Well Melissa, at least I made you laugh 
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Now that sounds like fun 
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I love my closetā¦ I have a mattress on the floor (from an old bed)ā¦ a pillow for my backā¦ a blanket for the cold morningsā¦ and Ma Kali on a tableā¦ close the door and a nice cozy meditation roomā¦ would not give that up for the worldā¦
Hereās the discussion. Hard to say, btw, whether my case was more dramatic than most peopleās, or if I was just a bit more sensitive to the backtracking than most people.
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=750&SearchTerms=lapse,jim
Hi Alvin:
Iām on my 93rd day of AYP meditation,and even though I canāt report any events with lots of fireworks or deep inner silence, I can certainly say the effects I feel between sittings are good,stable and smooth.I havenāt missed a session and would not even consider letting it happen. I live in a small house with my wife,9 year old son, and dog pepper, and they have all gotten used to and respect for my twice daily 25 min. sitting.
By the way I use earplugs and I find they really help eliminate the distractions. Also, I have found that meditation in my car is a place where Iām never interrupted.
I wish you all the best and hope you stick with it.
Guy
robertjames wrote:
You are very lucky then. My family is not as considerate. They will disturb me even if they know I donāt want to be disturbed. Not that they will talk to each others, which I donāt mind. But they will ask me questions, making requests, etc. So I usually lock my door, if I could, and ignore whatever they said during my meditation. I can then be sure that they will not be able to touch me even if I ignore them. This is the only way which I can meditate peacefully without worrying too much. But as I share my room with my brother, itās not always possible to lock it.
Shanti, I donāt think the bathroom is a bad idea. Not at all! But when 7 family members share 1 bathroom, each of them drink quite a lot, you could see that my bathroom is actually one of the busiest room!!
I tried meditating at night in a public garden right beside my home. This is the place which is always available with no one disturbing me. But my mind keep producing images of someone attacking and robbing me if I go deep. Not very peacefulā¦
Bathroom is a very nice place to meditate. Wherever you go, you can find one. And nobody disturbs you there
Thanks, Jim. So do you think you had lost years of practice when you just stop for a week? āold stuff bubbles upā for a short while is not that serious in the long one. But if we have to start over again just by stopping one week, thatās very frustratingā¦ If we canāt carry our practices even to the next week, what reasons are there to believe that we can carry it to another life-time?
Alvin, I didnāt say that. I did say that Iām guessing it takes about 3 or 4 times the length of the gap to get back. Maybe a little more, though itās hard to tell.
I didnāt say - and certainly donāt believe - one has to start from scratch. But Iām absolutely sure of one thing: the mud builds up pretty quickly if weāre not religiously wiping it away.
ic. Thanks. Iām just asking, and i didnāt mean you said that. Probably you said that in your reply since I donāt find that in the first post of that thread.
3 or 4 times. Thatās not too bad.
Ah, sorry, Alvin, I see I misread.
Thereās one really critical pointā¦Iāve said it a couple times but it bears repeating: when you stop practicing, and the old conditioning starts to come back, it feels ānormalā, because all the old ways of feeling and being are so familiar to us. Thatās in stark contrast to the effect of doing yoga, where every tiny infinitessimal opening brings such unfamiliar feelings.
So we canāt go forward too much too fast without feeling overwhelmed and shooken up. But we can back slide very far indeed without hardly even noticing. Itās like a ratchet wrench, and itās a dangerous and precarious thing. If you slack up in your practice, you can slide much much further back than youād ever imagine without hardly even realizing. And you sure donāt slide forward with the same speed and ease!
umā¦It makes sense. Thanks, Jim.
Jim, I know you had been trying many different practices before, may be on and off, and completely off now. Do you think you have wasted your time? (because their effects, if different from the AYP youāre doing now, should go away already)
Time canāt be wasted.
But can be better used. Thatās what we usually mean by ātime wastedā.
ok, this is all just sematic. What I mean is: are there anything left on you that is due to, and can only be due to(rather than something which you will come to sooner or later without those practices) those practices?
I am especially interested to know what you gained (and still have) by practising the microcosmic orbit, since this is a practice originated in my home country China.