thank you for your thoughtful responses.
Beoman Claudiu Beoman:
what vipassana retreat is it?
TJ Broccoli:
what kind of 10-day vipassana retreat will you be attending? is it a Goenka course?
fwiw, the retreat is at IMS retreat center, outside of boston.
i think it's a bit more easygoing than goenka retreats, from what i can gather.
Beoman Claudiu Beoman:
during formal sits you can either not go and walk around instead, or you can sit with eyes open and run the question like that.
it seems the consensus is that actualism is more difficult with eyes closed, huh.
maybe i can get away with keeping my eyes open. i already do practice open-eye meditation (zuowang) from time to time.
i'm also kind of curious what the results would be of focused, closed-eye HAIETMOBA. something to explore.
aaron .:
I say this because I just recently came back from a Goenka retreat myself, having the goal to do some intensive actualism practice and I did not find it all that conducive to such an endeavor. It had it's pluses and minuses.
aaron, thank you for sharing your experience of attempting actualism practice on retreat. helpful to consider.
ok, so from all of this, here is where i am leaning now.
originally i was gearing up to go into this retreat gunning for stream entry full speed, MCTB style. this is atypical of my usual practice style, which is less hardcore, less linear and a bit more like actualism in my limited opinion.
now i am thinking, maybe i will just go into this whole thing with a more relaxed attitude. adopt a wide field of HAIETMOBA as the context for my entire experience. within that, follow the instructions given at the retreat loosely, to the degree that my feelings remain felicitous. maintain the option to switch gears to explicit HAIETMOBA practice as it strikes me, along with actualism style inquiry, particularly if i lose felicity. and really, allow any practice handy that seems effective at bringing me back into a natural, open state of naive wonder throughout the retreat. that's the idea, right?
any objections? tips? further considerations?
thanks,
sean