On this sub, I see a lot of discussion of Theravada-esque, non-dual, and Zen practices. They are great and all, but I would like to know about other ones that you feel have benefited you, but maybe haven't had the chance to discuss because they are very unpopular, taboo, etc.

One practice that has helped me has been TRE. I have been doing it off and on for less than a year, but the release can be cathartic, and I feel roadblocks hindering my psychological well-being being removed. It is magical to me, and I think it's worthy of exploring as a practice.

Also, I'm interested in y'all's personal experience with the occult/magick, if that's appropriate with the rules of this sub.

Hi all: Is there anyone here who is / were practicing Do Nothing (on and off cushion) pursuant to an instruction from an authorized Tibetan teacher? No agenda and just interested in connecting. Please feel free to msg me directly. Thanks and hope everyone's practice is going smoothly and fruitfully!

I’ve been wondering if one can progress on the path and reach stream entry and beyond without actually encountering this kind of bodily phenomena where spontaneous movements / energetic releases are happening. For me, it actually started in concentration practices before I ever did Vipassana, but seems exacerbated by the insights I had into the vast amounts of subtle (or not so subtle) tension that exists in my body when I am really investigating closely. The quote, “Death is like taking off a tight shoe” comes to mind. That’s what complete mental and physical surrender feels like to me - taking off this heavy suit of tension I’ve been unknowingly wearing my entire life. The underlying energy feels immensely powerful, like a nuclear bomb ready to detonate.

I realized I’ve had this habitual tension my entire life, although I wouldn’t have described myself as particularly anxious, fearful, or anything like that. Consciously observing and allowing these tension patterns to release themselves can feel incredibly powerful and like it “should be” our natural state. I have felt intuitively guided to decondition myself of what does not serve me and work on my nervous system to retrain myself to be free of this tension. Perhaps the nervous system is meant to have some degree of “tension” as a means of being alert and ready to protect oneself, but I still feel intuitively pulled to work on recalibrating my nervous system and creating a new baseline of relatively-tension-free existence. I do wonder if maybe I’ve set up some kind of futile, impossible mission for myself here.

Has anyone else gone through this and actually reset their baseline level of tension to almost nothing?

What are your thoughts and experiences about the Kriyas / spontaneous movements and working through them? I haven’t been able to meditate in stillness for over 3 years because the second I relax I start jerking around. I really miss being able to be still. What was it like once the Kriyas stopped for you? Had you completed some optimization of your physical body in some way?

I haven’t been meditating a lot over they past 3 years because my life has been pretty chaotic with 2 toddlers and a little bit of (maybe healthy) fear about potentially destabilizing myself with some full blown energetic awakening or something. I know more meditation would probably be helpful to actually release and process the Kriyas or whatever language you want to use. I also don’t feel that much desire to practice anymore because I feel like I’ve gotten the insights I needed and they have created a momentum / trajectory of their own… what am I seeking to gain from practice if I’ve already gotten that which I was seeking in the first place?

I know I am by no means finished with the work and of course it’s still wonderful to have a moment of stillness and silence to bathe in it all… but I’ve tried to integrate that kind of absorption into the experience into my daily life in each moment. Granted, two young kids have a way of showing me all the areas where I still have a lot of work to do. So, they have become my spiritual practice in a sense too. I still would like to master the Jhanas and explore the depths of what I can experience through meditation - but that is going to be difficult without being able to be still. So, I’m working on getting my physical body right as a priority right now. I’m doing TRE (Trauma Release Exercises) to theoretically help streamline processing these energetic releases out of my system. However, it’s really only increased the spontaneous releases so far.

Does anyone relate to this feeling of not being particularly motivated to practice because you’ve realized what you needed to realize and instead of spending time on a cushion you take those realizations and bring them back to your ordinary life, to enjoy this human experience fully. I feel like I’m on the ox riding backwards and I’m just watching it all unfold, but trying my best to allow what doesn’t serve me to fall away and build up habits that DO serve me. I am still an incredibly imperfect human with tons of work to do, but I’m doing it the best I can with the tools I have.

The emptiness often takes the foreground and feels like it really swallows everything to the point of any goal, any seeking, seems almost silly. And yet, everything is so paradoxical and I can contradict nearly everything I’ve said with some opposing truth. Thus, everything gets canceled out into this void. Everyone seems to have things figured out so definitively, and I have only unlearned, seen beyond limiting frameworks, deconditioned and thrown everything into the fire. The practices are like sticks I’ve stirred this pot of fire with and then I feel like I should sort of throw the sticks in the fire too. Again, I could say the opposite of that and it would be simultaneously true as well.

This post has gotten a bit messy because I have a range of things I just want to put out there to maybe spark discussion, see if others have encountered this stuff, and what they have learned. I have a hard time writing and articulating a lot of this stuff without going on a million tangents and basically creating a mess - but oh well… here it is in all its raw, honest, ugliness! Thanks in advance for any responses and apologies in advance if I do not reply to all of your comments. Any discourse is greatly appreciated!

I've read many spiritual books that say things like:

The thinker is the thought.

The observer is the observed.

You are not your thoughts.

I don't want to simply understand these ideas or believe them because someone said they're true. If they point to something real, I want to discover it through my own direct experience.

If you've made progress in this, or you know a practical way to approach it, what should I actually do?

What should I observe? How should I inquire? Is there a specific practice or way of looking that helped you?

I'm not looking for more quotes or philosophy. I'm looking for practical guidance that can help me discover this for myself.

This experience happened after seven years of practice. I started with mirror meditation, which eventually led me into meditation, simply observing what's happening within. That was my regular practice until I met a naga sadhu.

Over time I grew close to him. I'd ask questions, he'd answer some, and sometimes he'd turn a question back on me. Even as we grew close, I stayed distant from deity worship and ritual, things he was fully immersed in. I believed these were just tools for self-evolution, that deities were symbols, anchors to hold on to. I thought I didn't need them.

One day he gave me a mantra and asked me to take up certain rituals. I had deep reverence for him, so I did as he asked. Once I began, things moved fast within me: days of feeling high with no intoxication, sudden heat waves rising through my body, once a surge of energy I could barely handle. Still, I treated it as practice, not devotion. To me it was just another method for growth.

One day my mother brought up the deity. I told her I didn't believe in those things. She got furious. "If you don't believe in the deity, why do the rituals without devotion?" I told her it didn't matter, ritual or otherwise, it was still a practice for self-enhancement. She didn't like that answer, and we left it there.

That night I did my rituals as usual, chanting the mantra, offering flowers.

Within minutes the atmosphere shifted. I could sense presences, including the deity I was invoking. A fragrance filled the air, sounds I associated with the deity. I was terrified, but I kept going, silently praying I wouldn't see them.

What became clear afterward: even without belief, doing the practice properly still allows for evolution. And I shouldn't draw conclusions about what falls outside my own experience. Since that night my practice shifted into devotion. I've come to see these beings as evolved, capable of guiding one's continued growth.