Over-engineering your practice

[Spotless]

A great deal of our growth in the arena of expanding our awareness and on the path of enlightenment has more to do with the simple basics and far less to do with the so called

"advanced" practices.

 

Advanced practice is reached primarily from basic practice.

Basic practice becomes advanced all on its own.

 

As you progress on the path, the simple teachings are in fact by a very long shot the most important and the easiest to skip over - pushing them aside in a race to "master" the basics.

 

It can also be hard to think straight in your teens and early 20s with what for some of us is a raging hormone storm and this may create the feeling of the urgency to "master" the basics aside from the intense desire to do so.

 

Included in the basics are meditation, some breathing techniques, and some posture basics.

 

Often wholly brushed aside is diet - or as is freqently the case - it is an egotistical way of life diet of only organic items and a very full identification with this diet (certainly nothing wrong with the diet - it is a very good diet - but the identification is often so enuciated it should be obviously an area to work on).

 

Also brushed aside in general is the Ego - we see this all across these boards - statements of surety that is so obviously way beyond actual experience, the over use of quotes as though this redeems a lack of thinking or real experience.

 

Almost no desire to consider what Right Thinking actually might mean - little discussion of it if any - an assumed understanding - ["my" understanding]

 

Right view

Right intention

Ethical conduct

Right action

Right effort

Right mindfulness

Right concentration

 

Take right effort:

About 99% of the effort is done towards Gain

The gaining of advanced practice skills, and the effort to maintain a good practice in order to continue "up" along the path.

 

We indulge in poor food, alcohol, smoking and a limitless supply of energy reducing behaviours and think nothing of it.

Even if we eat well, do not smoke and our drinking is none or well within a composed fashion, we attach ourselves to every cause under the sun and compress huge amounts of judgement into them and cast our will about the universe with abandon - often ready to pounce upon any protrusion from our indefatigable indignation.

We practice this daily! It is our story and our biggest practice!

It is primarily how we die - and how most of us are completely dead by the age of 45 - deadend to our story - our treasured illusion.

 

We come out of it briefly in our old age when it hits us that we have been way off and need to purcase some insurance. Or we do not come out of it - and our after death is quite a delay for us.

 

Another thing we skip over - though this practice is now coming to light - is the mindfulness to those energies we have come to know:

 

If you have come to feel a particular chakra or energy center - try to stay aware of it at all times.

This is a primary way to Awaken

Say you feel the warmth of your 4th chakra in meditation and everytime you put your awareness on it you can feel it - then put your attention on it and be with it during the day.

Slowly but surely it will be present more and more - and with it will come an increase in other awarenesses as well. Soon you will be more in this space than not - perhaps all the time.

 

Practice not venting your energies on your story - stay with your being - notice when you leave your awareness space - you will find it leaves you often during the "you" that you believe you know best (the one you identify with).

 

Many of the most "advanced" practices become your story - your new story - you are identified with your prowess of stretching, your ability to do some esoteric practice - and your ability to use the word esoteric as though you know what it means to be inside the innermost 3rd circle.

 

If you ignore the basics - the balancing basics, then learning the "higher" forms present much more danger than they afford apportunity and growth.

 

Another form of over engineering comes from fear - but this is a long enough beginning for now.

 

Please join this discussion!

Edited November 3, 2013 by Spotless

[i am]

Actually I've been wondering lately about something along the lines of your mention of keeping my awareness where I can feel an energy center. At least I think it's along the same lines.

 

One thing I picked up along the way is to take a "witness" viewpoint of myself. Basically to view everything I'm doing as though I'm an impartial witness to it. I'm not doing it; I'm watching it get done, with no judgement.

 

When I do this, I kind of put my awareness back over my shoulder, or what usually ends up being way at the back of my head. Almost always, as soon as I put my awareness way at the back and top of my head, I can feel my entire body as a whole, and can feel a pleasant energy through all of it. This is mostly on hikes when I have a little blood flowing, but I can do it when I'm sitting around, too.

 

But I don't know that this is something to do all the time. (?) Or if feeling, actually trying to feel energy throughout my entire body is a good thing. Like if my constant focus on feeling my entire body is sending energy all throughout my body and taking it out of storage, possibly depleting it. Should I be focused on a dantien and storing the energy, or is it fine to be constantly wanting to feel my entire body all a-buzz with it all at once?

 

I don't want to be scattering my energy all the time, just because it feels cool to feel my whole body alive with it.

[Spotless]

Actually I've been wondering lately about something along the lines of your mention of keeping my awareness where I can feel an energy center. At least I think it's along the same lines.

 

One thing I picked up along the way is to take a "witness" viewpoint of myself. Basically to view everything I'm doing as though I'm an impartial witness to it. I'm not doing it; I'm watching it get done, with no judgement.

 

When I do this, I kind of put my awareness back over my shoulder, or what usually ends up being way at the back of my head. Almost always, as soon as I put my awareness way at the back and top of my head, I can feel my entire body as a whole, and can feel a pleasant energy through all of it. This is mostly on hikes when I have a little blood flowing, but I can do it when I'm sitting around, too.

 

But I don't know that this is something to do all the time. (?) Or if feeling, actually trying to feel energy throughout my entire body is a good thing. Like if my constant focus on feeling my entire body is sending energy all throughout my body and taking it out of storage, possibly depleting it. Should I be focused on a dantien and storing the energy, or is it fine to be constantly wanting to feel my entire body all a-buzz with it all at once?

 

I don't want to be scattering my energy all the time, just because it feels cool to feel my whole body alive with it.

Effort is not necessary

Simply put your attention on the feeling - it does not require more energy - it should actually lessen dissipation.

 

You will find that as you have your attention as you state above, it is easier to breath into the appropriate spaces which with no effort maintain and increase this attention. And - the more you practice this the more it becomes apparent where you loose yourself.

[mjjbecker]

A great deal of our growth in the arena of expanding our awareness and on the path of enlightenment has more to do with the simple basics and far less to do with the so called

"advanced" practices.

 

Perhaps people should ditch the 'basics' tag and instead think more about 'fundamentals'?

 

Without those fundamentals there is nothing. Come to adore them and they will adore you back.

[Mal]

I like to pay with words and "name" basic or beginning practices as fundamental or foundation practices.

 

Otherwise I find I just have an expectation of a moving/improving progression from basic to advanced. Rather than an appreciation of just how important the fundamentals are.

[Kasuku]

this thread is refreshing... you are right... whats most important is the refinement of essential nature - without that no alchemy can occur

 

 

"When other thoughts arise, one should not pursue them, but should inquire: ‘To whom do they arise?’ It does not matter how many thoughts arise. As each thought arises, one should inquire with diligence, “To whom has this thought arisen?”. The answer that would emerge would be “To me”. Thereupon if one inquires “Who am I?”, the mind will go back to its source; and the thought that arose will become quiescent."

 

One of the best advice for refinement of essence xing... yuan shen..

 

all we are is vitality energy and spirit,

 

refining xing, nourishes true shen, qi, and jing automatically

[Jetsun]

Any barrier to awakening is one created by your own mind, so if you say to yourself you need to master a breathing technique to awaken that is a barrier you have yourself created, if you say you have to sit a certain way that is a barrier you have created, if you tell yourself you have to master the jhana states or fill the Dan tien or master energy levels in the future, or heal the ego, or achieve alchemical fusion, they are all obstacles you have put yourself in front of your own goal. Doing all that stuff is great but you don't necessarily have to do any of it.

[Seeker of Wisdom]

There's a Tibetan saying about this: "there are many profound practices and few profound practitioners".

 

In part, the issue is arrogance. Fundamental practices that don't lead to liberation in their own right are seen as somehow beneath us, we want to do the liberating ones.

 

The mundane work of critically looking at our behaviour - 'well even X and Y do that' - here sectarian arrogance gets in the way.

 

The other part of the issue is ignorance, specifically confusing conventional and absolute truth. People hear about how we are already enlightened and just need to realise it, and completely deny that right now, on the conventional level, we aren't enlightened and there are stages of progression to go through.

 

The classic example here is one I'm always banging on about - mental stability/shamatha/samadhi. The untrained mind alternates between restlessness and torpor, and most of it is out of our reach in the subconscious. How can we leave behind our delusion if we cannot access most of our minds, or probe into our experience with any serious clarity?

 

This idea of not needing to do any fundamentals or follow along any paths seems like a mind-game to me. It's with the realisation of emptiness that advanced non-conceptual practice is a feasible approach, since before that trying to be non-conceptual is only a conceptual aversion to concepts, a catch-22 situation.

 

Isn't the concept that concepts need to be dropped itself a concept? Isn't deliberately following no path, because they are all 'like cleaning a prison cell', itself a dualistically chosen and deliberately followed path?

 

We need to work on virtue, so that we can develop reliable mental stability, so that we can develop a lasting realisation of emptiness.

[Jetsun]

There's a Tibetan saying about this: "there are many profound practices and few profound practitioners".

 

In part, the issue is arrogance. Fundamental practices that don't lead to liberation in their own right are seen as somehow beneath us, we want to do the liberating ones.

 

The mundane work of critically looking at our behaviour - 'well even X and Y do that' - here sectarian arrogance gets in the way.

 

The other part of the issue is ignorance, specifically confusing conventional and absolute truth. People hear about how we are already enlightened and just need to realise it, and completely deny that right now, on the conventional level, we aren't enlightened and there are stages of progression to go through.

 

The classic example here is one I'm always banging on about - mental stability/shamatha/samadhi. The untrained mind alternates between restlessness and torpor, and most of it is out of our reach in the subconscious. How can we leave behind our delusion if we cannot access most of our minds, or probe into our experience with any serious clarity?

 

This idea of not needing to do any fundamentals or follow along any paths seems like a mind-game to me. It's with the realisation of emptiness that advanced non-conceptual practice is a feasible approach, since before that trying to be non-conceptual is only a conceptual aversion to concepts, a catch-22 situation.

 

Isn't the concept that concepts need to be dropped itself a concept? Isn't deliberately following no path, because they are all 'like cleaning a prison cell', itself a dualistically chosen and deliberately followed path?

 

We need to work on virtue, so that we can develop reliable mental stability, so that we can develop a lasting realisation of emptiness.

 

For some becoming too one pointed can create a barrier because the awake state is open, so if you have trained yourself to be too one pointed that habit may be something you have let go of so you can see the wood from the trees, so shamatha may not necessarily create only positive qualities for your progress. Within certain paths it helps to develop those qualities of mind but I think it is a stretch to say that it should be a fundamental for everyone, it is only a fundamental within certain Buddhist paths. Ramana Maharshi for example said that if you have those qualities of mind it will help with the enquiry into the "I" thought by giving you more focus and stability, but he never recommended his students to do it, he said just go for the liberation practice. Which is the quicker method to do years of fundamentals or go straight for the liberation? Each master seems to differ in their opinion, even in Buddhism.

[Seeker of Wisdom]

Shamatha leads to a pliable mind. That's necessary to permanently uproot the hindrances - otherwise you can't perceive the delusion and clinging fully, you are only working with the small conceptual conscious mind.

 

That's why I don't think you can just go straight to liberation. You need access to all of your mind first. The roots of the prison are in the substrate consciousness, so we need to be able to work on that level.

 

This is a universally acknowledged principle. Shamatha may be a Buddhist term, but the actual practice predates and goes far beyond Buddhism. It's in Hinduism, occultism, esoteric Christianity, Taoism, Sufism...

 

You're right, many who achieve shamatha do get stuck on it. It's important to not stop there. But I don't think that's a reason to not start. It's also important to get there. Imagine if Jimi Hendrix never wanted to tune his guitar.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Seeker of Tao

[C T]

Which is the quicker method to do years of fundamentals or go straight for the liberation?

If you think its a separated thing then you are mistaken.

 

The fundamental practice is liberation.

 

The key is training in stability so that lapses in recognizing essence get seen, and in that seeing, it dissolves spontaneously. What happens to those who lack stability in the fundamentals is that these moments of distractive delusional states go unnoticed most of the time, and this is the cause for samsara.

 

As recognition becomes more stable, tastes of open mind, free of grasping become more tangible, and clinging become less problematic.

 

Towards the culmination of this, distractions and obstacles become fuel for enhancing the awakening process. Compelled thus, the result and fruition is swift and sure.

 

Tsoknyi Rinpoche has stressed in the same manner many times, encouraging students to remember the inseparability of the preliminary practices and Togal. He said its a common problem with practitioners to relinquish the prelims in favor of 'higher' practices because that enhances the ego in desirable ways. (ref. chapter 29 -- Quintessential Dzogchen)

[Jetsun]

With many preliminary practices there is a narrowing of the mind, a fixation on something usually with the ultimate purpose of creating a favourible trance state to weaken the power of existing unfavorable trance states. But ultimately you are still dreaming and continuing to create new dreams even if its a better dream. Whereas in liberation awareness is completely open and unfixated free from all trance, so both states are of different taste and nature. I know I'm probably in disagreement with many masters but the nature of the two modes of awareness are in contrast as far as I can see so its possible they may not have anything to do with one another.

[Seeker of Wisdom]

 

...

Trying to be completely open and unfixated can just be a subtler kind of closed fixation - aversion to being closed and fixated. The issue is whether you are having to try. It's necessary to peel off layers with gradual practice, the trying and fixation slips away of its own accord to sudden full release. Otherwise, it's a catch-22 situation in which you are fixating on not fixating.

Edited November 3, 2013 by Seeker of Tao

[C T]

With many preliminary practices there is a narrowing of the mind, a fixation on something usually with the ultimate purpose of creating a favourible trance state to weaken the power of existing unfavorable trance states. But ultimately you are still dreaming and continuing to create new dreams even if its a better dream. Whereas in liberation awareness is completely open and unfixated free from all trance, so both states are of different taste and nature. I know I'm probably in disagreement with many masters but the nature of the two modes of awareness are in contrast as far as I can see so its possible they may not have anything to do with one another.

Certainly it is wonderful to be free and unfixated, but this is not really the easiest when it comes to application.

 

Some students asked Tsoknyi Rinpoche whether shamatha training, visualizations, recitation of mantras, cultivating loving-kindness and the whole host of other non-Dzogchen practices are distractions, and he replied thus:

 

"When one is explaining the Dzogchen teachings on their own terms, the answer is yes, those are states of distraction. But one must add that these are first-class states of distraction, especially loving-kindness. For most people it is actually quite difficult to be distracted in those noble ways even when they try. Isn't it true that most people find it difficult to be continuously loving and kind? To have very clear visualization in the development stage is also not easy. To have one-pointed concentration in shamatha is easier said than done, isn't it? So from time to time it is perfectly alright to make the wish "May i attain that type of distraction."

 

In terms of the teaching of the Great Perfection, we have to agree that those states are still dualistic mind, albeit a very fine type of dualistic mind, one that we sometimes need. Nevertheless, the states of distraction are distracted states. Occasionally people blunder at exactly this point and lose interest in cultivating any dualistic practices such as loving-kindness, one-pointedness of shamatha, or development stages. This is surely a mistake. From time to time we should certainly cultivate those.

 

The real problem is if one frowns upon dualistic practices because of hearing that the non-dual state of rigpa is the real thing. One might incorrectly feel that trying to be compassionate and cultivating noble qualities are inferior types of practices, so why bother? Unfortunately, the loving-kindness and compassion that should be spontaneously present within the awakened state haven't manifested yet. One is in a vacant and dry blankness where nothing much happens.

 

To fixate one's mind on the unconditioned while rejecting (the cultivation of) noble qualities is an obstacle.

 

It is a self-created hindrance for practitioners of particularly this type of practice. This obstacle is called the demon view of black dissipation, a view that gives credence to neither good nor evil. One feels no interest in cultivating good qualities because such practices are 'too conceptual', but one does not naturally have any good qualities either, so nothing happens. This is a big obstacle, and one of the main reasons why Dzogchen teachings are kept secret.

 

One can also misunderstand at the outset of the practice how rigpa really is. Yes, it is spacious and open, but its not simply an extroverted spacious ego. In this distortion, ego is not dissolved, it just makes itself outwardly spacious. "There is so much space there, I am so open. I am so open." And then one stays like that, vacant and frozen. One trains again and again in keeping this open, vacant, frozen state that is definitely not rigpa. If it were truly rigpa, the compassionate qualities and devotion would naturally appear. True practitioners understand the futility of samsaric aims, and renunciation genuinely arise within their mind. But since it isn't really rigpa, these qualities are not allowed to unfold.

 

A specific psychological problem accompanies this particular distortion of rigpa, arising as a sort of side-effect. It reveals itself whenever one is confronted with doing something noble or meaningful. The misguided Dzogchen yogi tells himself, "I shouldn't do this, because its dualistic". Taking part in dualistic practices then becomes a guilt-ridden act, as if one has been forced to betray the vacant, spacious ego. Ego is not self-liberated at this point, not at all, because the knowing of its empty essence is missing".

(excerpted from Quintessential Dzogchen)

 

As the OP suggested, it is quite easy to over-engineer one's View and Conduct. This sort of distortion can be observed quite clearly during the preliminary practices, but if the prelims were to be set aside, then the corrective measures can never be taken for reasons made absolutely clear in the above sublime advice and encouragement from Tsoknyi Rinpoche.

[9th]

All great movements are popular movements. They are the volcanic eruptions of human passions and emotions, stirred into activity by the ruthless Goddess of Distress or by the torch of the spoken word cast into the midst of the people.

 

 

- Adolf Hilter

 

[soaring crane]

I'm kinda hungry, and sleepy. I think I'll have a little something to eat and then go to bed.

[Harmonious Emptiness]

I'm glad to see this topic as well.

 

I think this was one of the many lessons in Lao Tzu saying "a knife that is over-sharpened will break."

[Spotless]

For everyone - please visit BatGap.com

 

It contains some 200 interviews with people that have Awakened.

 

Some of them practiced for years and some had no idea what happened to them.

 

Buddha at the gas pump

Batgap.com

 

The basis is to interview people that have had an Awakening and ask them basically what they experienced before during and after.

 

It is a real eye opener - do visit this site

Edited November 4, 2013 by Spotless

[Jetsun]

For everyone - please visit BatGap.com

 

It contains some 200 interviews with people that have Awakened.

 

Some of them practiced for years and some had no idea what happened to them.

 

Buddha at the gas pump

Batgap.com

 

The basis is to interview people that have had an Awakening and ask them basically what they experienced before during and after.

 

It is a real eye opener - do visit this site

 

Yeah I've been watching some of those videos after you recommended them to me the other day, its a good site. Another good site recommended by one of the interviewees is stillness speaks website.

 

The stories put into question a number of assumptions, such as the whole concept of levels in practice, there seems to be no evidence of linear progression in that you do this practice for a certain amount of time it leads to the result of spiritual awakening. Many of the interviewees had their awakenings through failure, either failure in spiritual practice or just failure in life in general. The advantage of failure is that it is a state where you don't know what you have to do, you stop thinking you know better than God or the Tao about where you are and what should be happening to you, which creates the opening. You are forced to surrender with life playing the role of tough guru. So it appears one moment of surrender to what life is giving you could be more powerful than hundreds of thousands of hours of trying to get what you want, or think you should get, or think you need to do to awaken.

[Seeker of Wisdom]

It contains some 200 interviews with people that have Awakened.

 

The basis is to interview people that have had an Awakening and ask them basically what they experienced before during and after.

It's great that people do have these openings, some without much or any practice. But I'm cautious about the way the word 'Awakening' is thrown around to label any experience of higher consciousness.

 

It's impossible to confuse being awake with being asleep, but just as most of society has no idea that they are asleep and could be awake (so you can be asleep and think you are awake), it is easy for someone who has had experiences or reached a particular state to confuse their attainment for full awakening - not knowing that awakening is higher.

 

An awake person is not one who had a particular experience, and now looks back on that experience. They may remember what they learned in their gnosis, but it has become a matter of knowledge. Correct knowledge is different from liberating insight/perception. So, full awakening is a continual gnosis, not a memory of a peak experience of gnosis.

 

Also, even continual gnosis isn't being awake if it is only one layer on the way to full liberation. Someone who fully gnows that all beings are fundamentally enlightened isn't awake if they don't gnow emptiness, and certainly if they haven't realised Tao, which is the heart of the matter. One area of confusion for many these days is reifying consciousness as the ultimate - idealism, which, like materialism, can't explain the interaction between mind and body.

Edited November 4, 2013 by Seeker of Tao

[Jetsun]

It's great that people do have these openings, some without much or any practice. But I'm cautious about the way the word 'Awakening' is thrown around to label any experience of higher consciousness.

 

It's impossible to confuse being awake with being asleep, but just as most of society has no idea that they are asleep and could be awake (so you can be asleep and think you are awake), it is easy for someone who has had experiences or reached a particular state to confuse their attainment for full awakening - not knowing that awakening is higher.

 

An awake person is not one who had a particular experience, and now looks back on that experience. They may remember what they learned in their gnosis, but it has become a matter of knowledge. Correct knowledge is different from liberating insight/perception. So, full awakening is a continual gnosis, not a memory of a peak experience of gnosis.

 

Also, even continual gnosis isn't being awake if it is only one layer on the way to full liberation. Someone who fully gnows that all beings are fundamentally enlightened isn't awake if they don't gnow emptiness, and certainly if they haven't realised Tao, which is the heart of the matter. One area of confusion for many these days is reifying consciousness as the ultimate - idealism, which, like materialism, can't explain the interaction between mind and body.

 

The way it is talked about in these circles is that you can have an initial awakening which then expands, unfolds and stabilises and much later you gain full enlightenment or complete awakening. The initial awakening is significant because it is a fundamental shift out of a limited confined sense of self and once it has happened the sense of being an individual "I" is never again as convincing no matter how strong your existing habitual energy or contraction comes back afterwards.

 

I know in many traditional paths they say you do all the work first and gradually wear things down to finally arrive at an awakening at the end after you have prepared the ground, but all across the globe people are having these realisations first at the beginning and then all the beliefs and habits are dropping away and energy development is happening afterwards. I don't know if this is backwards to the way it once was or whether it is just backwards to the way the linear mind expects it to happen, but this is the way it is happening now for most of the people in the videos. Which is why I think it is worth examining what our beliefs are about the process towards enlightenment, because the way things are going to unfold for us may have absolutely nothing to do with the way we currently believe they are.

[i am]

I avoid sites like that for the very reason I often think I should avoid this site...Expectation, and "measuring up".

 

Too often when I'm "trying" to meditate, I'm thinking of what I've read on this site about what other people have experienced. I don't want to hear a story of someone's awakening and constantly be comparing myself to them.

 

Better to experience these things first, then compare notes with others.

 

This was brought up in some other thread here recently. Good teachers won't tell you much. You've got to experience it first, then they'll help guide you. But nothing is learned without direct experience, and hearing too much about other people's experiences colors your view of how things should happen, when in truth they happen differently for different people.

 

This is just my personal feeling, for me. I'm sure when you've got the right kind of practice down and have accomplished certain things, then checking in to this site for feedback and other ideas is probably a good thing.

 

I've noticed, in a limited number of interviews with Taoist and Buddhist practicioners, that anytime an interviewer asks them what they experience when they meditate, they avoid the question, in one way or another. I don't know if this has anything to do with what I'm feeling, but it's something I noticed early on when I started watching documentaries about this kind of stuff. They never explain what they experience in meditation.

Edited November 5, 2013 by i am

[juliank]

I avoid sites like that for the very reason I often think I should avoid this site...Expectation, and "measuring up".

 

Too often when I'm "trying" to meditate, I'm thinking of what I've read on this site about what other people have experienced. I don't want to hear a story of someone's awakening and constantly be comparing myself to them.

 

Better to experience these things first, then compare notes with others.

 

This was brought up in some other thread here recently. Good teachers won't tell you much. You've got to experience it first, then they'll help guide you. But nothing is learned without direct experience, and hearing too much about other people's experiences colors your view of how things should happen, when in truth they happen differently for different people.

 

This is just my personal feeling, for me. I'm sure when you've got the right kind of practice down and have accomplished certain things, then checking in to this site for feedback and other ideas is probably a good thing.

 

I've noticed, in a limited number of interviews with Taoist and Buddhist practicioners, that anytime an interviewer asks them what they experience when they meditate, they avoid the question, in one way or another. I don't know if this has anything to do with what I'm feeling, but it's something I noticed early on when I started watching documentaries about this kind of stuff. They never explain what they experience in meditation.

 

This is a great insight. It's not so much the comparison or measuring up that is at stake in my case as is the danger that someone else's projections and dilemmas get entangled in my own process. I want my issues to be worked out via cultivation and I really dont need something I read in a forum to seep into my subconscious and then later come out in my practice. It's a tricky thing reading about other peoples practices. Then again I feel I have eschewed many pitfalls just by reading what to avoid wrt certain practices that I am certain has saved me some heartache and headaches too. I do think though that less time on the forums and more time cultivating is the wiser choice. It's something I have been giving a lot of thought to the last week so I am glad you brought it up.

[Seeker of Wisdom]

 

The way it is talked about in these circles is that you can have an initial awakening which then expands, unfolds and stabilises and much later you gain full enlightenment or complete awakening. The initial awakening is significant because it is a fundamental shift out of a limited confined sense of self and once it has happened the sense of being an individual "I" is never again as convincing no matter how strong your existing habitual energy or contraction comes back afterwards.

I get what you're saying, and I agree that the process isn't strictly linear.

 

However, sudden flashes of gnosis aren't things we can make happen, that surrender can't happen through intent, so we have to provisionally follow a path until the opening occurs. If we haven't had a sudden opening, we should be doing something to progress rather than waiting and hoping for one.

 

I think that we follow the gradual to get to the sudden, and those who seem to have randomly jumped to the sudden probably did so from the fruition of prior gradual practice.

Edited November 5, 2013 by Seeker of Tao

[Sahaj Nath]

a piece i wrote back in '07 in the 'Contributed Articles' section. flows pretty well with the OP's intent, methinks.

more than any other facet of one's practice, the genuine quality of self that one brings to their practice is the greatest deciding factor of whether or not authentic development will continue. there are thousands of techniques designed to accomplish common ends. most of them work. enough so that i feel fairly comfortable stating that, in general, all of them work. the tools of cultivation are plenty, but without a quality understanding of one's own being in terms of presence and motive, how can one expect to use the tools effectively?

here in the materialist west we seem to have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that it is WE who use the tools; the tools do not use us. meaning that the tools may vary in efficiency, but even mediocre or bad tools can be used effectively if one possesses quality understanding. the beginning stage of practice should be geared toward refining this necessary quality. quickly moving past this foundation is one way to ensure that the highest stages will never be realized in this lifetime. one NEVER moves past the foundation! i should repeat this point: one NEVER moves past the foundation. it's not linear progression; it can't be. everything we seek is already here, right now. NOW is the only place where anything can ever be. this accounts for why devastatingly profound awakenings happen periodically to novices and non-practitioners, and often DON'T happen to seasoned practitioners even after decades of practice.


if you live the vast majority of your life treating each moment as means to an end, it doesn't matter much what you practice. you're lost. and if you choose to remain in that state of (un)consciousness, it will likely take an external circumstance, such as a tragedy or a near-death experience, to shake you up enough to even begin the process of opening your eyes. sometimes it's an experience immense beauty that triggers it, but not as often.

for the person who bypasses the majority of life as a mere means to an end, awakening only happens by accident. the best that they can hope for is that their practices will somehow make them more accident prone.


breathe deep. embrace the simplicity of now. do it this very moment, as you read this. do it now. and most importantly, never stop doing it! THIS is essential to cultivation and evolution. it's a state which one strives to make a permanent condition. one never stops breathing deep. one never stops living and moving and being in the present moment. now is all there it. now is all there ever is. everything that has ever occurred, or ever will occur, can only occur in the now.

through this understanding each breath becomes a universe unto itself. each moment of relaxation becomes a whole and complete healing. nothing is wasted. nothing is ignored or denied. this is the true state of cultivation, and it is also the state that one works to acquire until it simply IS. this is radical presence, and there can be now wakefulness, no evolution, and no high level of development, without it.

every action is a ritual. every motion is a dance. every thought and emotion is an entity that either nourishes or depletes us. on a more subtle level we begin to understand that the constant flux of energy (within us and around us) creates as well as destroys. all phenomenon contains both. but the profound simplicity of radical presence entrains us to harmonious resonance with each breath, in each moment.


if one were to understand only this in one's lifetime, one would not have lived in vain.



hsing is both form and force. it has no direct translation in english. but it can be understood. one of the many basic principles that can be derived from the notion of hsing qi is that energy follows thought. the unconscious state is one of reckless, toxic thinking habits.

breathe deep. settle down. keep it simple. if you're always in the past or in the future, if you're seldom or never right here, right now,

you're wasting precious time...