Richard B:
It's clearer when you meditate but it's also there when you're not. I just notice the conceptual self that reacts to things and I don't suppress it. I just watch it (with awareness) arise and pass away. When it passes away you're back to plain awareness. Meditation also changes the brain chemistry (which you can feel) so you are more in the present moment as the practice progresses. I don't feel the same way as I did before. I start looking at how I actually feel in the body when the self arises with some reactivity and accept it and then keep looking until it passes away. The ego grasps onto comforting mental stories or defensiveness and when reality doesn't confirm that story the story then thins out making the craving stronger because it's like the identity disappears with the mental story that was proven wrong.
Cool, if a good meditator can get to that point through this practice then all the better.I guess we all came from different paths and schools of thought. For me, it was a fairly instance shift, that aint to say all my conditioning was destroyed, just a large chunk.
So I don't feel it matters if it's a natural state or not when self concept covers it up. The awareness is always there but weak at first. You exercise your mindfulness so that it's much stronger and that skill becomes something you don't forget and can use when more reactivity pops up. I think you don't stop reactivity until some later paths and even then there must be just a little reactivity left.
This stopped ALOT of reactivity very quickly. It would only take the situation to arise once or twice before the brain is completely reconfigured into understanding that the reactivity was a load of nonsense.
Little example: It is very very difficult to feel jealousy anymore. And I didnt realise it in the past, but I was a VERY jealous bloke!
Some others have mentioned that they also use metta practice in conjunction with mindfulness and concentration. They also try and find something positive in something that is painful, and they train to feel positive even if there is not much pleasant happening so that emotional pain is tolerated much more.
If it works , good, if not, it could be dangerous.
Anyway, overall, I decided to wait until Ive read MCTB, and Im fairly sure and confident to say my shift due to direct pointing was stream entry, only with some glitches, the reason for the glitches would have been due to no build up or preparation or expectation. I began to only learn there was even a path after stream entry. What would be called progress of insight, or dark night,and all the cycles involved I called "turbulence". It was very liberating reading the book, and being able to finally put whats going on in this head somewhere in some sort of map.
It was also liberating being able to put somewhat of a label on this shift, whether Im right or wrong, I dont know , but id be confident to say it anyway.
Im not saying it would be the same for everyone that goes through direct pointing, but quite alot of people anyway. Im not sure what the "deciding" factors would be as to why its more effective for some than it is for others. And Im in no way claiming I dont have a ton of work ahead of me, but Id still be happy to recommend any seeker this direct pointing process.
All I'll say is, id recommend it if you are stuck and feel you are not making decent progress.
Regarding my site, Im thinking of taking it down, it was originally designed for one purpose, and that was to make this appealing to people that arent open minded about spirituality or the terms or lingo involved (I wasnt), but its purpose failed, most people Ive shown this site to, mainly , just dont care.