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Okay, experiencing some slight, but not debilitating, confusion over week 4. I just started week 4, so I don’t know how many other people are there yet. In the Week 4 Instructions, he seems to want us to follow a guided meditation. I assume that’s in the Week 3 and 4 Guided Practice audio. But it doesn’t sound quite like a ‘guided’ practice to me, and it doesn’t differentiate between what’s week 3, and what’s week 4. For example, when he says “One, two, three…etc, ect – do this for a day….” and then moves on, it sounds much more like instruction, and not a guided practice. It’s probably not a big deal, so I guess I will continue doing what I’ve been doing, and move on with feeling the different parts of the head separately and then combining them, as I’ve only done about half of the parts of the head that he listed. Just wondering if anyone else interpreted this any differently.
Hi, Catherine.
I understand your confusion. I’m still working on week 3, but to do that I listened to the guided meditation for weeks 3 and 4 a few times. I think it doesn’t function best as a guided meditation until you can get all the way through it. For the preliminary week 3 steps and the the steps in week 4 before doing the whole thing, it’s better to listen to the track a few times and then do it without the tape. That’s how I’m going to approach it. Perhaps if Bruce is monitoring this forum he’ll chime in with the definitive answer.
best,
matthew
Hi
I interpreted it to be a two week practice, gradually adding more and more bits of head as we went. I listened to the whole thing first, and then concentrated on the first half of the track for last week. I am now moving on to add eyes and other bits. I do agree though Catherine – it doesn’t seem to be a guided practice.
I think it may be a guided practice using a broad definition of guided. I am into week 3 and have listened to the reading a few times. What I get is Day 1 from crown to hairline. Day 2 crown to temples. Day 3 crown to back hairline. Day 4 from hairline to third eye and this to include entire forehead. Day 5 eyes. Day 6 ears. Day 7 is the jaws and the part of the palate where tongue tip touches. As we go along we are to attempt to feel all areas at once.
Since there are an extra 7 days there is a bonus day for each area where necessary. Today was my day 2 of week 3 and spent a few rounds of 10 on crown to hairline before moving on to the temples. At some point I also realized the sensation of wearing my glasses was a distraction and removed them.
I don’t really get much “feeling” in the areas I’m focusing on. Don’t know if it’s cheating or not but I fun my finger across the spots I’m going to work on before I start. Good luck everyone!
Hello,
Is anyone noticing that the types of distractions are very different when focusing on the different parts of the head? I’m noticing that the temples seem to be connected more with short term memories, the top of the head with learning and/or bettering myself, and the back of the head with physical sensations from any part of my spine (lower back esp). I also noticed that when focusing on the back of my head my attention jumped forward to my eyes a few times.I didn’t listen to the guided part until week 4, and have just used it once, the first time. I’m a bit confused as to whether we are adding each previous section to what were focusing on or just moving to the next one. I’ve been moving through the previous areas of focus at the beginning of the practice , but then focusing on the next part only for the rest of the session. Is this how you folks are doing it?
Or are you focusing on all previous parts at once, plus the new one?
Thanks,
Steve
Steve, I’m really impressed that you can categorize your distractions. You seem to be doing very well with it.
I’m in week 3 and have been doing a round or two of each of the previous areas before moving on and spending the remainder of the session on the new area. Sounds like you are as well.
I tried all areas at once today and it went better than I expected since I hadn’t gotten much sensation from the back of the head.
I’m thinking there is no right and wrong and that we will all find our own path. It’s the same as learning taiji has been. Instruction is necessary but then most of the learning is done in the practice itself. Good luck to all.
I’m working my way round all the separate parts for a few minutes to start with and then the best way I can describe the feeling is sort of placing myself in the centre of my head and gathering an awareness of all the areas at once. Actually, I’m getting quite a peculiar sensation sometimes – as if my in breaths are inflating my head to be bigger than the rest of me and the breath itself is “feeling” my head from the inside!! Anyone else getting this sort of sensation or am I odd? I’ve rather lost track of the breath counting in all this, but am still using the finger opening method when I remember to. Very interesting experience.
I am still on week 3 but I listened to week 4, too. I don’t feel that the guided meditation is really what I would call a guided meditation, either, but it helps to understand how to proceed with the meditation.
I felt some sensations on the top of my head and when I did the other parts I get a strong feeling at the base of my nose almost between my eyes. When I concentrated on the temple area I had a feeling of “wings” going out from my head until it switched to the sensation at the base of my nose.
Hi Lesley, I had that happen too! for me it was mostly the top of my head where I feel sometimes I’m on the inside feeling an outer surface, sometimes on the outside feeling the very top. None of these perspective shifts have been by choice, they just happen.
Hi Kevin,
It comes and goes , but there seem to be vague themes .
Some sessions I really get bounced around by thoughts more than others.
The back of my head has remained fairly foggy. The other parts seem to be ready and willing to produce distractions for me
Looking at it now I think categorizing them can be one slippery step away from being a distraction itself.
Running your fingers over the area before you work on it is probably a very good idea, especially for those who are having a harder time feeling. Light tapping with the fingers can help to bring chi to an area, which might also help with feeling the area.
It seems like everyone has got their own rhythm as far as what order to take these in, and how much time to spend on each part of the practice. My opinion is that whatever we are doing is probably fine as long as we are following two main principals:
1) ‘First separate, then combine’ – a common practice method in tai chi, used here to take the easier task of feeling the parts of the head one by one first, and then combining them
and
2) Work in a downward direction. For example, don’t do the ears, then the jaw, then the third eye, etc.
As long as we’re following these two basic principles, I don’t think we should agonize over the exact method we’re using. Better to put the energy into feeling the head, instead of worrying about whether we’re doing it wrong.At the start of my session, I basically plan what I want to do, so I don’t have to think about it during my time meditating. I feel I know the points well enough so that I haven’t needed to use the guided practice.
The main things I’ve noticed are that the back of my head makes me feel more grounded, the sides and front activate discursive thought more, especially the forehead. I have had points where memories have risen quite visibly – something from the past, sometimes as far back as childhood, with a vivid feeling along with it. It’s interesting that anything along the back of us, the parts we can’t see in a mirror, are often very hard to feel.
Good luck, everyone! I have noticed my sensitivity to these areas increase ever so slightly in these two weeks – a very exciting and encouraging sign!
Im a few days into week 4 practice and was a bit unsure as how to proceed. Separate then combine is what I thought made the most sense as well. So I plan on spending each session working on each of the separate parts then near the end of the week do a few sessions with all of them combined. I hope thats an acceptable route.
After a more than a few days gone by with seemingly very little focus on my part I feel I finally had an encouraging sign. About midway through my session on the ears I found that I began to really relax my breath which began calm, controlled more subtle with no tension, I was able to remain generally focused and complete one round of 10 breaths. I admit my mind was not 100% undistracted but the distractions seemed to have much less of a grip on my attention. I also noticed that when my mind did start to wander it was as though my awareness became very narrow and closed. Recognizing this I began to see what Bruce was talking about when he said to “open-up” when the drum roll to distraction begins.
However, I found that my attention was divided between my breath the physical movements of my body AND my ears. Im wondering if this is a good thing.
By the way, I really appreciate everyones contribution to this forum.
All the best !
Kevin
Several questions:
(1) I’m wondering about counting: I seem to have gotten into the habit (for years) of counting my breaths in my head — when I’ve tried to do it with my fingers, my head keeps going anyway. Is that kosher?
(2) Also, when we’re counting breaths and focusing on our crowns, etc., are we also supposed to be focusing on our breaths as in week 2? I.e., noting when the breath changes from in to out, noticing the gaps between breaths, etc., a la vipasana meditation. Or do we just count the breaths while focusing only on the head parts?
(3) Speaking of head parts, there’s some vagueness: “hairline” actually is all around, i.e., the front hairline is top of forehead, but hairline also goes down to temples, around bottom of ears, and below occiput. I’ve been assuming in day 1 (“crown”) he just means hairline above forehead. Nit-picky I guess.
(4) Then, and this is less nit-picking, I wonder whether we’re just supposed to focus on the surfaces of the head, or try to feel the interior parts of the head (related to crown, etc.) I’d started by trying to go actually into the head, but on re-listening to the instruction, it seems like he wants us to be focusing on the surface. But that doesn’t make sense with the eyes and ears. What are folks doing?
John, pretty sure it’s just the surface. We don’t want to go messing around with brain yet. Eyes, ears and mouth I’ve been doing internal, tho. IMHO anyway.
Believe it’s hard to get real specific with the separation of the areas of the head. I kind of separated it into 1) crown to hairline, 2) crown to temples and sides of head above ears, 3) crown down to back hairline behind ears 4) forehead itself above eyebrows 5) entire eyes 6) ears internal and external, 7) mouth internal.
As far as counting breaths, I’m only keeping track on my fingers now. Trying anyway.
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