ardacigin

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Posts posted by ardacigin

  1. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    10 minutes ago, abrakamowse said:

    Shinzen Young is a materialist? Really?...

    He is one of the more materialistic spiritual teachers out there due to his scientific training. He doesn't consider awakening as an absolute truth (as his teacher Sasaki Roshi does). Shinzen thinks that the investigation of truth must be done in the domain of science with scientific methods, not through direct experience in consciousness. He also makes a distinction between objectivity and subjectivity. These are dualistic notions coming from his scientific training.

    He feels the need to make the distinction that all of his insights pertain to the sensory experience, not reality. I guess that Leo would say that this attitude towards the sensory experience is a result of insufficient insight towards the nature of perception. Leo thinks that some of Shinzen's insights are not fully matured and materialistic in essence.

    Culadasa views reality and truth more in tune from Leo's perspective. There is a truth to be gleaned about the nature of reality. That truth can be gleaned with consciousness work. That truth is not materialistic but non-dualist in essence.

     

  2. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    Leo told that he is not really familiar with Culadasa so I'm curious what he thinks about some of Culadasa's insights into awakening explained in detail in this video:

    Also, I know that many people don't know Culadasa in this forum, so let me know your thoughts about him after watching the video.

    Culadasa has over 40 years of experience in meditation.

    The insights are as follows:

    1- Impermanence

    2- Emptiness

    3- The causal interdependence of all phenomena

    4- The nature of suffering

    5- The illusion of a separate self

    Of course, Culadasa is also aware that these are not all the insights.  He says that there are many aspects of insight penetration towards love, compassion and reality besides these 5 insights. 

    He is not a materialist like Shinzen Young. He considers himself as a nondualist.

    The lecture is fairly long like Leo's videos. He goes in depth while explaining it with clear definitions. He also describes what awakening is. I think anyone who likes Leo's style will also like Culadasa.

    Let me know your thoughts below.

     

  3. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

    You have to consider than even with your difficulties you might still be way ahead of most people on the planet.

    Just because you struggle with learning calculus doesn't mean you don't have a massive leg up on a donkey trying to learn calculus.

    Leo, I understand this argument. It makes total sense. But when it comes to spiritual attunement and awakening, we are not talking about different species. What you extrapolate from the calculus example makes sense in the context of a donkey and a human's ability to learn math. Obviously, there are different. You can't find even one donkey who can do calculus. But within human beings, there is a vast degree of success in awakening.

    And when it comes to human beings, there are a lot of people who can both train and get awakening. (This is not less than 1% of seekers. In fact, the majority). And people who train less (or none) and still get there due to spiritual talent. (This seems to be more in minority).

    Saying that spiritual talent is the secret sauce and its lack severely limits your capacity, rate and ability for awakening and then saying that training and environment is only a thin veneer is a mistaken statement in my opinion. Don't only look at spiritual attainment from the perspective of deep psychedelic insights. 

    Those? Maybe, talent matters a lot. But take it a step back.

    How much talent is required for concentrating on an object continuously for 60 seconds straight? Very little. This is a skill you develop.

    The silent mind? A result of more practice.

    Self enquiry success? For majority of the people, the result of practice, some amount of momentary attunement and luck. 

    By saying this sort of a thing, you also discourage people from trying. This is perfectly doable by almost ANYONE who practices diligently and patiently.

    This is what I meant by Shinzen Young's case study. Even if he is not the most enlightened guy in the world, his beginning point is really inspirational. And don't underestimate his achievements from that shaky foundation.

    His insight into perception and sensory experience is problematic, sure! But he can do 4 hours of SDS sits weeks in a row. And that was decades ago. He had stream entry only 4 years into the training. The permanent deal. Someone can easily say this is because he was spiritually talented but I don't think brushing off training is the correct mindset here. This guy was was only a little different from your average Joe prior to zen training.

    Consider how awake he would be if he flipped burgers at McDonald's vs living in a monastery meditating 10+ hours a day. How can you downplay training and environment so much?

    Human beings have similar brains. Not perfectly similar but mostly similar. It is not like a donkey's and human's brain. If humans who train their minds get awakening and progress, so can 'most' people. Not everyone, maybe. But most people will make it work as long as they stick to it. 

    Otherwise, this absurdly turns into a victim mentality.

  4. Posted

    34 minutes ago, Natasha said:

    Yes was permanent. I can't even say I was seeking per se, just wanted to get to the bottom of something and was open to whatever it takes. 

    Prior to the shift I was naturally immersed into and absorbing teachings from Sadhguru, Eckhart, Leo, Tony Parsons, and Lisa Cairns for a few months. I was razor-focused and isolated from any distraction (got rid of the TV cable, cell-phone, no social media, etc). When the 'seeker' collapsed, the search was over. 

     

    How is your relationship to pain and suffering? Really interested in your insights. How do you intuitively react when you do a long meditation sit where pain is really getting noticeable in your legs? 

    Also, would you describe stream-entry as 'self-boundaries' disappearing forever? No longer identifying your sense of self as where your skin ends and the 'outer' world starts? 

     

  5. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    24 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

    Training is a thin vineer on top of this fundamental foundation.

    But Leo, I don't understand why you make such a statement. So many people get seriously enlightened using techniques and training methods. Even @Natasha who seems to have spiritual talent had done it using self enquiry. Without any practice, spiritual talent may or may not pan out. And relying on it and throwing in the towel is not a smart move.

    How can training be 'thin vineer'? That is too much of an extreme statement when clearly there is a difference between meditators and non-meditators. Very rarely can someone get seriously enlightened (beyond stream entry) without any practice. Some amount of training is essential even in spiritually talented individuals.

    And again, just refer back to Shinzen's childhood. I don't see an inkling of potential talent there. And look where practice got him now. How can you view training as not essential?

  6. Posted

    Just now, Natasha said:

    I got Self-realized a few years ago without much meditation, while doing self-inquiry one day and the shift just happened :)

    The permanent deal, right? In that case, that may be an indication. You were still using a technique. Especially self enquiry which is a fairly successful insight practice. But the fact that you did it quickly can definitely be the result of spiritual talent. How was your level of concentration prior to awakening? How did it change afterwards?

  7. Posted

    Just now, Natasha said:

    @ardacigin I had glimpses of awareness of being in my Mother's womb and when being born. None of that was conceptual, just purely observational. I remember while in the womb looking and like seeing through water at a fleshy wall in front of me. While being born moving through the super tight dark channel, getting stuck, struggling to breathe, and finally the blinding light and first deep gasps of air and crying. The experience was intense and traumatic to a degree. My Mom later told me she had long hard labor. Also, when I was still an infant I have vivid memories of the things and faces that surrounded me. When I look at the pictures where I was just a few days, weeks, months old, I can recognize those people and objects. 

    This might sound strange to some, but perhaps it's a spiritual talent that I was born with? 

    Some people definitely have these sort of spiritual experiences. And it can be an indication. But this talent business has to do more with your ability to attain samadhi and spiritual insights with relative ease. Is your mind more attuned to concentrated states? How much practice do you have to do to get to a no-mind state? Have you had insight experiences in meditation?

    These are better questions to ask to figure out how spiritually talented you are. Unless there is a radical difference compared to an average meditator with these metrics, you don't have a significant talent advantage. Just keep doing the practices like everyone else and you'll get there :) 

  8. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    13 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

    The more I study and explore spirituality, the more convinced I am that spiritual talent plays a bigger and bigger role. I have met and talked with people who access crazy superhuman levels of consciously totally effortlessly without training. And these people can go deeper than those who practice for 40 years.

    Without ANY training? Stream entry is possible and happens people occasionally without any training. But superhuman levels of consciousness without any training doesn't sound plausible to me. I wonder who these people are. What are their names? :) 

     

  9. Posted

    7 hours ago, SunnyNewDay said:

    I do agree but it's also a very dry take. It is equally about surrender and faith as well.

    In this training method, surrender and faith (effortlessness) come after making a lot of effort. Like Stage 7 in Culadasa's book. That is the paradox. Otherwise, surrender techniques have the potential to initiate a lot of monkey mind and distractions.

     

  10. Posted

    Just now, Nahm said:

    @ardacigin ...and homeostasis? 

    In what context, do you ask the question? Do you mean it as a scientific term or a spiritual one?

    Homeostasis is inherently an egoic survival metric in spiritual terms. It is the ego's ability to protect its scope of shell. The more aware, awake and open you get, the less homeostasis you have. 

  11. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    1 hour ago, Enlightenment said:

    Totally agree. A lot of effort and diligence has to be put in until it becomes effortless.

    I think Leos psychedelic experiences kind of bias his view on how to reach high levels of mindfulness, happiness, awakening that persist in a sober state. IMO he is trying to make 5-MeO state or it's afterglow stick for good, feeling like meditation is just some "mechanical" method as he put it, while it's most likely never going to happen without hard work of meditation. 

    I don't have that much experience in psychedelics compared to Leo. But I can understand how certain techniques like TMI and noting practices can appear too restricting and mechanical. From one perspective, they are. The psychedelic path might give that impression for some people. But it is mostly because the technique is not applied with expected results ( where you actually start to tap into psychedelic naturally).

    Then the technique that reliably got you into that state will appear very different. Not mechanical as someone else can perceive. Similar to Leo's relativity insight, one's perception of mechanical and dynamic is relative. Relative to what? Relative to results one gets from using that technique.

    That is why Leo really recommends the psychedelic path because it gets results. And Leo also uses psychedelics responsibly. That is very important. He integrates meditation with psychedelics. His insight wisdom comes from psychedelics mainly and he works on developing samadhi with insights in non-psychedelic meditation. At least, that is the impression he gives me. I think that is a solid path if you can balance the two properly. 

    When it comes to techniques, people should do what works. I have my own preferences but I wouldn't force anyone to go through that path if they are not willing to do it. I might recommend and guide if asked but I wouldn't force people or declare a spiritual technique as VASTLY superior to others

     They all have advantages and disadvantages. They all can lead to dead ends if not careful.

     

  12. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    36 minutes ago, Nahm said:

    @ardacigin Very interesting and relatable, I’m curious, how do you define spiritual talent? Also, how do you define homeostasis? 

    Spiritual talent is one's degree of ability to attain both samadhi and spiritual insights (no-self, emptiness etc.) with relative ease. Some people's personalities, brain types and intentions are more in tune with spiritual attainments and high states of concentration. These people start at a higher baseline than other meditators.

    Again, don't get me wrong here. I don't posit that spiritual talent doesn't exist. It is just not a show stopper considering the vast importance of diligence and effort. 

  13. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    Many of us who are interested in spirituality knows about Shinzen Young and his skill in meditation. He has gone through some horrific intensities in Japan and done 100 days in isolation type of practices very early on in his meditation career. 

    I've talked to Leo about him and he definitely acknowledges his meditation expertise. But Leo also told me that his insights in sensory experience, perception and materialism is still not fully matured. He also said that all spiritual masters have certain shortcomings and lack of insight into certain facets of awakening. 

    I definitely agree with Leo on this. I think it is a wise claim about the nature of spiritual attainments. 

    But if there is one thing you can learn from Shinzen is that his earlier experiences as a child is certainly a case study for people who think that spiritual talent is a big deal in this work. Especially that this idea that spiritual talent severely limits your rate, capacity and potential to grow spiritually regardless of how much you practice. This is not true. 

    Here is Shinzen's early experiences as a child prior to meditation taken directly from his own article:

    https://www.shinzen.org/meet-my-mom/

    'I have very little natural ability or natural inclination towards meditation. In early life I was unusually wimpy, whiny, and fussy. Also, I was perennially impatient. On top of that, I had a proclivity to be destructive, including towards myself (when I’d get frustrated, I’d bang my head on the sidewalk). I was also pretty mean (just ask my brother).

    I actually like for people to know what a poor meditation candidate I am based on the tendencies of my early life. I take it as a positive. If a person like me can be successful, anyone can be successful.'

    Now, anyone who has this sort of childhood can peg themselves spiritually untalented.

    Shinzen could have thrown in the towel and say:

    'Fuck this Japanese meditation torcher. I'll go back to America and focus on my Buddhist studies. I guess I'm untalented spiritually. I won't get anywhere even if I practice hard. Stream entry is way above my pay grade.'

    Imagine where he'd end up now if he made that decision back then. 

     This work is more about practice, diligence and effort than spiritual talent. Spiritual talent decides where you'll start initially. It also decides how joyful the process might be at first. But it can't decide where you'll end up as long as you apply effort and diligence.

    Spiritual talent is one's degree of ability to attain both samadhi and spiritual insights (no-self, emptiness etc.) with relative ease. Some people's personalities, brain types and intentions are more in tune with spiritual attainments and high states of concentration. These people start at a higher baseline than other meditators.

    Again, don't get me wrong here. I don't posit that spiritual talent doesn't exist. It is just not a show stopper considering the vast importance of diligence and effort. 

    For instance lack of spiritual talent won't get in the way of stream entry - first stage of permanent awakening and God realization. But talent might play a larger role when we are talking about 'God-Head' insight attainments. ( as Leo talks about)

    Since we all have finite time and energy, we can only practice spirituality so much. In these extreme circumstances, DNA can also get into the picture. So one's lifetime may not be enough for some of the extra deep insights Leo talks about with 5 Meo DMT. To experience these insights naturally, talent can be the deciding factor since it changes at what baseline do you start the path.

    But I think before we worry about these sort of things, we should take steps one at a time. First, develop the fundamental skills of meditation. Then get to your first permanent stage of awakening. You don't need spiritual talent for none of these. Diligence and practice will get you there. 

    Don't limit yourself. 

  14. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    4 hours ago, Jordan94 said:

    @ardacigin I'm finally getting in stage 4 of TMI's model, i'm wondering how to make progress on awareness now

    Before i would do so by using attention to check-in, which would increase a bit the awareness by telling the mind that the thing i just put my attention is important/valuable for me, so by repetition it'll increase the awareness on that thing 

    But now that's not what we want to do anymore on stage 4 and above if I understood corectly, and it's quite a difficult/vague area (increasing awareness), even with the book's instructions

    So do you have any tips or explanation in addition of what's in the book in that regard of increasing awareness ?

    Thanks, as usual really inspiring and useful posts of yours

    I remember this. It's been years since I've done that 'checking in' method .I don't like that technique and it is a temporary stage method. Kind of like 'labeling' is a transition technique towards 'silent noting'. Its main purpose is to strengthen our introspective awareness for dullness and distractions. 

    The main problem is that attention alternates to check in with the mind which means you lose the breath in that period of time. And once you come back, there is a 'waiting' period where the concentration tries to go back to its former glory. 

    It is better to do this 'check-in' with awareness and while maintaining breath attention. In fact, you'll eventually get to a point where distractions and dullness can't arise because there is constant introspective awareness checking in for any threats towards potential distractions.

    I remember labeling and noting practices in Stage 3. They are not only solid techniques for advanced practice but they SERIOUSLY develop awareness and sensory clarity. But again, stable attention must be TOP tier to really get traction with these techniques. I'd peg these at post stage 7.

    But hey! Since Culadasa instructs noting practices to people at around Stage 3-4, so give it a go. Do you remember my post on Shinzen Young's 'Gone' technique? That is how I've really developed some awareness in stage 4, 5 and 6. So maybe try working with Shinzen and Daniel Ingram a little bit. Culadasa's instructions on noting is not the clearest and easiest to apply.

    But make sure to ALWAYS anchor the attention with the breath as Culadasa instructs. Then you'll see how effective noting can get. Also, dullness and distractions are very important. Make sure to meditate closed eyes for now and really try to develop that introspective awareness while maintaining clear, bright and continuous attention to the breath. 

    At this point, I remember not caring about stable attention to develop awareness and I had some mixed results. It is better to start awareness development AFTER the breath is stable and is relatively effortless (not fully). So stage 5-6 is better.

    For stage 3-4, focus more on stable attention until dullness kicks in. That is the indication to expand the awareness. The good news is that you'll more easily sway away distractions due to emphasis on slightly more exclusive attention to the breath. Try to find a balance like this. 

    First get to stable attention, increase the conscious power of mindfulness and then slowly expand the awareness.

  15. Posted

    12 hours ago, Consilience said:

    If Im meditating 1 hour per day doing self inquiry right now, would you recommend stopping the self inquiry and investing that time into concentration practice? 

    Another question I had, more metaphysical, what exactly is attention? Is it awareness? And like... what is the mechanism of attention? Who or what is creating this attention around a particular object? It almost feels like concentration is a manifestation of ego.

    If you've never had insight-like dramatic experiences with self inquiry yet, then I'd recommend developing stable attention first. Use that 1 hour to do this practice and add extra 5-10 mins for self enquiry. You don't have to do it a lot but use that samadhi state to your advantage. 

    Concentration is detailed oriented and it contracts so it is more egoic. That is correct. Awareness is the expansive side of consciousness. It is more wholesome, context-sensitive and big picture-oriented.

  16. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    28 minutes ago, Esoteric said:

    @ardacigin Thank you very much for a great answer. Also, if it wasn't clear, I am EXTREMELY grateful for my boring job. I was not ironic when I said it was a privilege. I have applied techniques and can read books on that job, and my progress has been very good. Whenever I see someone complain about a boring cubicle job I get sad at the wasted potential.

    I am 3 years in on my path so I will definitely make stable attention a top priority. I WILL master this in the coming years.

    Gonna start reading his book tonight probably. Thanks again :)

     

    Just to give you my own personal experiences (for further motivation):

    I remember the first time I've delved in deep into stable attention on the tip of the nose for a few hours straight with Culadasa's instructions. This wasn't in a formal session. Just casual but consistent stability of attention in daily life. There were constant problems with dullness and distractions but overall it was fairly stable with sufficient awareness. 

    I've almost spent the entire day with stable and bright attention to the breath as I'm going through simple life activities. I felt like:

    'Holy fuck! Everything feels different. It took a lot of effort but it seems like the breath attention stays there. It's been hours and it is still fairly stable. And it is bright. Not dull and shaky. Let me just be vigilant with potential dullness and distractions.'

    And of course, I got cocky and lost the momentum a few hours later. Then it got challenging again to go back to stable attention. I've struggled with it a few days afterward as well.

    But this was my first DEEP dive into stable attention. Looking back on it, my awareness was very weak and I was actually in subtle dullness thinking that mindfulness of the breath was bright. Also, there were subtle distractions even in this peak state.

    But the fact that I was able to maintain stable attention for hours was actually impressive considering that I was only meditating seriously for about 2 years with Culadasa's methods. To do that now, either I need to lock into effortlessness or REALLY apply myself to maintain mindfulness in daily life. I can do it now with more powerful mindfulness but back then, that was a really challenging thing to do.

    After I've tasted the potential, I have gone deeper and deeper. Now I'm really happy I did that. It was challenging and took a lot of effort but now my baseline concentration is elevated and even when my concentration wavers, I can quickly get it back to a high level and maintain it effortlessly.

    And the good news is that awareness-based insight practices (described after stage 7 in Culadasa's book) are easier and VERY enjoyable to do. These techniques are similar to self-inquiry and noting practices. 

    Just keep in mind, pre-stage 10, the concentration will not always be MAXED out all the time That is not a requirement for awakening but it is crucial for deep mindfulness integration in daily life. So it is a long term smart investment.

    That is basically stage 10 mastery in Culadasa's book. It is fairly challenging and that sort of mastery might require 5-10 years depending on how skilled you are at maintaining effortlessly stable attention in HIGLY demanding tasks like working in a business or speaking to people. 

    That is a significant challenge for me as a solid stage 7 practitioner. I've done it a few times sparingly but as the task requires more thinking, the more challenging it gets to maintain stable attention with clear awareness. 

    Anyways, hope this is inspirational :) 

  18. Posted

    1 hour ago, Esoteric said:

    @ardacigin Focusing my attention on an object for longer periods of time has always been my problem. I have had the privilige to have the most boring job on earth basically. I work as a receptionist, the only reason they made the position is because they had a problem with someone unauthorized came in to the building and stole some computers. So I just basically watch a door 8 hours a day. I get interrupted by chit-chat or guests every once in awhile. I have had a job like that for over 2 years now. I have built a great habit of always returning to the present. Like throughout the day. The problem is I cannot keep my attention stable there for longer periods of time. I can get distracted for some seconds only, and then return to the present. But keeping it stable is damn hard for me. So I really relate to what you write about what a struggle it can be. It gets frustrating and tiresome.

    I bought Culadasa's book. Have yet to read it. I am a Kriya Yoga practitioner mainly, and my intention is not to integrate Culadasa's whole system. But is it worth a read just to pick up knowledge about concentration in particular? It really is time to build that for me now. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks

    First of all, consider yourself lucky. Your job puts you in a great position to practice mindfulness. I have a business myself so it makes everything slightly more complicated. It takes a lot of strategy and skill to maintain mindfulness in creative endeavors. Life's purpose has its price. Leo doesn't seem to emphasize this. Look on the bright side of everything.

    Now as to the stability of attention, this is no joke. I want you to consider that people who meditate for over 10+ years struggle with this simply because they don't put enough emphasis on sustained attention. These people casually do self enquiry, noting and do nothing sort of practices but if they are REALLY honest with themselves, their attention constantly moves around in meditation and peripheral awareness takes a significant hit because of it. 

    And without clear awareness, awakening is a pipe dream for many people. That is why someone who meditates and does kriya yoga for 20+ years can still struggle to watch their breath for more than 30 mins without distractions. The skill you need to accomplish such a feat is stable attention.

    You pick 1 meditation object. Rest your attention there until it becomes effortless. Meanwhile, you expand the awareness and develop the 3 related skills I've discussed in this post.

    Culadasa teaches the breath as a meditation object. And it is VERY effective for MANY people. There is a reason why breath practice is not only taught in Kriya yoga but also taught as a common entry point to meditation worldwide. Even before koan work, zen tradition tends to give simplified breath practices for beginners to create some momentum of concentration.

    Take stability of attention very seriously. You can DEEPLY master this skill in 3-5 years if you follow Culadasa's book. Considering that people still struggle with stable attention after 10-20 years, this is a HUGE time saver. This is what I'd call deliberate practice.

     Actually, you'd also develop the other important skills by doing the techniques right and go all the way up to Stage 7-10 described in his book. Just remember that stable attention is only a part of this puzzle. Only concentration practices will lead to a dead end. You need to add other practices after you get skilled in stable attention. 

    Dry insight practitioners like Peter Ralston may not emphasize concentration but these people actually have VERY high levels of stable attention. All enlightened individuals can concentrate very well.

    Read Culadasa's book in its entirety. You can apply his techniques in your job. I can personally do it in similar circumstances where my CPU is not required for the task at hand. 

    This is a fundamental skill you need to meditate properly. Start developing stable attention and then you'll see the difference yourself. It is like a whole new world opens up. 

     

     

     

  19. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    1 hour ago, Consilience said:

    Great post. The only thing id like to add is that the duality between introspective and extrospective awareness is the mind superimposing onto direct experience. The “inner” and “outer” world are actually one, not separate, and it’s important to recognize the nature of this distinction fundamentally being of the mind, like all distinctions (I think). Literally your mind and emotions is in the same location as a tree, it’s trippy once the insight sinks in haha.

    Exactly. That is correct but the subjective experience from a meditator's perspective will be as if there is inner and outer awareness. Until that distinction goes away in your experience, you must continue to meditate with these instructions. Otherwise, it will only be a partially true insight in the form of a subtle memory.

    You'll know when the sense of self goes away. But even then there will still be some remnant of inside and outside. Stream entry is still the first stage of awakening. Transcending inner and outer FULLY and PERMANENTLY will take many decades.

    Knowing the theory is good but don't put the cart before the horse. In that mindset, all distinction, meditation instruction, techniques are unnecessary and pointless on the path of spirituality. That mindset is like 'just sit and bask in silence' sort of technique where there doesn't appear to be explicit instructions but the zen master still expects you to figure out the technique yourself and have certain experiences.

    There is always a technique even in 'bask in silence' or 'do nothing'. You still manipulate introspective and extrospective awareness according to the desired outcome regardless of whether that is awakening or samadhi. You manipulate introspective and extrospective awareness until they fuse into one and become indistinguishable. That is where you want to go. So you are right. 

    But remember that effortlessness tends to come smoothly after we make a lot of effort. That is the paradox of insight-oriented samadhi practice. 

    There is a time for making distinctions and eliminating distinctions. There is also a time for putting a lot of effort and easing up on effort. Knowing what to do when is the true mark of wisdom.

    For this, you can check out Leo's insightful video on 'Sameness and Difference'. 

  20. Posted

    There are 2 fundamentally different ways of knowing one's sensory experience. 

    1- Attention

    2- Awareness

    All meditation instructions implicitly or explicitly tell you to harmonize your sensory experience to either inside and/or outside using attention and awareness in various degrees. This includes vipassana, do nothing, self inquiry, yoga, mantra and koan practices.

    Stable attention is a very important sub-set of attentional skillset. It is the ability to direct and sustain the focus of attention, and control the scope of attention. Without this skill firmly established as a foundation, one's journey towards discovering what is true about themselves and reality will be frustrating and tiring.

    Our ordinary consciousness favors moving attention rather than stable attention. This is the fundamental reason why meditation is intrinsically challenging to every beginner meditator. Our default operating model of sensory experience relies on our ability to scan the environment for survival purposes. Monkey mind and distractions exist because of this very reason.

    Without developing stable attention, one's ability to transcend these distractions will be significantly decreased. You want to get to a place where intentionally directed and sustained attention results in cessation of moving attention. Eventually, you want this to happen automatically and effortlessly.

    We develop stable attention to have really strong peripheral awareness. 

    Peripheral awareness is the mode of knowing once stable attention is firmly established. Its mode of operation can be introspective and/or extrospective. 

    Introspective awareness is one's awareness of inner thoughts, mind states, bodily sensations, emotions, memories and self-referential symbols. Self-inquiry is more effective once you develop this aspect of peripheral awareness. 

    Extrospective awareness is one's awareness of external visuals, sounds, and physical sensations. Mindfulness in daily life can be more easily sustained once you develop this aspect of peripheral awareness.

    As a skilled meditator, your major objective is to get to a place where you can infuse introspective and extrospective awareness with stable attention effortlessly. 

    While doing so, you must  keep in mind to develop three related skills as a part of your training:

    1- Equanimity: The skill of non-reactivity to pain and pleasure. Apply this attitude to your practice.

    2- Sensory Clarity: The is the penetrating quality of awareness. The sharper and deeper the peripheral awareness gets, the more you are likely to have an awakening experience.

    3- Compassion: This is your emotional ability to shatter dualistic notions and perceive the 'other' as 'yourself'. As you get more intimate with pain in long meditation sessions, the more you'll develop compassion for human beings as a whole. You can supplement your practice with 'loving kindness' techniques.

    This is it.

    The fundamentals of meditation might appear simple but it takes years of dedicated and diligent work to get results. 

    By practicing with these principles in mind, one's spiritual practice will stop being luck-based but merely time-based. The more you practice deliberately, the deeper your understanding and comprehension of truth will become. 

    Much love,

    Arda Cigin

     

     

  21. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    Just 1 hour of sitting? But that is not the issue. Most meditators do 1-hour sessions as a daily practice. The challenge is doing 1 hour sessions 10-12 times back to back with little to no breaks in 24 hours. Just doing 1 hour do nothing doesn't prepare you for this marathon challenge. If you want to have serious awakening experiences by utilizing the intensity in retreats, you need to be comfortable with doing long sits back to back. If you train yourself like this, THEN you will REALLY be ready for retreat practice.

    This must be one's challenge:

    'If I can do 60 mins sits back to back (with breaks like a retreat) 10 times in cross legged posture, AND go through the most of the sits with little to no suffering, high concentration, awareness and equanimity, THEN I'm ready for a retreat. 

    If I can do this 1 day, then I can do 10 days back to back and have A LOT of growth in this retreat.'

    That must be your metric for skilled retreat practice. You are still talking about the beginner training metric.

     

  22. Posted · Edited by ardacigin

    10 hours ago, Freakyboo said:

    I agree with some aspects of the OP, such as the long hours for beginners - this can become very gruelling and it can become increasingly difficult and annoying when you hear the bell at 4am to get up.

    Having done 7 Vipassana's (and they were my introduction to real meditation) years ago, the best part was always the  10 days of silence, which I think was more of a motivator for me to continue attending than even the meditation itself.  By the 7th day I would  be bathing in the silence and coming back to speaking was always difficult and jarring.

     In my experience, you were allowed times to speak with the teachers every day at set times - it is not true that the silence was absolute with no questions to teachers.

    Vipassana in my experience is certainly not as effective a technique as Advaita or Tantra techniques and it did not lead to me meditating daily, but the retreats themselves taught me what inner silence feels like and probably the biggest thing I learnt was that all suffering is only the reaction to a sensation in the body.  Sitting for long periods and experiencing pain eventually turned to simply sensation and that realisation has stayed with me since.

    You can also choose to serve others and cook/clean up rather than meditate and that is also a beneficial experience.

    Contrast to your first retreat, how were your latest ones? Have you experienced the difference of skilled perspective and beginner perspective one gets as I've described in the post? A retreat is fundamentally VERY different for various skill levels. Understanding that difference and working towards more growth per retreat must be a meditator's overarching strategy. That is what I've wanted to say in this article. 

  23. Posted

    6 hours ago, Mu_ said:

    Really nice video outlining these concepts.  I just made a video breaking down the self imposed idea's with in the umbrella of these fields through the investigation of what is a question?  Very rough around the edges honestly and I think in time I'll be able to better flush out what I'm pointing to, because its still something I'm new to and trying to explain.  Curious about your thoughts ardacigin, lol its definitely a party pooper.

     

     

    Pretty good. If you structure the script and memorize certain topic points, it would flow better. But it is a great start :) 

  24. Posted

    5 hours ago, Barry J said:

    I had only a couple of months of mediation experience, had no idea what I thought realisation was and yet 6 days into the 10 day course the self vanished. It was precipated by a crisis including the pain of meditation and a feeling of hopelessness that came along with it. So in fact the devastation was the catalyst for the realisation. 

    Note that it wasn’t the end but the beginning of a long process that is still unfolding 

    That sounds like the knowledges of suffering one goes through as insight process after profound no-self experiences. (Or arising and passing away). How did you deal with it afterward? Did they spiral into depression and dissatisfaction?