Expansion and Contraction

Shinzen Young talks about a sophisticated model for impermanence that he has learned from his teacher, Josu Sazaki Roshi.

In terms of the practical approach to impermanence, it is now re-framed in a positive manner - once you tune into impermanence as a phenomenon, the impermanence "meditates *you*". After a while the meditator is invited to identify with the field of impermanence itself, which effectively dissolves the subject/distinction as well as the inside/outside distinction. Another interesting practical tidbit, which might have serious consequences on the physio-energetic model of development (or really any energy based model) is that our experiences of "energy" or Qi is actually the flow of impermanence.

Experienced phenomenon are seen as either expansion, contraction, or vibration (a combination of the former two) - or some arrangement or combination of all these. Impermanence itself is seen as the manifestation of two universal forces, that of Expansion, and Contraction. These arise out of the "Zero" and eventually neutralize each other, canceling each other out, bringing a moment of "significantly profound peace" (Zero), before arising again. One interesting aspect to this idea is that Peter Carroll espouses just such an idea in Liber Null and Psychonaut - almost word for word. Young styles these two forces as a "diad" rather than a duality, comparing them to other "Nondual dyads" like Yin, and Yang. This reminds me a bit of my favorite nondual dyad - center and periphery - and expansion and contraction implicitly refer to a direction towards either center or periphery.

Was wondering what other people's thoughts about these ideas were...

(cont from above)

Interestingly, this is one of those practices that does double duty, supporting both developmental enlightenment and Realization. By attending to the expansion and contraction, you can become absorbed in the changing phenomena of mind and body. This is exactly what leads one through the Progess of Insight. At the same time, by noticing that your entire experience is expanding and contracting, you naturally begin to notice that all this movement is happening within awareness, and that this awareness is beyond change. This recognition of that which is beyond time is Realization.

Kenneth

Hi David,

Nice topic. Sasaki-roshi's awareness of expansion and contraction, which I learned from Shinzen Young tapes, is an important part of my own practice, and I've incorporated it into my teaching of the "jhanic arc." As you ascend the jhanic arc, moving sequentially through the strata of mind in ascending order, e.g., 1,2,3,4, you can feel a sense of expansion or floating upward. When you are descending the arc, meaning that you have crested the wave of concentration and are moving back down through the strata of mind in reverse order, e.g., 4,3,2,1, you can feel yourself contracting or being dragged downward.

It's also possible to identify this expansion and contraction at any moment throughout the day. Once you get the hang of it, it's obvious which is happening. In this moment, for example, I'm expanding. (Pause...) And now I'm contracting. Right now, I seem to be on about a five-minute cycle, which is not uncommon in my daily life experience. (The length of time can vary, and often slows down during formal sitting.)

It's like a kind of cosmic respiration. It's nothing "I" am doing; it's just happening. To get in touch with it is to feel a great relief, because when you can feel this shift from expansion to contraction and back to expansion again, your moment-to-moment experience flows in a very free and natural way. Shinzen points out that just watching this "effortless flow of nature" is delightful in the same way that watching ripples on a pond is delightful. I agree. It's very healing and restorative in addition to its long term benefit of supporting and contributing to enlightenment. (cont)

I really like that description right at the end there. At one point in my awareness practice I began to notice attention contracting or binding into things that were arising. Then I began to notice attention unbinding from those formations with a feeling of relief and expansion. After watching that process for a while both the feeling of contracting into tension and expanding after releasing a fixation started to seem like the same thing in being "equidistant" from awareness itself.
It's a slightly different take on expansion and contraction, but either way noticing such a dynamic whether in terms of phenomena, energy or just attention itself expanding and contracting seems to precipitate a very strong sense of the Witness as timeless and unchanging.