Effortlessness

[Sam BMember]

Hi Everyone,
My practice has really been taking off lately and I have some questions about whether I’m ready to start experimenting more with dropping effort.
Is meditative joy the marker for when you are ready to drop effort? In the book he says that attention remains stable, mindfulness high, and joy tends to happen when you’re ready to experiment with dropping effort.
In my playing around with dropping effort recently attention grows stronger, mindfulness remains strong, metacognitive awareness is present but not particularly strong, no dullness has developed, but there hasn’t been any joy yet, only a still contentment.
I’m wondering if I should continue strengthening MIA or just keep playing with effortlessness. There is still subtle dullness periodically when I’m in effort mode, but I can correct for it fairly easily. Subtle dullness hasn’t developed yet when I’ve dropped effort.

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Sam,

I think you may have misread the book. On page 275 is says “this diligence [effort] actually keeps the natural joy of a unified mind from arising”. The joy typically arises after you successfully let go of effort.

I recommend making sure you have fully mastered Stage 6 including “sustained exclusive focus of attention, and a high level of metacognitive introspective awareness”.

Page 275 has some markers that indicate that you might be ready to drop effort.

Blake Barton – Dharma Treasure Teacher.

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