ardacigin

What do you mean by flavour from intro to systems thinking?

The following understanding is formed after my recent direct experiences regarding determinism and free will. Ultimately, both are false. The answer is more complex than most people care to admit. Let me explain. First of all, let's get free will out of the way. There is absolutely no entity separate from other causes and conditions that can exercise an independent will and go against this nexus of causality in the moment. Free will is an illusion. No doubt about that. However, all of the future moments being already pre-determined is not the natural conclusion that arise from this understanding. Even if you knew the entire locality and movements of all particles in the universe, you'd not foresee its exact unfoldment in a scientific manner 5 years from now. This system is designed in non-linear complex causality, not in some predictable linear ('b comes after a') causality. Understanding the system's theory is important to get a feel for what I'm saying. But ultimately, direct experience of this interconnected causality will allow you to see how determinism is not the answer. The universe, your life, your decisions, the way your life unfolds is probabilistic. I will make a practical connection to your life to illustrate my point. Everything in the universe is playing a role in shaping us, however, this particular system we have in each of us (the mind/brain) is at the center of this nexus of causality. It has the potential to literally shape and design itself. What it CAN'T do is to determine with exact precision how this probability wavelength is going to collapse in a particular moment as the present moment unfolds. But it has the ability to determine which way the probability wavelength (which exists in each moment) will collapse in future moments as a potentiality. Your mind generates both past and future in the present. After all, some present moment decisions are made with 49,9 - 50,1 sort of probability. It can go either way. Tipping the scales one way or the other is a potential our minds can utilize to shape our future selves. With the way we respond to the world and form intentions, our 'self' is designed and re-designed in each moment. That is what the training in spirituality is all about. The fact of observation and seeing the consequences of our actions/decisions allow our minds to shape its programming and change the future by accumulating micro-adjustments. This is one of the things we do in meditation. Try to become conscious of what you are doing :)) You are a self-organizing system. You are an unfolding series of probabilities that are contingent on absolutely everything that has happened everywhere throughout all time. What 'you' do, matters! What intentions you form before you take an action, matters! What decisions you make and what response you choose to adopt after the consequences of these decisions, matters! It is rather ironic that the toxic self help industry platitude 'You can create a different future self' is not all that off the mark here. Sure, self help methods of actualizing this potential is highly toxic and ineffective but it does contain a kernel of truth you can be conscious of in direct experience. ---- At this time, I'm not sure what sort of a specific practice I can recommend you to help you directly become conscious of this understanding. Just continue practicing and examining your mind. Eventually, the insights will form by themselves. When I do have a practice I can recommend, I'll post it here. Hope this was useful Much love, Arda

You are right. You've probably misunderstood me :)) That is exactly what I meant. In spirituality, these are the qualities and attitudes we let go of to see things clearly. It is literally the opposite approach to the self help paradigm.

Well, it is toxic because the way you 'work' on yourself in self help industry is brute force, full of craving, suffering, self-clinging and should statements. The way you work on yourself is incomparably different after spiritual insights are seen more clearly. There is no longer a self that you experience as solid and real, objective etc. Allow for direct experience to inform your ideas about it. Don't accept my claims at face value.

Hi everyone. In this post, I wanted to share my current practice if any of you would like to follow along or share their own practice. I've seen immense value from it. With my recent modification, I've been doing it many days back to back and the amount of progress and depth I've uncovered is too great compared to my usual practice. --- This practice rests on the principles of 1- Craving is the innate desire and aversion for things to be different than how they currently unfold. The sense of being a self is reinforced primarily by craving. 2- The only truly satisfying state is the one that has no craving of any form. 3- Impermanence (in this sense, the changing nature of sensations) can be observed in all modalities of pleasure, neutrality and pain with clarity in order to reduce the immediate cause of suffering which is craving and self-clinging. The stable perception of sensations slowly dissolve. Initially, this is traumatic but the more you accept that this is the case, the less suffering will eventually arise. 4- The use of jhanic factors like happiness and joy allow for deeper and more consistent investigation into reality. While knowing the impermanent nature of these sensations, they still allow for a more effective and accurate spiritual investigation. 5- When the conditions are ideal (with the above principles), doing self enquiry clarifies the innate sense of being a self and allow for the deepest recesses of your unconscious mind to re-write their false innate programming. The result is a direct experience of seeing the illusion we all live under: The self is one mind/body, enduring in time and space, separate from everything else. --- The Practice Steps: 1- You start your practice by slowly increasing the power of awareness. The usual jhanic factors like joy and happiness arise with stable attention and strong metacognitive awareness. 2- Slowly, you start to observe the changing sensations that arise moment by moment. There is nothing overly advanced about this instruction. Make sure to observe there are MORE arising and passing aways in all objects and the usual stability we experience with 'states' and objects (breath, body etc.) are much more fickle and moving than we normally perceive. Do this in open awareness but with momentary concentration. - Note: This mode of perception is rawer processing of binding moments of consciousness. The part of your brain which constructs 'things' out of processes is temporarily disabled. 3- Now, use this perception of impermanence to significantly reduce your desire for pleasant sensations and aversion for unpleasant sensations. Initiate this perception by noticing how the medium of sensations are all changing, somewhat vibrating rather than solid and stable objects. In all pleasant, neutral or unpleasant sensations. Your alertness and clarity of mind needs to be higher than the sober state of consciousness to be able to tune into it. Realize that you don't have to pursue or run away from sensations which constantly change in each moment. Impute less of 'wanting' to the conscious experience. 4- Now, pour all of your investigation and energy into this experience of craving in open awareness. This innate feeling that things need to be different than how they unfold to be satisfied. Remind your mind that to reduce suffering, all you have to do is to reduce your desire and aversion for things to be different than what they are. The only satisfying state is the one where there is no craving. Tune into what you experience and train the mind to FULLY accept all sensations and open up to them. You'll experience a different state of consciousness compared to your usual resistance paradigm. Unless this shift occurs noticeably, you'll need to continue investigating what exactly you are not allowing to exist and let go of that. (ex. pain in your legs, a sense of boredom, not wanting to see sensations in detail and wanting to stabilize, wanting for more joy and pleasure to spread the body than whatever exists right now etc.) 5- With the heightened understanding of reduced craving and seeing more of the detail and impermanence of objects in conscious experience, now move to the final piece of the puzzle: Self inquiry. Since craving reinforces self-clinging, we are now in an incredible state of mind to see the self as it is. Ask the question: Who am I? Allow the unconscious mind to feel a particular tug in awareness. A release of further resistance of how things are will occur as self perception reduces. Then it will re-group as a block of resistance. Ask the question again to release it again. You need to feel SIGNIFICANT equanimity rising and SIGNIFICANT resistance dropping. If this is not happening, go back to the previous step and do the non-craving process again. Try to maintain this level of reduced craving and allow for the unconscious mind to re-program to its deepest parts. --- When you close your eyes, feel the burden of being a separate self dissolving and your self-boundaries getting less stable with 'Who am I?' When you open your eyes, defocus your eyes and resist the urge to make objects out of processes and see the interconnectedness of everything in a state of open awareness. Resist the urge for attention to contract on objects like TV screen, floor, house, breat, body etc. When you maintain this investigation for as long as you've intended, complete your practice by resolving to replicate this perception as often as possible in daily life. DONE! ----- Let me know your thoughts about the practice and share your own practices. Feel free to ask questions. Much love, Arda

Hi there Let me point out that all of this happens simultaneously. You only initially go through the sequence in maybe 10 seconds and then maintain all the insight experiences and clearly perceive them as a whole. Yes, exactly. Those stages are not experienced like moving up or down the stages. I've written them down like that to teach what to do intuitively. The entire practice happens simultaneously and should be practiced in daily life constantly with metacognitive awareness.

Hi Brandon. As craving reduces, doing metta will be intuitively easy. You can use it to enter into jhanic states. Try the technique I've outlined above as well. Metta definitely has a lot of positive extended effects on morality. Let me know how it progresses. But continue to progress on your formal practice as well. In fact, bring the loving qualities you've developed in metta to your breath practice and develop that aspect of awareness.

Good luck Ethan and let us know your progress on the forum :))

Hi Ethan. Seeing the impermanence in pain and pleasure while reducing the desire for things to be different than how you are EXACTLY experiencing them right now is going to reduce self-clinging. This is the key :)) Try to connect this impermanence (which induces equanimity anyways) to your self-experience right now :)) See its impermanence and to aid you in this investigation, reduce craving and allow a clearer look at where perception originates. The understanding will develop by itself. Inıtıally, do a 3 hour normal meditation. Feel free to move your shoulders, stretch BUT don't allow yourself to move your legs. (in a cross legged posture). That is where the bulk of suffering lies in the first place. This is still very beneficial. Give yourself many 'relief' moments by stretching your back and arms while maintaining the posture. Then go back to heightened awareness. When you are comfortable doing this in casual meditation, now you can do a 3 hour SDS sit. Much love, Arda

In order to do long strong determination sits, one of the essential awareness modality one needs to develop is something called 'awareness of mental states, emotions and intentions'. This is actually an awareness that forms extremely deeply on the 2nd path attainment. Basically, you understand (on the experiential insight level) that as long as ANY amount of craving is present at ANY moment, it reinforces self-clinging and suffering. The only completely satisfying state is the one where craving of all forms is extinguished. Whether the state has more unpleasant sense percepts in comparison to pleasant sensations is absolutely irrelevant. To do a 3 hour SDS sit, you DON'T have to be a 2nd path meditator. But you need to have a momentary contact with the awareness of mental states, emotions and intentions. Here is what I mean, In an SDS sit, eventually you are going to feel the resistance and an innate urge like: 'Oh my god. It's been 2 hour and 10 mins, when is this gonna be over? This agitation keeps building. Due to cross legged posture, my legs are in a ton of pain. If I was sitting on a chair, this would be so easy. I can't feel any joy or equanimity...Nothing works. FUCK I'm gonna stop and eat some pizza.' Whenever this sort of mental state, intentions and urge arise, since you've developed metacognitive introspective awareness (explained here), you are going to self-correct, reduce craving (aversion in this case) which will allow you to maintain equanimity and tranquility. That will give you a breathing room to generate a happy mind (even if you are in a lot of pain) and from that will arise another opportunity to generate pleasurable sensations in the body (even if you are in a lot of pain). - Now this part is OPTIONAL but it will be effective to develop this habit and skill t develop equanimity further. Inıtıally, the moment of attention to the pain will be greater than pleasure but since you are in a state of joy and strong metacognitive awareness, eventually the moment of attention to the pleasure will greatly outnumber pain. The pain sense percepts will de-amplify and pleasure will amplify. This process, by itself, will generate even more equanimity and tranquility. Which will then generate stronger mindfulness. All of a sudden, pain no longer bothers your and/or is absent from your conscious awareness. What remains is a reduction of craving, self-clinging and a generation of joy, happiness, pleasure, contentment, equanimity, tranquility and metacognitive awareness. Whenever the mind goes back to the old paradigm, you revert it back to the process I've outlined above to reduce craving and self-clinging. Then the bell rings which ends your 3 hour SDS sit. ---- To be honest, this sort of technique won't be deployed unless everything becomes unbearable. Usually, this would constitute the last 15 mins of the sit. Normally, due to physical and mental pliancy, pain sensations don't even register in consciousness and is almost totally absent from your awareness. Even if pain arises, you allow it to exist and do its thing in the background. That will also develop equanimity in another way. In fact, that is your default technique. You can go further technically at this point. It depends on how much physical pliancy is present. That will develop deeper as you practice more. Don't worry about it. Do the best you can now and eventually, what seems impossible will be fairly doable and easy. It is all about developing this real time awareness which prevents you to sink into depression, agony, frustraton, and lack of awareness regarding your mental states, alertness, emotions, feelings, craving and activities of the mind. You need to stay conscious of these in each moment and allow the understanding I've outlined above to develop by itself. Hope this helps, Much love,

Sit on a chair if you want to. But working with pain and unpleasant sensations is the name of the game in a SDS sit. Cross legged postures allow you to work with all types of sensations. Let me know how your practice goes :))

You sit down to meditate and in a matter of 5-15 mins, a sense of sluggishness, drowsiness and sleepiness sets in. The energy levels of the mind drops significantly. Let alone focusing on the breath, you're sinking deeper into this somewhat pleasant dull sensation, slowly lay down on the couch and take a nap. 'Meditation inducing sleep' is a very important roadblock you need to circumvent to do ANY sort of investigation towards the truth. This happens due to improper attentional/awareness balance with low conscious power. What needs to happen is that you experience MORE alertness after meditation. Not less. You need to feel more aware and conscious of everything. If your practice is pulling you further into sleepiness, then I recommend the following approach to increase conscious power. --- Let's say your meditation object is the breath at the tip of the nose. 1- When you feel the slightest dullness or sleepiness arising, reduce your attentional intensity to the breath and while maintaining contact with the breath; spread the awareness to the entire body. 2- If you lose attentional contact with the breath, then squeeze in the awareness a little bit to tighten attention to the breath. 3- If you lose the full body awareness, then loosen the attention focus slightly to regain the spread. This process will train and increase conscious power and energy. 4- Once an optimum interaction and energy is developed, dullness and sleepiness will disappear slowly. 5- When the interaction gets even deeper so that even when you are INTENSELY focused on the breath sensations, very strong body and mental awareness continues. 6- This is the point where after meditation, your state of consciousness will get more pristine and clear. Its energy levels WILL increase significantly but it won't induce agitation or anxiety. ----- Unless you arrive at this stage in practice, your desire to do any sort of spiritual practice will slowly wane until you backslide again. Make sure you don't use meditation to feel less conscious. It is how we all begin but the sooner you drop this habit, the sooner your life will feel richer and your meditation practice will be easier to integrate into your daily life. Much love, Arda

Okay. Now, I get it. You meant A&P as a stage in Daniel's system of training. I thought you meant the integration of the insight into impermanence. All piti sensations, energy movements etc. are A&P in broad strokes. You would be correct. But it is not all that important. When piti is develop more deeply, it will enable you to practice jhanas. Only then will it have some deeper significance and effect in purifying the psyche with 5 hindrances and craving etc. Anyways, let me know how your practice goes Much love,

Metacognitive Awareness is the primary awareness component you develop in adept stages of meditation to practice and succeed in insight techniques like Self enquiry, God realization etc. Metacognitive Introspective awareness is composed of 2 different aspects to it. Everythng I'm going to write below is NOT analytical or complex to experience. They all happen instantaneously in each moment without any rational thought or planning. 1- Activities of the Mind Attention - Knowing where attention is - Vividness and clarity of attention - Movements of Attention Awareness - Knowing what Peripheral Awareness constitutes in any given moment. Especially when attention is stabilized on a particular object. - Knowing the changing objects within awareness - Knowing the contextual relatonship between objects 2- State of the Mind Clarity: Knowing the current dullness and alertness levels of the mind. Monitor of the mind's conscious power. Predominant Emotion: Joy, Sadness, Frustration, Boredom etc.. Hedonic Feelings: Knowing the overwhelming hedonic quality of each moment: Pleasant - Neutral - Painful Intentional quality behind the activities of the mind: Desire, Aversion or Equanimity --- Practice meditation with these sub-skills in mind. These are the exact qualities you are developing to become a skilled meditator. This will allow you to rest in thoughtlessness. Or to stay with the breath even when there are distractions in the background. This will prevent sinking into further unconsciousness when dullness is present. Don't mistake meditation as 'watching my breath' and that's it. Maybe some revelation will instantly hit me after more breath observation. Yeah, that can happen. But this is not why we focus on the breath. It is to develop these faculties I've laid out above so that you can investigate reality with as full conscious awareness as possible. Not at all different than how psychedelics allow you to investigate reality at greater and more accurate depths compared to a sober state of consciousness. Much love, Arda

@Tristan12 It is great to hear Ethan's advice worked well for you :)) Try the process I've outlined in the post if that strategy doesn't work. Basically, do whatever works. Only as a last resort, give into the sensation of sleepiness and take a nap. Until then, do your very best integrating these antidotes and eventually, your mind will 'click' and say 'Okay. Finally, I have a clear understanding of how sleepiness arises and I know exactly how to practice to remain ever alert and bright' When that point comes, your practice will take off and potentially be a watershed moment since it will enable you to develop deeper awareness and meditation skills. Getting to that moment is absolutely crucial.

Hi, I've just seen your post. Hope you are doing well. This is a fairly classic description of 'incomplete piti'. Arising and passing away is a different insight that will surely come as you go deeper into your spiritual training. The sense of control is very real but the one who is 'exercising' this control by forming intentions is an illusion you'll drop as you go further. Just keep that in mind as you practice. You need to provide me with how you use attention and awareness and what level of tranquility, equanimity, joy and mindfulness arises because of this process. Only then, I can tell you which stage you are in TMI. Energy sensations, head shakes, etc can arise at any stage but to answer your question, since you have deemed your meditation skills as mediocre, it is safe to assume it is somewhere between stages 2-5. That is great. That excitement will motivate you to practice more often and deeper. Maintain that and try to curb it with equanimity if it produces agitation or impatience. You need to develop such strong levels of awareness that regardless of what object of meditation you put your attention on (breath, pleasure, energy blockage, part of the body etc), you have strong peripheral awareness of everything else and stability of attention to that particular object. Alongside this, piti (joy) and happiness will arise giving you the feedback that things are going in the right direction. Then arises tranquility and equanimity where metacognitive awareness tends to develop deeply which is the primary awareness I've outlined in this post :)) Let me know if you have questions, Much love,

@BipolarGrowth That is great, Brandon :)) Let me know how your practice is going with TMI.

Shinzen's positive feel technique is extremely valuable. It is the most approachable and effective jhana alternative. It is great that it increased alertness and clarity along with (hopefully) baseline happiness and joy. Make sure not to get seduced by the pleasant sensations of dullness if it arises. Make sure to maintain consciousness as pristine and aware as possible.

If you use it to go to sleep, then it might be a good idea but you don't want to develop the habit. Your practice needs to come to a point where when you feel really foggy and sleepy, you intentionally choose to meditate to increase alertness and clarity. Usually, people sink deeper into sleepiness after meditation. This is precisely the dysfunctional habit we need to work on with this technique I've outlined above. Of course, opening your eyes, clenching your muscles etc are immediate antidotes to dullness. Since they are so basic, I didn't explain them here. Try this out and be more aware of dullness in meditation next time. See how much power you might have in this process by playing around with attention and awareness. Much love,

Hi Ethan! I'd definitely agree with that. Dullness or sleepiness, by itself, no longer poses an insurmountable problem AFTER a certain degree of skill and mindfulness is attained. You can pierce into dullness and allow it to be there. But let me say a few things about this. I'd like to point to the similarity of such an approach with 'increasing energy levels' sort of style. In Shinzen's system, you turn towards dullness and expand mindfulness and clarity. The meditation object is the drowsiness itself. With high levels of acceptance and spreading of awareness, you increase conscious power. That is still a technique done to maintain mindfulness clearly and to prevent going to sleep. In Culadasa's technique, you focus on a different object (the breath) without pushing sleepiness away while maintaining strong peripheral awareness of the mind and body. You focus outwards (in Shinzen's terms). Drowsiness is relegated to awareness for monitoring the overall energy levels of the mind. Energy levels change as you play around with attention and awareness. So, there are no manipulations either way. Both are inwards and outwards versions of the same process. That 'manipulation' is merely a more helpful adjustment you 'choose' to do with more introspective wisdom. If you don't 'manipulate' at all, you'll lay down to take a nap. Here is why understanding this is extremely crucial. Recently, I've realized experientially that we ALL live our entire lives (almost all the time) in a state of stable subtle dullness. Occasional exceptions are sports and getting into zone with any hobby etc. Other than that, dullness pervades our lives and reduces our conscious potential dramatically. Of course, it is important to improve mindfulness WHILE sleepiness progresses. In fact, that is what you do in TMI in stages 5-8 to improve mindfulness :)) But after realizing how pervasive of an effect dullness has on one's consciousness, everyone is better off taking it very seriously and improving the mind's capabilities to 1- Increase conscious power (this should be a priority imo) 2- deal with sleepiness by turning inwards and deconstructing Hope this gives some more clarity regarding my thoughts on it. I've realized I've underestimated how much dullness and sleepiness effects my entire life and reinforce a negative mental habit for the purposes of living a rich spiritual life. Especially for beginner meditators, sleepiness should be addressed as soon as possible to not get stuck. I value this aspect of practice much more than I did any other time in my life. Much love, Arda

@catcat69123 You are welcome

If you are hiking a mountain trail and take a tumble or get bitten by a snake, peripheral awareness has failed. If you take a wrong turn and lose the trail, your attention has failed. If you’ve ever mistaken sarcasm for praise (or vice versa), had a salesman’s enthusiasm cause you to overlook a serious problem, or become angry with someone who was trying to help you, you’ve experienced a failure of both. Activities of the mind include things like thinking, listening, remembering, etc. Movements of attention are an activity of the mind, when attention is directed introspectively, that movement replaces all other activity and so it’s all you find. This is how you spend your life without mindfulness. Likewise for overall states of the mind. Mental states are global phenomena, things like agitation, peacefulness, irritation, joy, etc. Attention always isolates some aspect of conscious awareness from the rest, so attention can’t observe mental states directly. Try directing your attention to observe your mental state. Either you won’t be able to find anything, or else you will find a memory trace from peripheral awareness of what your mental state was before you looked. If attention finds the memory trace of a gross mental state like annoyance, it is immediately conceptualized as the thought, “I am annoyed”. This is not mindfulness. All new sensory stimuli, thoughts, and feelings appear first in peripheral awareness where a preliminary evaluation determines which, if any of them, will actually become a focus of attention. Filtering out irrelevant information is one of the main functions of peripheral awareness, and attention depends upon peripheral awareness for the selection of appropriate objects. This is why specific objects often seem to “pop out” of peripheral awareness to become objects of attention. And attention often “browses” the contents of peripheral awareness in search of something relevant or important to focus on as well. Also, whenever your attention is honing in on something, peripheral awareness serves as a watchful alert system to detect anything new or unusual. If some rare or unexpected event is detected, peripheral awareness can disengage and reorient attention. Peripheral awareness allows you to use attention with maximum effectiveness. Without it, attention moves blindly, without guidance and oblivious to the unexpected. Fortunately, not everything that happens needs to be analyzed, otherwise attention would quickly become overwhelmed. Many things, like brushing a fly away from your face, are dealt with entirely in peripheral awareness. And while attention is thorough, it’s also rather slow. Because information processing is not as extensive, peripheral awareness can respond much more quickly. In situations that demand a swift reaction, such as a child running into the street in front of a car, peripheral awareness initiates rapid, automatic responses for which attention would be inadequate. If peripheral awareness fails, attention can’t take over these functions so these events are reacted to in a completely automatic way, without the benefit of conscious processing, or not at all. From this brief overview, you can appreciate how interdependent attention and peripheral awareness really are. Mindfulness can be defined as an optimal interaction between, and even a merging together of attention and peripheral awareness. More specifically, mindfulness involves a conscious experience that is more powerful, with the result that peripheral awareness is clearer and attention gets used in a more appropriate way: purposefully, in the present moment, and without becoming mired in judgment and projection. The other problem in 'normal' non-meditator sober consciousness is that conscious awareness is a limited resource, so there will always be tradeoffs between attention and peripheral awareness. In a relaxed state, awareness tends to open and the intensity of attention dissipates. Relax even more and attention increasingly fades, eventually leading to dullness. This is where balance shifts to a less than ideal state where more attentional focus and energy is required. On the other hand, when attention focuses intensely on an object, peripheral awareness of the background fades. Intensify your focus enough, and the context and guidance provided by peripheral awareness disappears completely. This puts you in highly emotionally charged mental states and your understanding of truth, suffering or insight gets compromised. Try to understand and apply this dynamic in life. Don't wave away 'mindfulness' as something you already know. It has more depth and breadth than you think. Keep investigating your mind with curiosity. Hope this helps Much love,

The following technique will enable you to increase mental powers and conscious bandwidth so that generating joy, ease and happiness will become second nature when confronted with a heated argument. (which can be viewed as the more challenging aspects of social life). This is the foundation of meditation in daily life. Both attention and awareness - key modalities of mind perception - relies on a single resource pool: Conscious Bandwidth. There is only so much to go around at any given moment and its batteries can be exhausted in a few minutes or it can be sustained efficiently for 24 hours. It all depends on how much conscious power is available and how efficiently one uses it. Both axioms can be developed to extremely high levels. Being attention-oriented and obsessively focused on an acitivity (TV shows, someone shouting at you, trying to think about a complex topic etc.) immediately drains the conscious bandwidth too quickly and inefficiently. Without the supporting pillar of awareness, you'll feel fatigue, agitation, negative self rumination and a sense of 'I need to protect myself and my ideas'. Conscious bandwidth also has a 'replenishing' factor where even when you feel fatigued, you can bring yourself back to a more efficient state without taking a nap or spending hours in misery. Talking Meditation & Conscious Power Scaling 1- Start by sitting down to have a normal chat with someone close to you. Make sure that this person is not in an overly positive or negative while you attempt this. You'd like this person to be neutral, easy going and receptive as possible. 2- There are two main components you'll need to be aware of while interacting with this person. Think of it as standard procedure in all social contacts regardless of who this person is: Eye contact & No fidgeting. + Eye contact: His or her eyes are where your attention will rest for the entire duration of the conversation as you both listen AND talk to this person. Listening while looking in the eye may be easy but most people can't maintain eye contact while stringing complex thoughts back to back when push comes to shove. Especially, be extra careful to think thoughts and speak while looking someone in the eye. Averting your eyes or struggling to do this brings me to the second component. + No physical fidgeting: Mental challenges regarding thoughts and arguments are normal. However, fidgeting with your gaze or moving your body is not. Just like Strong Determination Sits are done without moving, so can be social interactions. This will generate tranquility and equanimity. Of course, I'm not talking about being a machine. Your face can be reactive. You can make jokes, laugh like crazy etc. In fact, all of this is heavily encouraged. However, if you tighten your shoulders and feel some tension when someone asks you: 'What have you been doing this entire time? Did you throw out the garbage like I said?' Your body needs to rest without physically moving as you are giving your verbal response. Without physical tension or bodily reaction. All answers will be given with words and facial reactions. Add emotions to your presentation but do so without moving the body. This will facilitate tranquility and equanimity. 3- After you make sure eye contact and no fidgeting is stable, move on to spread the awareness to the entire body as your attention dominates your thoughts while looking at someone in the eye. Maintain the form as described in step 2. If you do avert your gaze or your body feels restless, return back to step 2 before spreading awareness back to the body. 4- After body awareness gets stable as you speak and listen to conversations without emotional charge, generate pleasant sensations and joy in your body while continuing to maintain form in step 2. Try to physically smile and find the joy in the conversation. You won't feel anything initially but as your conscious power increases, more energy will be available for pleasure generation. Keep at it and don't feel discouraged. It will get easier as you get more proficient. 5- As you get more skilled, you'll be able to do the same thing while in a heated argument. The structure of practice doesn't change. Merely your skills will improve so much so that while having emotionally charged discussions, it is easy to maintain equanimity and body awareness with form in step 2. Done! ---- Not only you'll become socially charismatic with this technique, you'll eliminate the egoic roadblocks that gets in the way of a true connection with another human being. Your practice will be consistent and permeate your everyday life as you get into the groove of it. Mental fluidity of thoughts and effortless of speaking will resolve by themselves within this practice. Negative mental habits, impatience etc. will be auto-corrected by increased metacognitive awareness and body awareness this practice facilitates. Let me know your thoughts down below after trying it. Much love, Arda

That is not quite the insight. All feelings of separate selfhood are complex and subtle mental constructs that inform the way you feel in your body and perceive the world. What is 'changing' or moving is irrelevant.

At some point in your spiritual practice, you’ll experience the manifestations of physical pliancy, such as the absence of ordinary tactile sensations, feelings of weightlessness or floating, and pleasurable sensations throughout the body. When this happens, it is important to ignore (without craving or aversion) all bodily sensations and deepen metacognitive awareness to higher levels to practice self enquiry. Scientists and philosophers have grasped what I'm about to say intellectually. However, these truths have little to no value whatsoever unless it completely transforms the mind fully at the core of the hidden recesses of your psyche. This following practice will provide a mature insight into these truths to be permanently embodied. These are the 3 false perceptions your existing psyche operates on. These are the foundation of all your motivations, beliefs and actions. 1- I'm a separate entity, a Self, in a world of other entities. 2- My emotional states - happiness or unhappiness - depend intimately on the interactions between myself and the other entities/objects/environments. 3- As a self, I rely on my manipulation and survival skills to influence these interactions to satisfy my cravings in the hopes of satisfaction where my happiness will be maximized and suffering will be minimized. --- All 3 of these assumptions are false. The following practice will help you see through this complicated illusion. The Still Point and Self-Enquiry This practice allows us to “step outside” our reactions to the sensory experiences associated with pacification and the arising of bodily sensations of joy and pleasure as a result of your practice. This creates enough detachment and equanimity to let these processes unfold naturally by themselves. Pleasurable sensations still appear in awareness but receive no attention at all. Start your meditation by becoming fully aware of the world around you. Explore your immediate environments with attention. Feel it with your body. Listen to the sounds inside and outside the room you’re sitting in. Sense all of the activity that’s going on. For example, you might hear airplanes flying overhead, traffic noises, birds and dogs, and various human activities. Then, let your mind identify and fill in the source of the sounds you hear. Picture in your mind the cars you hear, the airplanes flying through the sky, and the birds sitting in trees. Expand the scope of your attention to include a visualization of the constant ferment of activity going on all over the world, on land, in the waters, and in the sky. Reflect on the earth as it spins on its axis, moving through space at thousands of miles per hour, surrounded by the constant motion of planets and stars and entire galaxies whirling through the void at inconceivable speeds. While keeping this universe of ceaseless movement and change clear in your awareness, shift your attention to your body, sitting in stillness on the cushion. Allow the contrast between the stillness of your body and the activity of the external world to saturate your consciousness. Keep your attention focused on your body while the rest of the world fills your awareness. Over time, you’ll naturally become aware of movement and activity in the body—breathing, the beating of your heart and pulsing in your arteries, and maybe the energy currents and involuntary movements of piti. Visualize all the other activity you know is taking place in your body—the movement of food through your digestive tract, the flow of blood through tissue, urine collecting in the bladder, and glands secreting substances of all kinds. Once you have a clear, strong sense of your body as a hive of activity, shift the focus of your attention to your mind. Let the hum of activity in your body join the rest of the world in peripheral awareness while attending to the relative peace and quiet of your well-trained mind. Contrast the relative calm and quiet of the mind with all the turmoil, activity, and change in the realm of physical sensations, noting in particular that quality of mental stillness and peace. Allow your attention to dwell on the difference between your mind’s inner stillness and the teeming activity in your body and the world. Inevitably, you start to notice that the mind really isn’t that quiet after all, except when compared to everything outside of it. At the same time, you’ll become aware of an even greater stillness at the core of your moment-to-moment experience. This is called the Still Point. A point where absolutely profound levels of equanimity lie. Find that Still Point, and make its stillness the focus of your attention. Relegate everything else to peripheral awareness, letting things remain or pass away as they will. Enjoy the Still Point, resting in it as often and for as long as you like. The strange sensations of pacification and the energies of pīti will just blend in with everything else in the background of awareness while attention rests unperturbed. Unification will continue. By doing this practice and investigating the Still Point, it becomes obvious that this is where all observation happens. The Still Point, in other words, is the metaphorical “vantage point” from which metacognitive awareness occurs—except that it’s now become the “seat” of metacognitive attention. And the focus of your attention is the subjective experience of looking at the mind and 'the material world' from a totally detached perspective. Suffice to say, this brings equanimity skills to monstrous levels. Equanimity is non-reactivity to both pleasure and pain (not just pain). This is facilitated by powerful awareness and joyful tranquility thanks to your diligent practice. Now it is time to bring in the final component. Self Enquiry Process: As you keep observing, you may also discover the so-called Witness, the subjective experience of a pure, unmoving, and unmoved observer who is unaffected by whatever is observed. A warning is in order here. You will likely feel that you have discovered the true Self, the ultimate ground of all experience. In a sense you have—but it’s not at all what you think! The Witness state is the ultimate ground of your personal experience, but it has arisen in dependence upon the body and the world, and it will disappear with the body. Its real value and significance is that it points toward a much more profound Insight, provided you don’t make the mistake of clinging to it as a Self. Doing so only nourishes the attachment we are all born with to the idea of being a singular, enduring, and separate Self. Mistaking the Witness state for a true Self is what leads some people to claim that Consciousness is the True Self. 'Consciousness' in this case is different from what Leo means by Consciousness. In this case, consciousness has a fixed form, state and duration in time. It appears profound but is still illusory. To properly use the Witness experience, probe more deeply. Go to the Still Point, the place of the Witness, with a question: “Who or what is this witness?” “Who is watching?” “Who is experiencing?” Adamantly refuse to entertain any answers offered by your intellectual, thinking mind. Also, don’t be deceived by your emotional mind, which will try to make you believe you’ve found the answer when you haven’t. Just hold on to the question as you experience the Witness. Don't waver. If and when Insight arises, it will be a profound Insight into the truth of no-Self, and it will be so obvious that you’ll wonder why you never realized it before. With the culmination of such a practice, the first stage of awakening - stream entry - will occur. The first permanent stage of awakening where those 3 false assumptions your life rests on will dissolve.