The Swami Sarvapriyananda Thread

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

That almost sounds like the WILD technique (Wake Induce Lucid Dream). One never loses consciousness while going to sleep. The body goes into its sleep cycle but waking consciousness is maintained. The more expert practitioners use the hypnagogia during transition to create the dreamscape they then enter.

That describes the process quite well though it is also a way of watching step-by-step the inner pressures from the unconscious manifest in the form of dreams and thus get to KNOW one's innermost unconscious urges as well as the obvious.

I do that every night and, since I live alone with my cats, I don't really know how much "unconscious sleep" I get at night but it doesn't really matter as I am very well rested when arising for my daily activities. One of my friends from Vienna slept over one night and wanted to sleep in the same room to watch. When I started snoring, he assumed that I was unconscious and made a remark to that effect when I surprised him by responding and carrying on a dialogue with him about conscious sleep while appearing outwardly to be fast asleep.

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

That describes the process quite well though it is also a way of watching step-by-step the inner pressures from the unconscious manifest in the form of dreams and thus get to KNOW one's innermost unconscious urges as well as the obvious.

I do that every night and, since I live alone with my cats, I don't really know how much "unconscious sleep" I get at night but it doesn't really matter as I am very well rested when arising for my daily activities. One of my friends from Vienna slept over one night and wanted to sleep in the same room to watch. When I started snoring, he assumed that I was unconscious and made a remark to that effect when I surprised him by responding and carrying on a dialogue with him about conscious sleep while appearing outwardly to be fast asleep.

One aspect of my experience was sleep. For those weeks I was at most getting three or four hours a night and sometimes only an hour or two, however I was beyond refreshed each and every day. Even now I rarely sleep more than six hours and before all this I was a solid 8+ hours a night sleeper.

https://youtu.be/JsCp-xZC1QY?list=PL...yrF2rGcUqIb4OF

Swami Sarvapriyananda shares his insights on the practice of remaining aware of our true nature at all times. This question was part of the 'Ask Swami Q&A' from Jan 6th, 2019.

I believe this account of post-NDE awareness speaks to this too.

https://youtu.be/acN2MQQYGWg?t=3114

I would phrase it as resting in awareness. It's that "space" where mind and body are but events in the field of Awareness and it's witnessing from that perspective.

My most vivid memory is an OBE at four months old. I was above and behind mom's right shoulder and dispassionately witnessing the scene. Mom and dad sitting at the kitchen table in the cabin on a lake in the Adirondacks. It was midnight and the one radio station was going off the air and playing a cheesy signoff melody. That melody seemed to greatly annoy baby me and I was waling up a storm, mom cradling me in her arms, trying to sooth me and dad sitting on the other side of the table softly chuckling.

My awareness had no thoughts per se. It was just taking in the entire scene, witnessing it, yet at the same time seemed to have "knowledge" of everything that was happening and why it was happening.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

https://youtu.be/JsCp-xZC1QY?list=PL...yrF2rGcUqIb4OF

Swami Sarvapriyananda shares his insights on the practice of remaining aware of our true nature at all times. This question was part of the 'Ask Swami Q&A' from Jan 6th, 2019.

I believe this account of post-NDE awareness speaks to this too.

https://youtu.be/acN2MQQYGWg?t=3114

I would phrase it as resting in awareness. It's that "space" where mind and body are but events in the field of Awareness and it's witnessing from that perspective.

My most vivid memory is an OBE at four months old. I was above and behind mom's right shoulder and dispassionately witnessing the scene. Mom and dad sitting at the kitchen table in the cabin on a lake in the Adirondacks. It was midnight and the one radio station was going off the air and playing a cheesy signoff melody. That melody seemed to greatly annoy baby me and I was waling up a storm, mom cradling me in her arms, trying to sooth me and dad sitting on the other side of the table softly chuckling.

My awareness had no thoughts per se. It was just taking in the entire scene, witnessing it, yet at the same time seemed to have "knowledge" of everything that was happening and why it was happening.

We are definitely on the same wavelength as I too had viewed the talk by Dr. Greyson whose link you provided in your post.

After a while, when one's "awareness had no thoughts per se", one is not even inclined to disturb that stillness with non-essential thinking. That awareness with no thoughts persists more and more continuously.

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

We are definitely on the same wavelength as I too had viewed the talk by Dr. Greyson whose link you provided in your post.

After a while, when one's "awareness had no thoughts per se", one is not even inclined to disturb that stillness with non-essential thinking. That awareness with no thoughts persists more and more continuously.

What I find interesting is even when mind is willfully engaged I can still be in that dispassionate "space" witnessing mind thinking and body doing. It's certainly not a continuous state but I can "find" It when I pay attention and it doesn't require formal sitting. I posit that's the seat of true free will. The escape hatch from mind's conditioning, so to speak.

This, I think, is where most encounter difficulty. Desuperimposition of the superimposition of the self and Self.

I mentioned before that I have Jon Kabat-Zinn to thank for this, and I highly recommend to anyone who meditates if they don't already to incorporate resting in awareness, choiceless awareness, just sitting, do nothing meditation into their repertoire. That "space" one finds combined with Jnana Yoga were the keys for me.

By the way, that video was just published on IANDSVideos six hours ago. It's from an IANDS conference last year but I haven't seen it published prior to this. Synchronicity?

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

What I find interesting is even when mind is willfully engaged I can still be in that dispassionate "space" witnessing mind thinking and body doing. It's certainly not a continuous state but I can "find" It when I pay attention and it doesn't require formal sitting. I posit that's the seat of true free will. The escape hatch from mind's conditioning, so to speak.

This, I think, is where most encounter difficulty. Desuperimposition of the superimposition of the self and Self.

I mentioned before that I have Jon Kabat-Zinn to thank for this, and I highly recommend to anyone who meditates if they don't already to incorporate resting in awareness, choiceless awareness, just sitting, do nothing meditation into their repertoire. That "space" one finds combined with Jnana Yoga were the keys for me.

By the way, that video was just published on IANDSVideos six hours ago. It's from an IANDS conference last year but I haven't seen it published prior to this. Synchronicity?

Further synchronicity (as you will see below). Incidentally, Dr. Greyson's videos are published from various sources on the internet and I used to follow him closely. As I mentioned before, I recently attended a ZOOM meeting with a presentation by his successor at the University of Virginia who is continuing his fine work.

One of my favorite Zen Masters is the outrageously funny and provocative Korean Seung Sahn. The foreword to his book was written by one of his disciples, Jon Kabat-Zinn. Jon is indeed quite good and the implementer of MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) used in many hospitals. Although Buddhist in its essential nature, Jon does not make any reference to Buddhism in MBSR lest people think that he is trying to impose his "religion" on others.

It seems as if we have traveled on many similar paths.

Originally Posted by Still_Waters

Further synchronicity (as you will see below). Incidentally, Dr. Greyson's videos are published from various sources on the internet and I used to follow him closely. As I mentioned before, I recently attended a ZOOM meeting with a presentation by his successor at the University of Virginia who is continuing his fine work.

One of my favorite Zen Masters is the outrageously funny and provocative Korean Seung Sahn. The foreword to his book was written by one of his disciples, Jon Kabat-Zinn. Jon is indeed quite good and the implementer of MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) used in many hospitals. Although Buddhist in its essential nature, Jon does not make any reference to Buddhism in MBSR lest people think that he is trying to impose his "religion" on others.

It seems as if we have traveled on many similar paths.

That explains Jon's reference to resting in awareness! Just a different label for a Zen Buddhist practice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikantaza

Shikantaza (只管打坐) is a Japanese translation of a Chinese term for zazen introduced by Rujing, a monk of the Caodong school of Zen Buddhism, to refer to a practice called "Silent Illumination", or "Serene Reflection", by previous Caodong masters. In Japan, it is associated with the Soto school. Unlike many other forms of meditation, shikantaza does not require focused attention on a specific object (such as the breath); instead, practitioners "just sit" in a state of conscious awareness.

Jiddu Krishnamurti called it choiceless awareness.

I suspect this is similar to Bruce Lee propounding to be like water. In being formless one is the potentiality of all forms. Kind of like Unmanifest and the manifest. It is generally accepted he was speaking of martial arts, and he was, but because he did practice both Zen and Taoism it had to also apply to the metaphysical.

I also like a quote of his that goes something like this and ostensibly in relation to Jeet Kun Do but also very much applicable to the metaphysical: A boat is useful for crossing a river, but once across do not carry it on one's back.

Speaking of resting in awareness...

https://youtu.be/9gxCpNIkG-Q?t=1450 Be aware of what you are not, and rest in what you are.

[Still_Waters]

Originally Posted by JustASimpleGuy

That explains Jon's reference to resting in awareness! Just a different label for a Zen Buddhist practice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shikantaza

Shikantaza (只管打坐) is a Japanese translation of a Chinese term for zazen introduced by Rujing, a monk of the Caodong school of Zen Buddhism, to refer to a practice called "Silent Illumination", or "Serene Reflection", by previous Caodong masters. In Japan, it is associated with the Soto school. Unlike many other forms of meditation, shikantaza does not require focused attention on a specific object (such as the breath); instead, practitioners "just sit" in a state of conscious awareness.

Jiddu Krishnamurti called it choiceless awareness.

I suspect this is similar to Bruce Lee propounding to be like water. In being formless one is the potentiality of all forms. Kind of like Unmanifest and the manifest. It is generally accepted he was speaking of martial arts, and he was, but because he did practice both Zen and Taoism it had to also apply to the metaphysical.

I also like a quote of his that goes something like this and ostensibly in relation to Jeet Kun Do but also very much applicable to the metaphysical: A boat is useful for crossing a river, but once across do not carry it on one's back.

There's one more synchronicity - Krishnamurti. I loved his books .... and ... my teacher actually knew him as she was once associated with the Theosophical Society.

Krishnamurti's "Awakening of Intelligence" was one of my favorites for some time, but I haven't looked at it in a while. "The pathless path to perfect freedom is paradoxically CHOICELESS". That initially made no sense to me ... until I realized the ultimate wisdom in that statement.

Zen also commanded my attention a lot, and I actually spent time at the monastery of the Grand Zen Master in Gjungju, South Korea. Zen is literally mind-boggling as intended.

I bookmarked this lecture at a point where he's speaking about four prerequisites for progression on the Vedantic spiritual path.

https://youtu.be/4TD3oEN88Z4?t=3175

Using the Aparokshanubhuti (by Adi Shankara) as a guide, Swami Sarvapriyananda speaks on Vedantic Meditation as part of a retreat held in Monroe, NY in 2018.