fire kasina instructions

Then for two minutes close your eyes and imagine everything what you saw. Once done you can open your eyes. Some of those more peripheral images may begin to stabilize into sheets of blue, purple, or some other color, even as the red dot itself is fading to black. Ensure your gaze is at the same level as that of the position of the yellow object. Ok, so what did you notice? If you are using some other object, then the image should relate in some way to the color but seem more purified and clean. Do this for 2 minutes and then you can open your eyes. 01:15:02 - Author and meditation teacher Daniel Ingram speaks with host Michael W. Taft about how the Fire Kasina practice can be used as an insight practice. We can also use the blissful evenness of radiant, steady fire that just flows like an even stream of flame. Maybe our first sign of flames is a small impression within the middle of our field of perception. I am to be honest hereI loved this post. Choose anyone that resonates with you. Have you sat near a riverbed and watched the river flow. Light has significant spiritual meanings, for instance the Bible says on the first day of creation God said Let there be light and there was light. We may start simply, noticing subtle washes and patches of color moving around. In fact there appears something like a reddish or whitish static or fuzz, like on an old TV not tuned to any channel. Eventually, this tension will go away, but initially it can be annoying. It boils down to the fact that there are two different paths you can take with the FK practice, which mirror the categories defined in shamanic systems worldwide: the path of the holy person or the path of the sorcerer. RSS (Opens New Window) Fire Kasina in daily life log . If the 8-fold path is not something you find meaningful, then you can use or create a different image (like this light bulb). Reality can be altered to a surprising degree in this phase, and not just when on the cushion. The basic sequence now was: look at the flame, close eyes, see after-image, red dot, red spinning dot, gold intricate shimmering star with darker moving borders around it, black disk (sometimes with subtle nuance inside it), open eyes, and do it again. Fine details happen to be important in this practice. Subjects include: the background of kasina practice in the Thervada tradition, using kasinas to go into jhana, how vipassana practice interacts with jhana practice, meditation on the Three Characteristics, and detailed instructions for doing the Fire Kasina practice Skip to content Deconstructing Yourself Home About Podcast Blog Resources Do this for 3 minutes and then close your eyes. When cultivating a color has been done very well for long enough, you will see the chosen color everywhere even when opening your eyes, as if you were wearing glasses of that specific color. You can expand the scope of the "white" to be bigger and bigger -which is in essence adjusting the scope of your attention and achieving something similar to the body breathing. Fire is also symbolically meaningful, representing transformation, energy, heat, maybe even en-light-enment, so fire kasina (or trataka) is a popular visual meditation. Thanks, i'll give the dark room thing a go. Or maybe none of this happens for you and that's OK too. Cooktop Furrion FGH4ZSA-SS Installation. It is this radiant inner heat that we can use as we emerge from our absorption to heal the body, to soothe the body, to uplift and energise the body. Repeat'] and didn't include any of the detailed, informative, and instructive background info that's available. Subjects include: the background of kasina practice in the Thervada tradition, using kasinas to go into jhana, how vipassana practice interacts with jhana practice, meditation on the Three Characteristics, and detailed instructions for doing the . Now we shall individually look into each of these kasinas and see how to practice each one of them. When the murk arises, initially it is very helpful to just open your eyes and go back to the flame or other object and cycle again. Instead of focusing and observing certain aspects of nature and finding inner peace through this, we as Muslims recite from our Holy Quraan where we find peace within its words and from trying to recite in a melodious manner. If however you plan to do kasina meditation for more than about 20 minutes, you might want to transition to a different method after a few rounds. If we take the second fork, we pay attention not to a specific color, but to how the subtle colors in the murk are organizing, because if you pay attention to them for long enough, they will begin to form objects that become more and more recognizable. What follows is his description of the meditation breakthrough he experienced on the 7th day of the retreat.] Your connection to infinite space only deepens as you realize there is something huge out there that is overlooking you and supporting you all the time. jhanic factors; how insight slips into concentration practices, 21:21 Beginning to describe the stages of working with a Even a saucer, a can top, jar lid, or piece of construction paper will work for this, but candle flames produce a nice retinal burn that helps make the initial stages more rewarding. If you try for this and it doesnt happen, just practice more, as that is the key to concentration practices. If you are unable to find a park or garden then find a lane in your vicinity which is quite (i.e. Shinzen talks about this distinction in the chapter of his book The Science of Enlightenment entitled The Realm of Power. Traditional Buddhism makes the same split, saying that its OK to do magical practices (i.e. For the fire element itself is experienced within the life-force and the fire element, as we have experienced within our body, is an expression of the radiance or vitality of the life-force within us. Those who are good at tai chi or similar body-related energy practices will find those skills valuable here. If you are using a candle flame, this should be a red dot [If you are color-blind, I do not know how you might perceive or describe this: do the experiment, find out, and tell me! We just practice to build the wiring through repetition of the cycle of looking at the object, seeing the nimitta, tracking it through all its changes until it vanishes finally, getting to the murk, tracking it until we space out, opening our eyes, staring at the object, and repeating the cycle again and again and again. Unified Mindfulness) and I found myself at first confused about or misunderstanding some fine points of FK meditation. In the Autumn of 2019, a two-week retreat happened at Bryngarth in Hereford, UK. Can you explain how that exactly happens with a scientific explanation? We can use the blazing, white, intense psychic heat of samdhi, when the energy is strong and powerful in the central channel and the sign glows brilliantly. We can just pervade the whole body with this sense of this radiant, psychic inner fire that the samdhi itself produces to ease the body, uplift and heal the body. For more about how to practice this, see this excellent article on Hakalau. The ninth kasina is simply gazing at an open space. Kasina meditation | Religious Forums Hear as only Hear. I usually transition to vipassana when I start seeing the yellow circle. Give me five minutes and you will have all the answers. Insight stages have their ups and downs, to put it gently, and more about them will be discussed in the next chapter. Perhaps parts were blurry and other parts vivid. Once done, you can open your eyes. However, what I can affirm is that through consistent meditation practice, one can develop a greater self-awareness and a deeper comprehension of the world around them which eventually would help individuals to lead a meaningful life ~ Stay Blessed . Everywhere you see a bit of that color, even if it just seems to be part of some vague shift or swatch of moving vagueness, focus on that, attempting to cultivate a sense of rapture regarding that color. We discovered all sorts of things we wished to share with others, who might want to take up these practices or have done them and want to compare notes, so we started this site, on which we hope to explore what happened, compare it to the old texts, and give advice on how to do something like we did. This meditation helps you release the feelings of loneliness and makes you connected to infinite reality. Most will end up doing some fusion of both, so really this is a spectrum of options and practice styles more than a dichotomy. In learning the simple-to-follow instructions of the fire kasina practice, one gains confidence in attaining high concentration; daily activities undoubtedly benefit from this ability to focus in a pristine way. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. This is rather like when the first big log or piece of wood catches fire and we know that we have a time of ease, when we can enjoy the warmth of the fire without being distracted by the effort that it takes to make it. Thank you for your kind comments. steadying the red dot nimitta; changes in the color of the nimitta and the If its an apple then see its shape, texture and the red color. Akasa Kasina Gazing upon space, a hole or sky. Knowing what these are precisely, and giving terms to them, can help us to know how to practice and clarify discussions. 5. I have a very scientific and atheistic background, but some personal experiences and realizations as well as few books I read really opened my eyes that the world is probably not like it seems on the superficial level. Thats a pretty common phenomenon. Any lightbulb will do. If you are using leaves, then focus on the shape, structure, the fresh color for about three minutes. Getting intense visions (or hallucinations) is likely to be very psychologically destabilizing for all but the most psychologically healthy of people. At some point past the color swaths and patterns of the images of either fork, we may enter realms of liquid fluency and mastery that are open, vast, hyper-real, and seemingly alive. Even if you dont get as far as all that with these images, they still represent a deep and highly-concentrated meditation experience, as well as just being really cool. Kasina Meditation - Buddhist Geeks Guide They tend to have less complexity while on the cushion if our concentration is strong, but that doesnt guarantee that there cant be some challenging effects when we get up off the cushion in some difficult insight stage. The fourth kasina is the element of wind. From another practice perspective, the images do matter, particularly if you are doing something such as cultivating the image of a specific deity, dakini, symbol, Tarot card, etc. How To Meditate To Relieve Stress And Anxiety ? I recommend something with high contrast, big bold lines that lead to a strong afterimage. Try to minimise blinking and eye movement. As with the earth kasia, the imperfections in the earth in the sign that we took originally, the unevenness of it, will be apparent in the learning sign. If the visual field is more like disorganized static, then just start to notice the little bits of that static that are of the chosen color. This book is for free distribution. The objective is to sharpen the concentration skills and this is how novice meditators in the olden era used to master their concentration skills. Sit comfortably with your back straight and gaze directly upon the soil tray. This is like settling the mind in the early stages of concentration. If you continue to pay attention to the visuals, even if they stop producing much in the way of nice red dots or the like, then you will eventually get to understand what the murk is about. When we feel the absence of this radiance within us, sometimes even the body feels frozen, it is a sign that this life-force is not flowing well or is becoming blocked or stagnant. This might take from thirty seconds to a minute or two. dropping of sustained thought (being second jhanic factors); the second This gave rise to Kasina Meditation. You need to concentrate to shut the ego and just experience life as it is. Luckily, from one point of view, none of the reasons nor the specifics of the images really matter so long as you use them to build strong concentration. Before that, its too easy to get distracted or deluded and miss the goal of stream entry entirely. You do not need a campfire to focus on the fire, all you need to do is light the candle. This takes practice, and initially it is easier to change the color to colors that are close to it, such as blue into green, rather than trying to change green into red, for example. And even whilst engaged in the concentration of earth, water, fire or air, it is the uniformity of the sign that we pay attention to. Stare at a candle flame or other light source (e.g. Eventually you begin to have experiences that can only be described as mental images appearing to be completely real or as if you are seeing them externally. Close your eyes, focus on the afterimage. The practice of meditation is key the approach can vary for different people ~ Stay Blessed . or without a support system when one has a serious mental health diagnosis. Now imagine the color, texture, shape of the soil in your mind for the next 2 minutes. and our There seemed to be a kind of hard intensity of vision with the physical eyeballs tightly and narrowly focused as close to the face as possible. Ive tried a number of different ways to meditate but none as good as this one. If you like this content and are interested in meditating with us, Shawn and Roger, you can join us in the next session. The purpose was to simply gaze upon an object without developing any emotion or thought unto them. They become familiar, and the concentration power grows. Thanks for sharing. At this point, the elaborate visualizations you find in some of the traditions of the Vajrayana suddenly seem and then become vastly more attainable. As practice grows stronger, you will notice that your internal intentions and inclinations have more and more control of what shapes and colors the nimitta becomes, as well as where it is in the visual field and how it moves. When you get even better, you will gain what I call color control, in which you can turn the color into another color just by inclining the mind towards that other color and waiting a few seconds for it to shift to that new color. But Ive done my share of staring at the wonder of nature with a blank mind, so I guess that counts. In 3 easy steps! The mental images flow together with the patterns on the inside of your eyelids, and the patterns give rise to mental images. 1 . Then for two minutes close your eyes and imagine everything that you saw. You might notice the image I had you use looks like dharmachakra, the wheel of dharma. Attention must be broader, more open, and accepting. One thing that I noticed happening with some meditators at the retreat was getting stuck for long periods of time in what is colloquially called the murk. The murk is what remains when the nimitta has faded away and all you see is the patterns on the backs of your eyelids. Unfortunately you cant have a physical object for this, like for the above three kasinas. They may be vague and shifty at first but, with practice, they get clearer, more detailed, and more stable. Ensure that you can gaze at the flower directly. This radiance we can use to sink into the heart to thaw out the frozen, to dissolve the congested or blocked energy and open up to deeper states of equanimity and peace. As you think of the river you tend to feel relaxed Isnt it? If we wish to make it more stable, we can allow it to expand outwards. If our mind becomes obsessed with where the sign is irregular, where the flames may be still uneven and moving too dynamically, there will remain a subtle disturbance in the mind and the samdhi will not be even. The very first question that will come up for a Shinzen meditator is: Am I looking at See In or See Out? practice - Fire Kasina He is the author of the seminal text Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha now out in its second edition- and also the main force behind the radical dharmaoverground website, which specializes in a brand of unusually-frank discussion of meditation. Our consciousness is something much more and everything in nature and the universe seems to be connected on a deeper level. In late 2017, Elizabeth went on retreat with Culadasa. The Luminous Jhnas These are deeper than the whole-body or pleasure jhnas, and are called "luminous" because the object of meditation used for entering the first jhna is the illumination phenomenon. Alternatively, instead of attending to the closed-eye visualizations, you can use an imaginary object after doing a few rounds of eyes open, eyes closed. Installation Instructions FSD60FA, FSD36FA, and FSD60FA-M Front Access Combination Fire & Smoke Damper 11/2 HOUR UL555 & UL555S CLASS I OR CLASS II CLASSIFIED RATING Author: Ruskin - Dampers Louvers www.ruskin.com (816) 761-7476 Subject: Models FSD60FA, FSD60FA-M, and FSD36FA combination fire/ smoke dampers are ideal for shaft wall applications. If this doesn't happen, remain calm and accepting of whatever is actually presenting itself. The third kasina is fire. Out of these, ten visual objects were know as the kasinas. Pick a kasina such as a blue disk, a computer-generated blue circle on a black background, or (my favorite) a candle flame. Spending time staring at the sky or some other open space may help. More practice again makes this easier. Sit on a chair two to three feet from the light and gaze on the rays of sunlight. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. More about how to practice the Fire Kasina as an insight practice (i.e. patience, faith, and curiosity, 37:57 Learning color, image, and movement control in the In September of 2022, David Germano and Daniel Ingram discussed elemental practices at UVA found here. ), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h848WjDsbuw&t=665s A guided kasina i taught a few years back in Manila. If you did see an afterimage, what did you notice about it? As you take a walk in the park or garden find a bench or a place where you can sit for a while. The fire kasina was my first meditation object when I began practicing and now features prominently in my samatha practice. Achieving such a result of course requires dedicated practice, patiently and persistently, for a long time, and ideally in life circumstances that are conducive to a dedicated meditation practice. Helpful advice on relating skillfully to those effects will be given towards the end of this book. kasina - Reddit If you are choosing a colored disk, it should be a few inches in diameter for most people. As a person gazes at something for a while, they tend to contemplate the nature of the thing they are looking at too. Comfort is moderately important, as pain can be very distracting initially. Recent conditioning and your own tendencies will likely determine some of this, but other aspects of the reasons for the specific forms this takes may be hard to sort out. You can use a Kasina to achieve exclusive attention instead of - Reddit However, it seems like a lot of people here have tried it without adverse effects on their energy channels, so go with what you feel works for you. Staring at the screen is probably not great for your eyes, and some people experience a bit of eyestrain from this. For those using something like a candle or plate, place the chosen kasina object about four to five feet (about 1 to 1.6 meters) in front of you and slightly below eye level such that your gaze rests on it easily. Then comes the question of how far to go out into the murk and when to bail and open our eyes and look at the external kasina object again. At times you might get distracted in thoughts again, or check out and feel sleepy or bored, or get frustrated that nothing seems to be happening. All that was required was to simply gaze upon the object without creating or indulging in any thoughts. Reddit, Inc. 2023. Thanks, Lowk. Place the red object on an elevated platform or on a stand which is two to three feet away from your gaze. There is some difference between the traditions, with some holding the view that a stable wash of bright white permeating awareness is a good endpoint. I wouldn't recommend it unless you can dim the bulb to very low light, as little as a candle flame, as staring into a bright light might not be good for your eyes. But I first heard of them from a student of Chinese Chan (Mahayanna) Buddhism. So it can be helpful to use something that is both easy to get an afterimage and symbolically meaningful to you. The key to developing our samdhi on all of the kasias, as the sign begins to emerge, is to pay attention to perception of uniformity, of evenness within the sign, within the object. What are your practice instructions for Fire Kasina? Cassina Furniture Owners Manuals, User Guides, Instructional Help Documents & Information. Once done open your eyes. Place your attention on the leaves, branches swaying back and forth. 28. Eventually, we get so that we can change the whole visual field to any color and make them bright, stable, and vibrant, refining the color to the exact hue that we preferbasically the ultimate in interior design. The color Green is associated with harmony, growth and freshness. And then we come to the work of concentrating upon the object in a sustained way to approach samdhi. Or just looking at a spot and keeping your eyes steady for a minute or two. Asthese begin to form into more definite and complex objects, we may get out of the way to let them form further. We can recognize this headiness by a sense of buzzing in our heads that is irritating, by a sense of unusual restlessness that starts to develop despite stronger concentration, and by a sense of mental flightiness. Close your eyes and look for the afterimage. This is a sign you've reached CEV Level 2. Many of us find that the hardest part of navigating the later stages of kasina visuals is avoiding turning attention to the understandably captivating bodily bliss and peaceful components and thus ignoring the visuals to some degree. Or after getting into your car and before starting it, pull out your phone and look at the dharmachakra image eyes open, then eyes closed at the afterimage. It is this quality of the samdhi which is particular to fire kasia; whereas it is the stability, the unshakable nature of our samdhi, which is the quality particular to earth kasia. Animation program basis. Continue to repeat the cycle over and over. Well, Ive of course heard about it but never really had the patience to try it (oh the irony) seriously. Meditation is a spiritual practice, regardless of your religious beliefs. For at least one person I suggested this to, this resulted in a fruition later that day (certainly not his first or only one of the retreat, but it broke the dry spell). Im so glad youre finding it valuable. With volition, intention, we allow that sign to extend as we did with white kasia and with earth kasia, until our entire inner vision is filled with the perception of this completely still, stable flame. I appreciate the Shinhead translation work here. As we gaze into a well-established fire with good heart, we can notice how, in some places, the flames rise and fall, incessantly dancing about, but in other places deep in the heart of the fire, the flames move almost as an even field or even stream of flame. The purple after image is what appears first. Position your disc in a place you can sit and see it comfortably without developing any discomfort in the neck, shoulders etc. Ive never really thought about doing meditation before, but this is a good post to help me get into it. If so, perhaps parts of the image were blurry and others were in focus. After three minutes close your eyes and imagine everything you saw in your mind, do this for two minutes, once done open your eyes. This was a very basic yet a profound practice which was fairly simple and did not require many skills. No inside or outside. RSS (Opens New Window) 20 Entries . The assumption Im making is that youve already read the description of how to do the practice elsewhere, and so I wont describe that here. There is, of course, the nagging question of whether the siddhis, or magical powers, are real in any sense, but I wont go into that here. Coping with Mental Health Challenges on Retreat, The Fire Kasina book, by Shannon Stein and Daniel M. Ingram, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha. May this book benefit all beings. The objective is to sharpen the concentration skills who struggle with concentration ~ Stay Blessed . cultivating the three characteristics, 1:02:50 The challenge of taking the fire kasina to the What is important is that you continue cultivating calm, concentration, and clarity, patiently and gently. Other traditions hold that hyper-real images and other well-developed effects of very strong concentration are their endpoints. Consistency in a short period of time with few breaks really helps make this happen and maintains the concentration muscles, which tend to fade very rapidly if we stop practicing.
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