Hi Katy,
"Boundaryless sensation" is an intersting way to describe it. The feeling seems a little strange - there is a part of me that does not want to interpret what is going on but I can't help thinking it is some sort of "energy". Which does not make a lot of sense! Sort of funny wathcing the "engineering mind" trying to understand it
Concentrating on it seems to intensify it.
I suspect it is possible to practise concentration and get so good at it that the insights stop. But I also imagine that takes a lot of practise. It was perhaps the buddha's innovation to reintroduce the analytical mind into a deeply concentrated state. The idea of jhana junkies comes to mind.
I also suspect it is impossible to follow vipassana instructions without developing concentration - but there are probably plenty of people doing "mindfulness" work with very little concentration. I heard someone say "I go into problem solving mode" and a teacher reply "that is still meditation" I guess the person has noted they were problem solving but if they spend a huge chunk of time doing that then there is not much mindfulness going on.
I like your angle that there are already insights available from the concentration. I had not thought of it like that. Certainly has been suprising to find very enjoyable sensations arising from sitting not "doing" anything. Also been interesting watching how a session goes in relation to expectations - bringing in expectations or comparisons really seems to have the opposite effect of what is desired. Hard to let it happen when sitting to "make progress".
I agree with you that the big insights are likely to be unexpected. A bit like a pradigm shift. I guess there are smaller insights too e.g. what happens when I don't get enough sleep. This idea of natural progression as opposed to forcing is a real challenge - I guess it is Right Effort. Maybe the "balancing" of the 8 fold path is a good way to think about it.
The bit in the other thread I wanted to focus on is (sorry it was not very fair linking to that other thread!) :
http://dharmafarer.org/wordpress/wp-con ... .-piya.pdf "When we understand our latent tendencies, we begin to work at radically healing ourselves: we get to the roots of our personality." That seems a fairly strong link of the latent tendencies to personality but I suspect character would be a better choice than personality. The connection from the latent tendencies to nonvirtuous behaviour (or character) seems more direct than personality (which seems to include more superficial behaviours). That document links the reduction of those latent tendencies to insight practises.
I wonder if the idea of character and virtues are too connected to the self to get a lot of air time in Buddhism. But if the character is seen to be the latent tendencies then it could be seen as not self.
The idea of developing the virtues through acting/speaking in the world does not seem to be a major theme in buddhism. I can see that for a monk a lot of these issues are simplified and maybe that is why they don't get so much attention.
Positive psychology seems to have jumped on the virtue ethics bandwagon. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Character_ ... nd_Virtues The Character Strengths and Virtues (CSV) handbook of human strengths and virtues, by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman, represents the first attempt on the part of the research community to identify and classify the positive psychological traits of human beingsIt leads to 24 traits Creativity, Curiosity, Open-mindedness, Love of learning, Perspective and wisdom, Bravery, Persistence, Integrity, Vitality, Love, Kindness, Social intelligence, Active citizenship, Fairness, Leadership, Forgiveness, Humility, Prudence, Self control, Appreciation of beauty, Gratitude, Hope, Humor, Spirituality.Those traits can be grouped into categories Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, Transcendence.I wonder whether this is more useful for the layperson. Mind you I've not had a lot of luck finding practises that are aimed at helping adults improve these virtues (which I assume is like reducing the latent tendencies). There is a lot of material on imparting these virtues in children. Social service stands out as an action that can help strengthen a bunch of those traits but that does not seem to be a major axe of development in buddhism (not to say it is something that is ignored by buddhists either).There seems to be plenty of overlap but a few of the traits that don't seem to be emphasised in the dhamma might be: Creativity, Social intelligence, Active citizenship, Leadership, Appreciation of beauty, Humor. I'm not implying these virtues are not held by buddhists or ignored in the dhamma, just that these don't seem to be valued so highly in the dhamma (maybe for good reason).I think it could be valuable to use right action, right speech and right livelihood to address the latent tendencies, while of course still meditating and improving insight. I'm somewhat surprised it does not seem to be a big part of the few buddhist communities I've seen (mainly online and western).
Would be interested to explore that topic with you!