Paying it forward

A co-worker and I have been talking about meditation over the last six months or so, and he recently decided to dive in. I gave him some basic practice instructions yesterday at the end of the work day. This morning, he emailed me some fantastic practice notes. How cool is that?!

It feels so good to be able to share the practice with others. All of the wisdom that has been passed down to me from Kenneth (and others) is now being passed on to others - not just at this forum, but also in my "real" life. I am full of sympathetic joy.

I invite everyone here to join me in joyfully paying it forward whenever possible.

~Jackson

Nice Jackson!!
It's one of the most fulfilling things to help someone on the path.
I was wondering if maybe I could get some feedback on something I wrote on my FB notes. I have a lot of Dhamma friends in the Goenka tradition. I've got a lot of feedback from them and the whole idea of "mixing techniques" and not straying from the tradtion they are so very familiar with is not attractive at all . So I thought of ways they could possibly try and increase the odds of getting 1st by just using the sweeping method of Vipassana.

I'd really like to "pay it forward" with my dhamma friends who have sat course after course, some more than 10 thirty day courses in their yogi career, but yet to hit stream entry. So if there is anything I could change or add, please tell me.

One: When you sweep up and down the body observing the sensations/vibrations on and in the body, you could become aware of the localized sense of "self" when the attention passes through the head area. In particular, one could become aware of where the sense of "self", or rather the sensations/vibrations which cluster together to create a sense of self, are arising. Where are they? What are they doing? Are they impermanent? Do they arise and pass away and shift around? Do they arises without any help? Does it stay put? Is it all conditioned phenomena? Is it a combination of sensations and other phenomena?

Every time you get to the head area when sweeping upwards, you could start investigating the sense of self like this. Here, you are going right for the jugular by investigating the illusion of duality head on. What and where is "I"? In my experience, this type of investigation will bring on the big daddy insights into the true nature of the set up of what we consider "ourselves". Nibbana is just around the corner when this is done a lot!!!

Two: When you are sweeping downwards and you reach the legs and feet, you can become aware of how this feeling of duality is happening; the feeling of subject and object; of "I" being the observer of the objects ie. sensations. What is truly happening to create this illusion? Why does it feel like "I" am observing these sensations?

Try this: When you sweep down to the feet, stay with an area of sensations/vibrations somewhere there on one foot. Stay there for as long as you can with ALL attention focused on those sensations/vibrations WITHOUT the attention shifting elsewhere. I bet you any money you wont be able to. When I do this, I feel these subtle and sometimes almost undetectable shifts of the attention back to the sensations that make up the sense of self and then back to the area on the foot. Pay attention to how this happens. Pay attention to how the attention will flip back and forth between the focus on the area on the foot and then to the centre point of self; being in the head, maybe feeling like it's behind the eyeballs or the eyeballs themselves or a particular space in the head area. The shifting back and forth at a very fast, and at first, undetectable rate, is what is creating the illusion of a sense of "I" being the observer observing the sensations elsewhere in the body. What is really happening is that the sensations that make up the "I" are being sectioned off from the rest of sensations and only "appearing" to be what is conscious of all the rest of the sensations on the body. It happens too fast for us to figure it out without some Vipassana time where it becomes clearer and clearer what is happening. BOOM! BOOM! BIG GNARLY INSIGHTS!!!!!!

This quote by an anonymous advanced yogi at the Dharma Overground explains it best: "The sense of "I" presents as if it were a perspective that sensations take, as if sensations were being funnelled towards or through it. But this "funnelling towards" perspective is illusory when taken to be something more than phenomenology; "I" is just one more thing that presents itself to awareness, one more thing being looked at. In other words, when the thought "I" arises, what arises is an experience that presents as this kind of funnelling of sensations."

The blipping in and out of the sensations of "I" happens so fast that it fools us into believing the "I" to be a seperate entity, the thing that's in charge, the soul, the all important "me". There has never been a bigger illusion than this one. It has the majority of the planet fooled. Become aware of this and you are increasing the odds of seeing all those sensations that make up the sense of self being nothing more than sensations like all the other sensations. If you get to that stage, where it's all being seen in the body as just one massive bare sensate experience, without any sense of the "I" being separate, then a dip in Nibbana is just around the corner. I did this and it worked wonders for me. You see how this illusion of duality is occurring and a door opens....STREAM ENTRY>>>BOOYA!!!!!.

Three: On the 5th day of the 10 day course where I got stream entry , I was feeling confused and was asking myself if I was practicing correctly. Suddenly out of the blue, I had a thought which just popped into my mind.

"The cessation of sensation is Nibbana!"

For some reason this made complete sense to me and I started paying close attention to the end of sensations/vibrations as I investigated the sense of self. Stream Entry occured shortly after. You see, Nibbana is a state free from mind and matter. No sensations there. So focusing the attention on the way sensations/vibrations arise and just suddenly stop dead, will set it up for the mind to move ever closer to Nibbana. There is really no "slowly" disappearing of sensations over several moments. The ultimate truth is that sensations arise and just stop dead immediately. It just seems like they continue for sometime.


What is happening is that another sensation/vibration has arisen directly after it and then stops dead too. Then another sensation does the same thing and so on and so on. This creates the illusion that a pain, for example, is solid. Look a little closer and it breaks up into a "flow" of vibrations. Look even closer and you can see the vibrations are made up of individual sensations which arise and stop dead immediately to be replaced by another sensation. If you look and investigate the "endings" of sensations, the "stopping dead" of sensations then you are getting very, very close to Nibbana. You could observe the pulsing vibrations in your head as you sweep there or maybe the flickering of the eyes as they move upwards watching for the end of the sensation of flickering movement or the strobing of sensations in the back of the head. In fact you could investigate the end of any sensation anywhere on the body anytime you are sweeping up or down. Observe the impermanent nature of sensations at that much deeper level than just mere "free flow" and you are knocking at Nibbana's door.

Addition: There is a spot which Kenneth Folk calls the "sweet spot". It is the spot just behind the eyes an inch or so behind what some would call the third eye, within the brain. When you sweep up to the head, you could roll your eyes back towards this "sweet spot". This is a very important spot as it is where one can experience fruitions/cessation moments post-path. It is where one could set off a path moment and become a stream enterer. Here, you can focus and concentrate on investigating the pulsing, strobing, shifting, flickering sensations there and when they end or stop dead. Look for discontinuities. This method could trigger a "dip into nibbana" while you find yourself in very calm, in a highly equanimous state of mind (read Equanimity of Formations ñana). KNOCK! KNOCK! POP!



Please feel free to critique the hell out of what i wrote. i would like to refine it and make it a great way of getting someone firmly attached to a specific technique and tradition to have a better chance of "popping".

Thanks,
Nick

Thats cool Nick, if just one person is brought to the Pure Dhamma because of this note it will be worth it. The sweet spot though also is featured (for me) during the 8th jhana so you could end up with a Yogi in the 8th Jhana thinking they were getting fruition. Of course that is an old observation... Glad to hear you are able to help someone Jackson. I know your tutorial on getting to the Pure Land certainly helped me a lot...

Hey Nick,

Those are good tips, and I think some of your buddies would probably benefit from them if they were to give them a try. I can see how dedicated you are to the cause, and it makes me happy

Here's another idea that might help them out...

First, they can approach "not-self" as a strategy to end suffering. This is very traditional. While scanning, they may focus in on any sense of struggle, aversion, discomfort, or even the excitement of clinging or anticipation. These processes are inherently painful, and are great pointers toward insight.

By zeroing in on the dukkha, they can evaluate the experience. Is pushing away from this sensation going to bring release? No. Is chasing this other sensation going to bring release? No. Is ignoring the sensation going to bring release? No. No amount of grasping, averting, or ignoring an experience will lead to nibbana.

With that in mind, they may cultivate enough equanimity/dispassion to disregard phenomena as being "me" or "mine", and then just chill out in mindfulness. It doesn't take much more than that to "pop."

My stream-entry event came out of nowhere, and it was after I had come to terms with suffering (i.e. gained real equanimity). For those who stick to traditional forms of Buddhist practice, you can't get more fundamental than suffering and the other Four Noble Truths. Teach them to recognize it during the scanning process, and teach them how to use the "not-self" strategy to let go.

At least that's what I would try. I don't have much experience as a teacher, so I'm not sure it would work for everyone.

Mudita!
~Jackson

Brilliant, Jackson! I'm gonna edit the note and include your advice. Marvelous. It would only take one yogi to "pop" go blab to someone else that they followed certain advice, for more yogis to go and "pop" and then we'll have a situation like the time of the Buddha. Popping yogis all over the place. Hehe!

Thanks so much Jackson!


Anyone else got some advice for the "sweeping the body" technique of Vipassana to be more effective?

I don't consider mysefl a teacher either and have no idea if the tips will be effective. I have a hunch they could "increase the odds" but only time and a willing yogi will tell.

But I don't like giving up on my friends. My first approach was, Mahasi noting this, mahasi noting that, include the whole picture this, include the whole picture that. But people are attached to certain things. So now figure, well, if I was getting up to equanimity of formations with the sweeping method all those years ago, what would have gotten me across the line? And I was getting to Equanimity. Instead of spacing out and getting bored, what could i have done to get escape velocity? And thus these ideas came to mind. Hopefully someone will bite. You can't push it on people but you can kind of "expose" them to things that they may be missing. You can give them a choice. Stream entry sooner, rather than stream entry "maybe" later.

I keep thinking about all those people in zen centers sitting hour after hour on tiny little zafus with intense pain in their knees obesessing over the "proper" posture with no maps and no gaining idea and often no progress (gain) while i sat in big comfy chairs with lousy posture and have made more progress than I ever could imagine. I don't know if these are kind or unkind thoughts but they are there for sure.

"I keep thinking about all those people in zen centers sitting hour after hour on tiny little zafus with intense pain in their knees obesessing over the "proper" posture with no maps and no gaining idea and often no progress (gain) while i sat in big comfy chairs with lousy posture and have made more progress than I ever could imagine. I don't know if these are kind or unkind thoughts but they are there for sure. "

Got to chime in here, since I was one of the zen people for a while. Zen (at least Rinzai style) is kind of a mixed bag. For all of the problems at my old zendo, Rinzai training is really effective if you are willing to jump into the grinder. Two retreats and I got what I later found out was first path. And Zen does have maps. Well, to be fair, the teacher has the maps because he has seen all this stuff a million times before and knows how things develop. There is also the progression through koan study.

Must also admit, I did get a ton out of posture obsession. It probably did more for my concentration and acceptance than anything else I've ever done. Learning to accept extreme pain with the knowledge it will, like everything else, fade is a truly valuable skill.

But, and the big but here, is that you are left to trust the teacher waaay more than in other traditions. Even a truly awakened roshi with ****** ethics can tank a community pretty fast. I wonder a lot about my friends there, hope they are happy and progressing on the path.

Owen (sorry jackson):
Right. I postulated a theory about zen on here once that said basically SOME people must be getting something out of it but it had to be due to having a great relationship with an enlightened teacher who conveyed all the important info verbally in private meetings.
but, I'm not sure how common that is, hopefully pretty common for the students who stick it out.
I think some old resentments of mine are showing up here

I am enjoying reading Zen stuff more these days. I love the poetic way they phrase things. I might be completely off base here... but it seems to me that Zen instruction (never worked one on one so this is just Zen 101 instruction I read about) would be a great set of instructions for an anagami. But it seems like it would just confuse and discourage a beginner... I dunno

Heh, yeah, I got something out of it. I just had no idea what it was.
But by that point I was on the ride whether I liked it or not.

I've seen a lot of people who are into zen for reasons not related to transformation. If we are going to be truthful, there is also a TON of masochism and sadism going on. There seems to be something about trying to map hierarchal Japanese culture onto Americans that brings out the worst in some of us.

But I have also seen some really beautiful transformations happen. I know that I'm not the same person I was when I first went up there. I suppose that I needed to be nailed to a cushion and learn how to deeply weep if I was ever going to look mara right in the face.

Excellent material Nikolai!
The way you described your findings really made things click for me! You would be an excellent dharma teacher. You should definitely have a section at the Guest Writings section where you could post these postings and essays on your experiments with Jhanas, Fruitions and all that. That would make these valuable contributions more accessible to all yogis.

Antero.