[Rene MirandaMember]

Dear Joseph,

Bravo1
The kind of subtleness, serenity, you describe tell me you are finding your way sweetly.
I am glad for you.
Have you ever taken time in retreat?

René

[Rene MirandaMember]

Hello Joseph,

Good to hear from you again.
Our attention naturally alternates between our object of focus and objects in the background. This is not a problem. You are just noticing them now because your stability of attention is stronger. You notice them before they take you on to a story. That is a good sign. When you find your attention briefly alternating to a thought in the background, acknowledge it, accept that it’s there without needing to investigate it, and allow it to be in the background. Over time these kinds of narrative thought and other thoughts will come less often because they were not given enough attention for the mind to tag them as important to deal with.

I’m not completely sure what you mean by something being wrong. What I hear you say is that you are not experiencing forgetting and mind wandering much right now. That is because of because your awareness is expanding while your attention is more stable. And that is fabulous. If I’m missing the boat, let me know.

You are experiencing fewer gross distractions now. Your distractions are mostly subtle now. That is good news. When you experience times where the background distractions are just subtle and not too many of them, try moving on the the body scan. This practice will sharpen the mind, eliminating or reducing subtle dullness. Subtle distractions are fine at this point, that kind of subtle agitation is needed at this point to keep your ind alert. They will lessen as you practice body scanning.

Keep us posted!

I honor you for your dedication and diligence!

René

[Rene MirandaMember]

Tord,

What I imagine is happening is that you are trying new exercises to strengthen the power of conscious awareness. Since they are new, there is a learning curve. However, the exercises are valuable tools you will always have at your disposal.

I also recommend you try the body scan whenever you find yourself at stage 4 and gross distractions are at bay for a few minutes. That practice is powerful to remove all subtle dullness. When you experience the sharp clarity of a mind free from even subtle dullness you may see that the deep samadhi you are familiar with was not as clear as it could have been. Then you can practice Shinzen’s meditations with that kind of mind. If you find that is not the case then Shinzen’s practices are taking you to a deeper place where toward’s effortlessness. If that’s the case, you might find stage 8 practices useful. It’s good to experiment. That is how you know your mind. Curiosity is a wonderful way to approach meditation.

You mentioned the linearity or vertical nature of Culadasa’s approach. Yes, it is necessarily outlined that way. and the trajectory of our practice over time does generally go in that way. However, this is not a linear process. We take different minds to the cushion each time. Having tools to work with whatever is coming up is one of the beautiful things about Culadasa’s teachings. He gives us lots of tools. Over time one knows which tool to pull out for any mental state.

Best to you. I would love to hear how things go after you play around a while.

[Rene MirandaMember]

Hello Tord,

I see you are an experienced and dedicated meditator. It also sounds like Culadasa’s method is taking you to new places and deepening your meditation experience.

Yes, increasing the total power of consciousness by stabilizing attention while simultaneously cultivating strong peripheral awareness takes your mind to deeper states of samatha or stillness. That is why you are experiencing stage 6 and 7 in your meditation practice outside of retreat. You have, using Culadasa’s method as outlined in the book, increased the total conscious power or your mind by stabilizing attention and increasing peripheral awareness.

Subtle dullness is easy to enjoy and stay in because it feels pleasant. Yes, you can “trick” your mind into becoming comfortable there.

I am not familiar with the term “Doing Nothing.” I’ll tell what I think you mean and address this from my perspective. You can respond to let me know if I’m on target or not. What I think you mean by Doing Nothing is allowing the mind to observe what is arising as it arises. In other words, whatever thought, emotion, sensation, sound that comes into awareness is fair game for attention to go to. By doing nothing I assume you mean noticing without engaging with or embellishing what it is that arises in consciousness. This is a kind of choiceless awareness practice and very useful when the mind is stable enough. That is why Culadasa brings these kinds of practices in at stage 7. At that point attention is sufficiently stable and awareness is sufficiently strong to observe without manipulating whatever comes up. When we use this type of practice at a time when our minds are not sufficiently stable and aware, we quickly find the mind hijacked by a thought into mind wandering or into a dreamy kind of subtle dulllness. Persistent mind wandering will feel frustrating. Persistent subtle dullness can feel pleasant while no progress is made.

My suggestions. When you reach the state of samadhi you mentioned, try these practices:
When you want to practice exploring somatic experiences, try the body scan practice as outlined in the book. it will brighten your mind, eliminating subtle dullness. This is a very powerful practice for further increasing the conscious power of your mind. And it does lead, quite naturally, to experiencing the whole body with the breath.
When you find you are able to stay with the meditation object with little or no subtle distraction for 5 minutes or more, try the stage seven practices you will find under ” investigation of Mental Objects.” There are three kinds of practices there that are super powerful. They will naturally lead you to a state of effortlessness in time.

Personal notes: I found the body scan practice was like rocket fuel for my practice. Elimination of subtle dullness in the presence of stable attention is a bit like waking up from a dream. Experiencing the whole body with the breath becomes a flow state and leads to light jhana practice. That naturally leads to stage seven where stability can be cultivated because awareness is stronger. At some point effortlessness arises with the beauty of mental and physical pliancy. I practiced meditation for years before meeting Culadasa. Once I diligently (deliberately and gently) applied his method, my practice took off and flowered.

My best to you! I am so glad you wrote!

Peace,
René

[Rene MirandaMember]

Dear Joseph,

I am impressed with the level of awareness you have of your mind and the world around you. Truly.
All humans have varying abilities to realize what is coming from their own interpretations versus what others are experiencing. You are not unique in that way. And you have discovered for yourself, albeit with the esteemed and beautifully offered assistance of Master Culadasa, the truth of this. Congratulations! It is my experience that many of us never make that kind of progress.
I noted you also discovered what I did, that “one-pointed'” super-focused meditation is a dead end because it does not leave room to cultivate what humans are generally lacking, peripheral awareness.
It does my heart good to see you wrote you are gently working with your practice. Gentleness is something Culadasa’s method taught me. Granted, it took a while. Yet, what a gift to yourself and the world! Again, congratulations.
It’s good to know yourself and the way your daily rhythms effect your mind. Stay with that and honor yourself. I found that first thing in the morning my mind is pretty active and not attuned to stillness. Midday and later in the afternoon are better for stillness meditation. However, when I skip the morning meditation, I am less likely to practice later in the day. At least right now. So, I find a morning meditation sets the tone even if it doesn’t feel productive. The rest of the day is more likely to go according to plan. Experiment. Explore. You are finding your way. That is a good thing. Keep a morning routine. If you find shortening the morning routine helps you to practice later in the day then make changes. It’s good to allow yourself to find a good fit for you. I’ll be interested to hear what you find out.

What you said about not losing awareness of breath sensations tells me you are at least at a level four. Try level four practices. Do not be shy to try our level 5 and 6 practices when you are experiencing that kind of meditation. We all fluctuate. Check it our for yourself. Be willing to back off or amp up depending on what is happening right now. It’s great life practice.

Generally, yes, only one ten count, or however high you can get with a few attempts, is what is recommended. There are times when going back to a ten count can be helpful to regroup. For example, if you get started and you find your mind is “all over the place”, you can’t stay on the object, it can be helpful to do another ten count. Why don’t you check that out?

In summary, I see you are doing very well. I see you are a good meditator. I see you on the way to being a master meditator. And I see nothing from what you wrote that contradicts these statements.

Glad you wrote.

Blessings,
René

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