Do You Still Cycle in 3rd Gear?

Hi,

Do you still cycle through the nanas in 3rd gear?

I guess I'm after a possible diagnosis and some advise. I've been accessing 5 PL jhanas and NS for some months now. Over the last few weeks I have been cycling furiously, even while trying to absorb in jhanas, in fact all the time. If I stand or sit still for a few minutes, it usually ends with a spontaneous fruition. It has become clear that progress doesn't lie in jhanas/ nanas. I've been reading through other peoples journals and think I should attempt to access 3rd gear.

I rose to 5th PL jhana in the Witness and asked 'what witnesses the Witness?'. I entered another state where no-self is very apparent. You could call it emptiness, but 'empty' does not really connote the mood. I would describe it as all-inclusive, with no distinction between arising phenomena and 'me'. It is a very happy state, that makes the universe suddenly seem a much more hospitable place. I know 3rd gear is not supposed to be a 'state', but this feels like an absorbtion and requires some concentration to maintain.

The other thing is that I soon become aware I was still cycling and even had fruitions in the new state. I don't know much about 3rd gear, it seems a bit mysterious, do you think this could be it? Is 3rd gear just a development of the emptiness experience? How should I proceed?

Thanks,

Dodge.

3rd gear is the experience of surrender, of just being, of letting everything go completely. In my experience the best way to access this is to stop doing anything at all and just be. Sounds simple and easy but it's something you have to practice. So.... why not start?

Thanks for the reply Chris. You make it sound so easy! I suppose like anything else, it is easy once you know how. The problem is when I just let go, I am cycling like mad.....so, do you still cycle in 3rd gear?

I will practise letting go, but do you have any idea what the state I am experiencing is? Some kind of jhanic thing? Do you think it is worth cultivating?

Thanks a lot,
Dodge.

I'm assuming you're a 3rd path yogi, right? If so, you will cycle. My experience of 3rd path was the less trying I did the better. Maybe you are cycling because you're working so hard to get somewhere. Your next step will not come from working hard, from continued investigation. I don't really know, but if I were you I's stop "doing" and start "being."

FWIW, here's my old practice thread and what was happening to me at the point you seem to be, Dodge. It takes the process right up up to 4th path and then I killed that thread and started a new one. Maybe you'll find something in here worthwhile:

kennethfolkdharma.wetpaint.com/thread/35...fset=0&maxResults=20

Thanks a lot for your reply Chris, I will check your practice thread.

Dodge.

I only seem to cycle when there is a Witness sense. If I notice cycling, I now habitually look for the tensions that I take to be the Witness and I pop into either a "Don't know mind" or a self-free "in the seeing just the seen" mode.

If you are having a hard time accessing this mode, you could try the dzogchem instructions that I used to access it the first couple of times:

1) Ratchet up concentration - I would do a kasina for 5-15 minutes until concentration seemed quite stable

2) concentrate on either the awareness aspect or emptiness aspect of experience. Awareness was natural for me - just stay totally concentrated and glued to the chosen aspect.

There is a cycle in my case between pure beeing in a material sense and pure beeing plus an infinite utterly still consciousness.
in resting states the pure material beeing expands to this infinite consciousness and contracts back into pure material world/beeing often when I stand up/do something or by it's own rhythm. In both there is no mindactivity that could influence the stillnes but mind can happen on "another, transparent layer" which seems to be not personal. so there is a cycle but not in my mind, the mind in it's utter stillness is part of this "cosmic" cycle.

"
I'm assuming you're a 3rd path yogi, right? If so, you will cycle. My experience of 3rd path was the less trying I did the better. Maybe you are cycling because you're working so hard to get somewhere. Your next step will not come from working hard, from continued investigation. I don't really know, but if I were you I's stop "doing" and start "being."

"

Point of information: is a third path yogi someone who has gotten third path, or someone who is working toward it? This confuses me frequently. Thanks!

I guess I meant it as "where you are" not "where you are headed." So, has third path, not working toward it.

I've been offline for a couple of days. Thanks a lot to orasis and LocoAustriaco for their information.

I've been practising for the last few days using Chris's pointer....just be. I guess I've still got a ways to go yet!

Part of the problem is that it is obviously impossible to describe, but is nice to have some practical information from orasis, and the suggestion from LocoAustriaco that 3rd gear comes in stages, or a spectrum. I can see the possibility of pure being in a material sense, but pure being plus an infinite utterly still consciousness seems a long way off.

I suppose the answer to my original question is something like...you may well still cycle, but as 'you' are disembedded from experience the question is irrelevant?

Anyway, thanks for the replies.....back to practice.

Dodge.