The Wall

[Collective]

You'll probably call it barmy but here goes...

I call it the wall. When I go into deep meditation, I noticed today that I feel, or I can sense a barrier of sorts, in front of me, like a wall. It's more inside my mind than anything external. I can almost feel it's pressure, solid and unyielding. It's subtle, but it's there, and I never dreamed it up.

Anyone have any idea what this could be?

Peace & Thanks

[mikenz66]

Greetings Collective,

I gather you don't have a teacher, but are you following some particular method from a book or web site?

All kinds of physical and mental things can start to manifest as you build up a little bit of concentration and mindfulness. If you can't find a teacher (which would be my first choice) then I would advise picking a book and/or web site of a particular teacher and following that.

For example, here is a short course by Gil Fronsdal, with audio and handouts, and there are many other talks by him on the site:
http://www.audiodharma.org/talks-intromed.html

The introductory chapters of Ajahn Brahm's book on meditation, Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond, can be downloaded here:
http://www.bswa.org/zencart/index.php?m ... c4a683449d
And there are meditation talks by him here (among others):
http://www.bswa.org/audio/podcast/Guide ... ns.rss.php
e.g.

Friday Meditation
Saturday, 17 November 2007 6:00 p.m.
Friday Meditation with Ajahn Brahm at Dhammaloka Buddhist Centre Western Australia.

Those are two quite different approaches. See if you think one or the other suits you.

Each teacher has his/her particular approach, and ways of solving problems. If you are starting out it is much less confusing if you stick to one approach for a few months.

Metta
Mike

[Ben]

Hi Collective

Just to reiterate Mike's good message...
Its very difficult to give you any meaningful advice or perspective if you don't indicate what the meditation technique is (be very specific) and what you are actually doing when you perceive the mental phenomenon of 'the wall'.
kind regards

Ben

[catmoon]

You'll probably call it barmy but here goes...

I call it the wall. When I go into deep meditation, I noticed today that I feel, or I can sense a barrier of sorts, in front of me, like a wall. It's more inside my mind than anything external. I can almost feel it's pressure, solid and unyielding. It's subtle, but it's there, and I never dreamed it up.

Anyone have any idea what this could be?

Peace & Thanks

I'm no expert but I'd bet a few bucks that what we have here is a creation of your mind. The mind does things like this in meditation, and then gets distracted by it's own creation. It's rather as if the mind independently decided to entertain itself rather than meditate. Watch the process for a while, then move on.
What makes you so sure you didn't dream it up? The fact that it seems real? If you didn't dream it up then where else could it have come from?

[James the Giant]

When meditating I often have the sensation of a great soft "thing" pressing against my face and upper body. It persists for 10 minutes or so. I just refocus on my breath, and continue meditating. It's just a sensation and distraction, like all the other sensations, thoughts, feelings, etc. Just return to the breath.

Reflecting later on that often-recurring sensation, I realised it might well be a memory from infancy, when my baby body was very small and my mother's breasts were (relatively to me) very very large. So I think it's a sensory memory of breast-feeding as a baby. Interesting!

[Collective]

Vipassanna neditation.

I think you are right - it's a mind construct. I was hoping it was the 'mythical barrier' I had to overcome before revealing a new technique like out of body or something (silly me huh )

[catmoon]

Vipassanna neditation.

I think you are right - it's a mind construct. I was hoping it was the 'mythical barrier' I had to overcome before revealing a new technique like out of body or something (silly me huh )

The mind blowing part is that simply accepting what it is and is not - "a mythical barrier" - is in itself a kind of "mythical barrier" and one the you just neatly hopped over with surprisingly little fuss.

Now tell me - if it is not a barrier, if it is a mind construct - what IS it? Holy koan Batman....

[Collective]

It's just my rebelling and agitated mind looking to distract itself whilst I peel back the layers of illusion.

The hope is to reach a stage where one day whilst levitating off the floor during meditation I'm thinking 'quaint, supranatural abilities supranatural abilities - back to the breath' lol

[catmoon]

It's just my rebelling and agitated mind looking to distract itself whilst I peel back the layers of illusion.

The hope is to reach a stage where one day whilst levitating off the floor during meditation I'm thinking 'quaint, supranatural abilities supranatural abilities - back to the breath' lol

Well yeah, that's fine as far as it goes.


But it's like: this barrier- what is it composed of? What is it's origin? How did it get there? Why does it have the nature it has and not another?

[Collective]

It's just my rebelling and agitated mind looking to distract itself whilst I peel back the layers of illusion.

The hope is to reach a stage where one day whilst levitating off the floor during meditation I'm thinking 'quaint, supranatural abilities supranatural abilities - back to the breath' lol

Well yeah, that's fine as far as it goes.


But it's like: this barrier- what is it composed of? What is it's origin? How did it get there? Why does it have the nature it has and not another?

I'd say it is composed of energy. It's origins, no idea. No idea how it came about, or why it has this particular nature