The Tape Box

I just had a PM exchange with Telecaster that I think many people will find relevant:

Telecaster wrote:

Kenneth, your Burmese teacher (all of a sudden I can't remember his name -- Pandita Sayadaw?) once told you that noting the sensations in the abdomen as it rose and fell with the breath was a complete practice in itself to take someone all the way to arhatship?

Kenneth wrote:

Hi Mike,

Yes, Sayadaw U Pandita is adamant that all you have to do is follow the rise and fall. In a similar vein, Bill Hamilton once picked up a plastic audio cassette box and said "you can get enlightened by rubbing this tape box." Then he tossed it into my lap with a look of expectation on his face. (It didn't work right away.) The point is, it doesn't matter what sensations you are attending to. (That just means that it doesn't matter what sensations you are attending to.) The physio-energetic process is awakened and developed by paying attention to something (anything) as you concentrate. Following the rise and fall of the abdomen is an efficient way to do this, as it simultaneously fosters both concentration and investigation.

Kenneth

I'm a novice. A newbie, as my kids would say. But I can attest to this one thing from personal experience: ANY sensation, thought or experience can be the object which takes you "there." I am now, and have been for quite some time, extraordinarily grateful to the tip of my nose

Well, I love Telecaster, I just want him to know that.

The breath is a beautiful thing, everything comes in and goes out, it is the ultimate prana recycling device. In breath is called inspiration, out breath = expiration, so in one in and out breath we are enlightened and also we die. You can't hardly beat that. We share oxygen atoms with deep space and our closest friends, atoms from a dog turd become that of a Bodhisattva, electrons from some other dimension of time/space, who knows, maybe parallel worlds, are there just when we need a boost changing out the brakes of our car or baking bread for Thanksgiving.

- h

My practice right now is stabilizing my mind more and more and more right on the actual sensations of the in and out, rise and fall of the breath. Apparently, the entire universe is right there for the taking!

Great topic, tele and Kenneth.

Being mindful of the rise and fall of my abdomen was about 80% of my practice for quite some time. If trying to make progress though the Insight stages, this is definitely an effective way of doing so. I can say with confidence that I was watching the abdomen when I got stream entry, and also when I got second path.

At a certain point, for whatever reason, my practice became a sort of hybrid between self-inquiry ("Who am I? What is me? What is this?") and straight up negation ("That's not me. I'm not that. That's not myself."). Very intense at times. Cutting, cutting, cutting away the delusion at break-neck speed.

Aside from playing around in the concentration jhanas, those are the two practices that work best for me.

Stay with the abdomen or the tip of the nose as long as you can. You can take it all the way, for sure. Noting the position of abdomen during practice (rising, stop, falling, stop) is a good way to stay focused while keeping the investigative process going.

~Jackson

Thanks Jackson. I read and reread your blog on the 3 C's all the time. Very helpful.

The "stop" is an interesting place for me right now. I didn't even know it existed until about a week ago. Last two sits I notice that at the stop of the outbreath (just after really) I have a mental impression of a wave of something spreading from my abdomen outward. Don't know what this is yet but it seems just like an image and not a sensation.

Another method that I think may get ignored a bit by people like me who don't go on retreats is walking meditation. This is supposed to be potentially very powerful as well, right? I'm going to try and use it more now that I've moved into a bigger house with more privacy and floor space.