The Malleable Light

I have not been sticking to my commitment to write a bi-weekly progress report so I will just do a monthly report instead, unless I am seeing a lot of activity and then I will just let the posts speak for themselves. I continuously try to consciously induce the out of body state but as I have stated so many times in the past, being busy in waking life puts a damper on any real progress. I have been meditating every night using a modified Shamatha meditation technique where I am actually laying down rather than sitting up and I have been reading Astral Dynamics and doing energy work.

The meditation is interesting but I think that laying down while meditating is probably not the best idea because I end up drifting off to sleep. I have been experiencing rushing noises right before drifting off that can only be described as the noise you might hear on a radio when the dial is between stations. I posted a video Rushing Noises / Sleep Paralysis Sounds in the video section that somewhat represents what I hear only mine are much shorter in quick bursts that fade in and out.

Astral Dynamics is great and is the best OBE guide available in my opinion. I have finally decided to just read the book rather than stopping when I don’t feel like I and progressing with certain exercises. The book states that one must understand tactile imaging and be able put it into practice to get the most out of the book however if I never read the book because I pause at every hurdle then I know for sure I will not get anything out of the book . I was able to get my hands on a wonderful Astral Dynamics overview Robert Bruce On OBEs thanks to ubikmonroe. I highly recommend this book and even if you don’t buy in to any of this, it’s a trip and worth the read.

That’s all for now. Thanks for dropping in and reading and I wish you the best of luck in your spiritual endeavors.

David Mathis Astral Projection, Meditation, Progress, Techniques Astral Dynamics, Astral Projection, Astral Projection Techniques, Meditation, Progress, Rushing Noises, Shamatha Meditation, Sleep Paralysis

I have not achieved the out of body state in a few weeks due to pain and drugs associated with the  extraction of my lower wisdom teeth. The pain has now been gone and I have been trying for the last week to Astral Project.

Last night I decided that I would apply some of the Shamatha Meditation techniques I learned over the weekend for Astral Projection. The two seem so alike that I can’t help but suspect that they are the same exact thing under different names. In fact I found myself sitting in a group of people in the Buddhist temple meditating and thinking to myself, “This is just another  technique for achieving the out of body state”.

I went to bed and fell asleep with no problem at about 11:00 PM while listening to Fleetwood Mac and John Lennon. I woke at 4:00 PM, had my bathroom break and then returned to bed. I ran the mantra “I am now out of body” through my head for about 10 minutes and then my mind and body fell into sleep. I then woke back up around 6:00 AM. This time I began using the “focus on breathing” technique used in  Shamatha Meditation. Random thoughts would enter my mind and I would gently return focus to breathing. The pattern repeated itself 3 more times and then I fell into a shallow sleep and almost lost consciousness but was able to return my focus back to my breathing. 1 more minute passed and the vibrations hit me but it was 6:30 AM, time for work!

I may try this technique again, but as I mentioned in previous posts, I don’t think it really matters what you’re focused on as long as you keep focused on something.

I would be interested to hear if anyone else happens to see the similarities between Shamatha Meditation and Astral Projection.

David Mathis Astral Projection, Meditation Astral Projection, Astral Projection Techniques, Buddhism, Shamatha Meditation, Techniques

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the Shambhala Meditation Center here is Austin. The center was established in 1976 and offers classes on meditation and Shambhala Buddhism which is a form of Western Buddhism. I made several new friends and had my first lesson in Shamatha Meditation.

During the visit there was a an initial focus on the history of Shambhala Buddhism and then 70% of the 2 hours was focused on Shamatha Meditation, what meditation is, what it isn’t and then about 15 minutes of actual meditation as a group.

Quote:

In Buddhism, there are two types of meditation: Shamatha and Vipassana. Shamatha is single pointed meditation. Vipassana is an analytic form of meditation. These 2 meditations have to be cultivated in sequence. Shamatha meditation first, and then Vipassana. Although, the individual need not to have fully accomplished the Shamatha meditation, he must have proper experience of Shamatha meditation in order to embark on Vipassana. Without having any experience of Shamatha meditation, then practice of Vipassana meditation is ineffective.

Shamatha meditation helps to free the mind from disturbing emotions and conceptual thinking processes. It brings the mind under control, under discipline, with some degree of single pointed focus, with full alertness of mind. By doing this meditation, the individual is able to suppress disturbing emotions and gain inner peace, harmony and balance.

Vipassana meditation directly helps to pull out the seeds or imprints that are left in our psyche by these manifest emotional defilements and distorted thoughts so that disturbing emotions and thoughts will never reoccur. It brings unchanging and everlasting inner peace, joy and harmony.

The very purpose of Shamatha meditation is not just to feel good for a period of time but to give birth to deeper levels of understanding, of wisdom. So that individuals can see the ultimate reality of phenomena and are able to go beyond ordinary perceptions. Shamatha meditation cuts through ordinary appearances and the confusion between our concepts and reality.

Now, how to engage in Shamatha meditation and what exactly one is doing while sitting and meditating? When sitting in meditation, one is sitting in motionless body and motionless mind. Sitting in motionless body is not difficult. Sitting in motionless mind is not easy because our ordinary mind is so undisciplined and so oriented, or drawn, towards external stimulation. It is very hard to bring the mind to rest and calm with no single wave of thought or thinking process. Although one can bring mind to rest or calm for a short time, our mind can remain blank, or numb, with no sense of freshness and alertness. Thus, one forgets the object of meditation and mind will be influenced by drowsiness, excitement, or wandering. Therefore, it is really not easy for us to live in motionless mind, even during the meditation period.

In brief, Shamatha meditation is the state of single pointed mind, characterized by perfect mental stability and mental clarity, having some degree of freshness within the mind. Mental clarity can only come when the mind becomes free from sluggishness, drowsiness, haziness, cloudiness, numbness and blankness. Mental stability will only come when the mind becomes free from excitement, agitation, manic thoughts and addiction to wandering aimlessly with no definite destination.

Mental drowsiness and excitement are the two obstacles out of the six obstacles of shamatha meditation that we are going to discuss next time. Every human being is fully qualified to practice Shamatha meditation no matter who we are, no matter what kind of culture we come from.

What causes us to fail at perfecting this form of meditation is laziness, forgetfulness, lack of interest, and not being able to see the positive benefits of Shamatha meditation. The reason we are not interested in meditation is that we think of material comforts, luxuries are the best things in life. We are so consumed by the needs and many demands of this life that we become slaves of material comforts. But in fact, material comforts and luxuries are not the best things in our life because life is temporary. We have a lot of fear and worry concerning material comforts. Material comforts really fool us and mislead us in many ways. If we are sincerely able to see the way material comforts effect us then we can sit in meditation without grasping at what may be the end result of our meditation.

During the meditation there was verbal guidance which provided the key techniques that must be followed to achieve success. I would like to go over the things I experienced during the meditation and touch on the parts that I feel are important and how I think they tie directly into Astral Projection.

The first thing we focused on was posture and position. I feel that this is vital for this type of meditation but maybe not for astral projection. The posture was a seated position with legs crossed and sitting slightly lower than the hip. The back must remain straight but comfortable with the ears positioned directly above the shoulders. The arms hang straight down with the hands resting palm down on the knees or thighs. I was not able to get perfectly comfortable in this position however I have terrible posture so I expect this to improve with time.

The next step was relaxing the body. This step is vital for this type of meditation and for astral projection. We moved through each part of the body relaxing each until the entire body was relaxed. This is the exact same thing I do each night while preparing to project and it’s a prerequisite and one of the first steps you will hear on Robert Monroe’s “Gateway Experience” CDs. You must be relaxed for meditation or astral projection to work.

The last and very important step in my opinion was the focus on breath. The goal is to be still and focus all attention on breath with no expectations. When you do this thoughts will naturally arise and when they do, you neither cling to them or push them away, but rather acknowledge and observe them and return your focus to breath. Inner peace can be achieved if you are able to successfully do this. This step is interesting to me because it’s one of the main techniques I use when astral projecting except I focus on a place or object rather than breath. This technique is presented in William Bulhman’s book “Adventures Beyond the Body: How to Experience Out-of-Body Travel”.

In conclusion. I feel that Shamatha Meditation and astral projection are very similar (if not the same) and that by practicing both I should be able to achieve inner peace and astral projection quicker. The two practices complimant each other and I suggest that those of you who are attempting astral projection without practicing meditation add meditation to your lifesytle.

David Mathis Meditation Astral Projection, Astral Projection Techniques, Buddhism, Shamatha Meditation, Shambhala, Shambhala Buddhism, Techniques, Thoughts, Vipassana Meditation