Hi Stuart,
I'm 60 y/o also, and have been at this for over 32 years. So, I've got a few years experience on you. But even so, what you are pursuing is eminently doable at your age. If you can maintain a clear (and unclouded) mind as you are undergoing the process.
Stuart Charles Law:
Ian, you asked in your post
depending on whose instructions you've been following
The short answer. None.I'm stumbling through this like a blind man. Coming upon the Dharma Overground has been like a breath of fresh air. I feel a little less alone, but still looking for guidance. Working through MCTB and hoping that that's IT!
That's good. That means that your mind is not being clouded by preconception! Which means that what you are experiencing is crystal clarity without the waters being muddied. In other words, if you have no expectations, it's easier to experience what IS. What is happening in this moment, that is.
With regard to MCTB, if I were you and wanting to keep my mind clear, I would only use it as an inspirational piece. What Daniel has to say about the amount of grit and determination one needs in order to "get over the hump" is true, and in that light, perhaps some of the meditation tips may be useful. But beyond that, I would be careful attempting to cloud your mind overly much with the maps he's presented.
You are much better off reading the translated Pali discourses and attempting to discover how the original path
was meant to be traversed. In that regard, your 60 years of experience will come in handy if you just apply common sense to what you are reading. My recommendation would be to start with the
Majjhima Nikaya. If you find that helpful and inspiring, go on to the
Samyutta Nikaya and the
Anguttara Nikaya; these are the two oldest volumes of the Pali canon, and they contain much useful information with regard to actual practice.
The hardest part is attempting to align the Pali terminology definitions up with your own first hand experience so that you can understand what is being communicated. In that regard, we now have plenty of native-speaking Westerners who have traversed this path (Thanissaro Bhikkhu, Nyanaponika Thera, and Bhikkhu Bodhi come to mind) enough to be able to trust their definitions of these Pali terms. Prior to that, we were having to rely on either Eastern practitioners who weren't proficient in the nuances of the English language attempting to provide us with definitions (which oftentimes may have been misleading) or Western observers and writers who may not themselves have been practitioners attempting to translate the Pali terminology without having any first hand experience in the practice enough to be able to be more accurate in their translations of this subtle terminology.
Stuart Charles Law:
And yes indeed i had been noticing what you've called passaddhi for about the last 5 to 6 months and watching how it was developing. I even made the hopeful observation in my meditation diary that it would be nice to reduce the gap between occurrences of passaddhi to nothing ... join them up.
That's a common aspiration among those of us who have experienced this phenomenon. If you are able to attain
samadhi to the level of absorption (
dhyana), you will find that this will greatly assist you in attaining this goal, as it will help to condition the mind to remain longer in a peaceful abode, well after a formal sitting.
There are also "skilful means practices" that can assist one to retain or regain this peaceful abode in one's daily waking consciousness. One such practice involves paying attention to the breath (outside of meditation practice) in order to regain a peaceful demeanor. You've heard the phrase "take three deep breaths" as advice being applied in stressful situations? Well, the same works for any time that you feel your mindfulness slipping and the mind beginning to wander. Simply by applying attention to the breath (as though, and in the same way, one would during a meditation sitting) can bring back that experience of
passaddhi, rendering the mind at ease and in peace. You may even sense the sensation of pressure in the brow (or temples) as a "sign" (
nimitta) that your concentration and mindfulness have returned.
Stuart Charles Law:
I still have not quite figured out what passaddhi is. If it is "profound inner peace" that would be why it's so unfamiliar, as peace has alluded this 60 year bag of bones, and profound ... well. Requiring noticeably less sleep!!!
If you read any of the Pali dictionaries, you'll find that it's been defined as: "calmness" or "tranquility," "repose" or "serenity." And those are all good definitions as far as they go. My own personal definition is the one I quoted to you, or a "profound inner peace." When compared with the "monkey mind" of discursive thought that so many Westerners are familiar with, this inner peace does
indeed seem to be "profound."
And, yes, needing less sleep is a by-product of spending time in
samadhi. Many meditators, myself included, have experienced this phenomenon. It's been said that for every hour spent in
samadhi, you can subtract needing an hour of sleep. Pretty nice tradeoff, wouldn't you say!