Progress Degradation

[RockDemon]

Hi guys, hope you are all well.
So as most of you may know I was practicing IIH step 2. Recently I am noticing progress degradation in mental exercises, like I cannot even now just observe my thoughts for 5 minutes. Why does this happen? What should I do now? Should I start all over? On the other hand I am have quite a progress in other exercises,like pore breathing, sitting without moving etc.. Or maybe I should keep on doing these ones, and do the mental exercises of step 1 and then when I get back to control continue with imagination exercises again? And how to prevent future progress degradations?

[fraterai]

How long are we talking here? We are very used to thinking about how days and times affect our practice but I personally notice huge differences in summer/winter for instance. Also, step one never actually gets "completed", you work it forever

[the_spiral]

It's normal to hit lulls, slow points and even stagnation periods along paths of spiritual growth. People tend to get caught up in the whole "oh my god, this works!" excitement when starting a new practice, but it's a lifetime process. You have to be patient and ride out the ups and downs, especially where the fluctuations of the human mind are concerned. I would suggest continuing on with your exercises and avoid stressing out over results [smile]

[Shinichi]

There are different stages of mental discipline because there are different levels of thought. It is relatively easy to tame the surface level of the mind, and this quick discipline confuses many a student once they hit the deeper levels of their mind. Because as you tame one level of mind, you become aware of the deeper thoughts, and you essentially have to start all over again. Like hitting the next level in an RPG - your exp bar goes back to 0, but you're actually still progressing.

It could be something else, including the things spiral mentions, but given the nature of Bardon's training and mental discipline in general I'm fairly certain it is this. You're still making progress, you've just hit the next layer of the mind - and when you discipline this, there are even deeper thoughts and urges that must be tamed. Mental and Psychic discipline are indeed a lifelong effort, which is why regular mental exercise and the soul mirrors are so important.



~:Shin:~

[Desecrated]

You've hit a wall.

Break it down.

[fraterai]

Mods: sorry about the super posting....I was getting a 500 error and the posts weren't showing, came back to the thread and saw the spam

[cactusjack543]

callme stupid but take 3 tokes and say i am

[Desecrated]

My zen teacher had a saying that would drive me insane at the time, but I found out years later that he was absolutely right. And it works perfectly for the situation you are in:

"Relax harder"

[the_spiral]

Go with what Shin said, he went further along through the IIH steps than I did. And my thoughts were more on progress degradation in general.

[RockDemon]

Thank you for your replies guys. Now I understand what is going on, and can connect many dots.