We have also produced a written commentary on the Vimuttimagga, which seeks to elucidate in detail how this technique is practiced. At some point the created image will begin to get clearer, brighter, more refined, and more stable. Now imagine the color, texture, shape of the soil in your mind for the next 2 minutes. We space out less. The purple after image is what appears first. Our mind is continuously calm and undistracted. So I talked to Daniel at length about it, asking clarifying questions and then doing more of the practice myself. We can liken the effort to establish ourselves in samdhi to the effort we must put forth to establish a strong, even fire with good heart and a steady flame. Thank you! Eventually, subtly organized images and colors will begin to emerge quietly from the darkness if you just pay very careful attention to the darkness and strangeness as it is. Overall I find your post interesting and it is always good to find out more about how people of different religions pray, I am happy you found this post interesting and thank you for sharing your experience. All the irregularities that may appear within it we disincline our mind from, we ignore. You can expand the scope of the "white" to be bigger and bigger -which is in essence adjusting the scope of your attention and achieving something similar to the body breathing. Range cooktop (44 pages) Cooktop Furrion Chef FGHMSA3DA-SS Instruction Manual. Subjects include: the background of kasina practice in the Thervada tradition, using kasinas to go into jhana, how vipassana practice interacts with jhana practice, meditation on the Three Characteristics, and detailed instructions for doing the . Nevertheless, Shinzen meditators spend a huge amount of time distinguishing between the inner and outer experiences of Sight in order to clarify sensory experience. Enjoy! Ive heard Daniel speak of fire kasina before and have immediately tuned out thinking it is just too far out and woohoo. The visual purple image may wander, spin off to the side, morph, flicker, or fade, but dont worry about that initially, just keep your attention on it, tracking exactly what it does with a high degree of interest in the fine specifics of every little movement, change, and wiggle. Perhaps you can do so for a few seconds, and then you check out into thoughts. The assumption Im making is that youve already read the description of how to do the practice elsewhere, and so I wont describe that here. We can just pervade the whole body with this sense of this radiant, psychic inner fire that the samdhi itself produces to ease the body, uplift and heal the body. The object can be yellow flower like a sunflower or lemon or corn. The first option takes moving swaths of a specific shade of the colors that arise as object, focusing, say, on red, blue, green, purple, yellow, or some other color, as you prefer. water, earth) besides fire; once you can do one element really well, you can It boils down to the fact that there are two different paths you can take with the FK practice, which mirror the categories defined in shamanic systems worldwide: the path of the holy person or the path of the sorcerer. Sit comfortably and at ease with a posture that is upright and aligned, but not tense or rigid. However, what I can affirm is that through consistent meditation practice, one can develop a greater self-awareness and a deeper comprehension of the world around them which eventually would help individuals to lead a meaningful life ~ Stay Blessed . I am glad you found something new today to learn ~ Stay Blessed . This was a very basic yet a profound practice which was fairly simple and did not require many skills. Whatever you experienced is fine, it's just what actually happened. It is also very likely that one day EEG researchers will find remarkable parallels between the frequency and phase of flickering kasina images and some of the signals seen on an EEG, providing measurable insights into the workings and physiological correlates of attention itself. I am glad you found this post useful, wishing you all the best with your meditation practice ~ Stay Blessed . In the tradition of cave yogis where Lama Lena is a lineage holder, synthetic light is considered unhealthy to use as a concentration object because of its flickering. Dealing with those goes well for some and not as well for others, but for all it will likely go better with better frameworks and understanding. Give me five minutes and you will have all the answers. For those who dont believe in such things as the traditional elements, chakras, or energy channels, you might change your mind if you do a lot of strong concentration practices, particularly element or color-based kasinas. As with the earth kasia, the imperfections in the earth in the sign that we took originally, the unevenness of it, will be apparent in the learning sign. Instead, simply observe them like you would any other meditation object in Vipassana, with a policy of total non-interference. All Rights Reserved. As with all kasia meditations, the initial learning sign that we take will be full of irregularities. We can practice in that direction by realizing that See In and and See Out are really just one field of Sight experience. territory; what the transition from third to fourth jhana looks like, 47:20 Things a practitioner can look for to know when To learn how to make your mind calm, centered and focused with minimum efforts, I highly recommend you check out >>> Meditation Mastery Secrets. 2:13 Michaels experience with the fire kasina at Denman For most people, this visualization process will take time to stabilize. As all living things on planet Earth needs sunlight to grow. I recommend something with high contrast, big bold lines that lead to a strong afterimage. Another friend is good at red. I am surprised to read about this particular meditation practice as it is new to me but it is very interesting to learn. However, as mentioned, this phase-tuning to the pulse of flickering attention creates insight stages. Fire itself initially is a very transient, dynamic object. Were you able to keep looking at the center point for 1-2 minutes? kasina, and how it fits in with Theravada practice, 9:25 How and why Daniel started kasina practice, objects This just takes practice, so dont get frustrated. Then comes the question of how far to go out into the murk and when to bail and open our eyes and look at the external kasina object again. It is an account of a retreat by Shannon with commentary by her and Daniel as well as some other practical goodies. All rights reserved. This podcast contains the best guide to this practice I have encountered online, far superior to even what is available on Daniel Ingrams site. Once done open your eyes. Sit comfortably on a chair and gaze at the object. It is an account of a retreat by Shannon with commentary by her and Daniel as well as some other practical goodies. The goal of FK meditation is awakening (i.e. For those who want standard kasina practice instructions right now without having to read the original or commentarial sources (which I highly recommend you do at some point, particularly the Vimuttimaggas information, as it is shorter and more to the point than the Visuddhimagga, which you should also read if possible), here is my take on basic kasina practice. You do not need a campfire to focus on the fire, all you need to do is light the candle. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Ensure that you can gaze at the flower directly. However, past a certain point, focusing on the central nimitta itself wont get you as far as things can go, as it is too narrow. Your response, to do vipassana, is the best way. Welcome to the site dedicated to exploring the ancient practice of the Fire Kasina, described in places such as the Visuddhimagga and Vimuttimagga, commentaries on the Pali Canon. 13 . See what happens. I have heard this is how ancient masters achieved supernatural powers. Let me guess You are on this page because of two reasons. Or after getting into your car and before starting it, pull out your phone and look at the dharmachakra image eyes open, then eyes closed at the afterimage. And he should go on developing it in this way a hundred times, a thousand times, and even more than that, until the learning sign arises. Heres what you need to do Take a clean tray (spherical in shape) and put some red colored soil or clay in it. To learn how to set up a daily meditation practice effortlessly, I highly recommend you check out >>> Master Your Mind Beginners Meditation Course. You can learn to have the nimitta and background move together, interface with each other, with the background seeming to radiate out from around the nimitta, moving over it, moving behind it, rotating with it, merging into it, and having all sorts of other complex interactions with it. On repeated cycles through this, you will notice that, after looking at the flame (or other object) and closing your eyes, more of the background of the candle flame will also generate after-images around the central image. 1 . The purpose was to simply gaze upon an object without developing any emotion or thought unto them. How to Practice Kasina Meditation: A Guide for Beginners, Scan this QR code to download the app now. And even whilst engaged in the concentration of earth, water, fire or air, it is the uniformity of the sign that we pay attention to. In this territory, I have seen rows of narrow lines, spirals, vortices, doors, tunnels, canyons, fields of skulls, fingers and mushrooms, insects, snakes, and other strange creatures, as well as campfires, complex patterns that resembled fractals or Spirograph patterns crossed with Aztec writing, vast abstract landscapes, and many other strange images. Fire is also symbolically meaningful, representing transformation, energy, heat, maybe even en-light-enment, so fire kasina (or trataka) is a popular visual meditation. Or you can try to recall the entire image at once in imagination. A different approach to bringing kasina off cushion is to attend to the visual field, to really notice whatever you are seeing, while doing other things. Soil or clay is one of the purest form of an earth element. As you think of the river you tend to feel relaxed Isnt it? Do this for 3 minutes and then close your eyes. This week I thought I would post a piece on the Fire Kasina Meditation. Maintain a straight back and focus on the natural breeze around. Or you might notice you are more extroverted and sociable, especially if you are typically more reserved or socially anxious. This is the "counterpart sign" of the Visuddhimagga kasina instructions, which when achieved allow access to jhana (absorption). The seventh kasina is red color. Do this for about three minutes, sometimes as you gaze at the branches you may feel as if they are talking amongst themselves. attempt to attain siddhis), but only after you reach some level of awakening. There is quite a lot of extremely fascinating material in the FK book and on the website about how to do the practice in this way.