[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Prashant,

I am glad to hear you are progressing in your meditation practice. I would refer you to my post in this thread from Feb. 28th. I feel like I answered these questions then. Perhaps you overlooked my response, or you need additional clarification.
http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/stage-3-question-please-help

Thanks,
Blake – DT Teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Becky,

I know it has been awhile, but I wanted to comment on a couple of your questions above. I know the Dana amount can be quite confusing at first. One guideline that I like is to think about how you would like to be compensated for your time. You might consider how much you make per hour before taxes, and consider giving at least this amount to the teacher for an hour of her time. If you are on a very limited income it would be good to discuss that with the teacher in advance.

We are working on an initiative to help students select a Dharma Treasure teacher or teacher in training. We are thinking of having sorted lists by specialty. For example, a list of teachers who specialize in working with beginners, or certain types of issues. We also might sort by geographic regions or time zones. Any ideas you have would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Blake – DT Teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Thanks for sharing! That is really cool. I guess TMI has made it big.

Blake

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Black Ghost,

I would like to give you one more piece of advice. It seems to me that you are lacking introspective awareness. You are not seeing the movements of attention. I recommend having a more spacious awareness of the meditation object, so you can also notice when your attention moves to something else. When you notice that your attention moves, use the labeling practice described in Stage 3. Just use a simple label like thinking, hearing, feeling etc. After the label just gently bring your attention back to your meditation object. Generally this practice is recommended after you totally forget the meditation object, but in your case I think it would be best, at first, to do it any time your attention moves.

Knowing what your attention is doing is the fundamental skill that will help to stabilize your mind. While we are working to stabilize attention, one of the main goals is to study our mind. With this labeling practice, you will start to see the things that take your attention away from the meditation object. So you can have a great deal of scattering of attention and still be building understanding. Also, don’t forget to label any thoughts or judgments about your meditation practice. Hopefully this curiosity about how the mind works will engage you. If your mind is really unstable, try speaking the labels out loud.

Since body sensations are difficult, and you have had some luck with it in the past, you might try using sounds as your meditation object. Just let your attention move freely amongst any sounds in your environment. When you notice anything other than a sound, just label it and bring your attention back to sounds.

It is great that you have stuck with the practice so long, and your motivation must be strong. I think it would be a good idea to work one on one with a teacher.

The following is a list of Dharma Treasure teachers and teachers in training who offer assistance to students. The ones that are underlined have contact information. Most offer these services on a donation basis, so you can pay whatever you can afford.

https://dharmatreasure.org/teachers-in-training/

Best Wishes,
Blake – Dharma Treasure Teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Peter,

To answer your other question about “zooming in”. In the earlier stages, the more you zoom in the more likely you are to lose peripheral awareness. You want to find a level of noticing sensations with clarity where you still have peripheral awareness. Over time, as your power of consciousness improves, you will be able to notice more detailed and finer sensations without losing the awareness, but this takes time and practice.

Your description of focusing on a body part sounds like what I would expect. When I notice the vibratory sensations I believe they are somatic experiences. That is not to say the mind might not also generate some visual experiences at the same time, but if we are focusing our attention on a body part we are primarily interested in tactile sensations.

You just hold the intention to notice sensations with clarity, and you don’t need to put extra effort on top that. It will probably just make you tense.

Blake – DT Teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Peter,

I agree with Ivan. I have been on retreats with Shinzen, and he emphasizes letting time do its work. Think about how long it takes to master other skills like playing the piano. A beginner could try to play a difficult piece, but it would probably just be frustrating. It would be the same thing for meditation.

Blake – DT Teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Griffin,

I find Shinzen Young’s “Focus In” method very helpful for dealing with difficult emotions. Through careful noting, you notice mental talk and images, and also the sensations in the body associated with an emotion. You will also learn to see how they fuel each other. He calls it the divide and conquer method. If you do this practice regularly then hopefully you can use it when a strong emotion comes up in daily life.

For more information go to:
http://shinzenorg.wpengine.com/resources/#articles

Click on the Five Ways to Know Yourself article which will load or download a PDF file. Then look at Chapter 1: The Way of Thoughts and Emotions.

Blake – DT Teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Bernadette,

Are you deliberately lengthening the breath to “stretch the perception”? It is not really necessary, and you might causing your attention to alternate. Attention and awareness are pretty much parallel processes as far as we can distinguish. In the moments of consciousness model they are interlaced, but they are alternating very quickly. Think about how you can have your visual attention focused on an object while your peripheral vision is still aware of other things.

Peripheral awareness is a naturally occurring automatic process, and we can just intend for it to happen and it will. Depending at which stage you are practicing you generally want to hold the intention to notice the breath sensations –with clarity– without zooming in so much that you lose awareness of other things in the background.

Blake – DT Teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Sanjeev,

In the earlier stages, peripheral awareness is known mainly through alternation of attention, and that is fine. Any time something pops out of peripheral awareness and becomes clear it means that your attention has alternated to it, however briefly. It sounds like you might be checking to see if you have peripheral awareness, and when you do this it causes attention to move.

A technique that I have found helpful is to put attention on the meditation object for a few seconds and then stop and briefly reflect on whether or not you were aware of anything else during that time. You might try this a few times during your sit or when you feel that you do not have peripheral awareness. If you were aware of anything other than the meditation object during that time, then you have peripheral awareness, and I wouldn’t worry about whether it is awareness, or if it is alternation of attention.

You state the following. “As I am writing this mail, I am peripherally aware of the ambient sounds in the background and my bodily sensations as well.” This could be either peripheral awareness, alternation of attention, or a combination. If the sounds are a field of sound, then it is probably peripheral awareness, but it you hear individual sounds then it is probably alternation of attention. You might take a look at the fourth interlude for more information on this topic.

The distinction between alternating attention and peripheral awareness is not always clear. You might start to notice, when your attention alternates, that you were aware of the distraction before it became an object of attention. Please remember that alternation of attention continues up until exclusive attention is mastered in stage 6. If you try for pure peripheral awareness (without alternation) in the early stages you will just frustrate yourself. As you keep practicing your experience will show you the difference between the two.

Blake – DT Teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Sanjeev,

In addition to the good advice that you have gotten from Mimi and Darlene, you might find the following post from Culadasa on attention and awareness to be helpful.

http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/questions-and-clarifications-about-peripheral-awareness

Blake – DT Teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Henk,

Please remember that in stage 3 we are not working to overcome subtle dullness. That is done in stage 5. In fact, subtle dullness can help stabilize attention in stage 3.

Blake – Dharma Treasure teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for sharing this information. Slowly we will build a database of things that seem to work. I like your thoughts on self compassion and acceptance.

I now recall that I once did a meditation retreat where Qigong was offered and it was a smooth retreat in terms of energy balance.

I have thought about acupuncture, but have never tried it. I may give it a go.

Please keep us informed of your further explorations.

Thanks,
Blake – DT teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Matthew,

Please remember that connecting is an optional practice in stage three. You only need it if following gets very easy, and it does not sufficiently engage your mind.

You don’t need to actually count the time. I recommend starting simple and noticing if this pause is longer, shorter or the same as the previous one. Once you get the hang of this, you can do the same with the inhale. Once that is easy add the exhale.

You can do connecting continuously if you find it helps you stay engaged with the breath. The real purpose is to give your mind a challenge.

Blake – Dharma Treasure Teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Henk,

You might find my post from Feb. 27th, in the following thread, helpful. I give an exercise for learning to notice thoughts.

http://dharmatreasurecommunity.org/forums/topic/stage-3-question-please-help

Blake – Dharma Treasure Teacher

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

In the first interlude of the Mind Illuminated in the Normal Functions of Attention and Peripheral Awareness is states the following.

“Attention can’t observe activities of the mind because its movements and abstracting of information from awareness are activities of the mind. In other words we cannot attend to attention
When attention is focused on remembering, you can’t use attention to know you are remembering. But you can be aware that you are remembering … If you do turn your attention introspectively, it takes a ‘snapshot’ from peripheral awareness of your mental state right before you looked.”

I think you could say that attention would be focused on this snapshot which is a binding moment of consciousness produced by the narrating mind.

Blake

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