Hello! 

Here's some links to information that I found useful:

The full text of the best book ever written:
"Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, an Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book"
http://dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/dharma-wiki/-/wiki/Main/MCTB

Dharma Overgound Discussion Board:
http://dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/recent_posts

Noting practice instructions:
http://dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/dharma-wiki/-/wiki/Main/Mahasi%20Noting

Daniel's candle meditation technique - this helped me a lot with developing concentration:
(Starts with the paragraph starting with "I will illustrate..."):
http://dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/dharma-wiki/-/wiki/Main/MCTB+Bill+HamiltonS+Model

"Currently debugging my sense of self." -Yogi Rencarts [4/22/2010]

Here's a great quote by Kenneth.  I really liked this one.
“When we objectify (take as the object of awareness) something that was previously seen as self, we move to more and more subtle forms of identification and ultimately come to the place where there is nothing left to identify with; there is only pure, non-local awareness, which can never be taken as object and can never be mistaken for "me." This Realization of primordial awareness is the happiness that does not depend upon conditions.”  -Kenneth Folk

Thinking of doing a Goenka 10 day retreat to see if I can make some progress.  Seems like a good way to really get going.  Also, I'm going to try a day long Zen practice with a group this Saturday. I feel like I really need to get a lot more time in and build some momentum.  - [1/17/2011]

I might have gotten Stream Entry a few days back.  Insanely massive perceptual change.  Really hoping this increased perceptual ability is a permanent shift for me and not a temporary thing (so sick of thinking I really have gotten some good *permanent* transformation only to have it slip away).  I'm really trying to make sense of all this.  One thing that helped me get deeply into and beyond equanimity was long slow walks in nature and exercising (cycling and running) in addition to the sitting practices like vipassana noting (minus the labels), Shinzen Young’s Do-Nothing technique and S.N. Goenka’s body scanning practice.  The Do-Nothing technique in combination with exercise was especially key for me.  I never did a really long intensive retreat so it’s a little bit of a wonder how I could have gotten Stream Entry without that but, for now it sure seems that this is what happened.  I spend a lot of time watching my sensations, mind and sense of self in daily life.  I have a very laid back, low stress sort of job that allows me time to listen to dharma talks while I work (programming & web design) and that helped tremendously.  I thought about writing one of those phenomenological type of reports that I see in the discussion forum here but, I am not very good at describing my experiences so, I doubt that I could pull that off.  I really owe Daniel Ingram an immeasurable debt for writing his book and creating the Dharma Overground.  There is just no way I could have navigated the territory of meditation and gotten to where I am without his information and the descriptions and tips of the folks on the forums.  Can’t wait to see what’s next; and I’m really wondering how my upcoming S.N. Goenka 10 day retreat in September will be now that I’m where I am.  Lots to look forward to.  I’m really hopeful that I haven’t misdiagnosed my place on the map as Stream Entry when I’m really only going through some A&P thing.  Seems like that’s probably not the case since my Dark Night was pretty much on-the-money for the descriptions I have heard – although, somewhat less intense.  I thought I would mention the possibility of the whole misdiagnosis thing and acknowledge the fact that I may have to eat my words here about Stream Entry if I discover later that I was wrong.  But for now, I’m pretty sure.   -  [5/21/2011]

Started a thread over on Kenneth Folk's site:
http://kennethfolkdharma.wetpaint.com/thread/4655789/-
[7/1/2011]

--My Jouney to AF--

Last year in 2011 around August after going through many of what seemed to be paths - an extraordinary thing happened.  I sat down for meditation with the full intention to become free from all sense of self by uprooting the subconscious identification process in its entirety (not the first time I had tried this btw).  I sat and meditated and went through the jhanas up to a point where there was no perception of anything at all along with no perception of any existence or anything (8th).  This depth of meditation was normal at the time and the 8th jhana was something that I felt had the power to uproot mental processes.  So after I got up from my meditation everything was different.  No sense of self at all and no sense of being a something that makes choices and does things (sense of doership / authorship of actions).  Along with this change there was an unexpected change where awareness itself became a natural part of the world that now was not at all the thing it used to be.  Awareness was not me or owned by me or even associated with me.  It was a pretty fantastic change.  It was a continuous an seemingly permanent change in my mode of experiencing all things.  After a few months of this I found that I was suddenly dropped back into regular old reality and was no longer in this non-dual mode of experience.  But, it wasn’t too long until I went back into the non-dual mode again.  It went back and forth like this for more than nine months.  I was popping in and out and was for the most part – maybe 80% of the time I was in the non-dual mode.  I was really working on finding a way to make the non-dual mode permanent and just live my life in that mode.  Towards the end of this 14 month non-dual period, around the last couple of months, it had suddenly went down to about maybe 20 or 30% of my time in non-dual mode and the rest of the time in regular mode (regular mode was a lot better than it had been though).  I decided to look into Actual Freedom since it seemed to be a way of monitoring and improving experience.  I thought it might help me stay in nonduality and make it permanent.  I was also interested in working with emotions since I saw them as a problem.  I was happy that negative emotions were greatly reduced in non-dual mode since they didn’t seem to stick and just happened and went away on their own.  They did still happen though.  I couldn’t help but think that it would be nice if AF worked out and I could have something like non-duality and reduce or eliminate problematic emotions.  So, I began to reading the AF website intensely and attempting to apply the technique.  In the process I had what seemed to fit the bill for a PCE.  It was really wonderful.   I kept reading and having PCEs.  The more I have PCEs the more I realize that this really does show the most optimal way to live.  There are problems with non-dual mode that are not at all obvious at first.  Identification can be gone in the realm of sensations but very much alive in the realm of the emotional-feeler.  So now after focusing on the path of AF I am no longer having non-dual mode happen but the normal mode of existence is much improved and PCE mode is so unbelievably perfect and it is all looking extremely promising.  I’m so happy that I discovered this.  I do have to acknowledge that Buddhist meditation got me out of much depression and anxiety so I will always have respect for it for this reason
[10/20/2012]

Changed my screen name to 'J. Ren Rencarts'
[10/20/2012]

"J's Actual Freedom Practice Thread"
http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/message/3590724
[10/20/2012]

I've started a blog that deals with my actualism practice and my transition from running in shoes to running barefoot.  Somehow those two things seems to go together as odd as it may seem.
http://BarefootActualist.wordpress.com or http://BarefootActualist.co.nr
[05/27/2013]