Observing the breath in addition to AYP?

[Christi]

Hi Lili,
 

quote:You're doing terrific--cramming in 1 hour of sitting practices twice a day alongside 2 kids and a job--my hat is off to you...

If I managed that then I would welcome the praise.

What I meant was, when I am lucky enough to get an hour to myself, that is my practice routine. It doesn't happen every day. If it did, I am sure I would be enlightened by now.

[Lili]

quote:
If I managed that then I would welcome the praise.

Hi Christi--take it and run as I am not taking it back

I think even if not every time, if you can get yourself to do all this it's a lot. No need to be shy about it

[Christi]

Hi Lili,

 

quote:Hi Christi--take it and run as I am not taking it back

O.K. I will.

[AlanCrawfordUK]

I'm really intrigued that you are doing metta bhavana (Cultivating Loving Kindness) in addition to the AYP practices. My introduction to meditation and my last 8 months experience of meditation has been from a Buddhist perspective. I would like to continue Loving Kindness meditations, as well as some of the other meditations we were taught at the buddhist centre (breathing in white light & breathing out dark smoke, dissolving everything inside your body into white light then eventually dissolving your skin and becoming formless - meditating on emptiness etc).

Do you think these are compatible with AYP?

Alan

[Saagaram]

Alan, There is a really beautiful loving-kindness practice known as taking and giving. It is the opposite of your light visualization. You visualize all the suffering of every sentient being in the universe as black smoke that you inhale which dissolves into compassionate white light in your body that you then exhale as white light of compassion absorbed into every sentient being.

[Lili]

quote:Originally posted by Saagaram

Alan, There is a really beautiful loving-kindness practice known as taking and giving. It is the opposite of your light visualization. You visualize all the suffering of every sentient being in the universe as black smoke that you inhale which dissolves into compassionate white light in your body that you then exhale as white light of compassion absorbed into every sentient being.

This is an advanced practice that is not recommended at all for beginning and intermediate-level practitioners. Please check the writing of Christopher Hansard and others for more on that subject.

Alan--if you want to try this practice suggest you do a literature review first and decide whether it is something for you at this stage.The practice you have found is probably much better suited for the purposes you wish to accomplish than this one.

[Christi]

quote:Originally posted by AlanCrawfordUK

I'm really intrigued that you are doing metta bhavana (Cultivating Loving Kindness) in addition to the AYP practices. My introduction to meditation and my last 8 months experience of meditation has been from a Buddhist perspective. I would like to continue Loving Kindness meditations, as well as some of the other meditations we were taught at the buddhist centre (breathing in white light & breathing out dark smoke, dissolving everything inside your body into white light then eventually dissolving your skin and becoming formless - meditating on emptiness etc).

Do you think these are compatible with AYP?

Alan

Yes, of course, no problem at all. The dissolving the body into white light I wouldn't teach to beginners, it is more of an advanced practice. But I don't see any incompatability problems, and have practiced all of them.

[Saagaram]

quote:Originally posted by Lili

quote:Originally posted by Saagaram

Alan, There is a really beautiful loving-kindness practice known as taking and giving. It is the opposite of your light visualization. You visualize all the suffering of every sentient being in the universe as black smoke that you inhale which dissolves into compassionate white light in your body that you then exhale as white light of compassion absorbed into every sentient being.

This is an advanced practice that is not recommended at all for beginning and intermediate-level practitioners. Please check the writing of Christopher Hansard and others for more on that subject.

Alan--if you want to try this practice suggest you do a literature review first and decide whether it is something for you at this stage.The practice you have found is probably much better suited for the purposes you wish to accomplish than this one.

This is something strange to say. It is basic Mahayana training that lay people do. It isn't good to discourage blessings. Tears in my eyes.

[Lili]

Hi Saagaram,

Can you please tone down the drama? I am offering Alan the view of a reputable author trained in the (pre-Buddhist) Tibetan Bon tradition. I don't see why his division of practices in beginning and advanced and his categorizing this as advanced should be bringing you tears or whatever. He is not saying this is not good practice per se--he is just saying it's advanced--whether you wish to cry about it is your issue. If different views from your own bring you tears perhaps an open free discussion forum is not where you want to be to begin with.

I know that many Buddhist authors teach this as beginners' practice. Their views are widely accessible and available on the internet for Alan's consideration and he's free to make a choice or experiment and work it out for himself. I am even enclosing one of them below for reference:
Source: http://www.quietmountain.org/links/teachings/tonglen.htm
"Some people new to this practice get worried because they think that by doing the practice they will have to lose happiness and experience suffering, which makes them fearful. However, there is no need for this anxiety because whatever happens to oneself is solely a result of one's karma. Doing this practice does not bring suffering.

Other people do the practice with great expectation, with great hope. They think of a friend who is ill, unhappy or otherwise suffering and they visualise this friend during the meditation in the hope that they will remove the suffering. When they find it does not work they lose hope and become disillusioned. This also is not what the practice is about. The point is to cherish other beings as important, rather than regarding oneself as important. So there is no need to have worry, fear or expectation.

However, it is not true to say there is no result from the practice. In the immediate present one is not able to bring happiness or remove suffering, but by doing this practice one will gradually cease to cherish oneself over others. Instead, one will develop the wish to practise in order to benefit other beings, eventually leading to the ability to help beings, teach and train them in the Dharma, and so forth."

[amoux]

Alan - to get back to your question, in the past I have practised tonglen and metta in addition to AYP.  Here's some advice, for what it's worth  Get really stable in your AYP practices first.  Then you can try adding/changing things.  What I did was alternate metta (in the morning) with samyama (in the evening).  I never included tonglen within AYP, but as it's the ultimate 'portable' practice, I simply fitted it in during the day.  

I'm not a Buddhist, and I have heard varying opinions about doing tonglen - the general opinion seems to be that it's a good idea to be familiar with metta practice first, then add tonglen later, however, I learned tonglen first (a teacher I respect and have done a lot of work with suggested it to me, and I liked it from day 1) and later added metta - and apparently this isn't that unusual.

As Yogani says, the guru is in you - and you'll find your own way - but I'd suggest you get your core AYP routine firmly in place first before you start fine-tuning, adding or substituting.  That way, you have a baseline to refer to, in terms of effects, so that if overloads start occurring you know why and what to do to smooth things out.  This is just my two cents, and feel free to ignore