R:
Thanks again Colleen. Out of interest why do you describe each practice as negative and positive? I assume you mean your core practice is sitting and the creative is the off the cushion practice.
Hello, R, I am very happy to see you here on this forum. I place a high value on beings such as yourself -- not just talking about it, but actually doing it. Very rare in my vicinity. Very beautiful. The Fourth Noble Path is ours now.
To answer your question, both practices are essential part of my sitting. And I am becoming a changed person as a result of my practice... slow, but sure.
My Core Practice is rather aggressive: it has me bringing up scenes from the past and comparing them with things in the present and then putting it back into the past. Great for minds that like to haunt one with the past and also use the past to project futures. This was prevalant in my family. I am very good at that and have no problem picking something to work on.
Through Insight Practice I have also seen that my mind has the job of stacking many similar scenes from the past behind anything in the present. (For example, when I see a tree, I have also seen stacked behind it multitude of layers of past scenes of similar trees -- this is how my mind sees things, and it likes it that way.) My mind cannot live with a simple present.
Reducing the mind is however problematic -- just as problematic as trying to take away something from a two-year old, if you've ever lived with a two-year old.
Because as soon as I take something away from the mind -- because this act of "Direct Looking" bleeds off any importance (i.e., psychic mass, body somatics, emotions, thoughts, etc.) attached to the scene -- I better give it something back. My egoic mind does not like a vacuum of importance, or threats to its status.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aopdD9Cu-So (this vid will give you an idea what it feels like for me sometimes).
And I'm only talking about
my mind here which until recently has been runaway compulsive.
So I add something -- thus a "positive" practice -- before I leave the cushion. I
"create an importance" and put it all around me until it all seems fine and dandy. It is a type of Metta practice because I also
"have another create an importance" and likewise put that all around me. That has helped me be more insightful towards the people I interact with.
Technically it would be correct to call it a Metta
and Insight practice. I find for me it also informs me as a being that I am always creating and now I can take the reins back, for when I am off the cushion I also like to consciously create things and put them all around me -- better that than have a noisily creating mind. So, it quiets the compulsive create of my mind. And identification with thoughts. Makes "Noting" easier, because there is less to note.
I apologize if the reply was "too much information" -- I am often guilty of that.