[Matthew ImmergutMember]

Seems totally natural. We all have our particular circadian rhythms – a normal, biological patterns that repeats itself each day. I have pretty much the exact same ones as you. And of course, after eating dullness is pretty common. Personally, I apply Culadasa’s general meditation advice and just let the experience of dullnness come, let it be and let it go. If I’m on a retreat that’s another issue.

I think the idea of being “more productive” is interesting. It’s interesting to me because it’s so “protestant.” Not that you’re protestant, but in the sense that we’ve all been born into a culture with a very strong “protestant work ethic,” a belief that “idle hands are the work of the devil.” Thus, we may not be practicing Christians, but most people feel that we should not “waste time” (as if time was a resource in short supply), that we should “spend time” wisely (as if time is money!), that every moment should be well planned, efficient, and productive. The evidence that we feel this way is when we feel guilty for “being lazy” – that is the internalization of an external, historically constructed, and culturally specific super ego. By the way, the sociologist Max Weber wrote a very famous book titled, The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism… in which he basically says modern capitalism, the demand for production and consumption, began with Protestantism.

Ok, this is getting all academicy and not Buddhisty. But I very often wonder how much of this Protestant spirit has infected are ideas of Buddhist practice.

I do have thoughts on meditation and dullness but that can wait

[Matthew ImmergutMember]

Yes, it is delicate especially because we have conscious control over attention but awareness is unconscious, stimulus driven response. In other terms, attention is “top down” whereas awareness is “bottom up.” As a result, we tend to over emphasize attention and neglect awareness…. we could say we all suffer from Awareness Deficit Disorder.

And yes, the intention to use both does deepen both as well as strengths both.

Also, what we do with attention, trains awareness. If I take attentive interest in sports cars or birds that becomes information for awareness. Thus awareness learns to alert attention anytime shiny cars or feathered flying things appear.

A part of Culadasas method is using attention precisely this way in meditation to “check in” with the mind, see if any distractions are around, and if so tighten attention back on the breath. Thus awareness not only becomes stronger but more alert to potential distractions that cause us to forget the breath.

M

[Matthew ImmergutMember]

Jordon,

Got the pills, tried it last night along with WILD. No luck. Actually, I was in a weird state all night long, slipping in and out of dreams and waking up. I even got up at one point and ate some ice cream just to try to get to sleep fully – just so you know, “I” never get up and eat nor do I ever eat ice cream… someone just left it in my freezer.

So overall, the pills just seem to create sleepy agitation. I’m a little wary to try again, but might.

M

[Matthew ImmergutMember]

Hi Ven. Khemako

I think one of the most important elements in taking the practice off the cushion is staying clear on Culadasa’s distinction between awareness and attention. I will assume you know the distinction, if not, we can discuss.

The breath, as I’m sure you’re aware, is a somewhat of an arbitrary object. It of course has many benefits as a meditation object but other objects can be equally conducive to working to maintain a balance between awareness and attention. In other words, you can practice using attention and awareness on anything. Place your attention on the movement of your feet, for example, and maintain peripheral awareness of the world around you. Use the computer and focus on the typing but also maintain peripheral awareness – both introspective and extrospective awareness. Notice how when you focus attention more intensely, such as typing or doing something else that demands intense attention, awareness begins to collapse. Notice as you begin to go to sleep at night the fading of attention and awareness. Notice how when someone does something that pushes your buttons, awareness collapses and attention becomes hyper focused… try not to let this happen 🙂

My point is that with Culadasa’s method your always working to strike a balance between attention and awareness no matter what you’re doing. This optimal balance between awareness and attention is the key to developing mindfulness both on and off the cushion. This balance is also absolutely essential for developing samatha.

I hope this helps a bit.

On another note, I’m reading Venerable Father by Paul Breiter. It’s about his life at the Monastery and living as Ajhan Chah primary assistant. It’s a wonderful, fascinating read. Do you know of it? Have you read it?

Matthew

[Matthew ImmergutMember]

Hi Jordan

So I had success last night! I woke up at around 4. Did some meditation and continuous state checks for about 45 minutes. Then went back to bed. I had a few short dream sequences with no luck. Then about the 3-4 one I was staring at a poster and couldn’t read the letters. At that moment I knew I was dreaming! I even did the movement thing you suggested to stay in the lucid dream. But it still didn’t last that long.

I’ve also ordered the pills.

Thanks again!

[Matthew ImmergutMember]

Those are great suggestions Ivan. I will try them. The other thing I’ve done is had a timer set to ring/vibrate. When it does, I stop whatever I’m going – if possible – and bring my attention to the breath. Or, I keep engaging the activity only bringing full attention and awareness to the task. I bought one of those vibrating wrist watches so the beep doesn’t disturb others. I usually set it to buzz every hour.

[Matthew ImmergutMember]

Hi Paul

Yes, we lose awareness when attention is rapidly moving from object to object. Another way to say this is we lose mindfulness – the optimal balance between attention and awareness. The issue is that conscious awareness (attention and awareness) is like an energy system. If all of our energy is going to attention then we simply don’t have enough energy for awareness. When we multitask our attention is moving from object to object so we simply don’t have enough mental energy to engage awareness as well.

This is where formal practice comes in. As Culadasa explains, one of the central aims of practice is to increase to total power of conscious awareness. We do this by sustaining a focused and detailed attention while maintaining peripheral awareness. As we progress our attention becomes more and more refined, detailed, and powerful as we continue to maintain our strong peripheral awareness. This increases the total power available to conscious awareness – in a sense, by sustaining attention and peripheral awareness we’re forcing the mind to make more energy available.

So, I guess first and foremost keep up your formal practice in order to develop this type of raw mental power so you can successfully move attention and maintain awareness in daily life.

Then I’d say as much as possible make your daily movements of attention as intentional as possible rather than letting attention move spontaneously. But this is a whole other topic. Let me know if the above is helpful and we can keep the dialogue going.

Matthew

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