Some help please

[Danny]

Greetings everybody,

A while ago I was contemplating the first five bodyparts in my Satipatthana practice, when I came to the fingernails and started visualizing the nails on my hands, after some time I had some sort of flash of insight, it's hard to put into words but it's best described as seeing there is no name written on them, like in not belonging to anybody,and something like; it's blind and doesn't hear anything. It only grows... It was really clear for a short period and then I got so excited that it disappeared.
After some practice I now can see it when I want and in more things beside my nails, in curbstones or trees for example.
I wonder if I'm on the right track with it though, I don't know if it's really anatta or a counterpart sign or maybe just a daydream,although it felt really true, as if this was the way it was. Has anybody here had the same experience at some time?
I don't have a teacher or Sangha, only the internet and books, that's why I'm asking it here....

[Cittasanto]

Greetings everybody,

A while ago I was contemplating the first five bodyparts in my Satipatthana practice, when I came to the fingernails and started visualizing the nails on my hands, after some time I had some sort of flash of insight, it's hard to put into words but it's best described as seeing there is no name written on them, like in not belonging to anybody,and something like; it's blind and doesn't hear anything. It only grows... It was really clear for a short period and then I got so excited that it disappeared.
After some practice I now can see it when I want and in more things beside my nails, in curbstones or trees for example.
I wonder if I'm on the right track with it though, I don't know if it's really anatta or a counterpart sign or maybe just a daydream,although it felt really true, as if this was the way it was. Has anybody here had the same experience at some time?
I don't have a teacher or Sangha, only the internet and books, that's why I'm asking it here....

Hi

I have had a couple of those experiances, one I was washing dishes it just occurred to me and then calm, things are what they are!

Metta
Manapa

[mikenz66]

Hi Danny,

I think you're on the right track. But, as my teachers say: "Keep looking, you'll see more".

Meaning, we can have all kinds of little "insights", which is great, but don't cling on to them, or start thinking that they are particularly "special", since that can stop you from going beyond them, because there is a danger of trying to recreate the experience rather than just observing.

So... Great! Keep looking!

Metta
Mike

[clw_uk]

Does sound like your practising correctly, an important thing though is not to be to focused on this event and so crave more of the same in the future, my advise would be just appreciate it for what it was, if it comes again then great, but dont crave for it



Metta

[nathan]

A general rule of thumb with insights would be that the valid shifts in perception and the important developments in the progress of insight will present themselves again and again, becoming unremarkable in the course of time. If there is no replication of the insight in a variety of forms it is usually an observation of the circumstances in the moment which merely change forms. The actual insights will continue to refine the precision of the perception of these events and the nature of the interrelationships involved in them. So what might be exciting initially will become unremarkable from the perspective of repeated examination and an even deeper penetration of all conditions via insight practice. Simply stick with your techniques and allow the process to unfold. Another general guideline is that if it subtly refines your technique and moves you forward into a greater understanding then it is something which is more related to the progress of insight than to the content of the ongoing experience. As others have said, returning to focus on the content as important, as opposed to continued emphasis on developing more insight into the content will not move the process forward. The important insights will be observed over and over again and lead into further development of insight while momentary conditions, even if they are of significance to the overall process rarely take precisely the same forms.

[Danny]

Thanks everybody for the replies and the effort, i appreciate it....


I'll just keep going the way I was going, try not to cling to the experience, but merely observe it and see how it will unfold.
Also I'm going see if it will present itself (without me trying to force it), and if it's a momentary thing or it it will refine itself.

Thanks again,


Danny