Lawson English wrote:
> fritz wrote:
> > "Lawson English" <LawsonE@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> > news:Eu7Kg.7787$Zm1.3066@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >> fritz wrote:
> >>> "Lawson English" <LawsonE@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> >>> news:yoTJg.7718$Zm1.6595@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>>> fritz wrote:
> >>>>> "Lawson English" <LawsonE@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> >>>>> news:kDHJg.7651$Zm1.2744@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>>>>> fritz wrote:
> >>>>>> [...]
> >>>>>>> i believe what i experience now is known
> >>>>>>> as samadhi. my thoughts stop, then my
> >>>>>>> breathing and my heartbeat. nisargadatta
> >>>>>>> maharaj said that samadhi was just another
> >>>>>>> form of sleep. he states that the 'absolute'
> >>>>>>> perspective is the ultimate state. i feel that
> >>>>>>> i occasionally touch on this 'absolute'
> >>>>>>> perspective.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>> So if your thoughts have stopped, how do you know your breathing
and
> >>>>>> heartbeat have stopped?
> >>>>> thoughts may stop but feelings
> >>>>> take a little longer to extinguish.
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>> Interesting, why do you believe this?
> >>>>
> >>>> Samadhi, ala TM, is where the thalamus starts blocking external and
> >>>> internal sensory-info/feedback from passing through it. The Big
Three
> >>>> senses for humans are sight, hearing and touch, all of which are
> >>>> mediated by the thalamus. And you can't notice something without
being
> >>>> able to label it on some level anyway, so to claim that you're not
> >>>> thinking, yet still able to identify heartbeat and respiration is
> > stupid
> >>>> on its face.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> And of course, no-one has ever been do***ented to voluntarily stop
> > their
> >>>> hearts anyway, not since better equipment has been used on various
> > yogis
> >>>> who make that claim.
> >>> fascinating
> >>>
> >>>
> >> *I* think this kind of stuff is. Here's a URL to an online book that
> >> summarizes the research on several thousand studies on various kinds
of
> >> meditation practices. It's years out of date, but still interesting:
> >>
> >> http://www.noetic.org/research/medbiblio/index.htm
> >
> > if that's what you find interesting try
> > Zen and the Brain
> > by James H. Austin M.D.
> >
> >
>
> "How can an excessive activation far up in the cortex contribute to a
> marked reduction of vision, of hearing, and of other sensations from the
> head and the rest of the body? An overstimulated cortex goes on to
> excite the reticular nucleus of the thalamus. The reticular nucleus then
> blocks sensory impulses so that they can no longer be transmitted up
> through its underlying thalamic nuclei. This inhibitory "cap" prevents a
> further excessive excitation of the cortex.
> But more recent controlled studies have found that sensory stimuli do
> cause the brain to generate evoked responses during "meditation," at
> least as meditation has been broadly defined. Why should future studies
> show otherwise? In fact, few studies have focused on those singular
> instances when ordinary levels of meditation suddenly drop off into the
> state of genuine deep internal absorption. These absorptions are rare.
> They need to be carefully studied, at the very moment they occur, using
> modern techniques" -Zen and the Brain, James H. Austin M.D
>
>
>
> Of course, unlike Austin's speculations about Zen, the reduction in
> thalamic activity found during TM doesn't appear to be part of some
> "overstimulation" of the cortex and the "absorptions" that he refers to
> are NOT rare during TM, but happen all the time, albeit perhaps too
> briefly to be noticed by the meditator under normal cir***stances.
MM:
It's better to look forward, not backward. We throw off the physical
body, and function in the astral body, so there is no need to be
obsessed with the physical. An adept can return to the body, and then
all the functions normalize again.
Michael Martin
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