Welcome!

Thank You, Russell, and Congrats on your practice progress!

Hello all:

I spoke with Kate last year, and she suggested this forum.

My life is full with supporting two sons in college, carpentry, and a part-time private practice. Still, I require less sleep these days, meditate every day and enjoy the many benefits and challenges of the 8 fold path.
I will update my profile later, or you can see more about me at my web site: constancecasey.com

Now that I have a little more time available, I'd like to stop in from time to time for the reciprocal support of being with those interested in inner truth and reflection. Perhaps we will become more acquainted in peace and harmony and playfulness, which are my three favorite reflections each day.

Thanks to those who took the initiative to start this site, with metta,

Constance

Glad to see you got the technical sorted out! I am totally hopeless with it, myself!

Welcome to our motley crew.

Welcome, Constance! Nice that you found your way here.

Cheers,
Florian

Hi, Constance, I finally caught up with you! I remember that you were the one who made me aware of this place last summer. Good to see you here!

Hi, Eric_G from KFD and DhO. I have found those forums to be invaluable.

From a young age, with an unsatisfactory childhood, I guess I was always interested in some sort of "way out" and was reading things about consciousness, psychology, philosophy, drugs, etc. since around junior high. A couple of interesting experiences on drugs here and there.

Meditation didn't really take for quite a while. I eventually did a mantra meditation from Yogananda for a few months before giving up. Dabbled in and mostly read tons of Zen, which at the time seemed to be the major form of Buddhism in America as near as I could tell by the books on the shelves back then.

Later I went through a period where I did quite a bit of biofeedback.

In 2006, during my first retreat style meditation, I had a massive A&P experience that really dialed up the seeking (i.e. WTF was that? What happened to me?). What I found was Advaita and I hung with that for a few years. A knowledgeable ex-professor I had met who was into such things recommended Theravada Buddhism as the quickest path, but at the time I only found a book by Goenka which seemed kind of lame and I did not pursue it.

In mid 2010, still looking occasionally into Theravada Buddhism, I found KFD and DhO. I began meditating daily on the breath, samatha. In fall 2010 I began noting and had a single session with Kenneth to see if I was practicing correctly. Stream entry came around April 2012, and another path in December 2012. Relatively mappable up to around that point, but admittedly the past year has been all over the place. Quite an acceleration.

I am very much more aware, relaxed, and less "sticky" and probably suffer less. I know what I am in a way that I did not before. But there seems to be more to let go of and explore. I do find microdoses of psilocybin to be very useful for exploring, much like having a flashlight in a cave.

Good to see you here, Eric!

Welcome Eric!

Hello!

Hi, Eric. Welcome!

Hi All, I am Rod, from Australia, early 40's, post-doctoral scientist by training and I like to laugh alot. I have been frequenting the DHO and KFD for the past few months but looking for a more friendly, well rounded group of practitioners as I know none else around me who is practicing and interested to commune.

I am relatively new to practice (and under no illusions that I know much about anything), starting in ernest a few months ago when my father died and after witnessing all that, I resolved to find a way to reduce the suffering if at all possible so I didn't have to go through what he went through. Twenty years ago I was doing metta meditation daily with fire kasina for about 2 years but didn't really know what I was doing. Since then I have always leaned towards Buddhist thinking because it was very logical and verifiable and wasn't a 'religion' as such where large slaps of experience were put to faith alone.

Over the past few months of practice, I have felt great and really enjoyed it. Although I am pretty hard pressed to work out where I am in the scheme of things any more than pre-stream. Up till now, I have just been enjoying the experience of shamata jhana (1-4) meditation twice a day and mahasi style noting through the day (when I can). I have posted practice logs at DHO and KFD but I recognise they are not as technical and detailed as they probably should be - but so far that has been the nature of my experience and as I said it has been fun. I have been having instruction from Kenneth which is really helpful. I notice a few people here who's advice and general postings on other sites I have found really useful, really happy to see them here.

Anyway, I look forward to 'meeting' folks and constructively contributing where appropriate.
Best Wishes for all
Rod

Hello! I started meditating in response to deaths, myself. Nice to have you join the group.

Hey Rod, welcome. And Eric, too!

Hi, I'm Colleayn. I've been practicing vipassana and samatha since 2005 or 2006. My 45th b-day is fast approaching and I'm in a state of rapid change. My practice has branched off into something far more mystical than I ever imagined. My goals/dreams are manifesting at such an alarming pace, I've actually resorted to prostrations for the first time this weekend. Previously, I was allergic to flamboyant rituals. I have this odd sense that my inner being is being reconfigured right at this very moment. In the external world I've moved, changed jobs, forged a number new of supportive relationships, navigated divorce and called on my guardian angel as a test to see if angels are real. The angel has appeared to me during meditation and has been confirmed by a total stranger. On the surface, my life is ordinary. I'm a county employee, a hockey mom, a grad student. Below the surface and expanding now in all directions, I seem to have a direct connection to Spirit, and I'm not sure how to respond. Thus, the prostrations. I hear the call to undertake a writing project. This is a call I've heard for most of my adult life. The writing process has kicked my ass so many times, I've tried to bury that old dream as skeleton of the past. The skeleton is like the cover of Ona's book. It's kicking and dancing, but I'm not sure it's playful. If this is meant to be, I humbly ask that all blocks be removed. Thanks for listening!

Glad to meet you, Eric!

Welcome Rod, and I'm sorry for your loss.

Hi Colleayn, welcome! What surprises can unfold on the path!

Thanks folks for the welcome and condolences. My father's passing certainly triggered some things that have set me on a pretty committed path and for that I am sure he would be happy.
From one newcomer to another (and fellow 44 year old ), welcome Colleayn - looks like an exciting time for you!

Hi Rod,
I'm in Australia too, in Sydney. I'm sorry to hear about the death of your father. Reading people's journals here, one of the things that I've liked is that they're not so 'technical' - I came to the conclusion a while ago that I will never be (well never say never, but anyway that it doesn't seem sensible to aim towards being and think it's very important) a technical practitioner - which has ups and downs. Sometimes though, at least here, it seems like Daniel Ingram's original challenge to 'mushroom culture' that kicked off the PD scene has come full circle... not that we're back to mushroom culture but rather that making practice technical, dissing some practices as useless, and the whole idea of what 'awakening' is or could be have been thrown wide open again.

And hi Colleayn,
the shift to ritual is an interesting one, or has been for me - at first I was a naive materialist and contemptuous of ritual, then I got into Theravada ritual in a big way, now I'm less interested in metaphysics but have just started working with one of the entity practices Ona describes on her blog (thanks Ona! more in my personal thread)

Thanks Tom - appreciate the welcome

Hi Every3rdthought - great to see a fellow Australian here as there doesn't seem to be many of us into this (online at least - maybe they are all hanging out in Byron Bay ). I am in Sydney too! Thanks for your condolences. Yes I agree about the technical comment - I will never know all the stuff some of the folks over there know, and its great they have developed that knowledge too, but I prefer to treat this whole path as an organic unfolding that cannot be so precisely measured and that there is wonderful diversity of experiences on the path.

Hi Mike - thanks for your welcome and condolences too.

Hi!
Pejn from KFDh here. Soon 50 year old man from Sweden.
This forum has grown into something good I think, so why not join?

I have been fachinated with meditation since I can remember. (A&P as child? Not impossible, concentration was there.)
I learned TM in my early 20:es and meditated regurlarly for a year or two, but was not satisfyed by the development and quit. I felt I became dull and uninterested i everyday life and after the first rewarding period i did not seem to move forward.

2008-2009 I suffered and started meditating following Bhante Gunaratanas "Mindfulness in plain English", slowly building my practice. (Still my main on-cushion practice when I think about it...)

I joined KFDh early 2011 and has become an on-off student of Kenneth Folk since then and kept a log there.

2011 was wild!
First path in the spring and second in summer.
Then for various reason I had a long break in the sessions with Kenneth, but he said in feb, without explaining deeper, that he thinks I got third around new year 2011/2012. I don't know really.

2012 I was stuck in the cycles of insights, rolling endlessly it seemed.

Now in 2013 my practice has calmed down. Still cycling but much milder.
Since nothing "big" has happened since early 2012 my expectations of furter "things to happen" has been almost lost.
In some respects I feel like a beginner again.

In daily life i feel completely normal now, except for... well..., something.
The interest in meditation and speculations around it is almost gone.
But the everyday practice is just there it seems.
And still I plan for some short retreats and see forward to them.
And still I want to re-establish a more regurarly on-cushion practice.
We'll see how it goes with that.

Thanks/Pejn

Great to see you here, Pejn. Welcome!

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