So much to teach about the Theta state/stage that it will take several posts and days. In many practices, like autogenics and progressive relaxation, just getting to Alpha is the end goal. While beneficial, there are more and more benefits the deeper one goes, and it goes practically infinitely deep. Getting to Theta is the foundation, and the firmer and more consistent it is the better it will be for what we build upon it. You need to get 100 percent only relaxation and comfort when you meditate, purifying the habits of meditation and daily life until you can. The more consistent one gets the more that relaxation and comfort will grow into happiness. Many strange phenomena might occur during Alpha stage, such as expanding, merging with the atmosphere, spinning, lightening, seeing light, feeling like floating. Pay no attention to them or anything else. Be neutral, as if walking past them. In practice though the first few times of each new phenomena you may get excited, but once the novelty wears off you will become more and more indifferent to them, even to happiness. Luang Phor has his meditation students recite daily Happiness and Indifference must go together. You must have relaxation, comfort, or deeper levels of happiness when you meditate. And you must be indifferent to these and the deepening of them, in order to not get stuck, like sliding down a chute without grabbing hold of the sides. With repetition of only relaxed practice, the mind and body will be quicker and quicker to relax and get quieter and happier, until reaching Theta becomes quick and easy. At the same time though, this is just the very beginning, we have yet to really start building. These experiences of becoming one with the atmosphere, the body seeming to disappear, becoming pure awareness, have led to all sorts of philosophies, sects, cropping up with this as the Ultimate Truth. In fact we havent even begun building the boat to cross the river to the other side. Staying in this state and crossing this stage is quite tricky. At this stage body and sensory awareness decreases, while internal phenomena increase. This makes it easy to lose consciousness and fall asleep, as Theta is after all the dreaming state of sleep. Hypnagogic images usually appear, the first fleeting, strange, chaotic images that develop into dreams, and will do so if we dont prevent it. The awareness will be drawn into watching these and paying less attention to the body, leading to sleep. One approach is to lightly anchor to the center of our awareness (I say center of awareness, not center of the body as the body will have become very indistinct and merged into the environment, and thinking of the body will return us to it, waking us up so to speak, easy to get stuck on this stage due to returning to the center of the physical body), to a comfortable spot of our awareness. We cant press down or anchor to it, nor rhythmically recollect it. Ive tried! Just be mindful of when our awareness of it diminishes and then lightly briefly touch that comfortable spot again, or even the whole of that expanded awareness, just to refresh and keep that connection. This way requires considerable mindfulness. We cant use Mantra here as that is a coarse Alpha method for dealing with reasoned verbal thinking, if you try it in Theta it will feel forced, rough and unnatural, like changing into 2nd gear at 60mph, it will throw you back into Alpha or Beta. I suspect not many people realise this. The recommended way though is to use a Nimitta, a visualized image. Theta is the stage where Visualization becomes possible, even spontaneous. Unless one has developed and practiced mindfully recollecting a Nimitta outside of sitting meditation, or has gained a Nimitta from before, or is naturally artistically gifted, the visual type, MOST people will not be able to use a Nimitta UNTIL in this state. Worse, the attempt to use a Nimitta too soon, while still in Beta or Alpha leads to forcing the image, creating mental strain, physical tension, increased bodily awareness, focussed willed concentration upon the image, while the whole nervous system rebels in tension. This is a common and major obstacle and is absolutely the wrong technique. If this sounds familiar, immediately abandon that technique and stop that meditation, and next time only relax. Go back to basics, until you only get relaxation when you meditate, getting to Alpha and across Alpha with no use of Nimitta. NEXT: Nimitta transparentcorp/research/theta-brain-waves.php
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 08:18:08 +0000
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