Ahhhhh LFK when it comes to running, I envy your weather. Winter is definitely making it's coming known, up here. Luckily, we invested in a treadmill last year. It was less than a years memberships for myself and my wife and it and it ours for many years. It is great for those winter months, or when you're doing single parent duty.
One word popped out at me from your post above. You said I can't feel anything with my hands/palms. If I catch myself saying "I can't", I quickly correct it to "I haven't". I'll say that I've experienced phenominal changes in beliefs, driven by experiencing things I hadn't up until about 4 years ago.
You also mentioned about going into the emptiness. The questions comes up "What is emptiness? How do I know when I've entered it?" The answer that I found most settling was given to me at my level III retreat, by a person I believe was the then president of the SFQ association, he said the emptiness is like an onion and you experience it in layers. He said the first level was like darkness, and the next was a lightness. I had had a couple of experiences I could label that way so I thought I'm doing it right. I don't remember what he may have said were the next layers; if he said anything more.
I think that it's not important to know what it is. Expecting, or more appropriately "Looking for: or trying to "Create" the experience of going into the emptiness is a hindress to the process. It gets in the way of going into the emptiness. Paul Scheele once said you can't both have the experience and analyze it at the same time. It's been good advice for me. Because when I first heard it, I immediately recognized when I had started to analyze (think about) my experience it always immediately ended the experience.
This also fits well with what I've recently read about Buddhist meditation. (I think the Buddhist tradition has a true wealth of understanding of the evolution of one's meditation experience.) However, when it comes down to "What do I do?", it boils down to the knowledge not helping you progress it's about the doing the meditation as directed. The meditation when wholely and solely experienced will provide the evolution.
I think that some of the Buddhist teaching are structure in the way they are to help you get past analyzing or observing you practice. They're designed to help you progress even with your new and growing knowledge. Master Lin's approach truely is simple and powerful. It is practice focussed. It has a sense that any knowledge is artificial, or at least incomplete, if it makes you feel better. His advice directs you away of trying to understand (my experience) and to trusting in the universe and the practice (Faith). Which is good because you don't feed your analyst with the energy of your attention, so it becomes quiet and you can become more solely involved in the practice.
I obviously still analyze, but it's time is after the meditation. Much of it just comes out as I sit here and type.
You are perfection.
Iam2
