Sorry that I didn’t make myself clearer, david_o, although it’s hard to describe a pre-verbal state verbally (smile)… I think you know where it is, that place of immaculate perception, but maybe just haven’t thought about it in those terms. Tilopa’s “Song of the Mahamudra” is a supreme attempt. Two translations:
http://www.allspirit.co.uk/mahamudra.html
and
http://www.keithdowman.net/mahamudra/tilopa.htm
I include two translation links because each has something to offer. The second includes a better description of the Tibetan exercise of blue-sky-watching, which triggers the so-called Ganzfeld ‘white-out’ effect. Quote:
Gazing intently into the empty sky, vision ceases;
Likewise, when mind gazes into mind itself,
The train of discursive and conceptual thought ends
And supreme enlightenment is gained.
For more about the Ganzfeld Effect and how to experience it with the aid of two ping-pong
balls cut in half (I say two in order to avoid the trademark stamped on them), see:
http://brain.web-us.com/ganzfeld.htm
The "leaning’ image comes from the surfboard metaphor, and I retard the relaxed breath one-half second (or perhaps less?) because the moment the breath is slowed, the mind observes it with interest, as if saying to itself, “Oh, something is happening to the breath. I should watch it,” thus gluing the mind to the breath, so to speak. It does seem paradoxical that a half-second ‘retard’ of the breath should lean one forward more into the Now, but isn’t that what Vipassana claims to do? I’m also wondering if it increases carbon dioxide levels in the same manner that breath retention does, and whether these increased levels also play a role. Someone wrote me just yesterday about a certain hypoventilation technique invented by a Russian Dr. Buteyko who claims to have cured thousands of ill people by teaching ‘shallow breathing.’ See:
http://www.buteyko.co.nz/buteyko/media/story11.cfm
Also
http://www.normalbreathing.com/Book1Ch1.html (which I have yet to read(
All this hypoventilation material is brand-new to me, so I really cannot comment further.
I’ve experimented with hypoventilation as a method to stay warm in cold weather, and was able to drip with sweat standing naked outdoors in 45-degree weather - not much compared to the Tibetan ‘tumo’ practitioners, but at least I could see where they might be heading.
Hope this clarifies! Thanks for asking.
I’m glad to find it’s OK to leapfrog into the Samyama. I’ve only been doing the practices for a month or so, and haven’t really experienced any of the pleasurable experiences you guys (or y’all) talk about. But Samyama is perfect for me because I have plenty of inner silence. I learned to stop my thoughts long ago when I was into Castaneda books, but never found any use for it except to reduce stress (which is awesome in itself). I’ve been doing SRF meditation for a year with not much result except stress reduction and relaxation. But right as soon as I began Yogani’s style of pranayama followed by mantra meditation, I felt a profound deep silence every time that I had only achieved occasionally after long, deep meditations. And now I reach it in a half hour every time.
Afterword i feel like i don’t need anything, and don’t have any problems, for hours. This is great stuff!
Etherfish
But…careful. If it’s pleasure you seek, the mind will find you pleasure. Any goal you have might, if you’re very unlucky, be attained.
For this one aspect of your life, drop ALL goal-oriented thinking. Do the practices because they feel deeply right, because you know deep down that it’s what you must do. Period. If you do them to feel great, become less neurotic, turn into a great enlightened master who everyone will love, or to pick up chicks, you’ll get nowhere in the long run. It’ll be as spiritually useful as learning French or horseback riding.
Follow your bhakti. That’s all you need. If pleasure comes, that’s nice. If not, that’s nice, too.