b man:
Anyone been through such a tough time in 3C stage? If so, any thoughts on speeding up progress other than just meditating more?
Yes, I have been, and still am.
And no, apart from meditating more, I have not thoughts how to speed progress up.
I started sitting in the zen tradition in 2006, rather half-assed, usually 30 min per day, and not every single day, and no practice apart from this formal one. In 2008, during a retreat, i had real bad pain in knees, hips and was nearly unable to breathe. My teacher told me to focus real hard on my breath, which I did. After a few periods of sitting, suddenly experienced total physical freedom. Sat the rest of the retreat with no pain whatsoever, peace, joy and so on. From this I learned that my body is able to sit without pain.
Due to personal circumstances, I continued in my previous half-assed way. Two years ago, my personal circumstances turned to the positive, and I intensified my practice. Had also turned to a new teacher (zen), who was really demanding. Which made me, one year ago, turn up the volume to two one-hour sits per day. And this is what really does it.
Teacher ordered me to sit through, if any possible. In the beginning I thought my body was going to break apart, pain like hell, shaking, twitching, groaning, the body turning into yoga postures... Even during everyday life, in the office, i started shaking if I did not watch out. Our last retreat i spent outside the zendo, I just could not bring myself to expose my-self in this way to others. The body literally started re-arranging itself, bones and all. This was hard! And I´m not yet through with this, there is still some work to do.
To me it seems really important during the sitting to give up all hopes for change, for things to get "better". Instead, I must really, really honestly look at WHAT IS, and then let go of my subtle plans how to influence the situation to the better. I must BE WITH THE PAIN, trust, and let the body take care of itself. Which I am by no means good at. My 2008 experience is really helpful, because it gave me the deep trust that the pains are ADDED STUFF, they are NOT born-in-to-my-body, they are not part of "me", and my body will know what to do.
And although this has been going on for quite a while, and there is still a lot of pain during my sitting, I see a considerable progress, too. The hips are opening up, posture straightens, breath deepens, the pain changes its nature with every sitting. The diaphragm softened, and I lost a layer of anxieties and depression which I had considered to be part of my personality. It just went away.
If I would have to give any advice from my personal experience, it would be: do more formal practice. Do one hour in the morning, and one hour in the evening, every single day. If possible, do, in addition, one sunday per month of four hours. If possible, add a few retreats. Since 2012, I have been doing two 4,5 day retreats per year.
Here on DHO, I read about many who did much less formal practice and had much better results. Be it so, I am not one of them. Obviously, I am the worst-case-scenario, I did not practice hard enough for many years, and I was not very good at picking teachers, too. But now I am really on the track, and for me, a lot of formal practice really seems to do the trick.