I would like to bring up a topic that I don't see much discussion of on here. All the knowledge and technique-related information on how to awaken is all over this forum and the level of technical meditation chat here is amazing, off the scale
Or you can go elsewhere on the internet, you can pick noting, self-inquiry, direct pointing, any other vipassana, and all can be very efficient fast ways to wake up. By wake up I mean do something like MCTB 4th path.
So, why does it seem to take some much longer than others? Why have some people not hit MCTB Stream Entry after years, and others do MCTB 4th path in months?
When I started doing the noting practice as described in MCTB, I was really motivated to do SE. I thought it was about technique, and practicing seeing quickly and accurately the sensations which make up experience. I now think this is only 10% of the story.
People wake up (or reach whatever stage they're aiming at) when their whole psyche knows it and wants it. When this alignment occurs, it doesn't matter too much what you're doing, any technique can push you over the edge. Zen literature is full of this - people waking up at the sound of bells, being hit with a broom, etc.
As Alan Watts beautifully and funnily says in
this video, the reason people don't wake up, is because they don't think they're worth it. They think some aspects of them are bad or un-spiritual. Another way of seeing the problem is that they are too enamoured, too in love with certain other aspects of their psyche.
If people diligently, with their whole psyche aligned, start noting, they will hit SE, like clockwork. Unless one of these things happens:
1. Various forms of not actually really trying
Self-explanatory. Not enough energy and intent or belief is directed at the practice.
2. Technique fetishisation - over-trying
This is when someone is being a technique freak, but out of fear, not out of genuine unfolding of the examination of reality. The sort of person who is a technically very adept meditator, but is not making progress quickly. They 'hide' in the technique.
=====the traps and escapes: faith, motivation, alignment=====
I would like to open a discussion on situations that occur and ways out of them. In no particular order, some things I have seen
*** unwilling to engage whole psycheThis is something I see a lot in some form or other. I was talking to someone who has done a lot of Mahasi retreats, knows about SE, but is too scared to read up on the nanas and technical elements of how to do SE. This is because they are scared that they are the sort of person who is heady and goal orientated, and they think this will take over their practice. Instead they are just noting diligently and thinking something might happen.
Problem - This is a blatant rejection of one huge aspect of who they are. They have an idea that a goal-orientated or intellectual part of their psyche is "not spiritual", or problematic (fear that it will cause them suffering). So they cut off this half of their mind, now it is a dead weight. It is like a dog trying to fight without biting.
Solution - You have to be willing to meet all the aspects of your psyche. Being afraid of one big part of who you are is going to cause massive deadlock in your mind. The buddha was goal orientated as fuck. and he intellectualised a lot - loads of lists, systems. There are ways to work it. Scholarship, combined with meditating, seems to work very well to awaken people.
*** insufficient beliefthe most basic and vague barrier. Basically they now believe SE exists, but don't really think it could happen to them, today, right now, this sit. I did SE the very first day after I formally wrote down my intent to make it happen to me. I'm sure everyone will agree that this is a very important point, but I see little information here on how techniques of how people made this belief real for them.
*** trying too hardthis is something I have seen some good stuff on this forum on. Essentially the meditator is caught in subtle traps of wanting/doing or watching, where the want/doer or watcher is the exact thing that need to be undone.
*** too afraid of 'death' of various identities like career, family, etc.I have no real experience of this - anyone?
*** afraid of content of own subconsciousWhat we are trying to do to awaken is drop a deeply help subconscious belief, the visible part of which plays out as patterns of thoughts and sensations. So if you are afraid of your subconscious, your degree of willingness to enquire, prod, work with, investigate, change what is down there will be limited.
Put it this way. If you are the sort of person who has a poor relationship with your dreams, or who is unable to be comfortable with your own desires, or who when drunk does really dark stuff that makes you super ashamed, then this is worth looking at.
*** willingness to use ritual and imaginationIn your subconscious there are hugely powerful themes, images, stories, currents, that, if you are willing and able, you can ride to awakening very quickly.
For me personally, McDonalds and consumer culture were a huge part of my life, I grew up in shopping centres and worked in advertising and the hedonistic industries for a while. So integrating these into my journey was a vital part of awakening.
Now, being subconscious, you cannot just access these currents. So you need some kind of technique to find out what these are, and how to ride them.
For different people, this will take different forms e.g. religious ritual, deep psychotherapy, dream analysis. I am not that far out, so I used basic psychological principles, and life-coaching type stuff, story-work, hero's journey type stuff, and creativity to just try to integrate, align as much as possible.
*** mahasi noting: the technique IS the faiththe nice thing about noting is that it's a faith and a technique. It's a religious ritual, a prayer if you like, where you basically build your faith in direct experience, and undermine your faith in your thought-concept-belief of self, til one day while noting, in a way that is totally unrelated to noting, you just stop believing in a self as doer and watcher, and the patterns of doer and watcher die. However I believe the above mentioned stuff around faith is vital and can really speed up this process.
A closing note:
This is not about your content, or dealing with 'your stuff' as Daniel Ingram puts it. It is simply about the most radical non-attachment to any of your stuff, and dropping any belief that any of your stuff makes you more or less likely to be able to wake up. It is about simply aligning all your stuff, your personality, your skills, preferences, into the direction of awakening.
I am interested to hear everyone's thoughts and maybe we could put together some common traps & escapes from a motivation/belief standpoint.