I am currently in low or mid-equanimity for the last couple weeks. (I'm 100% sure, as I had almost a textbook dark night, finally am out of it, and equanimity has proceeded exactly according to descriptions I've read).

I have a 20-day Goenka course 10 days from now.

Please share opinions and suggestions:
* The course starts with ~7 days of anapana before vipassana time. To help my chances at SE, would it be best for me to do the full 7 days of anapana for concentration, or best to devote more of the 20 days (your suggestion?) to vipassana?
* I have this time before the course to practice on my own as much as I like. If I'm in mid-EQ, is it possible to get to stream entry on my own, or better to pace myself and wait for the course?
* During the Review stage, if you're in retreat, do you just continue to use the same insight techniques or do you need to take a break or do something different?

I've read up quite a bit on the tips, and I've come to the conclusion to focus on this simple strategy:
* Keep doing the same practice that got me here, really investigating each sensation I note or sweep.
* In all "down time" note or have awareness of sensations.
* Investigate all cravings and reactions to the Stream Entry goal (I've already had a few craving concentrations with this one...starting to chill out a little and just work the process)

I'd beef up the concentration to as far as one can take it. If jhana territory is accessed, all the better base to jump from to SE.


Practice like you could get stream entry in the next hour. Make it so there seems no difference from daily life to transitioning to the course. Hit the ground running. But know not to practice in a way that burns you out. That is not right effort. Balance it out.


Chill out for a couple of days till you feel like working again. If the stamina and intention is still there though, do as parents teach their children to do when playing baseball. When running to first base, run as fast as one can and not slow down till a few of metres after touching base. Put it out of your mind for now. Focus on the present moment, not some non-existent future moment based in fantasizing about getting SE. Though believing one can do it is a good start. This type of thought be best relegated to the realm of craving for SE.



Seems like a good plan.

The Reformed Slackers' Guide to Stream Entry

Following Goenka's Instructions to the tee for the entire time one is awake during the 20 days.

And/or

Note your arse off and take apart the fetter of identity view.

With a slight tweak to the Goenka instructions you may find your anapana can cover both concentration and insight. Follow the first part of the Anapanasati instructions.



You may find, like me, that your body sweeping practice means you will naturally be very sensitive to the bodily sensations in your anapana practice.

If this turns out not to be the case just take Nick's advice and do the whole 7days anyway. Your samadhi can never be too good!

Good luck.

hi Chris,

on my second 20 day goenka course i had a pretty major breakthrough which I attribute to maxing out the anapana period. this is such a great opportunity imo. in previous courses during anapana I had worked too hard, strained, which was counterproductive. tranquility, calm, stillness I found were much more useful in establishing samadhi. after that course was finished, attentiveness had switched on, almost every waking moment. in fact it felt like the course never really ended. even like a year later, i can't say it ever really ended. just kept progressing more and more. again, i attribute this to the samadhi developed during anapana.

my two cents. hope you have a great course!

Thanks for the replies.

A few things keep bugging me. Can you dispel these and set my mind at ease so I can get back to productive practice when the mind brings these up?
* I settled about a week ago into Kenneth Folk's suggested technique of noting all four foundations of mindfulness, aloud until you see it's not needed, once per second. No longer worrying about 3C's, annata, center point, et al. I've found this to be really good for this time, very useful. And yet my mind keeps going "this isn't it! It won't take you to stream entry!"
* I've noticed that when doing Kenneth's technique, I don't get total coverage of the body when I sit. My mind tends to be drawn most sensations on the legs, bits of the arms, and a lot to chest, where I experience emotions. Head and back and such are infrequent. Is this a problem?
* Is there something wrong with me if I've been going repeatedly to retreats and hitting low equanimity (unknowingly) and not penetrating to stream entry? I have this nagging doubt that it must mean I lack something key that I don't know about, that I should have hit stream entry long ago. Again, if you can dispell this doubt.
* when I'm on the computer, typing or reading, I have real difficulty noting. I'll try to do just awareness of sensations, but I have big gaps (which I beat myself up over). Any advice on this?

Thanks for the advice about valuing concentration. I've never really understood it's true importance, since it often sounds like "access concentration is all that's needed, you'll get jhana access at path." I recently experimented with chilling out in anapana for periods, just focusing on bringing the mind back to the breath, not worrying about the length of time it was there, and found it to be much less straining, so I think I'll do some of that during the 7 days, to rejuvenate as well as build up the skill. I have worn myself out and rejuvenation is going to be key.

The advice about taking breaks and not burning out is so appropriate for me. Here's my recent experience, perhaps an object lesson to others who follow, who like me, may have a hidden volcano of desire for deliverance just waiting to bust in the 11th nana.

Like many Goenka students, I suspect, due to lack of teacher interviews or any published path during the 10 days, I've been cycling between 10th and 11th for over a year. (Disclaimer: I am a BIG FAN of the Goenka program, this is not bashing on it, just an observation--every program has strengths and weaknesses, and every student has different experiences.) I just thought it was me and tried to deal with my depression as best I could, kept going to retreats where my meditation would be so good (probably because I had the time to get through the tough practice of dukka nanas to equanimity). Then I would come out of retreat, go through a crash, my practice would get hard and I would do it, but it didn't feel like progress and it probably wasn't the way I was practicing. I had no idea that what I was feeling was normal or that in fact it might be a sign of preparation, progress, and insights. I can relate to people like Daniel who are frustrated with the time they spent (needlessly?) in a drawn out first path dark night.

I realized a month ago for certain "the goal was within grasp." I had a period of equaminity, probably not my first, but I recognized it. For a while I didn't even read the details of it. I just enjoyed it, and noticed in walking I'd have a direct experience of my thoughts like "semi-transparent sensations" that kind of stuff. Then...

All my longing and desire to get out of what was at least a year of cycling came up violently. I put myself on a meditation plan, so excited. I started meditating more and saw the state deepen. I could feel my mind getting ready for something (altough I wasn't yet in high equanimity). I kept at it, expecting good things any day. Then I woke up one day and distinctly felt the morning anxiety of reobservation. Fear! Fear! Fear. I came up with another plan that would eliminate all my attachments, worked it, got back to equanimity, had a nice day and a half of that, and fell back to reobservation the next morning. And that was when I started realizing the deepness of my attachments. And I think those are really the only thing holding me back. I've had a very strong in-day and cushion practice, and many retreats. So I'm surrendering to my attachments as we speak. Examining my behavior around meditation for signs of attachment to goal, and seeing a lot of signs to think about and tweak.

I'm currently in Reobservation as I type this, and I'm finally feeling like I understand Dark Night. I have spent the whole morning doing what I think of as "surrender noting" sometimes once every four seconds, sometimes not able to form vocabulary in my mind and just noting "stuck" but really surrendering to stuck. I think I really get a lot of things this morning. I feel like a big weight is lifting off me, and it's not just the normal weight of Dark Night -> Equaminity. I think I'm starting to get it now. Not just the approach to stream entry. But maybe to the whole insight journey. Or maybe bigger than that. The approach to life?

How do these concerns prevent productive practice?



There is absolutely nothing to worry about in this regard. Different people have different forms of conditioning (karma) to cut through, that's all. It sounds as though your practice is undoing that conditioning very effectively.



I struggle with this, too. There are a number of cherished identities which come up for me in the context of intellectual labor, concerning smartness and competence. The solution is to make that labor part of your practice. Do the work very slowly, intending not to even make a keystroke unless you're fully aware of what's going on in the four foundations at that moment. You don't have to do it that way all the time if you need to do the work to survive. Fair warning, though: in me, this conditioning runs very deep, and practicing this way has left me pretty discombobulated and a bit paralyzed. I left my job at the end of June largely as a result of that. (I don't regret it, though.)



I do that. Do you know the story of Milarepa and his demons?

Chris I don't think I have SE yet (though there is occasionally some question over that) so do take this with a pinch of salt... I seem to have a similar amount of goenka-style retreat experience as you though so hopefully I can be of some use.

Here's a few of my own observations that may be interesting to you. Note that although I have attended one Goenka, my main retreat is with another U Ba Khin student and there is more emphasis on samadhi (and they do it for 4.5days out of the 10):

• For DN / Cycling up to EQ i have found anapana to be awesome. A smoother, more calming journey.
• I no longer do this the way Geonka teaches it. I tend to follow something like the TWIM approach, emphasising the jhanas as far as I can take them.
• Like you, I tend to try way to hard. It's difficult to do, but I can confirm that taking a break helps practice! (i took a whole week off a while back and did not slide back irreversibly..)
• If you get this samadhi stuff working for you, you can kind of "ride the wave" up to RO/EQ and then start sweeping from there. This seems to work best.
• I've not done any noting.

Oh, and you can sweep/scan within the jhana. This has great potential. I'll get to really play with it on an upcoming course this month.

Again, thanks for the replies.

I've spent the last few days in surrender and acceptance, trying to refuel. I've done just a couple hours a day of formal meditation, and really been working on having fun with investigation of each sensation all day. As a result, I'm starting to get more excited about the retreat, whatever happens. I feel like I've let go of the stream entry goal a lot, which is likely what I needed to do. Trying to make it happen on my own timeline was wearing me out and not fun.

I feel good about the goal of stream entry in the retreat. I know what to do, and believe I can do it. I believe I have enough tools and ways of coping with different mental states like attachment that might come up. And if I don't do it, I'm committed to having fun continuing my cushion and investigation practice outside retreat until I do.

The biggest lesson of the last couple weeks for me is the difference between diligently practicing in a way that seems to be working with where things are, where the process is--and trying to force things.

I have spent the last 2 ten week retreats ranging through the same area of Jana as you. You can't attain stream entry without access concentration. Yadda Yadda, but after all this time studying and practicing i've only just put in perspective what the achievement of access concentration really is. Mahasi teachers Sayadaw Dr. Sununda and U Pandita Jr. have both told me that when one is in High Equanimity regarding Formations one achieves a pliancy of body that allows one to sit for at least four hours with ease of body. This pliancy is the same standard for access concentration, of course. One can even sit up to 7hrs and have not attained full absorption; still be in access concentration. Opening out into High Equanimity, (panoramic, near perfect, airable, peaceful, ordinary, Boredom, forgetfulness, balance, Deep Wisdom seems very natural and ordinary attachment to mastery vanishes, effort to attain or do vanishes, it all happens by itself) after the intensity of the fast flowing vibrations if one is experiencing all these kinds of qualities but is still only sitting for 2 and a half hours, your not there yet. Even though these descriptions are of high equanimity, you will be rising and falling between this doorway state that sits between the two or at the end of the fast flowing vibration stage and models high equanimity but is not yet there. And what is lacking maybe the required concentration.
'The Attention Revolution' by Allan Wallis covers some of the subtleties required to develop this attention and balance the excitation & laxity required to really get into high equanimity. This stage of the practice for some, could only be a half way mark because its a very subtle lvl of attention that is required and the progress into its depths can take a lot of refinement.
The 10 stage to jhana in the Tibetan tradition.

4th Mindfulness you've finally learned to really meditate: coarse excitation has gone you can maintain you awareness of the object i.e. rising and falling or just attention in the moment with kanika samadhi. the object shifts beneath the thoughts and is held with mindfulness above the thoughts, but not lost.

5th Medium and subtle excitation occur, subtle excitation are thoughts going on in the background also we have coarse laxity meaning you can't stay awake sometimes.

6th There is some satisfaction here without resistance: excitation is subtle, but it you don't use introspection (of laxity & excitation) it may quickly become coarse dragging u back to 4th or 5th lvl. Laxity becomes moderate, meaning the object just isn't clear if it isn't clear you try to hard or you concentration fades for lack of an object and you fall back into with and there is resistance i.e. some difficulty maintaining this pleasant ease.

I should note here that concentration is considered to be built upon relaxation; the foundations, stability;the wall & vividness the roof.

7th Excitation has gone but may return at a subtle lvl. Laxity is now subtle things start to get really good around here you can sit for 2 and half hours or more.

This is where you are after the fast flowing vibration push upwards lifting the body in the insight janas.

8th there is no excitation and laxity, maybe a bit at the start of the sit. any effort but the slightest here may ruin the relaxation, lose the stability and evaporate the vividness.

9th is access concentration

10th is jhana these last levels are hard to acquire and subtle. and directly applicable to letting go into high equanimity.

Sincerely Neem. Good Luck

Neem what's your assessment of this book? I was thinking of buying it...

Its my favourite book on Jhana, but I don't get the visual nimitta, just the space nimitta or love and joy. So the book is the best advice for me on how to practice Jhana or improve my concentration. G'luck Neem