weeks 3 & 4 challenges

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  • #130790

    Anonymous
    Guest

    Hi All,

    Just made a proper start on week 3………….certainly seems like we’ve got a bit to do! Counting breaths, attention on various parts of the head…..oh yeah and recognising the drum roll to distraction!

    Still no-one said it was gonna be easy…I’ve found it an interesting exercise just from the point of view that the more pressure I put on myself to perform the more likely I am to end up getting tense and therefore being distracted! Even more interestingly, even though I know that, guess what…….I still end up getting distracted!

    Really enjoying this commitment to practise and thanks to the group for all thats been put out there- really helpful stuff.

    Keep on keeping on,
    Saul

    #130791

    Anonymous
    Guest

    So I just listened to the tracks again several times last night. There are a few things that I admit aren’t exactly clear. In the Week 3 Instruction, he just mentions the crown, the third eye, and the eyes. But in Week 3 and 4 Guided Practice, he goes through all the points: crown, side, front, back, forehead, third eye, eyes, third eye, roof of mouth, jaw. There doesn’t seem to be any division between what’s week 3 and what’s week 4 in the Practice audio, so I just assumed the practice track applied to week 3 as well as week 4.

    So anyway, just wanted to make that observation – don’t want anyone to panic! :) I think everyone will arrange this practice in a way they feel comfortable with anyway. I was just wondering if anyone else noticed this.

    #130792

    Anonymous
    Guest

    Thanks for all the replies. Kevin, why do you say focus on baihui down to the hairline? I thought Bruce mentioned the third eye (yintang) and the eyes as the other two places, both below the hairline (unless you mean the back hairline?). Anyway, apparently it’s not so important which places – Bruce seems to be saying he picked these because they’re the most common places for tension to appear.

    #130793

    Anonymous
    Guest

    You know, that thought crossed my mind too whether it was front or back hairline. Since mine is receding so far, I went with the easy one. Got tomorrow off so I’ll get a chance to give a good listen to the instructions again.

    It will be nice to have a framework for meditation once this starts to become clear. We seem to all be like those blind men describing the elephant right now. Take care.

    #130794

    Anonymous
    Guest

    I just finished a session with 25 minutes sitting and twelve standing[didn’t have a timer]must be settling in on an internal clock.i’ve been going on wk 2 guide but i think i will start tomorrow on week 3 after listening to tapes today.I think i have apretty good hold on the breathes and want to see if i can add feeling the head also playing a slow game of catch up.before joining the circle i was doing maybe ten minute neigong exercises only 2 or 3 times a week its great adding this to my taiji practice everyday ,thanks

    #130795

    Anonymous
    Guest

    just finished another meditatoin session sitting and standing,i started with the week 3 guide today it is different trying to count breathes,focus on the head relax and watch for distractions,i can see a lot of determenation in the future to find a balance.one new thing i noticed was while counting i kept adding 1000 to it ,1000 and 1,1000 and 2 etc. so i kept starting over just seemed alittle strange. but i think i can alreaddy notice an improvement with concentration and breathing while doing my form!

    #130796

    Anonymous
    Guest

    just finished a standing set,around 15 minutes ,did 25 sitting this morning first question is while concentrating on the head third eye area to be specific,i noticed a little rocking forwards and back,not sure if its abalance thing purely or did my breathing or focusing on my head make me kind of top heavy?anyone else notice this?also before the circle when i felt discomfort while standing piller i would try and focus there to relieve it what do we do if we are directed to focus elsewhere like the head?i am lovin it though!

    #130797

    Anonymous
    Guest

    Catherine, I’m just puzzling over the which is week 3 and which week 4 practice myself! I tend to worry about doing things as correctly as possible. In fact, panic set in at the end of week 2, hearing Bruce saying ‘by now you will have done this, and have experienced such and such, and be noticing this or that…’. My immediate thoughts were – oh no, I haven’t noticed those things, I can’t do this ‘Properly’, I’ll have to give up. Over a few days I thought about it and decided maybe I can accept not doing it perfectly and just carry on gently. My rational mind grabs if given half a chance. I’m trying to meditate more playfully!

    So for weeks 3 and 4 I shall try this inner dissolving a bit like the outer dissolving in the Standing practice, and go down from the top of the head each time to whichever bit is next. I even decided to scrap judging whether I’ve done it well enough and just follow the programme, trusting that I’ve put in the time as mindfully as possible so it will be enough.

    #130798

    Anonymous
    Guest

    Caroline – I think you are on the right track! I ended up just using the Week 3 and 4 Practice through both weeks, and hey, nothing imploded or anything…It is easy to get caught up in the details of instructions. It’s good to tell one’s rational mind to just be quiet and enjoy the ride every once and awhile.

    I always try to ignore instructions that focus on what I ‘should’ be feeling at one point or another…it’s always very individual, and it’s easy to think you’re the only one who didn’t get it, but I’ve just learned to go on and not let it bother me. Whatever you are feeling frustrated about, it’s a very good chance that many people are feeling the same way about the same thing. Good luck, and keep plugging away!

    #130799

    Anonymous
    Guest

    During my third week I am observing tension in my third eye, it comes and goes. I am finding it hard to concentrate on my crown, but occasionally I feel a warm-tickling sensation there for a brief.

    Sometimes I get lost in my thoughts, distracted, once in 3 minutes… but most of the time I identify the thought as soon as it arises, and I ‘escape’ it, by ignoring and going back to the meditation. But it doesn’t feel like ‘opening my mind’ , as Bruce named it, when ignoring my thoughts. It seems like I am closing it in a way :)

    That’s all I can observe in my head, it seems like I cannot observe the multiple levels that Bruce described (mental, physical, emotional, energetical).

    #130800

    Anonymous
    Guest

    Unless I’m missing it (quite likely), I’m not finding anyone addressing Colin’s initial difficulty, which I share: I’m not noticing any prelude to spacing out in the fields we’re being asked to observe. I do notice feelings elsewhere that seem to be related to spacing out, but nothing in my head. Anyone else finding this?

    #130801

    Anonymous
    Guest

    For the most part Im finding the same thing other than sometimes I feel tension in my eyes before and while distracted. Usually its midway through some random thought suddenly realizing “oops, Im thinking again”.

    #130802

    Anonymous
    Guest

    Hi, John.

    Yes, you’re right. Colin’s initial question was locating or identifying the prelude to spacing out. I’m having trouble with that, too, in a way. I’ve been doing various counting practices for a long time. I don’t have any trouble keeping count and not getting lost. I do find thoughts coming up, but they don’t distract me from my count. What I’ve been working on is noticing when the thought first arises. I find it’s related to a feeling of tension or contraction somewhere, and I’m working on noticing that more.

    #130803

    Anonymous
    Guest

    I think I addressed it a bit in the first paragraph in my earlier post (the one under Colin’s initial post). But maybe I can add to it at this point – I have had a hard time noticing any prelude to distraction in these physical parts of the body. Sometimes you’re going along and then – boom! – you’re distracted and you don’t even know when it started.

    In the mental realm, I have noticed that if I get a few thoughts playing around, this often leads to them multiplying and then before you know it – major distraction. But again this seems more in the mind, and I can’t find where it reflects in a physical body part such as the crown of the head.

    However, I know that Bruce has said before that the body is like a hologram, and that everything in the body can be reflected in any given point. I do have some faith that some prelude to distraction exists in these physical places, and that my sensitivity is just not fine-tuned enough to distinguish this. I am happy that my sensitivity has increased in these weeks, so I am optimistic that at some point, these things he talks about will become an actual experience for me!

    #130804

    Anonymous
    Guest

    I think I have finally noticed how my spacing out works. When I get an itch, a pain or some discomfort in some part of my body, not necessarily the part I am concentrating on, then my awareness goes to that spot and if I can maintain an observer position then I don’t loose my attention. However when I get really interested, concerned, etc. about the discomfort then I loose awareness of my count, I usually loose awareness of the discomfort, as well, and I start having other thoughts. I do find that distractions seem to come up with certain areas of my body more than with others. I have had lots of trouble with my throat throughout my life and this was one place that caused a lot of distraction so I suppose there must be some hidden problems there that will require work when we get to dissolving.
    .

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