--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Vaj <vajradhatu@...> wrote: > > > On Jan 26, 2011, at 10:20 AM, sparaig wrote: > > > People like to tell me that "intent is 'required" to meditate and > > therefore there has to be some effort. > > > > MMY said "least effort in the directon of less effort" and my > > observation is that whatever effort you find yourself using, is > > more than is necessary. > > > > Of course, if the effort is so slight that you don't even notice, > > is there effort or not? > > > > ANd if meditation begins spontaneously without you even noticing > > until 20 or so minutes later that you have begun thinking the > > mantra and going through cycles of mantra, thoughts, mantra, > > thoughts, no mantra, no thoughts, mantra, thoughts, etc., did you > > use effort to begin? > > > > If there's no effort to begin, and no effort to continue and you > > drift into the sutras practice spontaneously after 20 minutes of > > the above, again without noticing, and then drift into Yogic Flying > > practice... > > > > Where's the effort? > > > > Mind you I'm not claiming that this is a good/best/worst/ideal > > situation, just that it has happened. > > > But you still needed the mantra. You needed an object; your > preference being your personal mantra. Saying you're not using the > mantra as a support in a technique, would be like climbing on a roof > using a ladder and then claiming you got there "effortlessly" because > you are very used to climbing ladders! You still needed the support > of the ladder and had to make a minimal amount of effort to use it. >
How do you (or I) know that I thought the mantra 20 minutes ago without noticing? I assume that is how I slipped into the practice, but since I didn't notice starting to think the mantra, perhaps I didn't. Sheesh. You're hung up on what *I* need or don't need. Have you noticed? Lawson
