approached it was to feel all the different parts of the lower body, for the LDT down to the bottom of the feet, and just tried to connect all those parts first one to another, and then to the ground. When standing, it’s easier I think to get the feeling of the hips dropping through the legs, and into the ground. I am doing this sitting, too – and the exact process is not necessarily clear to me, but I did my best, mainly by the rather simple method mentioned above.
I know from working with Bruce’s material over the years, sometimes something that was once seemingly confusing and impossible suddenly will makes sense. I know a lot of people have moved on from month 3, but if anyone else has any insight on the connection to the ground, I’d love to hear it!
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