I am coming up on two months of stopping spiritual practice because of kundalini/TM overload and am thinking ahead about resuming meditation in a few more months.
My understanding is that breath meditation is gentler than TM because when there is breath cessation during breath meditation the meditation doesn’t continue to deepen since the object of attention is lost and this creates a sort of buffer. In contrast, with TM (where the mantra may continue) there can be a stronger and continual deepening.
The above makes sense but my mantra always stops with breath cessation during TM. In this light is breath meditation really going to be gentler for me? I ask because the one time I tried a 3 minute breath meditation I had a severe reaction. I was however in a sensitized state from overload. Any thoughts or clarification on this is appreciated.
You already seem to have recognized lesson 367, because you brought up breath meditation as a more gentle meditation-method than DM. If not then you can read it here:
Recovering from severe overload can be a tough time, since we obviously don’t want to do nothing. I can feel you there, because I have experienced that too. Fortunately there’s still things you can do in the meantime when not meditating. Personally I found, that focusing on tension releasing exercises was useful, since overload symptoms made me feel uptight and nervous like an overly tensed string.
I think when you feel ready, you should give breath meditation a try and build it from there. You could also switch to passive awareness meditation if that fits your condition better.
In the end it is your experience that gives proof to what makes you feel easy or rough afterwards.
I have no experience with breath suspension, however. At least I would not recognize that.
Thanks, Maze. Which tension releasing techniques did you use? Were you able to return to your practice? I’d be interested in hearing your story of overload and what you’ve been able to do to manage it and hopefully resume practice.