I have only heard of the terms I referenced from the two posts from Nick Seaver’s blog that I mentioned in my first comment.

He participated in the Shamatha Project, and in a couple of posts (at least two I referenced) he mentions these terms when describing the “gunk” that sort of bubbles up into awareness as part of the “dredging of the psyche” that can occur while meditating. He goes on to describe it like so:

“The nyam can get pretty intense, conjuring up all kinds of nasty demons – anger, sadness, fear, resentment, low self-esteem, physical ailments, etc.”

He goes on the second post i mentioned to reference an excerpt from “The Vajra Essence” to describe the phenomena which I’ll take the liberty to paste here:

” The impression that all your thoughts are wreaking havoc in your body and mind, like boulders rolling down a steep mountain, crushing and destroying everything in their path;

· An ecstatic, pleasant feeling, as if your entire body has dissolved into microscopic bubbles and you experience everything with complete equanimity and clarity, as if you had been viewing the world through frosted glass previously, and now someone has pulled the frosted glass away;

· A sense of panic flowing through you as if from without, combined with dramatically increased heart rate and sweating and muscle twitching;

· The experience of visions, which you know to be hallucinations, but which are as vivid in the mind’s eye as if they were real. Often these visions take on frightening forms, such as skeletons, giant spiders or venomous snakes;

· The sensation of external sounds and voices of humans, dogs, birds, and so on all piercing your heart like thorns;

· Unbearable anger due to the paranoia of thinking that everyone around you is gossiping about you and putting you down;

· The perception of all phenomena as brilliant, colored particles;

· Such unbearable misery that you think your heart will burst.”

Check out the full posts for more. Anyways, perhaps these further elaborations will be helpful to you. Me – I’m just a casual if interested “lay observer” I do find the similarities striking – and if they do describe different categories of experience, it would be great to have more clarity in how they differ exactly. But perhaps these terms all describe the same phenomena…

-Bobby

Now, I just wanted to get us on the same page with language. I’m curious where you got “nyam” from, because I think you’ve found something here. However, I think you found a phonetic rendering not the transliteration. Transliteration matches exactly the spelling of a word in another language so scholars can refer to it and everyone knows exactly which word is in question. Phonetic renderings only approximate the sound, and with Tibetan, that’s hopeless because they have so many homonyms.

Anyways, really want to hear more about what you’ve found because I’ve been looking for more literature in the Tibetan tradition on the dark night experiences, and it sounds like you’ve hit upon something:)

thanks!
-ryan

After reading your post I went and found Ingram’s description of the dark night, and it reminded me of some other descriptions of what I’ve heard called “nyam” or “sankharas”. See:

http://seaver.typepad.com/expedition_shamatha/2008/01/hello-friends-s.html
… and:
http://seaver.typepad.com/expedition_shamatha/2007/04/michelle_update.html

I’m wondering if these terms are interchangeable, and if not – how might nyam/sanharas fit within the Ingram model.

Thanks,
Bobby

@Lee hahahaha, hey, jokes are definitely welcomed for all dark nighters:) we all have our stories:P we should do a joke post like that, huh?:)

@Duff for better or worse:) In some way, I take comfort in knowing that there’s not just “one” dark night that we go through. It just seems to be part of the ebb and flow of life.

All my friends thought I was joking about leaving it all to become a monastic if my fiancee and myself ever broke up. We almost did break up and even though I was torn apart by it I started looking for possible monasteries in Canada I could go to. My close friend got super pissed at me when I told him that I would be leaving after I gave my two weeks at work.

Anyway, to wrap it up, my fiancee and I are back together, I still work at the same place, and I know my friend wouldn’t support my spiritual decisions.

You might be in the dark night if…

You quit your job, leave your girlfriend, give away your shit and move to Asia for 6 months.

Hmmm not a very funny joke is it