Can I practise Vipassana while dizzy?

realization SG

Hi people, I have an issue I need to sort out with regards to practising Vipassana while dizzy.

My current understanding about Vipassana: you pay attention to whatever comes up with regards to the 5 senses and also when thoughts arise.

The catch here for me is this. I have constant 24/7* dizziness that makes me feel like I'm bobbing up and down on a boat all the time (yes, like maybe bob up 1 second, sink down the next second). It sometimes also feels like the ground beneath me is moving. I do not know if this dizziness will abate or if it will just stay with me for a long time to come. Truth is, it has ever stayed with me for months on end. I never know when it will get better, or worse. (Yes, seen doctor. This is not vertigo so medicine doesn't work.)

When I notice the global sensation at any one point in time, this dizziness will be a part of it. Besides the wind on my skin, the itch on my ear, or the buzzing mosquito just centimetres away, this dizziness is always there. But what sensation does this dizziness constitute? I wasn't able to call it touch, smell, sight, hearing or taste.

Can I call this dizziness a sensate actuality? I think not, because the ground beneath me isn't moving, and neither am I on a rocking boat. I may even classify this as a sensory illusion... maybe even a sensory deception.

So my questions are:

- Can I still practise Vipassana?

- And if so, how do I incorporate this dizziness into my meditation? (Is this even a valid question? Have I framed it correctly?)

- If I can't do Vipassana, what's my next best option if I still want to gain insight?

*edited to add: my dizziness is 24/7, which means 24 hours, 7 days a week and it has in the past lasted for months at a time.

Rooney9 SG

if you feel dizzy stop meditating. if you feel dizzy, will you continue jogging?

of course you will stop jogging.

actually insight can also refers to right thinking. as long as you are thinking rationally and with common sense, you are right.

Weychin SG

You could have a problem with your balance organ in your inner ear.

Dizziness can also mean that blood is not going up your brain, either that, or you may have blood sugar level problems.

You can fixate on an external visual object while meditating,that will give one point stabilisation.

Try to massage the balance organ area and see if it helps!

Point 42

Dawnfirstlight SG

*edited to add: my dizziness is 24/7, which means 24 hours, 7 days a week and it has in the past lasted for months at a time.

Off topic a bit. Chant Earth Store's Sutra (地藏本愿经) sincerely. By chanting Earth Store's Sutra, it will help to cure sickness which cannot be cured by medicine but you must be patient. It will take about 3 to 6 months to see the full effect. During this period, you will see gradual improvement.

If you find the sutra too long, you may just chant Earth Store Bodhisattva's name (南无地藏王菩萨）。I'm saying from my own experience. I wrote in this forum before that I chanted for my family members who had serious eczyma which no medicine can cure. My family members had fully recovered but I'm still chanting Earth Store Bodhisattva's name. Earth Store Bodhisattva is 阴阳两利, it means by chanting his name, it will benefit both hell beings and humans. Last time, I thought he is only in charge of hell beings which I was wrong.

realization SG

Thanks for your suggestions on improving the dizzy situation! Will try them.

An Eternal Now SG

Dizziness is actually a physical and visual sensation caused by the brain's perceptual distortion. It is a sensate actuality.It is as good a sensation as any other to practice vipassana.

Btw all sensate actualities are without inherent existence. Dogs see black rose, humans see red rose, quantum glasses let u see almost total voidness. None is truer than another. None represents an actually existing flower cos there is no inherently existing flower.

The appearance is absolute - it does not refer to an inherent existence but is a complete expression of interdependence in itself. The vision of red flower does not imply an inherently existing red flower, it just implies the vision of red flower.

Everything that dependently originates is a complete, unconditioned end-in-itself. This is what unconditioned means, it does not imply a metaphysical unconditionality - there is nothing metaphysical in Buddhism.

Likewise ur giddiness is a complete expression of interdependence that is absolute in itself, signifying nothing else. Your sensate perception of giddiness or floor moving is no more truer or falser than the sensate perception of an unmoving floor. Both have nothing to do with mental formation and imagination, but has to do with how interdependent origination unavoidably manifest as this particular sensate actuality.

If you see floor moving, that is simply how the universe is coming together to make this perception happen. Couldn't be otherwise. because dizziness and all other sensations occur by dependent origination and has nothing to do with agency or control, you can't control how sensations arise nor stop dizziness. but u can find medical solutions that treat the causes and conditons for dizziness.

Just like the mirage of an island on the sea does not signify a real island, it just means the mirage is present. Looks there but not there.

wisdomeye SG

You could have a problem with your balance organ in your inner ear.

My relative also had this kind of problem, but not lasting for months... just days... It is to do with the ear organ, either infection or you have not been cleaning it regularly. You can see the doctor to get some solvent for clearing the ear wax if that is the case...

Not sure if this applies to your case, just suggesting.

Yes, dizziness is also expression of clarity aspect of mind, . However, whether you can use it in your vipassana practice or not depends on your stability of mind. Some people are simply overwhelmed. Whatever the emotion that arises, feeling that one is unable to meditate, feeling of frustration, etc. Experience it completely, ie turn all experiences into path.

Just my opinion.

realization SG

I have seen more than one doctor and have been told that my dizziness does not result from inner ear balance issues. As mentioned, I've tried a few medicines for vertigo to no avail (bummer!).

In the past, I could only wait for the causes and conditions to pass before this dizziness would also fade. Whatever the causes and conditions are, only guesswork may be applied at this stage.

realization SG

Thankfully, this dizziness is not really that frustrating for me. I can live with it and have found that I CAN meditate even with it "hanging around".

My only worry was as I mentioned in the thread-starting post... Even if yes, I know that there is nothing with inherent existence, it still bothered me that the ground beneath me felt like it was shaking even when it wasn't so in the conventional sense.

With all other sensations I felt, e.g. the whining of a mosquito, I could at least discern that the mozzie existed in our conventional understanding of 'existence'. Whereas, in the case of my bobbing sensations of dizziness, I could only wonder if my "broken" sensory mechanism also meant that my efforts at meditation would come to naught.

But yes, now I know that I have to turn all experiences into path, as you say. Thanks!

realization SG

Dizziness is actually a physical and visual sensation caused by the brain's perceptual distortion. It is a sensate actuality.It is as good a sensation as any other to practice vipassana.

Just like the mirage of an island on the sea does not signify a real island, it just means the mirage is present. Looks there but not there.

OK. Gotcha.

Almond Cookies SG

The most difficult thing in meditation is we will react to the thoughts that arises.

For example, I think of bills, I will react with why am I thinking about this issue.

Then more thoughts spring out, Stupid me, thinking about bills, I should have think of other thing. Maybe thinking about Handphones is better.

More thoughts pop out. Chains of thoughts poped out.

An Eternal Now SG

The most difficult thing in meditation is we will react to the thoughts that arises.

For example, I think of bills, I will react with why am I thinking about this issue.

Then more thoughts spring out, Stupid me, thinking about bills, I should have think of other thing. Maybe thinking about Handphones is better.

More thoughts pop out. Chains of thoughts poped out.

yes. thats why its important to often pause, step out of that chain and smell the roses so to speak. pause and immerse in vivid clarity of this moment... the sensate actualities reveal its aliveness and splendour.

An Eternal Now SG

http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/search/l…

If we drop our body, we experience astral body.
If we drop our thoughts, we experience “I AM”.
If we drop ‘I’, we experience non-duality.

Every major dropping results in a totally new experiential reality. Perhaps that is why Lao Tze teaches us to eliminate until none to experience Tao.

To drop the bondage/deep conditionings, the mind MUST realise that another way of ‘knowing’ is possible; an effortless, total sensing and experience of wholeness. Next the experiences of the joy, bliss and clarity of wholeness. Without the insight into the possiblity and the experience of the positive factors, the mind will not release itself from holding.

Even open pure and innocent inquiry is a deep conditioning. Makes the mind chatters incessantly. Every what, when, where and why by itself is a distancing from start. Freeing itself from such mode of inquiry aka ‘knowing’, the mind rests. The joy of this resting must be experienced for the ‘willingness’ to arise.

P.S. there are different types of meditative bliss/joy/rapture.

Like samatha meditation, each jhana state represents a stage of bliss associated with certain level of concentration; the bliss experienced from insight into our nature differs.

The happiness and pleasure experience by a dualistic mind is different from that experienced by a practitioner. “I AMness” is a higher form of happiness as compared to a dualistic mind that continuously chatters. It is a level of bliss associated with a state of ‘transcendence’ – a state of bliss resulting from the experience of “formlessness, odorless, colorless, attributeless and thoughtlessness’.

Rooney9 SG

The most difficult thing in meditation is we will react to the thoughts that arises.

For example, I think of bills, I will react with why am I thinking about this issue.

Then more thoughts spring out, Stupid me, thinking about bills, I should have think of other thing. Maybe thinking about Handphones is better.

More thoughts pop out. Chains of thoughts poped out.

are you that kid who always change religion one? new nick eh

Wiser SG

Can it be Kundalini Awakenings symptoms ?

Almond Cookies SG

are you that kid who always change religion one? new nick eh

Yes. I am chanting amtf nowadays. Namo Amitabha buddha.

I sharing my past meditation experiences.

Rooney9 SG

Yes. I am chanting amtf nowadays. Namo Amitabha buddha.

I sharing my past meditation experiences.

so you are now a buddhist yet again?

I am wondering when you become a christian yet again

Almond Cookies SG

so you are now a buddhist yet again?

I am wondering when you become a christian yet again

NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA NAMO AMITABHA BUDHHA ... ...

Rooney9 SG

Yes. I am chanting amtf nowadays. Namo Amitabha buddha.

I sharing my past meditation experiences.

Do u know what is the 4 Noble Truths? do u know anything about impermanence, dependent origination at all?

Almond Cookies SG

so you are now a buddhist yet again?

I am wondering when you become a christian yet again

I almost became a christian again after seeing some bible verses along St andrew cathedral a few days ago.

The verses are powerful and energises me.

Of course I am still under christian influences no doubt.

It's illogical to say someone is not influenced by christianity at all if he's involved in that religion for many many many years.