Dream

Intention (2215 the night before)

Back to 2215 sleep time! Let's keep with habits. Daysha incubation not working. Will try food and see what happens.

See you at WBTS?

Starship Troopers Bathroom

I am in the universe of Starship Troopers. We are discussing the enemy, which has hijacked our nukes and is sending them towards us. I am getting ready in the bathroom. Listening to all of this from other people in the shower room. This is completely normal.

We figure something out. The nukes only kill a fraction of us. Victory.

That's all I remember.

Meditation (Day 116)

Intentions for the day:

• Stay in posture part of prep until you're prepared to set the intention to stay still
• Stage 4 intention (vigilance on keeping introspective awareness continuous)
• Fall back to stage 3 if necessary
• Label the distractions, do it over and over so that it becomes automatic
• Learn the various different ways I guide myself back to the breath
  • E.g. away from tempting distractions, away from posture distractions, away from pain
• Note where the breath was when you label a distraction (attention, awareness, or forgotten)
• Before adjusting posture, mirror-check
• Mirror-check only when agitated due to worry and after counting to 8 in breaths
• During planned attention away from breath, keep breath in awareness

Post-Meditation

So, there are some "subtle" distractions I'm not sure about today, and also two "gross" distractions that I'm also not sure about. Basically, the two "gross" distractions were noted and kept in awareness, and then I decided to count to 8, and then I physically moved to address the distraction.

Specifically, I closed my door because of external noises, and I switched hand positions. I have found hand positions that seem to make my whole posture stable (I rest my hands on my thighs). But I'd like to be able to do mudras. So, the idea is that near the end of my meditation, slowly move my hands into a mudra, keeping everything else stable and happy. Then, when the meditation ends, mirror-check and try to remember the position if properly stable.

I quite like this idea, and I think I can apply it to other parts of me. It's a good way to slowly iterate form. Find stability however, and then address something that seems off about the stability, and only that thing. Gradual progress.

In any case, I'm going to put today in a "what stage 4 mastery looks like" bucket for now, but if I get more strict on gross distractions, I may not put future sessions with similar distractions in the same bucket.