Spiritual Forums

Home


Donate!


Articles


CHAT!


Shop


 
Welcome to Spiritual Forums!.

We created this community for people from all backgrounds to discuss Spiritual, Paranormal, Metaphysical, Philosophical, Supernatural, and Esoteric subjects. From Astral Projection to Zen, all topics are welcome. We hope you enjoy your visits.

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest, which gives you limited access to most discussions and articles. By joining our free community you will be able to post messages, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload your own photos, and gain access to our Chat Rooms, Registration is fast, simple, and free, so please, join our community today! !

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, check our FAQs before contacting support. Please read our forum rules, since they are enforced by our volunteer staff. This will help you avoid any infractions and issues.

Go Back   Spiritual Forums > Spirituality & Beliefs > Meditation

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 13-11-2022, 07:15 AM
Gem Gem is online now
Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 22,074
  Gem's Avatar
Body scanning

Inspired by Just Be's new thread, I'm back to discuss the principles of mindfulness again.

In Buddhism they say there are 4 pillars of mindfulness: body, sensation, mind and mental contents. In meditation we are concerned with the direct observation of sensation and mental contents, whereas 'body' and 'mind' are more like abstract concepts for contemplation.

Needless to say all bodies will grow old, die and decay and that's fate, which is handy for facing the truth of life, but it isn't an immediate perception. The immediate perception is the feelings and mentalities that are momentarily manifesting.

This means when we start off with breath awareness we are actually aware of what breathing feels like, as opposed to merely having the intellectual knowledge 'I am breathing'.

When you practice breath meditation you will automatically notice your mental contents in the same practice. In the texts, the feelings and mental contents are discussed in separate categories, but in practice they cannot be separated. Similarly, issues we categorise as psychological are part and parcel of feelings manifesting in the body.

I don't want to complicate it. I'm just saying this because it might not seem to make sense that consciously scanning the body is psychologically/emotionally healing.

It seems counterintuitive at first, but body scanning is a way of spiritually self-healing physically, psychologically and emotionally, bringing deeper insight into the universal nature of mind and matter and discovering all aspects of yourself on every level.
__________________
Radiate boundless love towards the entire world ~ Buddha
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 13-11-2022, 10:35 PM
Native spirit Native spirit is offline
Administrator
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 11,138
  Native spirit's Avatar
I have done the body scanning a few times now I can do it at will
it is helpful and Healing


Namaste
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 14-11-2022, 06:33 AM
Gem Gem is online now
Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 22,074
  Gem's Avatar
As usual, I go online to find some information, but as someone who practiced mindfulness in depth, I can say the 'information' easily accessible online is OK at a very superficial level, and I find it really hard to fins something worth linking.

There is a whole process which starts with the hard physical body along with the crude, chattering, emotionally reactive mind, and it progresses to subtler levels that people might call the subtle body, emotional body, vibratory body, energy body, light body or something like that... which is really just means the level at which you perceive feelings in the body.

Initially you would scan by just feeling one part at a time, like start to feel the crown, then move to forehead, back of head, eye area, nose, mouth, cheeks, ears, neck, throat, shoulders, etc all the way to tippy toes. That would take 10 or 15 minutes or maybe a bit longer depending, but it allows you to closely examine every inch of the body, being conscious of what it feels like.

Before that it is best to just do breath awareness for a few months because we'd need a mind capable fairly acute perception and able to stay on task without getting distracted for too long. If the perception is kinda dull and the mind wanders off for long periods of time, you don't really feel much going on and you lose track of things halfway through.

I feel like I'm going too detailed, and people want a 'just do this' for today, and it is fine to body scan and find tensions and relax them, that's great, but I'm trying to talk about a healing process that goes further and unwinds really deep knots and blocks so there's more of a free flow.

It takes time, and some people like to imagine it like layers of an onion, peel off the solid outer and then the next, and the next, healing the psychological content of each layer as you go. It will heal to the level your perception is capable of penetrating. Beyond that capability things by definition remain unconscious, but with continued practice they too 'come to light' in conscious awareness where they dissolve away.

Many people will say it's for beginners because people want to be 'more spiritual' than someone else, but people go to great heights spiritually without full body awareness, and all that old stuff is still caught in the layers. If people want the high spiritual experiences and bypass the 'physical' sure there is a 'God experience' or other ultimate attainment, but you end up physical and regenerate and carry old trauma from moment to moment, from life to life.

The aim of this is purification or what we like to call 'healing'. There are many aspects to that, such as remaining neutral, no-ego, etc, which we understand better with growing wisdom...

Anyway, it make no sense unless you 'see it for yourself', and thread-philosophy is pretty useless without real-life discovery and insight, so I merely suggest maybe give it a try and see what happens.
__________________
Radiate boundless love towards the entire world ~ Buddha
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 14-11-2022, 10:26 AM
Redchic12 Redchic12 is offline
Master
Join Date: Oct 2022
Posts: 2,692
 
Ahhh yes that’s exactly what I do, fairly regularly as well. Didn’t realise how beneficial it was. Thanks for that Gem.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 09-08-2023, 02:26 AM
Shrek Shrek is offline
Ascender
Join Date: Apr 2015
Posts: 843
  Shrek's Avatar
hi Gem happy to see you here,
I also doing mindfulness meditation
become a neutral watcher of body and mind
aware to what happen on the six sense at present moment
still practicing though, not always aware, but I try

and also mix with contemplating them with anicca, dukkha, anatta,
how heavily conditioned, temporary, no substance, everything is
I feel that when I contemplating, also useful and give me peace
especially when I can't concentrate or mindful to watch the object
__________________
"The power of now"
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 09-08-2023, 12:04 PM
Catsquotl Catsquotl is offline
Knower
Join Date: Jan 2023
Posts: 148
  Catsquotl's Avatar
I believe the Goenka way of vipassana mainly revolves around body scanning as a technique to wisdom.
Somehow in my experience Body scanning makes me relax fairly quickly and more totally/deeply than say concentrating on the belly or breath, Making it ideal as a jump of point for samatha..
there's a few down to earth basic body awarenes techniques / meditations as guided meditations by Thanissaro Bhikku cirkling the web
.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 09-08-2023, 02:32 PM
Gem Gem is online now
Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 22,074
  Gem's Avatar
This refinement starts with breath awareness and later extends to the whole body. Going layer by layer, the physical densities dissolve as the life-form purifies. The activities of mind materially manifest in the body, and physical phenomena affect reactions in the mind. Body consciousness enables these reactive dynamics to cease and reach equilibrium.

Start with simple breath awareness and feel what breathing is like. No controlled breaths, no counted/timed breaths or belly breaths etc. Just normal breathing. As bodymind settles, breathing gets lighter. Let it be as it is, and focus on what it feels like.

Undertake this daily for maybe 40 minutes up to and hour or so. It probably takes about about 3 or 4 months to be ready to start examining the body all over.

The key to the method is just watch. Breathe normally, don't try to change anything, control anything or imagine anything. When you get distracted and mind wanders away - no worries - simply resume. Be indifferent, but persistent.

The healing will start straight away, so be prepared and take care.
__________________
Radiate boundless love towards the entire world ~ Buddha
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 09-08-2023, 03:26 PM
sky sky is offline
Master
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 15,533
  sky's Avatar
Short & Simple....

https://www.spiritualityandpractice....8468/body-scan

Body Scan
Spiritual Practice by Thich Nhat Hanh....
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 10-08-2023, 05:17 AM
Gem Gem is online now
Master
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Australia
Posts: 22,074
  Gem's Avatar
Because in the West we have a dominant mental health narrative and click bait branding, online media pushes our anxiety to make us click and buy. Hence, the Thich page which we might might consider a teaching is actually designed to make you buy the book. I'm not saying it's a good or a bad, but the motive is wrong. They want something from you, whereas proper motive is giving without expecting anything in return.

We don't know it because everything is like that, everyone is doing it, and it just vanishes into normalcy. However, it's better to be discerning about what is rightly intended, because if we can't do that regarding the world out there, it means we we can't discern it for ourselves either.

This is the reason most material searched on line is so banal when meditation itself is about the whole purification, healing all sorrows, staying with the truth and being liberated. "Smiling at your eyes" is a superficial veneer when considering the real gravitas of the topic. It practically belittles the depth of human suffering because it's being used by the publishers like a catchy jingle to tempt you into a compulsive click-and-buy. That is contrived, but we take it as 'Oh so wise' that's the water we are also submerged in.

I know I'm in my own private Idaho about this. It's just that I searched quite a while to find meaningful discourses about going through the body to paste on thread, but assuming the participants here are mature and sophisticated, as yet, search results have all been sub-par. One day I'll find something and be, like, "Yes! Everyone has to hear it," but the search algo is geared for a purpose precisely the opposite to that of meditation. Still, sincerity and truth will end up shining through.
__________________
Radiate boundless love towards the entire world ~ Buddha
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 10-08-2023, 06:03 AM
sky sky is offline
Master
Join Date: Sep 2015
Posts: 15,533
  sky's Avatar
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gem
Because in the West we have a dominant mental health narrative and Hence the Thich page which we might take might consider a teaching is really designed to make you buy thew book. I'm not saying it's a good or a bad, bvjt thew motive is wrong.
You do not need to 'buy' any of Thich Nhat Hanh books, His Teachings are all 'free' of charge and available at Plum Village. Body Scanning can be found under the heading 'Experiencing the Body in the Body', obviously it is also part of Buddhist Suttas, all available 'free' online or at a Buddhist Sangha.....
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 09:29 AM.


Powered by vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
(c) Spiritual Forums