Welcome!

Namasté, Lachlan!

Nice seeing you here!

I joined Plum village meditations for two weeks in a row online on Zoom.

There is a break for a few days and it should resume during September.

You can register here:

plumvillage.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJA...AJTIvOimfI0a8H82wLls

Hello! Welcome.

Welcome to AwakeNetwork Lachlan!

Hi all, I am Yin, 33 years old female.
I feel extremely lucky to chance on this forum, so many people who consciously trying to better their life, so amazing!

A little bit on myself..hmm..fairly happy uneventful loving childhood, went off to the UK to study medicine and practice medicine there for awhile before deciding to come back to Malaysia and run a small business. All before the COVID pandemic started.

I was brought up in a Buddhist family with a heavy emphasis on rituals and rites. I started seeking out the 'real' dhamma last year and started meditating seriously early this year. I started off with concentration practice probably 6 months but was getting frustrated because i feel like I have made no progress. Then MCTB2 popped up on the net one day as I was seeking for more to read.. hence since June 2020, I have been doing Mahasi style noting.

I practise ranging from 1-6 hours a day, have never been to a retreat ( COVID !), planning to attend one in Malaysia this year end hopefully!

I honestly dont know where I am at on the map, but just plugging away.

I am in the process of looking for a teacher that could guide me in Vipassana meditation because I think my neurotic and obsessive towards perfection (HAH) personality could benefit a teacher! I look forward to hearing your thoughts and recommendations about getting a teacher if you have any

Namaste to all. I really really love this place.

Have you checked out Anapti Sutta ?

Here is a link from Plum Village:

plumvillage.org/sutra/discourse-on-the-f...reness-of-breathing/

Hope that helps!

Hi everyone, I'm Brian, mid 20s from the northeast US.

I've been practicing consistently for a year or two, and consistently drifting between practices! I think Rob Burbea is a big intellectual influence on how I conceptualize dharma/emptiness and the path, but for now I'm working on a noting practice to try to get to SE which I hope will be a platform from which it is much easier to play with things like jhanas, deeper emptiness practices, and maybe some soul-making. I'd say my primary motivation these days is a burning curiosity to explore and discover.

I will be starting a practice journal in hopes that it (and other people here!) will encourage me to continue and progress in a meaningful way. I wasn't sure whether to start it here or on DhO but I think some very experienced people are active here and it seems a bit more cozy, so I figured I'd give it a shot! 

Looking forward to chatting and learning from everyone.

Hi, new member here. My name’s Ian, I’m in the U.K. and a keen practitioner. Looking to share good discourse with knowledgable, enthusiastic and experienced people. Cheers. 

Welcome Ian! Greetings from Denmark!

I’m sure you will like it here!

Welcome Ian

Hello! 

Hello Ian, 

Greetings from the Southeast U.S. 

I m new, 24y old from italy 

Hello!

Hello!

Hi and welcome to AN forum! 

Welcome Ian and Groudon!

 Ciao!

Hi All,I’m a 50 year old divorced father of 2 living in NYC. I think I’ve always been seeking something but it has been a very slow burn until recently. Lots of trauma/suffering through childhood and addiction for roughly 20 years. Been sober about 12 years and did my first goenka retreat about 10 years ago. Spent most of the week trying to get comfortable and struggling with intense upper back pain and having to adjust at least once throughout the sit. Finally on day 9 I said to myself, “No matter what, no matter fucking what, I will not move for 60 minutes. I don’t care if I die on this bench, I’m not fucking moving.” About 40 minutes into the sit it felt like tree roots from a giant oak were trying to burst from my back. I just sat and observed with all the equanimity I had and suddenly it just dispersed into what I experienced as the lightest most gentle “fairy dust”… Poof!  The next few sits for the rest of the retreat were a breeze and I felt great. I came back and did my best to sit 1 hour twice a day as soon as I woke up and right before bed. After a couple of weeks my AA sponsor asked me how my AA meetings were going and I was like, “I feel great meditating with no urges to drink and a sense of peace I’ve never felt.” He told me stop meditating and go to meetings… ha! To be honest the sloth in me would rather go and sit in a meeting for 60 minutes and be social than face myself on the cushion. A couple of frustrations during that time: I was unable to scan my body without visualizing all or some of it (usually some image of a generic light filled silhouette of whatever body part I was on). Also my eyes (closed) would track the scan throughout my body. I was told neither was proper technique. I sought help online, but whatever Goenka friendly meditation website I was on at the time, would only tell me to “keep sitting ” and offered no suggestions or tips... So I stopped meditating. About 5 years ago at the very beginning of 2017 I decided to start again for 30 minutes a day. While some of the early practice was me trying to sit and focus on the breath at the nostrils and upper lip it devolved into a crappy practice where I was just trying to keep a streak going rather than be present to my experience. I think I missed around 3 sits in 5 years but it literally was me sitting cross legged on the couch and falling asleep at 1:30am until the timer went off. Plus, throughout the day, I was always like “Fuck, I have to meditate later...” Not the best mantra. 5 months ago I did a weekend retreat with 5-MeO-DMT. It was the most profound experience of my life. While before that weekend it felt like I was searching for something, after that weekend it felt like I was in the flow of something and being carried along. Within a week of that retreat I had found MCTB2 and read it word for word, cover to cover. I can’t stop reading or thinking about dharma, awakening, meditation, technique, etc. I spent dozens of hours on DhO and just recently came to AN. I took a few months off from meditation after that weekend and just read and walked and thought. About a month ago I started sitting twice a day with 1 hour in the early afternoon and 30-45 minutes before bed. It’s been a much different experience. I want to start a practice log as I have so many questions and can’t go at this alone. I probably wrote way too much already. I wish all of you happiness and look forward to meeting and learning from you. -Rich

Welcome to AN Rich!

Welcome Rich!

The biggest thing for practice is consistency and honesty. Practicing every day, gently and not desperately, will keep you working on your cutting edge without burning out. Being honest will help you accept and work on the deeper challenges that we all have. This whole path is humbling, but it is also transforming. Retreats can be helpful, too, if you have the time/resources.

Best wishes for your practice!

Thanks for joining us, Rich. Looking forward to your practice journal if you decide to keep one. 

Dusko (Papa Che?), Shargrol, Chris and Kacchapa, it’s inspiring that you four responded! Thanks so much!