1996-07_03 Vipassana Retreat, Part 3 of 8 - Q&A 2

Talk: 19960703-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-vipassana_retreat_part_3_of_8-43307 Start_time: 00:50:17 Display_question: What if my sense of calm in meditation comes from daydreaming? Keyword_search: sit, clear, concentrated, calm, pleasant, feeling, dreamy, aversion, daydream, clarity, meditation, flavor, alert, danger, urgency, money, fear, tense, weekend, hammock, beer, relaxation, high-powered, shamata, breath, breathing, study, mind Question_content: Questioner: Occasionally while I was sitting, which starts off fairly clear and concentrated, but then it shifts into and it becomes calm and a pleasant feeling arises, but then it shifts–the calmness and pleasant feelings stay there, but it shifts kind of into a dreaminess. And there's no aversion because I kind of like it, and while it's happening I sort of think that it's a good meditation. And at some point I realize it's really just daydreaming. It has a very calm, pleasant quality. Larry: Yeah, many flavors of calm come out of this, but there's one main flavor for us: it's calm that has clarity in it. So if you remember that there are all kinds of calm where it's an improvement, it's helpful. And after you get up, you might feel more relaxed. And when you go to the dining room, you'll feel better. So it's not a waste of time. But clarity is always important for us. So at a certain point, the mind there's no separation. There's a kind of calmness that is extremely clear as well. Break_line: Let me suggest a pattern that seems to be that I've seen over the years that many of us have. When we're alert, we all do know what alertness is like, but it's usually during a time of danger or urgency: there's money to be made or fear or we're like this. We don't miss a trick, but we're tense. And then the weekend comes, and then we understand calm and relaxation in the hammock with a beer. But we're not alert. And so sometimes as the mind gets quieter, it calms signals that hammock time. It's not very alert, but it is calm. That's not too helpful. Break_line: Now they are apart–to some degree, this may be our own culture, although this is a human thing. But our culture is very, right now, especially for a while, it's been that way, very high-powered, let's call it that. And then high-powered relaxation or collapsing from having to be so high-powered. Break_line: The kind of calm that emerges out of this is extremely alert. It's sort of like hammock and urgency come together. It's not urgency is not the right word. In fact, the more relaxed you become, the more clear you become, it's not the more sleepy. But on the way there are all these different, all you can do is come back to the breathing. When we're doing shamata practice; that's what we've been doing since Monday. Probably seems like a long time to you. Break_line: We have not begun Vipassana, strictly speaking, although some of it comes in anyway. You probably have learned things as you've gone along, you've had insights. We're not banning them. It's just that the primary focus has been on calming and studying the mind. Yeah. End_time: 00:53:26