In my small town we have 13 Thai amulet stores and an amulet market that shows up every now and then – usually on Sundays. Thai people wear the amulets for protection and good health, good luck, natural disasters protection like tsunamis and floods, and some even to bring love into their lives.

I don’t know where this aspect of Buddhism started, or if it’s primarily in Thailand and not that much in Buddha’s birthplace of northern India which is now actually, Nepal. Chinese Thais are big on amulets, and maybe that’s where the whole Thai amulet craze started. I’ve no idea. What I do know is that most Thais are wearing one or own (rent) at least one. Some wear 5 at a time. Some have whole collections of rare amulets that they keep hidden away. For what reason? Again, not sure. Good luck? To give to family as they themselves are ready to pass?

There are some monks that wear amulets. Ajarn Jumnien of Tiger Cave Temple in the south wears 20+ amulets all the times I’ve seen him. People call him the good luck monk because he gives amulets away to people, and is never seen without them. He believes in the spiritual world – and apparently that amulets have power to protect people from certain things.

Amulets are seen for sale locally for 50 THB (about $1.80 USD) up to 20,000 THB ($600+ USD). The more expensive amulets are those that Thais believe to be older or they could also be recent, but with more power. The amount of power depends on the monk that created the amulet, blessed the amulet, or according to what protection similar amulets have provided in the past.

The Jatukam Thai amulets were a Thailand-wide craze for about 3 years when someone wearing one was shot at by a gun that misfired. Twice. That has since died down and there is no new amulet that is fueling the amulet market in Bangkok or Thailand as a whole.

Do Thai amulets work? Do they have magical power? Did the Buddha say anything about this? Or, was it all created by monks that realized they could help people feel safer by creating protection amulets? At some point some capitalists became involved and turned Thai amulet making into a massive business. I have a friend that sells Thai Buddha amulets here. She doesn’t believe they work very much either – but there is that voice inside her, put there by years of observing Thai tradition in the northeast where she was raised, that says – it’s real. Amulets have power. They work.

Personally I don’t believe in the power of amulets from Thailand, or anywhere else, to help to protect me or give me good luck. What do you believe?

I can work all day on writing articles, books, solving some problem, web development, whatever it is… and then when I stop – when it’s done and I don’t choose to do the next thing – there is just nothing. The mind is there – aware… awake… ready to do something if i asked something of it – but, otherwise it’s just there in an absolutely still state.

It’s not calming to have it happen… it just is. There is no relief in that state, though afterward I can think about it and say – oh, that must be good for the me somehow. It must be stress reducing to let the mind go to that state sometimes. Often even maybe.

But, there is something about being in that state for a long time that isn’t right with my active mind.

I haven’t let it go on much past a couple minutes.

I’m trying hard now to understand why the resistance of the active thinking mind of now – with going into the thoughtless state for a long time…

1. What is the point? This seems to be a big one… is there any point to sitting there and experiencing that state? It’s nothing new anymore, it’s there every time I stop doing anything with the mind. It’s not a novelty. It just is. And, it’s just that… there’s nothing really pulling me to do it more.

2. There is some idea in my head that by going into this silence for  a long time, I’ll come out changed. I saw what happens when the mind first is transformed after experiencing jhanas… and it’s a revolutionary change. My wife and I split because I had completely changed. I wasn’t the person she married – or the person I even knew.

Is that what is on the horizon for me if I go into this silent space often?

Just doesn’t seem to be any real good that can come from it when I have responsibilities to my wife, my daughter.

So that’s how it’s all going here – how about YOU?

Vern

But few do.

When you answer that question you’re answering what it is that is most important for you to focus your entire life on – for 70 years or so. Is there one focus, or many? What are they?

I wrote a post a while back – 3 years back, in 2007 about “What is the Point of Life?” and it received a lot of attention. Apparently there is a real lack of information or conversation about this topic and some people think it’s important enough to search “point of life” in Google to see what’s out there.

My post talked more about me personally and my experience with meditation – and I think had to be rather boring for most – but still there are almost 150 comments on the article.

I decided to create an ebook about this important subject and am almost ready to publish, “What is the Point of Life?”

Add your opinion about the point of your life to this ebook - click the book for details.

If you have any interest in sharing with us your personal idea of the whole point of your life – the focus of your life you can do so, and I’ll publish it in the ebook when it’s released in April.

Write a couple sentences, or up to a couple pages – up to you!

Send to: AimforAwesome@@@gmail…com

You’ll receive a credit for your entry – if you want. You can include any info you want including link to your website. You will receive a free copy of the ebook when it’s released.

Anyway, so maybe 3 -4 times over the past month or so I’ve noticed that as I sleep – either falling asleep or actually sleeping and dreaming this happens…

I find myself doing something – anything really… and gradually i let go of the thought… and they fade out- leaving me with a oneness – a complete, pure – untainted oneness like I get with meditation at times… but it just comes during this waking moment (during sleep)…

There is more of a totalness to these dream experiences than what happens during real waking hours…

What I mean is – I feel a movement – a change of perception – of reality – where I become everything in front of me, behind me, etc… I become one with it – but actually become it. The body is completely lost – gone – and whatever “i” am – becomes the whole scene in front of me… I blend into that.

Different than what I have while awake – but, quite difficult to explain – like everything that happens – eh?

Still in Thailand. Still working hard on internet projects… when I stop “doing” – there is nothing. I’m instantly in that state of no thought – no desire – no anything… and it feels – ok – not good, not bad, not happy, not sad, not something cool – just nothng because thought is absent… there is an awareness that things have changed – but thats it… everything is fine…

again – impossible to describe…

anyone want to share anything happening with you – ? feel free…

aimforawesome@gmail.com

I notice when I sit at the computer and go half the speed I used to go. My internet connection is significantly slower and maybe that is helping the mind slow down too?

I’m attributing the reduction in ADHD – ADD symptoms mostly to meditation, and more specifically, the results of meditation since I rarely ever do it anymore. The changes have already been made inside the mind and I’m not sure that I could speed back up to the way I was in the USA – or not. Could I still be employed in the USA in this state? That’s  a funny question. But, funnier still – I don’t know the answer.

I think I’m running at about 50% of what I used to in terms of speed of understanding and producing things, and multi-tasking.

If you think you or your kids might have ADD – ADHD you should drop by this ADHD kid site and find some articles about it. It’s my site! I’m quite interested in the topic and will be growing the information there over the next few months.

Vern

No, not there… Ok, here goes…

It was a short dream. I was standing up outside. I was leaning back slightly. There was a force holding me up – as the wind would if it were very strong, but there was no wind – just  a force.

It was coming from behind and pushing through… it was as if, if I let go – it would push straight through me and blow the body apart into pieces…

There was little feeling of the body at the time – and the tiniest sense of it – was all that was left of ‘me’. I guess if that got out of the way – this force would explode through me…

I wrote about the happiest – most joy filled experience I’ve ever had (well – had them a lot of times). The phenomenal bliss that around Jhana 1.

I think you’ll find it interesting.

I tried hard to describe the experience in words – but of course – words pale in comparison to the real deal.

Happiness of Another Dimension >

To say I watched the mind is not accurate – but I’m at a loss how to explain what happened.

There doesn’t appear to be a watcher unless I want the watcher there. The watcher is that which is aware that I do what I do. It is the ego I guess. It’s the “me” that I think is me. I can make it stay all day as I do work on the computer – building websites, doing everything I need to do to make $ to survive and provide for my family.

Well, when it’s quiet… when I’m not ‘doing’ anything – it isn’t there. Me – isn’t there. But, there is some awareness of what is going on in the mind as the mind registers sounds, sights, pain…

Memory still works too. After I come out of the session where I was just aware of what went on… I can remember the strange experiences too.

There was a strange occurrence today…

The eyes were closed – but the eyeballs behind the eyelids were focused out somewhere – past the nose – straight out. The body was sitting now.

There’s some awareness of a screen or field of vision -even with eyes closed. It’s an area that’s lit up a big – like sitting in a car and looking through a windshield of a car – which would represent the field of vision shape – roughly.

As the mind was aware of itself noticing sounds and things and yet creating no thought or linking to memories to figure out what the sounds were the field of vision shifted… and all turned left. As it did, it revealed a few layers – I didn’t count. I just watched. All the layers rotated left so I was looking at the sides of them – from an angle.

The left most layer which was brightest – yet still very dull in brightness or hue, dropped away and disappeared. Leaving the other layers. But, when it dropped there was a reality shift in the mind. Something changed.

The mind was aware of this state for a while (15 minutes??) and then the eyes opened and looked at the mountain in front of the eyes. The eyes showed the mountain to the mind – and the mind responded – showing colors and shape… and that’s it… no more movement. No naming it – ‘mountain’. No naming the color green or the trees “trees”.

Gradually I came out of it – or rather, came back into it – the ‘me’ came back into it and got down from the stand and walked down the path to return home.

I wish I had photoshop skills to show you what happened visually…

I’ll try to explain again what it resembled…

Picture looking at an 8×10 piece of paper horizontally in landscape mode – right out in front of you. This is the field of view – or the screen of your mind you see when your eyelids are closed but eyes are open behind them.

The paper started rotating left – as if on an axis in the center of the 11″ side. As it rotated I saw there were multiple papers – some inches apart that also rotated the same way… so now there were 2, 3 or more slices of paper turned at an angle so I could see how thin the slices were and that there were more than 2 or 3.

The one on the left fell over flat to the left and then fell beyond view and disappeared. This left the others standing – and they were much darker and less defined than the first slice of paper. They were fuzzy and got fuzzier and darker the more to the right I looked, at the far right seeming to blend in with the dark of my field of vision as it was then – very dark, amorphous.

Hope that helped.

During this meditation (before the strange experience above) I also focused on the hands in the lap for a while… eventually the breath slowed and the hands disappeared… the body disappeared briefly and came back… the hands – forearms stayed gone for some minutes…

ok – that’s enough writing – tired tonight…

5/31/09

i noticed something over the last few days… my mind is needing some real effort to get started in a different direction.

Between thoughts – between actions and concerted efforts where I’m doing something – there is a break. A revert back to the base of the mind – which, as I’ve said has been like a flatline state of activity – no thought.

So usually I’m seeing this when i’m on the computer… i open a folder and look at the files there and there’s no recognition about what they are…

If I stare at a file on my desktop – it doesn’t make sense – nothing about it makes sense – symbols don’t turn into thoughts which tell me what I’m looking at.

So, I can stare at it for a while… and then I just open it – double click to see what it is… then gradually I’m aware of what it is…

the strange state is continuing…

vern
If anyone is having or has had a similar experience, please write me… I don’t know anyone personally that has had this. Thanks…  ( AimforAwesome [{ @ ]} gmail. c o m )

Without writing a book about this… i want to mention it i guess because if at some point nibbana comes despite my not chasing it – there should be a path or a succession of things that happened that others can look at to help them realize they too are on the same path…

i don’t appear to be ready for anything to happen… i swear at the dog outside to shut up… I get frustrated when the computer – a logical device, acts so illogically.

I see myself as if i’m beside – and looking on during these times. I’m watching myself act through it… the body is angry.

Anyway… so, saturday i was shooting dean’s welcome video for his sites. in the palm grove next to wat tum sang phet.

I was looking at the camera ready to start part of the monologue when I had a moment of awakening… of experiencing the moment – but, it was a state unlike any other I’ve had… I’ve not been hypnotized – but maybe this is what hypnotism is like?

I was staring at the camera… and the world changed. The camera was the center of focus and everything around in the peripheral field of view changed to be a little blurred, and then sparkly… as I realized that i slipped into another state I started to be aware of the sparkly as vibrations… i was watching the vibration of everything – moving at cellular level or – however you wish to say… as if alive… even the dead leaves on the dirt… everything moved… appeared to sparkle like stars…

the background grew a little more bright I think – not dark like a night sky…

there was no thought… no emotion… and just this watching of things as they twinkled…

it was a feeling not too unlike eggata – one pointedness of mind… where the mind gets so focused on an object that the object is the sole focus. This time it was the camera – just for having been in the center of the field of view at that time – possibly.

was the mind just ready at that time to focus…?

was the activity i had done for an hour – talking to the camera about dean’s sites so relaxing and gradually focusing the mind that it was prepared to focus instantly like that?

there was this idea that if i let go – immersed myself in the experience that that would be ‘it’ – that would be the total awakening…

I let go a little and felt another change – my body wasn’t felt and it was moving increasingly toward a 100% experience outside of me – outside the ego… I grabbed back at the ego – at this ego-filled self and found enough that the process stopped expanding and taking me deeper… then i just stayed in a similar state as before and watched it for a little while… finally choosing – as I nearly always did – to end it…  not giving it any special attention to continue on… not grasping at it at all…

in hindsight – this putting it off when it comes… putting off spontaneous jhana states and other states when they come might just be responsible for urging the process on further…

anyway – another cool experience as i look back on it…

The state of the mind now – is same as it has been for a while… i can work when i choose to work. when i have nothing going on – and am not responding to anything – the mind reverts to blankness… no thought… no emotion… no anything.

Always there is this bit of knowledge in my head somewhere that says… if you let it all go – that will be it… nibbana will find you…

And so it feels like I’ve known that for so many years… but now it’s even harder to ignore as I experience states like this one the other day that spontaneously arise… similar to, and yet different from states that occur during jhana and other experiences.

If anyone is having or has had a similar experience, please write me… I don’t know anyone personally that has had this. Thanks…  ( AimforAwesome [{ @ ]} gmail. c o m )