Comments about 3rd Gear, The Direct Path, Eckhart Tolle, and the PCE

This is a place to discuss my essay, "3rd Gear, The Direct Path, Eckhart Tolle, and the PCE:"

kennethfolkdharma.wetpaint.com/page/3rd+...Tolle%2C+and+the+PCE

Let the flaming begin! (Just kidding! Please show restraint and try to keep all of this within the larger context of everything we know about various contemplative practices and views of enlightenment. Above all, let's be careful not to create our own crab bucket culture.)

Thanks!

Kenneth

It occurs to me that the ideal is not to permanently "eradicate" anything, including suffering. Rather, in keeping with the spirit of the bodhisattva vow, the ideal is to be able to access at will any and all modes of perception, understanding that the best way to help others awaken is to be able to meet people where they are. It is difficult to relate to people who are suffering from anxiety if you can't remember what anxiety feels like. I like the Buddha stories in the Pali suttas where the Buddha visited hell realms in order to help the hell-beings awaken. Presumably, he was not entirely untouched by the heat or the smell of sulfur. When you have the ability to experience your life as free from suffering, you can afford the luxury of wading back into the muck to help others break free. And if your skill is sufficient, you may find that wading back into the muck carries its own rewards, not least of which is a very rich palette of human experience.

Kenneth, I certainly agree with your last post here. Having been dealing with the dukkha nanas fairly intensely a fair number of times, those feelings were very familiar at the time my girlfriend started having intense anxiety, nausea, etc. from going off cipralex (an ssri). It really helped me to sympathize with her and I was very glad to be able to meet her on that level.

As to this essay, I think it's brilliant. This certainly clears up a lot of things for me and it really makes sense when put into context with your other writings on the site.

I've been doing some of this stuff his weekend and have been having a lot of fun.

The metaphor of the sunspot is brilliant.

The Eckhart Tolle books were extremely popular but I don't think too many folks actually got anywhere with it beyond the first couple of glimpses they probably had while contemplating a tree wordlessly. Introducing this after having someone go through the insight process and having some success with that, I think, makes a lot more sense and I would imagine is easier to teach.

You're the best

Thank you for this, Kenneth-- I love it when you acknowledge 'seeing directly with naked perception'. There really are some people to whom this makes sense in a way that practicing jhanic scales just doesn't. No praise, no blame, either way-- who can say how or why these things happen.

Odd, though, that you'd anticipate 'flaming'--?

*Gets out lighter fluid* Haha just kidding. I like this article and the persective it gives. The PCE or whatever you want to call it is a great thing. I have practiced cultivating it and find it fairly easy to get into. Its nothing I haden't experienced before. Having it in your tool kit is very helpfull... that actualism asertion that all other states are inferior, that is all I take issue with... the state itself is nice... Perhaps I will change my mind and come around to their way of thinking... but at this point in my practice it makes no sense to me to cultivate one state to the exclusion of others...

@Roomy and Mumuwu: When I first began posting on the DhO a couple of years ago, I was all about 3rd Gear and the direct path. I did not want to talk about or hear about developmental enlightenment (the Progress of Insight and the Four Paths and jhanas and ñanas) even though I already considered myself the world's foremost authority on those very topics (no, for better or worse, I am not kidding .

But I soon realized that most people were not ready to hear about the direct path. It was absolutely essential, in order to meet people where they were, to scaffold their development by helping them get a few Paths under their belt, at which time they would be much better able to practice from a 3rd Gear point of view.

Now that we have a critical mass of accomplished yogis in this community, it is time to reintroduce 3rd Gear teachings. Freedom from suffering comes from being whole in this moment. Stop splitting yourself up into pieces.

As always, if that instruction makes no sense to you, downshift to 1st Gear and note your behind off. For most people, the whole package of arahatship (the culmination of 1st Gear) plus stability in direct attention (3rd Gear mastery) is the only thing that will satisfy. For a few rare individuals, 3rd Gear alone may be enough. (This latter is speculation; I don't personally know anyone like that. It seems that developmental enlightenment matters and without it even 3rd Gear adepts are strangely clueless.)

Affectionately yours,

Kenneth

Kenneth, thanks

>"It seems that developmental enlightenment matters and without it even 3rd Gear adepts are strangely clueless"

Oh hell yes! Thank you thank you!! I am doing this 3rd Gear, The Direct Path in some way shape or form. I was just talking with a friend the other day and I was mentioning that I have epic jhana and lots of solid mindfulness, and everything works well. But in all the years I have been at it, (after one big perceptual shift about three years ago) I have never once since then encountered anything remotely like fear, or dark night, or anything like that.

I guess I just instinctually "lighting rod everything" I don't have any overt suffering in my daily life or practice at all. At this point I am really not sure how to see and examine the dukka nanas. I can just be in equanimity/jhana at the blink of an eye, and as soon as I sit it just happenes. There is considerable mindfullness in it, and everything is clear and perfect. It might work in heaven or hell, but I'm not sure because there is almost no hell for me, just heaven. But still something doesn't feel right... I really wonder all the time "where's the wisdom?" "what about paths?" and how to reorient myself so that I can atleast attain stream entry.

I think Ajhan Maha Boowa was caught up in something like this for years and years. I really appreciate that there is such ballance in Kenneth's outlook. For some actual freedom may be just what they are looking for, but for me It's starting to kinda suck to not have first gear attainments. That particular type of lightening strikes me often.

Thank you for this very interesting article, Kenneth.

Your genius is notably the ability to extract and synthesize the core elements of complex systems, translating them into simple down-to-earth pragmatic methods.

Kind regards,

Alex

Wonderful! I've been doing what you call the 'lighting rod' technique for years and it really is a straightforward and very usable method. I do believe that a reflection of every emotion can be seen in the body, and that grounding it helps to unclog the energy it's carrying. What I do is to gently 'tune in' to the related area in the body and become aware of it, just like you can 'tune in' and become aware of the breath without disrupting it. The body is a great tool for ending suffering.

Kenneth, thank you so much.
- Martin

Fascinating! I had access to 3rd gear before I was 2nd path so the direct path is familiar to me. I still prefer 3rd gear to other things but I think I've matured in my view of practice and have dived into 1st gear again recently as it, too, has good value in the tool box.

Thanks, Kenneth, for being the pre-eminent purveyor of mind technology alive today.

"@Roomy and Mumuwu: When I first began posting on the DhO a couple of years ago, I was all about 3rd Gear and the direct path. I did not want to talk about or hear about developmental enlightenment (the Progress of Insight and the Four Paths and jhanas and ñanas) even though I already considered myself the world's foremost authority on those very topics (no, for better or worse, I am not kidding .

But I soon realized that most people were not ready to hear about the direct path. It was absolutely essential, in order to meet people where they were, to scaffold their development by helping them get a few Paths under their belt, at which time they would be much better able to practice from a 3rd Gear point of view.

Now that we have a critical mass of accomplished yogis in this community, it is time to reintroduce 3rd Gear teachings. Freedom from suffering comes from being whole in this moment. Stop splitting yourself up into pieces.

As always, if that instruction makes no sense to you, downshift to 1st Gear and note your behind off. For most people, the whole package of arahatship (the culmination of 1st Gear) plus stability in direct attention (3rd Gear mastery) is the only thing that will satisfy. For a few rare individuals, 3rd Gear alone may be enough. (This latter is speculation; I don't personally know anyone like that. It seems that developmental enlightenment matters and without it even 3rd Gear adepts are strangely clueless.)

Affectionately yours,

Kenneth"

Kenneth,

That is certainly the case here. I had some success with direct path but it was too unstable and there was a lot of stuff I didnt have the tools to see through.

Kenneth, this begins to argue that there really is one full on enlightenment that embodies elements and/or realizations and/or capabilities from all three of your gears. This is something I believe in deeply as it seems to me we all start with the same resources - our minds and our biology. Accessing all the various aspects of the mind-body is the final objective and doing so gives us access to what we conceptualize as tools and techniques. I suspect the tools are a combination of biology and training (habit, really) that are "tuning" the mind, allowing it to perceive the flow of existence in helpful ways other than those formed in the unstructured manner of our typical lives and as we grow up.

So the three gears and all the tools in the toolbox are like astronomers' telescopes and lenses, allowing us to see that which is otherwise not seen. I can sense this in my own practice history, and the urge to go back and re-learn parts that I skimmed over or didn't pay enough attention to now makes more sense. Accessing the full spectrum of human experience requires us to have a full set of lenses, without which we are blind to some parts of ourselves.

This, somehow, is a very satisfying thought for me. It puts the whole package together in a way that is very compelling and helpful. I hope this is where your book will take us.

And, of course, none of this leads to better than, more than, higher than, being a human. It simply leads to the fullness of being a human, which I have always believed is the ultimate objective of practice to begin with.

Enso.

"I guess I just instinctually 'lightning rod' everything. I don't have any overt suffering in my daily life or practice at all."-Mark_VanWhy

Mark, your story is intriguing. Taking your report at face value, it may be that direct perception has become your default mode. For most people, it is the opposite, and they must learn to find the switch that enables them to let go of filtered mode and enter direct mode. Once they find the switch, they must diligently train themselves to "keep their hand on it." It is, you could say, a "dead man switch," meaning that at first you can't just flip it and forget it; you have to keep your hand on the switch continuously in order to enable direct perception mode, grounding the emotional charge in the body moment by moment, feeling the tension that arises whenever you forget and using that pain as a feedback loop to remind you to once again put your hand on the switch and leave it there.

If you are "stuck" in direct perception mode and would like to become unstuck, your switch will operate in reverse; you need to find the switch, then find the feedback loop that will let you know moment by moment which mode you are in and remind you when you drift back to your default.

Looking for jhanas and nanas while in direct perception mode is like trying to describe your clothing when you are naked. Someone may ask you, "What color shirt are you wearing?"

"Erm... I don't know," you reply. Well of course not! You aren't wearing one.

If you want to find the switch that enables filtered perception mode, which will in turn allow you to experience jhanas and nanas, I recommend using the Four Foundations of Mindfulness as a wedge. Note aloud, especially looking for agitation or anxiety, fear or aversion. Notice the discreet color of each sensation. Let me know what happens.

My opinion right now:
Third gear is a way --- moment-by-moment -- to relieve suffering and to bring a vaying amount of clarity to awareness. It is a tempoary means to side step tyranny of self.
First gear practice with it's combination of physical and mental development loosens (note I said "loosens" not "eradicates") the suffering creating grip of self from one's being in a way that is pervasive and not temporary.

so,

If one practices third gear only the moment they stop surrendering there is the potential for the suffering born of ignorance to jump right in and still cause complete havoc.

And, as one develops in first gear, especially first path and beyond, the third gear state can become the default state, however, since this person really understands the folly of thinking they are something that can get things third gear is easier to maintain and can become more and more natural and fluid.

Few seem to agree with me on the following (those some things Daniel has written seem to back this up): zen practicioners who really get somewhere have first gear development. They may not have maps and know exactly about the nanas and cycling but intense zen training in zazen, kin hin (wallking meditation), working with a teacher, especially when done on a daily basis and primarily with a certain amount of sesshins (up to ten days of almost constant zazen) -- sets off and develops the physio energetic process. One can be a zennie and just go in and out of third gear, but, if one dives into the training as just described they will come to know the 3 Cs -- it just cant be avoided.

So, third gear is the best way to live one's life and development in first gear makes it easier and easier to do so.

"
Kenneth, this begins to argue that there really is one full on enlightenment that embodies elements and/or realizations and/or capabilities from all three of your gears. This is something I believe in deeply as it seems to me we all start with the same resources - our minds and our biology. Accessing all the various aspects of the mind-body is the final objective and doing so gives us access to what we conceptualize as tools and techniques. I suspect the tools are a combination of biology and training (habit, really) that are "tuning" the mind, allowing it to perceive the flow of existence in helpful ways other than those formed in the unstructured manner of our typical lives and as we grow up.

So the three gears and all the tools in the toolbox are like astronomers' telescopes and lenses, allowing us to see that which is otherwise not seen. I can sense this in my own practice history, and the urge to go back and re-learn parts that I skimmed over or didn't pay enough attention to now makes more sense. Accessing the full spectrum of human experience requires us to have a full set of lenses, without which we are blind to some parts of ourselves.

This, somehow, is a very satisfying thought for me. It puts the whole package together in a way that is very compelling and helpful. I hope this is where your book will take us.

And, of course, none of this leads to better than, more than, higher than, being a human. It simply leads to the fullness of being a human, which I have always believed is the ultimate objective of practice to begin with.

Enso.

"

Ecce homo!

"
Few seem to agree with me on the following (those some things Daniel has written seem to back this up): zen practicioners who really get somewhere have first gear development. They may not have maps and know exactly about the nanas and cycling but intense zen training in zazen, kin hin (wallking meditation), working with a teacher, especially when done on a daily basis and primarily with a certain amount of sesshins (up to ten days of almost constant zazen) -- sets off and develops the physio energetic process. One can be a zennie and just go in and out of third gear, but, if one dives into the training as just described they will come to know the 3 Cs -- it just cant be avoided.
"


Sure, at least as far as I can tell from my own practice as well as from what I hear from my Soto Zen dharma-brothers. We experienced many of the stages of insight knowledge as well as several Jhanas, but didn't have a clear map to know what they were and what was likely to come next. And how could it be otherwise, considering that Shizantaza is very similar to the reputed and well-tested Vipassana methods of Sunlun Sayadaw or U Ba Khin. The only difference is that in Zazen the attention is more focused on the body as a whole.

I must say that noting practice always felt -and still feels- like adding unnecessary mental noise to what is. Is Shikantaza 3rd Gear or 1st Gear practice? I would say both. It is 1st Gear Vipassana until one realizes that Zazen is and has alreays been the expression of original enlightenment (3rd Gear).

My conclusion is therefore that Shikantaza can be a single practice method taking one all the way, especially if we approach it with a pragmatic attitude and a general knowledge of what is likely to happen.

"
My conclusion is therefore that Shikantaza can be a single practice method taking one all the way, especially if we approach it with a pragmatic attitude and a general knowledge of what is likely to happen.

"

I'd love to hear this expanded somewhat...

And I wonder what you think foreknowledge of 'what is likely to happen' adds to the process of *discovering* what happens? Or whether those old Zen guys had a well-understood purpose in keeping some things on the QT. [lest this sound like a rhetorical question, I really DO want to know what you, with your breadth of experience and long exploration of these topics, have come to believe.]

"I'd love to hear this expanded somewhat...

And I wonder what you think foreknowledge of 'what is likely to happen' adds to the process of *discovering* what happens? Or whether those old Zen guys had a well-understood purpose in keeping some things on the QT. [lest this sound like a rhetorical question, I really DO want to know what you, with your breadth of experience and long exploration of these topics, have come to believe.]"

I think alex is right and i'll give my reasoning.
if one "just sits" totally present to the objects of experence arising and passing over and over, especially with momentum and continuity, then there will be path and fruition. How could there not be?

I guess that doesn't answer your question roomy. oh well. maybe alex will.

I second roomy, Shikantaza sounds intriguing. Does it build on staying present, as in not leaning forward not leaning backwards; not clinging? Please share your experience.

It occurs to me that one thing that should be checked in order to line up what you call "direct perception" with the PCE is that (1) the sensation of being (pure IS) should not be present, and (2) there should be a sense of purity and wonder.

So how is it? Does that match up?

Thanks
Bruno

The sense of wonder, I think, is addressed in this instruction:
"See how shapes and patterns captivate the attention. Wood grain patterns are fascinating. That translucent green plastic yoga ball is a visual feast. The visual texture of fabrics is delightful. Feel your body again and ground the anxiety"

Hi Bruno,

In response to your post #21:

1) I'm not familiar with that terminology, so I can't answer. One of the things I find most exasperating about Actualism is their convoluted use of language.

2) Yes, there is a sense of purity and wonder.

I think it's important to point out that Richard and the Actualists have played a kind of joke on us, or perhaps on themselves in claiming to be onto something previously unknown. The more I reread Eckhart Tolle's "The Power of Now," the more convinced I am that Tolle and Richard are talking about the same thing; it's just that Tolle is doing a much better job of explaining it.

Even more to the point, I have been doing this direct experience practice since 2004, so it is very well known to me. It has taken me this long to really understand that the PCE is none other than what I call (using Adyashanti's terminology) the direct path. It is not for us to prove that our own experience of the well-known phenomenon of direct perception lines up with the PCE. It is for the PCE advocates to make that case that it does not, if indeed they believe so.

Do you see what I mean? Richard has played a kind of magic trick in which he has attempted (with some success) to co-opt a well-known, well documented, highly valued aspect of human experience, give it a proprietary name, and insist that no one else has ever understood it before. It's like claiming to have invented air or shoes.

Here is a dialogue to illustrate:

-"I have discovered a new color. No one knows about it."

-"What does it look like?"

-"Like halfway in between red and white."

-"You mean pink?"

-"No, it's not pink. It's new."

-"Hmm... I'm pretty sure it's pink. Get over yourself."

Basically, Shikantaza means sitting 'allowing everything to be as it is'. One is mindful of the posture, while allowing sensations, feelings, thoughts, good or bad experiences, whatever, to arise and pass away.

Maps do help because after the happy A&P phase, most tend to give up thinking that they are regressing when they are actually making progress. Another problem is that most teachers don't talk enough about observing impermanence. As a result Zen students tend to doze off instead of observing the arising and passing away of phenomena.

Those who have read Brad Warner's first book "Hardcore Zen" will see that he describes many of the stages of insights, which is one example demonstrating the fact that Zazen works like Vipassana.

Then what happens at the time of Satori (abiding awakewning)? One realizes that there is no essential difference between Zazen and the awakened natural state (of non clinging). We realize that our first Zazen was already awakening. That Zazen is the expression of original enlightenment. From then on, Zazen become the natural expression of this realization.