Category Archives: Self-Improvement

These are exercises that one may apply to oneself to improve.

KHTK Exercise Set 1 (old)

May 4, 2012 – 8:37 PM

These exercises are designed to familiarize one with various steps of the practice of Looking as explained in The Basics of Looking.

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Exercise 1

PURPOSE:   To distinctly recognize physical and mental objects, and any association that may have been taken for granted.

1.      Place attention on your physical environment. Become aware of physical objects “outside” of you.

2.  Place attention on your mental environment. Become aware of the mental objects (thoughts, feelings, sensations, etc.) “inside”  of you.

3.      Continue looking until you start to become very aware of physical objects “outside” and mental objects (thoughts, feelings, sensations, etc.) “inside.”

4.      Continue looking until you start to become aware of some inconsistency. 

Here is an example:

Suppose you are looking at the profile of a person. When the question arises, “How many ears does this person have?” Your mind may say, “Two.” But as you look, you see only one ear. Underlying this inconsistency there is some association that you are not fully aware of.

5.      Look more closely at the inconsistency until various associations also start to manifest themselves. 

Continuing with the previous example, you may find that there is the thought, “All persons have two ears” associated with the person’s profile you are looking at. You may then be able to look at the person’s profile separately from the thought, and realize that this person may, or may not, have a second ear. This will be a more accurate view.

6.      This exercise is complete when you can distinctly recognize physical and mental objects, and any association that may have been taken for granted.

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Exercise 2

PURPOSE:   To distinctly recognize the mental objects and the activity taking place among them, without participating, or interfering, in any way.

1.      Close your eyes while maintaining awareness of both physical and mental environments. Notice that the visual perception may not be there, but the perception of sound, odors, tastes and tactile from physical objects is still there.

2.      Simply observe what is there without interfering. You may find that the perception of mental objects, such as, thoughts, feelings, pictures from memories, etc., starts to become sharper with time.

Here is an example:

A memory may come up when you were in school, and you used to be terrified at the sight of a bully. You may get a series of pictures of the school and the person, who bullied you. You may become aware of several incidents of being bullied, the time of the year when those incidents occurred, and a feeling of dread.

3.      Look at these mental objects for what they are. Gradually you may become aware of the chattering, or “thinking,” going in the mind.

Continuing with the previous example, thoughts may arise, such as, how the fear of the bully affected your school grades. This thought may remind you of people in the present time who act like that bully. You may also be reminded of fears that worry you in the present. The mind may then start computing how to avoid those people, and how to go about handling those fears. Computations like this may go on and on.

4.      Look at this chattering or “thinking” for what it is. Do not participate in it, or interfere with it, in any way. This may be difficult at first, but continue looking without suppressing, resisting, or expecting anything.

5.      Gradually, you may find that you can observe not only the various mental objects, but also the activity among them much more clearly.

6.      This exercise is complete when you can distinctly recognize the mental objects and the activity taking place among them, without participating, or interfering, in any way.

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Exercise 3

PURPOSE:  To experience a feeling, emotion, or sensation thoroughly without avoiding, resisting, or suppressing it back.

1.      Look at your old family album or old pictures that you may have kept. Alternatively, find something in your past that you have been avoiding to look at.

2.      As some feeling, emotion or sensation arises, dive right into the very center of it and feel it thoroughly. 

3.      Stay with the feeling, emotion or sensation. Do not avoid, resist or suppress it back.

4.      Let that feeling, emotion or sensation outpour and discharge as it may.

5.      This exercise is complete when you can experience a feeling, emotion, or sensation thoroughly without avoiding, resisting, or suppressing it back.

You may now go back and practice looking per The Practice of Looking.

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Glossary

Physical Objects
The physical objects result from the assimilation of coming perceptual elements from the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

Mental Objects
The mental objects are memories, thoughts, and feelings triggered by incoming perceptual elements.

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By vinaire | Comments (0)

The Mechanics of Looking

April 6, 2012 – 9:02 PM

The practice of looking is described in The Basics of Looking. This essay expands upon some of the key aspects of Looking.

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Looking

Per Vipassana of Buddha, the definition of Looking is as follows:

Looking is observing things as they really are, not just as they seem to be.

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Looking with Eyes open

When one is looking with eyes open, one sees the physical objects. One also becomes aware of mental objects, which are evoked by the physical objects, such as, thoughts, feelings, and emotions. In looking, one does not suppress these mental objects. One observes them for what they are.

Looking includes the observation of mental objects. It does not exclude them.

For example, it is a common experience to have thoughts, labels, evaluations, opinions, etc., arise in the mind as one looks around at things in the room. 

To experience this point, go ahead and look around the room right now. Notice any thoughts that arise in the mind while looking at physical objects. For example, as one looks at a lamp, thoughts similar to the following, may arise.

  • “This is a lamp.”
  • “This is an expensive lamp.”
  • “I will never buy such an expensive lamp.”

In some meditation techniques the primary goal is to make one’s mind blank. However, this is not the goal of Looking. In the practice of Looking one does not suppress thoughts.

Looking does not attempt to clear the mind of thoughts, feelings, or emotions.

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Looking with Eyes closed

When one is looking with eyes closed, attention goes more to mental objects, and on the activity occurring among them. Observe wherever the attention takes you. Do not exclude anything.

Looking includes observation of activity among mental objects, such as, “thinking.”

As an observer, do not get involved with the activity taking place in the mind. Simply observe the activity for what it is.

Looking does not interfere with the activity of “thinking” that is going in the mind.

When one is judging one is imposing some pre-conceived standard. This colors the perception of what is really there. Do not judge. Let the mind align its considerations the way it wants to.

Looking does not cast any judgment on what is there.

Some meditation techniques practice concentration. Such concentration is not part of looking. Let the mind present whatever it wants to.

Looking observes whatever comes up. It does not demand concentration.

Past overwhelm can make one shy of looking at certain thoughts, feelings and emotions.  Such overwhelm occurs only when one digs into the mind. If one is  just there with whatever comes up, there is no overwhelm.

Looking is effortless. In looking there is no resistance toward what is there.

One looks, hoping to get resolution of something. However, expectations lead to visualizations, and that may color the perception of what is there. One then doesn’t see what is really there.

Looking does not expect any answer, result, realization, or phenomenon to occur.

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Summary

When one is not suppressing any thoughts or feelings, and is simply looking without being judgmental, then, in that moment, one is being totally honest with oneself. This is the basis of personal integrity.

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Glossary

Suppress
Origin: “to press down.” To suppress is to prevent the development, action, or expression of; restrain.

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By vinaire | Comments (25)

The Basics of Looking

April 6, 2012 – 7:12 AM

Looking is the process of perceiving what is there. It does not involve thinking.

Thinking is associating one perception with another. It is not part of looking.

Suppose you are in a coffee shop, and you see this person, who is sitting a few tables away from you. You can see his face only in profile. When the question arises, “How many ears does this person have?” your mind says, “Two.” But as you look, you see only one ear.

If you have internalized what the mind tells you, you might say, “This person has two ears.”  But if you decide to express what you actually see, your response might be, “I see only one ear, but my mind is telling me that this person has two ears.”

The first response is based on the assumption that every person has two ears. Here one is associating the thought in the mind with what one sees. This is thinking.

The second response is based on looking. The person sees only one ear. In addition, the person sees a thought, which says, “This person has two ears.” He keeps the visual perception separate from the mental perception, and perceives each for what it is. He may associate them later as needed.

Thus with our five physical sense-organs – eye, ear, nose, tongue, body – we experience the world of visible forms, sound, odors, tastes and tangible objects. And with our mind we experience the world of mental forms, such as, ideas and considerations. The activity of looking treats mind as a sense-organ.

In looking, we spot physical and mental objects, just as they are, without associating them with each other.

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Looking with Eyes closed

When we close our eyes the visible forms are eliminated, but the perceptions of sound, odors, tastes and tangible objects are still there. The perceptions of mental objects, such as, thoughts, feelings, pictures from the past, etc., become more prominent.

Suppose a memory comes up when you were in school, and you used to be terrified at the sight of a bully. You may get a series of pictures of the school and the person, who bullied you. You may become aware of several incidents of being bullied, the time of the year when those incidents occurred, and a feeling of dread. Thoughts may arise, such as, how the fear of the bully affected your school grades.

Here, “looking” becomes a bit tricky. It becomes difficult to separate the sound, odors, tastes, etc., of the outside world from sound, odors, tastes, etc. in the pictures arising in the mind. Also, you become aware of the chattering, or “thinking,” going in the mind.

The trick is to look at the mental objects, and the activity going among them, without participating, or interfering, in any way.

This may be difficult at first, but, gradually, there is a separation from the mind. One starts to observe not only the various mental objects, but also the activity among them much more clearly.

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Looking and Vipassana

“Looking,” as described above, was called “vipassana” by Buddha. In the language of India, in the time of the Buddha, passana meant seeing with open eyes, in the ordinary way; but vipassana is observing things as they really are, not just as they seem to be. Vipassana meditation was simply the practice of looking.  

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Glossary

Looking
In looking, we spot physical and mental objects, just as they are, without associating them with each other.

Physical objects
The physical objects result from the assimilation of coming perceptual elements from the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

Mental objects
The mental objects are memories, thoughts, and feelings triggered by incoming perceptual elements.

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By vinaire | Comments (1)

Guilt

January 12, 2012 – 10:56 PM
[Revised January 28, 2012. Revisions are in blue.]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Guilt is the state of being responsible for the commission of an offense. It is also a cognitive or an emotional experience that occurs when a person realizes or believes—accurately or not—that he or she has violated a moral standard, and bears significant responsibility for that violation. It is closely related to the concept of remorse.

Remorse is an emotional expression of personal regret felt by a person after he or she has committed an act which he deems to be shameful, hurtful, or violent.

Personal guilt occurs when someone compromises one’s own standards. One experiences conflict at having done something that one believes one should not have done (or conversely, having not done something one believes one should have done). It gives rise to a feeling which does not go away easily. Freud came to consider ‘the obstacle of an unconscious sense of guilt…as the most powerful of all obstacles to recovery’.

At the root of guilt is the conflict between what one expects of oneself and what one finds oneself to have become. This is essentially a confusion. The feeling of guilt starts to go away as one starts to recognize this confusion. Guilt cannot be “mastered” by repression, projection, rationalization, denial or blaming the victim.

To address the feeling of guilt, the following may help:

  1. Look at the things that you expect of yourself .
  2. Trace these expectations back to when and how you acquired them.
  3. Look at what you have “become” per the beliefs and ideas that you now practice.
  4. Trace them back to when and how you acquired them.
  5. Compare the expectations above to these beliefs and ideas.
  6. Spot the inconsistencies between these two sets of notions.
  7. Look at these inconsistencies thoroughly but non-judgmentally.

‘What one expects of oneself’ can be traced back to the standards that were laid down before one by one’s parents or loved ones when one was very young. ‘What one finds oneself to be’ can be reduced to ideas and beliefs that have become rather fixed, and which now define one’s self.

These two sets of notions can be put side by side. And, while doing so one may start looking at them non-judgmentally and without resistance. As this action is continued, and inconsistencies are spotted, the sense of guilt is very likely to start dissipating.

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By vinaire | Comments (58)

The Basics of Meditation (old)

December 25, 2011 – 7:10 AM

Please see Be There and Confront.

[This is first of the many essays that I wrote in the early nineties. At that time I tried to marry the western take (Scientology) with the eastern knowledge (Hinduism and Buddhism) on the subject of LOOKING. The western take is interesting, but, where fundamentals are concerned, I am still exploring the eastern knowledge that I grew up with.]

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To meditate is “to engage in deep and serious thought.” It suggests focusing the thoughts on a subject from every point of view, to understand all its sides and relations. Thus, the process of meditation involves viewing something thoroughly. The end product of meditation is to perceive something for what it truly is.

What happens when you view something thoroughly? It disappears. For example, when you perceive a problem in its entirety it ceases to be a problem because you can do something about it. Similarly, the moment you recognize the source of some confusion, the confusion disappears as its pieces fall in place. You will notice that difficulties persist as long as you keep thinking of ways to avoid them. But the moment you decide to face them, and view them thoroughly, they disappear.

Confusions, problems, and difficulties are mere appearances. They are an altered view of what the truth is. They persist as long as the underlying truth remains hidden. The practice of meditation helps you look beyond the appearances. When that happens the appearances disappear.

The concept of maya in Hinduism is just that. Maya may be looked upon as the layers of ignorance enveloping the mind. When meditation is practiced, maya peels off like the layers of onion. The basics of meditation are not that complex. When they are understood and followed the results are far reaching and beyond all expectations.

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LOOKING

Meditation is the process of looking, not thinking. Thinking is often used to avoid looking at things to such a degree that it degenerates into a never-ending “figure-figure.” In meditation one simply looks. If there is any thinking at all, it is to find out where to look.

The only thing that can be said about looking is that to look one must be willing to be there and face things without flinching or avoiding. If you cannot be there then you cannot look and experience. Thus, in meditation, after closing one’s eyes, one simply decides to be there.

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BEING THERE

The first step in meditation is to sit in a comfortable position with your eyes closed. Do not move or do anything. Just be there. Make sure you have had enough to eat and rest. You do not want your body to distract you from being there as an observer.

You may assume a lotus position but that is not necessary. The necessary part is to keep your back straight and upright. You may sit in a straight-backed chair if that is more comfortable. When sitting in a chair, however, you must keep feet flat on the floor, and hands in the lap.

After closing your eyes, simply observe what is there. At first, you may perceive only blackness. But soon you may become aware of light and darkness, various sounds and smells, the temperature in the room, the pull of gravity, the taste in your mouth, and scores of other such perceptions from the body. The mind may present pictures of current or past situations, thoughts, emotions and conclusions.

It is important to understand who is observing. The body’s eyes are closed so you cannot be the body. You are observing the mind so you cannot be the mind. Who are you then? In meditation you simply are an observer. And as you meditate you would discover many things about yourself.

As you sit with your eyes closed all kind of things will come up, some flattering and some not so flattering. Do not get into any justification or “figure-figure.” Just be there and face them. Your sense of perception may heighten as a result.

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CONFRONTING

The essential part of being there is to face without flinching or avoiding. This is called confronting. Pictures may come up that remind you of something embarrassing or painful. The normal reaction would be to flinch and look away. But in meditation you must continue to be there and confront them, no matter how painful and embarrassing that may be. As you persevere such painful pictures will disappear.

There may be a tendency to squirm, twitch, move or change position. This occurs when you encounter something difficult to confront but you are not yet aware of it. Make sure before you start meditating that you are in a comfortable position. Then just be there without moving or doing anything else. However, if the discomfort becomes too much, it does no good to suppress it. When that happens, it is better to readjust your body in a comfortable position and then restart the session all over again.

During meditation, certain physical reactions may occur, such as, stabs of pain, drowsiness, dullness of senses, twitches in muscles, and so on. Do not do anything. Do not resist or try to suppress them. Just be there and confront. These physical reactions will disappear after some time.

There is a safety factor built into the mind. That is, the mind would never present something so embarrassing, discomforting, or painful that it is overwhelming. Just be there with whatever comes up. It is important that you let the mind present things to you, and not to present things to the mind. If you find yourself getting involved in thoughts or doing something else mentally then simply realize this fact and do nothing else. This will get you back to just being there.

As you confront the material presented by the mind, new realizations occur. Your ability to confront comes up, and as this happens, the mind finds it safe to present more material that you were not aware of before. And so it continues.

Try ending each session of meditation at a point when some persisting reaction has just gone away. Do not end a session while you are in the middle of such a reaction. The end result of meditation is not necessarily more information but it is a heightened awareness of who you are and an increased confidence in your being.

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SUMMARY

Meditation is an adventure. You embark on it to become more aware. It helps you discover the causes of conditions and gain control over them. And the results are beyond any expectations.

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[Comment added March 15, 2012]

“Being there” actually translates as “putting no resistance there.” When you are not putting any resistance then any and all distractions will simply flow through you and discharge.  The distractions, such as reactions, will persist only if you resist them.

Confronting doesn’t mean that you resist either. Actually, when you resist then you are not confronting. When you do not resist mentally, nothing can push you around.

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Glossary

Meditation

  1. To meditate is to engage in deep and serious looking. It suggests focusing the attention on a subject from every point of view, to understand all its sides and relations. Thus, the process of meditation involves viewing something thoroughly. The end product of meditation is to perceive something for what it truly is.
  2. Meditation is the process of looking, not thinking. Thinking is often used to avoid looking at things to such a degree that it degenerates into a never-ending “figure-figure.” In meditation one simply looks. If there is any thinking at all, it is to find out where to look.

Looking
The only thing that can be said about looking is that to look one must be willing to be there and face things without flinching or avoiding. If you cannot be there then you cannot look and experience.

Being there
To be there is to have your attention focused but not resisting or reacting to what is there.

Confronting
To face without flinching or avoiding.

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By vinaire | Comments (9)