Practice Updates, Questions, and General Discussion - new users, please read this first! Weekly Thread for April 24 2023

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[u/octobuddy]

Wednesday 08:50 40m Fire kasina, but mostly distracted most of the time. I've been thinking about going back to fire kasina again because it was interesting when I last did it two years ago. I often hesitate to go back to a previous method without actively reviewing instructions, but that seems unnecessary in retrospect. Perhaps the best method is to try the method, see how it goes, try some basic experiments, and then decide if it's a good idea to "read the manual" again.

The practice went surprisingly well in that I was able to get the little red dot on the first day of practice without any special effort. I also tried to focus on my visual field after the red dot fades out and see if anything interesting is happening there as well. However, to continue this week's pattern, my mind wandered off to all the things I would like to improve about my current living situation. I did not pause my timer to go write things down, but I now feel pretty strongly that this might the best form of self-therapy I can accomplish at this time. The only danger is getting distracted when I try to use my computer for writing. There's a potential for wanting to open my email, etc (same as I mentioned yesterday about the phone). I realize that in theory I ought to be able to calm myself and put down the distracting thought, but in practice what has been happening over the past few days has been mind wandering.

Can I apply some rational analysis to this?

• Question: what would I do if writing were not an option?
  • I guess I would find myself thinking about this and either make more effort to release or try to investigate more deeply? Perhaps sit longer until a sense of equanimity started to seep in?
• Question: what does investigating more deeply look like?