I just got off another really enjoyable ‘coaching’ call with a very insightful guy from the states. During our interesting conversation the topic came up a couple of times as he mentioned that he appreciated my authenticity about the topic, my experience, and other things.
I have heard this from a number of other people on coaching calls since I started this – around a year ago.
I wasn’t sure what it meant. My authenticity?
Of course, I can only tell what I experienced. I don’t feel like I have an agenda when I talk to people about the Deep Jhanas. I honestly am not sure I even want most people to try to reach them. I think for some it can be helpful to change their lives, and for others it could be with devastating effects as the ego is lost and relationships and life commitments crumble.
The mind is such a powerful instrument.
Jhana is one of the few things that has the power to radically change it. Without drugs. Without brainwashing.
When the mind changes as a result of having experienced jhana – there are some major changes that take place. I don’t think everyone is ready for that.
I wasn’t ready. Still, my experience over the years turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.
I have to leave it up to you as an individual to decide. Is this something you WANT? Even if you don’t know where it is leading?
Are all the unintended consequences something you can deal with at this time in your life?
What if in a few months of practicing, your spouse suddenly means nothing emotionally like he/she did before? What if you didn’t need your children like before? What if there wasn’t any need for much of anything anymore?
Is that a life you’d be OK with? For how long? What if it was permanent?
Mine wasn’t, but that doesn’t mean your path will be my path.
My experience with this dropping of all attachment to things was very strong at first and shattered the illusion of ‘need’ and much of ‘desire.’
It gradually tapered a little bit after the very strong cessation of all attachment. Or maybe it just became the new normal.
It will sound horrible to people that my wife, familiy, kids, friends, all don’t have the same meaning to me. There is a distance. A separateness now. As I said, there is a lack of ‘need’ or ‘attachment’ for anything. Anyone.
What if you follow what I did, and come out the other end in a much different state? What if your state was permanent and very strong?
Our conversation this morning made me think about one of the reasons I began to tell people about my experiences here at Jhana8.
In short, all the other meditation teachers and really, meditation personalities, have an obvious or subtle agenda they’re pushing. That was my experience as I read books, consumed other media online, and even spoke with people in person here in Thailand and back in the states.
The agenda usually boils down to dependency. Teachers want you to depend on them for the answers, for the guidance, the training/teaching/info. They want to enroll you in something. A class. Then another. A retreat. Then another. A long-term solution to your search for truth within yourself. They tell you that the truth is outside yourself and it’s over here.
They tell you the truth for you is what they’re teaching.
They present themselves as THE authority.
Many teachers claim to have a monopoly on the truth. I’ve observed many of them attempting to talk about deep jhana states admittedly without even having experienced them. Others, don’t let you know outright that they are just rehashing what they read or heard, and insist that deep jhana is like this or that. Thing is, they don’t have first hand experience. Some have had some limited or full-on experience in the first jhana and then couldn’t go further, and yet go on about what the other jhanas are like.
It’s humanness. I guess. It’s wanting to have the answers, the attention, the respect, the authority – over others.
It’s one of the main agendas that comes from the human mind.
Power is a fantastic motivation for people.
I’d guess that most people talking about jhana have never experienced the states. There are monks of 30+ years I see attempting to talk about deep jhana with some authority, but it isn’t their own experience. They had a student who reached it, or they’re rewording what they read in the Suttas or someone’s book.
I can only say that I know my own truth. What I experienced. I can’t tell you where your path will take you. It is likely a combination of the infinite variables that you experienced in life that relate to where you are now, and where deep meditation may lead you.
In the years before and following my initial foray into the deep jhanas I looked at many books for meditation techniques, ideas for paths to follow, philosophies to follow, etc. As it turns out, it seemed there was always someone there who claimed to have the answers. Who claimed to have the RIGHT path. The RIGHT answers. The ONLY answers. The RIGHT system. The BEST way to go about it.
The friend I spoke with this morning (he’s already a friend, but first time we spoke), said it’s like I’m the anti-teacher. Or I’m anti-belief about what is the right way to go about this.
It’s true. I just don’t feel like any authority on the subject.
Calling me an ‘anti-teacher’ brings up UG Krishnamurti for me. He deflected every attempt at people deifying him. He insisted that he didn’t know what happened to him. He didn’t want followers. He didn’t want to be someone’s guru. He didn’t care for any of that.
I also don’t care for it.
Any experience we have, I had, comes from either somewhere outside of myself or from within the code that was put there. Through my curiosity (also put there), I stumbled onto this really cool path and some nice experiences.
It changed me. I didn’t change me. I was changed. I was lucky enough? to get this path and state of mind that allows me to be ME and to be nothing as I choose or as I’m quiet.
I don’t know how to tell you to get it. But I try. I don’t know the full extent of what it’s good for. I usually ignore it. I usually don’t need the non-dual state. At least I don’t go there often. It’s nice to have. I should use it more. I should experiment more with it. I’m usually just too caught up in being Vern.
I know thoroughly what I experienced.
But that’s it.
I can tell you in great detail how I went about it and how you can also try.
But that’s it.
Doing it is up to you.
Whatever results is up to you.
I believe you’ll have your own path and outcome. Not mine.
Even if you follow mine, you might not reach the same state of mind. How many people are attempting to duplicate what they think was Buddha’s state of mind and don’t get there?
I don’t think I have Buddha’s state of mind. I can’t tell you how to get there. Reach what he reached. I don’t even know what he had.
I have something else. It’s outrageous to say, but to be as completely honest as I could ever be, I believe the state I have is better (for me) than a state matching Buddha’s. I never wanted to match Buddha’s state. I became fearful when I thought I might be on that path and I stopped the path for 6 years.
Stopping that trajectory and going back to ME for 6 years seems to have changed the path considerably.
I have just happened by chance into this very nice situation.
I made a video about how it happened.
That’s all I really have to offer. I can’t teach you for 6 months or a year. I have many students asking if I can put them on some sort of regular schedule for calls and practice.
I can’t.
I just don’t think this is the way to go about it. I don’t feel like building an Adyashanti-like empire here.
I’m not giving myself another name with the hope that I get a little more respect. Ha!
- Vernyashanti? It has a nice ring though!
- Vernsho (like Osho?)
- Vernzen (Shinzen).
- Vernikaro (Santikaro).
- Vernalaramsi (Vimalaramsi).
- The Great Western Vern (The Great Western Vehicle – Jeff someone, I remembered seeing videos of on YT).
That all seems like nonsense to me.
I just want to give you what I know as Vern Lovic and hope it helps.
I’m not wearing a white shirt or baggy pants. I don’t have a man-bun or a shaved head (but I do enjoy the coolness of a nice buzz-cut every now and then!).
I don’t have any Buddhist tattoos. No yants. No cool sayings in ink hiding somewhere on me.
I don’t have a Buddha necklace or some symbol hanging from my neck that means something to anyone. I’m not on a hunger fast or denying myself meat or anything.
I haven’t been to a 10 day retreat. A 7 day retreat. Any day retreat.
I don’t have a guru. I used to wish there was someone I could ask some questions, but now there aren’t any questions.
I’ve watched (started watching) hundreds of videos by contemporary Buddhist/Hindu teachers and usually turn them off within a few minutes as they say something that doesn’t match my experience.
My experience is my only guide. As yours should be.
If you follow my experience, great. Let me know later if it helped you in some way, or if you have any questions I could help clarify about what I did or said.
See what happens in 6 months of it. A year? If nothing good, move on. Your path can constantly evolve. Don’t get stuck anywhere for more than a year. There is maybe something around the corner that is just what you need or want.
That’s all I can help with.
I love to talk with people about their experiences and share some of mine, but that really only needs to be 1 phone call.
One and done – right?
My Agenda
My agenda is only to share with you the experiences I did and that did me.
I hope it helps you in some way to find your own path. To have your own experiences.
All of that may have nothing to do with me.
🙂
~Vern