Recognizing Blockages in Meditation

[Anonymous]

Greetings,

It seems for me like blockages tend to stem from thoughts. They can be memories or situations which are unsettling. If I focus my attention on the thought passively witnessing it, I can usually pick up a bodily sensation which seems to be associated with it.

Does this sound like a blockage to anyone?

When I scan from head to toes, I can’t seem to pick up on any of the 4 conditions unless it’s attached to a thought, memory etc…..

Chears!

[Anonymous]

That’s an interesting observation, Kevin. I’ll pay attention to that next time I’m doing my sitting. I haven’t had that experience. It’s only recently, from working the Taoist Meditation Circle, that I’ve really got access to subliminal emotional blockages. It’s taken, like, 10 years, but that’s finally happening for me. I’ve worked with agendas some and your thought blockages sound in a way like a mini-agenda. Hey, if it gives you access and you can dissolve, go for it.

I look forward to other responses more informed than mine.

good luck with it,
Matthew

[Anonymous]

This has been my experience as well, but i find it can go both ways. For me, the tension is typically felt first. As I work the dissolving process, associated trapped thoughts/memories/emotions/traumas are released to the mental surface. As I continue dissolving, the physical tension and thought seem to fade together.
Typically, if i meditate at the end of the day, or let a few more days than usual pass between meditations, my mind races with the busy-ness of my various life events in replay fashion, which leads to their associated body tensions. Again, releasing one perpetuates the release of the other.
So, essentially, “yes” this sounds like a blockage to me. Release one the other will eventually follow.

hopefully this helps,
steve

[Anonymous]

I felt a point in my head last time I got angry. I don’t normally get angry so I guess it makes it easy to differentiate. Was like a mini headache. So yeah I definitely agree.

[Anonymous]

I’ve come to the conclusion that all blockages are one (in that they are a blockage) but the 4 sensations/conditions Bruce teaches help you get at them when they manifest. I tend to think, and have experienced, that you can get at a blockage before it manifests as one or more of these 4 sensations, but that is my own experience. Why rattle the cage when you can sedate the beast before it wakes up?

[Anonymous]

Best wishes to those sharing their experiences here- a perspective to this I have it that one’s Experience and Reaction to is different than that – espec a blockage; ie a blockage is at a pure lvl (below an ex that help help contact this… but usually we contact such indirectly, through a layer of interpretation-symbols..

As the start of this stated: <> that seemed to be stated in contrasted to saying one doesn’t feel the 4 conditions- as “unsettling” describes to me all 4 (at least “something that doesn’t feel- quite right, if it did ‘feel right’ it would be settled, or neutral, not unsettling. but that is my perspective.

Seeing the interconnections and intertwining relations between different Ebody ‘frequencies’ (at a feeling-lvl a qualitative distinction, not a labeling, “we call that X, so therefore… it must be…”
– which I found/find tricky to not do- but what is there

and sense the Energy behind that (or “beneath” that.. underlying…. “behind” in the sense of “power behind the throne” etc. – the driver of the action that is going on, below the surface-appearance.
============
I’m not sure if you might have experienced (let alone the concept, but having done the exper a few times since-while doing Bruce’s work- it reveals more to me)… that being the understand a “blockage” in terms of squeeze the fist:
Squeeze the first- white knuckle. Watch alignments in finger-knuckles, and really crush, until the hand starts to feel sort-of plasttic like, gets a bit cold-feeling as the knuckles and hand turn whiter (blood squeezed out)…

once it feels almost stabilized collapsing into itself… like an avalanche has stacked up.
Then- Without Physically Opening, unbending or Releasing the fist,
feel the sense-of-contraction (where the Energy, in that place, as well as observing “that place” feels like it is in too small a room, or a straightjacket),
or
tension (not literallly tense ie muscular-nerve, but tension of pulling in different directions.. as if the Energy of that place, and where observing “that place” from… that Energy feels like it is trying to jumps away, and even go in different ways (like a group that can’t agree and is about to dis-integrate)..
etc…

As one does this.. feel how bindings in parts all over the body (espec say armpits) accomodated that fist… with or with-no connection in-between… also reactions elsewhere in the body, felt (or shifts in the “energy of thoughts” that substance that forms the thoughts like how Water forms Waves (waves being throughts- the shape of, and movement of.. (not word-concepts) what is that Sea, and air above it- winds…
And or Emotional-tendency condensations- .. at “that place” there is a feeling that a reaction-beginning in a minaturized form.. feel that, what does that material- feel like? its relation, or not, appearing to physical sensation (again the sense viscerally of the fist, is different than – subcon access the visual-map of where the fist is… I feel sh, “where is sh” over there- that is sh… (go below words)…

Anyway- I find that a sense of awareness, of my awareness, and a slightly different sense, can open (awaken?) inside that bound E blockage… like a sectioned off, partition of part of my awakeness.. (like distinguishing being clear-present-focused, vs distracted-groggy-nervous/unconfortable/tense-tired… and rather than “overall”… have that sense of -less- differentitated in a pt (in a blockage vs next to it… like taking a cloth and grab a handfull and twist that cloth, creates sort-of a knot that gathers up surrounding cloth into it, and becomes a structure…. blockage.. if/when that Knot-releases.. the cloth can “re-stretch out” then resettle.. ~smooth out the wrinkles… and all around it (even the edges, all the way to the 4 corners, it ripples out).

I hope that is some value.. just two-cents I was compelled to write. cheers

[Anonymous]

I also found that my main blockage I’m dealing with at present is what I define as a feeling of loosey-goosieness, or like being tickled when/till it hurts…I suppose this falls under either strength or something doesn’t feel quite right but you don’t know what it is. Either way, it feels like the first step I’ve taken in a long time in the right direction

[Anonymous]

I’ve also found that “relating” to any blockage as tantamount to relaxation/dissolving; being able to relate to the energy of the blockage.

[Anonymous]

I’m currently finding that strength blockages can be associated with the positive emotions of the organs, like a strength blockage of compassion in the liver or too-much compassion (kinda like pathological altruism). Has anyone else found this to be the case?

Also, I’m finding my kidneys will fight with each other (i.e. tension blockage) as well as my lungs, and that this is exhibited emotionally positive and negative, though I’m exploring the neutral side of this too (though I’m not sure what the lungs neutral function is).

[Anonymous]

Came across this one that I felt compelled to share; downward-dissolving strength blockage.
I’ve been experiencing a kind of natural upward dissolving, which has been miffing me, so I just figured this must be the natural result of a downward-dissolving strength; really doing the trick for me!

I also tend to dissolve by reciting mentally, like a mantra, what I’m doing; I know it uses up more units of energy, as Bruce elucidated in the Great Stillness (since it is mental energy), but some of my distracting-fog/gaps are pretty hairy and extremely clever. This isn’t something I want to continue doing, since it is the old cannon-to-kill-a-mosquito adage at work, but it serves its purpose till I can breakthrough. I’m concerned, also, that it’ll turn into a clever-crutch or gap of its own, but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

[Anonymous]

Hey Cody,

It sounds like you’re on the right track. It’s good to keep the two options in your mind. The first is “the recommended way that Bruce describes”. Your long term goal is to do it that way but right now it’s too difficult. So in the short term you’ve figured out a trick that works and makes things more managable. But you recognize that it’s a short term solution and when things become easier you’ll try the recommended route again and see if you can make it work.

I’ve often adopted similiar approaches and still do. There are times when the recommended approach is too hard for me or for some reason I just can’t get it to work. So I try different things to make it easier in the short run. But I’ve noticed that over the long run my practice more and more closely resembles Bruce’s recommended approach.

Hope this helps,
Janak

 

[Anonymous]

Bit of a meta-thing I felt like sharing, akin to a previous post o’ mine; strength blockage pertaining to dissolving itself.
I’ve found myself getting frustrated and insatiable with dissolving, yet without really getting anywhere or experiencing the desired-effects of water-to-gas or water-to-inner-space, but I woke up today with the intuition that it must be dissolving itself as a strength. Hence, I’m always overshooting the mark or not even getting past the water phase or even ice. It isn’t necessarily about a 70% snafu (though I am discovering the 70%-rule to be a dynamic rather than static thing), but it is about realizing, for me, that the act of dissolving, in and of itself, is just as vulnerable to any of the four-conditions.

[Anonymous]

Hey Cody,

If I understand you correctly, then you’ve figured out an important point about the dissolving process. Basically, it’s very important that when you are trying to dissolve something that you do it with as little tension as possible.

The more relaxed you can be when you are dissolving the more powerfully you’ll be able to dissolve a block.

The common problem that people run into is that when they dissolve is they do it with some tension. The harder they try to dissolve a block, the more tension they introduce into the dissolving process.

This is what Bruce means when he says that you can’t “make” a block dissolve, you can only “let” a block dissolve. You can invite a block to dissolve. It’s more a feeling of “Hey buddy, if you’d like to dissolve don’t let me stop you. It would be perfectly fine with me if you want to dissolve. Don’t mind me, I’ll just be standing over here watching you dissolve”

Hope this helps,
Janak

[Anonymous]

Nail-on-the-head in a big way, Janak!

Before you posted this, I was doing something very much like this; asking different things in me to dissolve themselves, like instructing someone. Saying “okay, ego/lower tantien/emotional-body/etc., dissolve yourself nice and steady, gently, naturally” and it was really doing the trick! Cool-coinkydink/synchronicity, that.

For me, aside from this, I am just trying to find how to dissolve with minimal tension which is damned-tough, at present. It’s like I’m always dissolving, but I’m now trying to feel around for the switch that will turn-off the overbearing-effort/overdrive, as it were.
In fact, I can see now that what I’ve confused with meditating is flipping on the overdrive and going to town!
Not sure if this is a good word for it, but it is almost as if I have to be less “aware” in order to begin dissolving correctly. It’s like how the world is now, with everything saying “most is better” and that bleeds into just about everything. Being human, that stuff is like moth-to-a-flame with me!

Thanks as always, Janak. Helpful, indeed
Cody

[Anonymous]

I think what I recognize as what I’ve been dealing with can be summed up by this quote from the “Crazy Wisdom” section of Bruce’s Taoist Sexual Meditation:
“Crazy wisdom teachers aim to enable those they interact with to advance spiritually at the greatest possible speed….To crazy wisdom types, bringing the hidden karma to the surface provides an ideal opportunity to most rapidly work through, dissolve and finish it….Disclosing what the crazy wisdom teacher sees at the karmic level and his or her methods of intervention, including what potential effects they may have over time, would enable recipients to derail the process. To their detriment, they would find some way to unintentionally compromise or nullify the potential benefits of the crazy wisdom that’s being sent their way.”
Definitely been fighting the crazy-wisdom, but coming across this again was a big lit light-bulb of comfort. Explains a lot and makes it easier to address.

[Author]

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