RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Sigma Tropic 5/14/22 12:59 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Eric Abrahamsen 5/14/22 11:50 AM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Sigma Tropic 5/14/22 1:06 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Chris M 5/14/22 11:50 AM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Sigma Tropic 5/14/22 1:15 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Chris M 5/14/22 1:35 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Eudoxos . 5/14/22 1:45 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Martin 5/14/22 5:21 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 5/15/22 8:04 AM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Sigma Tropic 5/15/22 4:07 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Arena Heidi 5/15/22 6:40 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Sigma Tropic 5/20/22 1:56 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 5/16/22 4:03 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Sigma Tropic 5/16/22 6:49 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 5/16/22 7:17 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 5/16/22 4:16 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö 5/16/22 4:27 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Oskar M 5/20/22 8:08 AM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Ben V. 5/15/22 6:15 PM
RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition Sigma Tropic 5/15/22 8:49 PM
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Sigma Tropic, modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 12:59 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 12:46 AM

Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 368 Join Date: 6/27/17 Recent Posts
Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition
Letter to Dharma Overground Community
May 15, 2022

Dear Sangha

I have been asked and encouraged to teach. My teacher has confirmed and validated my attainment and my transmission of awakening and joyfully asked me to teach, without reservation. In fact, he specifically in no uncertain terms encouraged me to start a community of sorts, starting small, obviously. My goal is to spend the next few years gaining deep retreat experience, meditating as much as possible, and continuing to teach. I have a career and I enjoy, but I feel strongly called to teach and lead retreats, and I am writing a book. Unburdened by attachments of any kind, I feel a strong pull toward becoming a vehicle of the dharma. I feel like this is bigger than me.  

I am experienced in the 9 stages of calm abiding, jhanas, and cessation. I have mastered Culadasa’s 10 stages, luminous jhanas, lite jhanas, the four stages of awakening, and many other meditative states and practice modalities. I am familiar with and adept at diagnosing the Progress of Insight stages, phenomenology, and I also have special talents in analytical thought, writing, physical practices, and personal mentoring. I have professional experience in supervisory roles and working with a variety of people from different walks of life. I help people develop a holistic practice that ends suffering and leads to peaceful blissful quality experiences. Most importantly, I have attained Nibbana and realized non-dual perception. I have written a lot about my experiences in my recent awake network log entries. I am developing a new type of integrated daily-life practice that skillfully employs devotion, energy practices, and tantra, with a basis in the 8 jhanas, cessation, and samatha-vipassana.  I am familiar with yoga and Zhan Zhuang, and the practices I use have always chosen me it seems. I am well versed in open-awareness-objectless samatha practice.  As such I have something I feel to offer to the world. I see hurting people and I know what worked for me to stop my suffering. I also happen to have a unique story and have suffered lots of difficult life experiences and trauma, which have played into the path in unexpected ways. I have been in relationships and single, married, in a variety of contexts and achieved the lower stages of awakening in the midst of married life. Now, my natural inclination is toward the dharma- toward sharing what I know and helping others. But I mostly want to make my life about helping people awaken to their own goodness. I want to help the world become a better place. I love people, teaching, and meditating. And I have new meditative tech in my mind that I want to share with the world. It’s all seemingly happening on it’s own and it’s exciting, there is a sense of urgency to get this knowledge out there, to find a residential teaching position of sorts, etc. I think with my qualifications I could probably get some sort of resident teacher role. 

One sit dharma talk: <these are selected examples of some basic phenomenological aspects of cessation, mental states adjacent thereof, not intended to be a thorough treatment but an overview - did not edit this much but the book will have more practices and details>

The right way to attain cessation is to have the right intention for cessation. The mind must take Nibanna as the object and in order to do that, it must be convinced to take Nibanna as the object. The mind will try anything besides Nibanna because Nibanna is equated with death. The mind thinks it cannot exist without a subject-object relationship to sensations. When subject and object merge or collapse, there is no basis for the mind, sense of self, or any kind of normal perception the way we understand it to be. Before Supramundane states, we don’t recognize the power of the mind. But as supramundane states are attained, the mind learns that it has the power to craft and fabricate experiences and while experiences are usually trusted as reality, there are sometimes illusions of perception which point the fabrication activities of the mind.  

During Nibanna consciousness there is no subject or object. The jhanas and other states of reduced fabrication tend toward less of a construction of subject and object. The stronger the basic impulses of mind are (more hindrances), the more fabricating and subject-object distortion seem to occur from a subjective point of view. For the mind to move forward through fabricating activities there has to be an intention in the mind. There are two ways to think about cessation and how intention can promote and condition states closer to cessation. When an object hits the sense door, (contact) there is a feeling, pleasant/unpleasant evaluation and usually craving, aversion, or ignorance arise, an intention conditions further craving and clinging to the same mental constructs in previous moments and so on. If the intention for the object is stronger than the intention to be present and pay attention to the breath, you experience distraction, and likely subject-object distortion and the sense of self. This continual play of dependently arising objects is what we experience as normal perception. At their basic nature these mental states are not inherently bad, it’s just one way of looking at experience to see dependent arising, The way intention can be used is to influence this causal chain of events, and thereby steer the mind toward less fabrication. The key is to have the right intention obviously, which is why a key skill is metacognitive awareness of the mind from a higher level. In general, the intention is to be at peace within the mind as it is right now. The mind does not cling to objects and sense impressions. This conditions further peaceful states, which lead to Nibanna. This is learning cause and effect, conditional arising, and how suffering begins and ends. Quite simple, but there is a lot of subtlety to develop. I have new ideas and ways to apply buddhist practice to modern life and that is one thread in my teaching. 

But the first tastes we get of Supramundane States, we can start to see how perception is in the mind and doesn’t actually reflect something inherent about objective reality. In states of deep meditation, bodily pains can seem to be insulted behind some barrier or they just take on a different flavor. The craving links in the chain decrease, and the resultant clinging is reduced, and the actual perception of the object leaves conscious awareness. There is a reproducible set of steps you take to bring this about, and it relieves dukkha. This is considered to be a pretty advanced meditation phenomena, but this crowd is quite the talented advanced group. It is the same principle in calling cessations of everything or specific phenomena. We learn the basic causality of mental events and awareness thereof, and how to influence those subjective mental events and experiences toward less fabrication and less dukkha. This is basically Buddhism in a nutshell from my point of view.   

In all these states the mind is moving toward more peaceful experience. There is some intuitive knowledge that perception itself is faulty somehow, and when you get to that basic sense of perception itself being stressful, that is the level of subtley you need to see to get cessation. In equanimity-like states, there are lots of variations, but there will be sudden moments which are missed conformity knowledges. You are in a subtle state, and any object that hits the sense doors, it comes with a chain of fabrication. You get these moments where there is a collapse that starts to happen- very quick, but there is a reservation in the mind preventing cessation and fabrication suddenly increases in that split second. You viscerally feel this as some kind of fundamental perceptual process. Then, after that synchs up, there is an object, craving is truly zero, and in that moment of zero craving (i.e. perfected, authentic, effortless, forgetful, in the moment, equanimity with all factors of awakening present)- that’s when the 3 doors phenomena can be seen.


It’s often in the split second before cessation, you move beyond objects and the object perceived is the characteristics themselves. It’s hard to see because it’s quick and it’s authentic and forgetful and in the moment, and like walking into a glass door that you thought was open. It sort of of sneaks up on you in a way. It sounds paradoxical because for something to sneak up on you kind of aren’t in control of anything, it just hits you when you’re least expecting it. That’s right. There is a knowing faculty of mind that does this and that’s why it can seem like it comes out of the corner of perception or catches you by surprise. Cessation hits the moment you forget about the last moment and the next moment. There is some element of a basic knowing that conditions what is in the field of experience.  Develop forgetfulness of past and future- bring more mind to the immediate. Then with this clear perception, no craving, conditional reality collapses, and you get cessation.

To encourage the type of mental state that leads to cessation, I’m working on the induction of that state, but it is a type of deep surrender – like experience, but once your mind has this experience enough, it seems to become a natural refuge for the mind, the mind just ceases to release pressure it seems.  I have a template for that state in my mind and I can go into that, and just basically know cessation will happen.

I don't think the emotional experience can be faked, but if the person is asking about cessations, they likely have already crossed the A&P, and therefore the gut-level knowledge of emptiness is there, what is missing is .. the mind giving up hope basically. Hope is always an adharmic word because it implies a result in the future as inherently "better". But that’s a skill developed over time and with lots of repetition. It has dependent origination at its basis.  It feels like “fearless acceptance” Imagine how you would feel if your biggest aspirations were crushed. There was a portion of that aspiration that was pure dukkha, driving you forward endlessly toward an imagined future where everything would fall into place. And then, it’s crushed. Like, if you've ever been laid off, or humiliated at work, or overwhelmed, or so hurt emotionally that your entire chest is sore? There is this thing you can notice if you’ve ever suffered – it’s like when you are really having a hard time and your body hurts and you’re sick and nauseous and you have dreadful scenarios going through your mind and you just give up resisting what’s happening. You give up the clinging and fear, because this is as bad as it gets and you're still breathing, you're still aware. You lose all fear – and then..  …  …    It’s a momentary sense of “I don’t mind what happens” but at a deep, deep level. This is called “conformity knowledge” – no objects elicit craving or clinging – and it’s precisely due to wisdom- for once the mind does not react to an object with one of the three poisons-  and perception as we know it collapses. It is possible to get the direct experience that craving is a link in a chain of mental events that make up perception, and without  craving, there is only Nibanna. This is quite clear around cessation. This moment can last a couple seconds it seems, where, depending on the door, and what the sense contact was doing usually has something directly paradoxical about it – one time I had a fruition with my eyes open standing in a Zhan Zhuang posture, I was gazing at a ball in my field of vision and conformity knowledge was seeing this ball go from two (eyes defocused) to 1 (eyes focused) and then it spit me back out. I think it was no self but there was a 2/1 thing.

You may experience weird phenomena like that before a fruition- often there is a sense of clearly perceived confusion and that comes right before cessation in the split-second instance confusion is a non-self door indicator, for example. Because confusion implies something specific about the relation between the mind and objects – there is confusion when the mind has moved beyond objects of the senses and can take it’s own qualities as an object (metacognitive awareness) This is almost always good- when mental states are clearly perceived the content often is lost, or not registered. The way one can tell if it was an experience of the doors is if there was either something visceral (pulled into something) or paradoxical (confusion, with a later crystal-clear memory of it and the paradox, without the content. These pure door experiences are so distinct because they involve taking fundamental building blocks of perception as objects (the 3 characteristics). You experience them viscerally or with more fundamental notions because they are a clear perception of the basic elements of consciousness. I am working on more writings and a book, a list of retreats, and I am teaching. 


​​​​​​​SigmaTropic
23SigmaTropic@mybodhisattva.com
www.mybodhisattva.com
Sam Bartko, Ph.D.


Eric Abrahamsen, modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 11:50 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 11:50 AM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 67 Join Date: 6/9/21 Recent Posts
Thanks for this, Sigma Tropic! I recently finished reading Rob Burbea's Seeing that Frees, and what you're saying above fits very well with core parts of his message: that dukkha begins with perception itself, and that the progressive removal of clinging leads naturally and inevitably towards cessation -- almost by definition. This was well-timed with where I am in my practice, and it was nice to  see these principles and steps laid out clearly. Thanks again!
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 11:50 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 11:50 AM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 5117 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
Sigma, that post has such a small font that I can't read it. If you aren't willing to edit the post to enlarge the font I can do that.

​​​​​​​Please advise.

- Chris
DhO Moderator
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Sigma Tropic, modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 1:15 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 12:55 PM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 368 Join Date: 6/27/17 Recent Posts
I made the text bigger. Chris, let me take this opportunity to thank you for your tireless service to the Dharma. I appreciate your presence here. Actually your log was on of the logs that I read and was inspired to practice, so thanks for that. 

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Sigma Tropic, modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 1:06 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 1:06 PM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 368 Join Date: 6/27/17 Recent Posts
I'm glad it was helpful. I bought his book but I never read it in a thorough way. I like the way he teaches jhana and samatha practice and I've listened to his retreats. And his stuff on the insight of time is golden! Among other things. He was a great teacher. 
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 1:35 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 1:35 PM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 5117 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
Thanks - nice to know the practice log is useful.
Eudoxos , modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 1:45 PM
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RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 136 Join Date: 4/6/14 Recent Posts
Nice, especially the doors. I can relate to Daniel's uber-clear accounts in MCTB with a stretch of imagination only; what you write is quite close to how I seem to experience those. Thanks!
Martin, modified 1 Year ago at 5/14/22 5:21 PM
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RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

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Super helpful. Thanks for writing that!
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 5/15/22 8:04 AM
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RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

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I believe you will make a great teacher, and I look forward to reading your book once it's ready.

I recognize what you are saying here, about the mode that takes one into cessation. Sadly, I seem to be out of touch with it, and I don't know what to do about it except for doing the moves and waiting. Any advice?
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Sigma Tropic, modified 1 Year ago at 5/15/22 4:07 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/15/22 3:41 PM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

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Thank you! And Polly, I'm sorry about your cat still gone that must be tough. 

One can also get a lot of benefit and realize the type of mind state above through practices that are devotional in nature. The key thing to realize is that non self and true self are two vehicles toward the same realization. The attitude dynamic that you can have is dispassion/renunciation for things of the world, and devotion to a higher power. The devotion aspect provides soothing and healing to the mind-a source of inner joy and vitality (same as jhanas, and co-occurs with/conditions jhana). These can be mixed and matched but the key thing is the effect on the self-centeredness. There is another vehicle that involves devotion- which I think of as recognizing a higher order or power to things, and consciously putting down the burden of thinking I control everything. There are ways to develop this frame of mind with prayer, mantra, and deity yoga.

When a teacher has a good idea and insight on the dynamic between self and other, different personality styles, and different talents and interestes, then the teacher can keep the basic qualities of mind as premium, and let the student make their practice their own. 

I actually cut a whole section on jhanas and dependent origination out from the text above, just so I could talk about the emotional states and craving and perceptions importasnt for cessation. Now if a person has jhanas developed that will work, but a lot of people will still be working things out and working on training the mind away from hindrances, so they can get a lot of benefit out of heart centered practices which can be framed and guided such that the student will see emptiness and non-self when they do those. I can help a person vipassanize metta and prayer, and see that the buddhist methods and skills are not specifically useful for getting buddhist attainments, and other teachings, methods, and traditions can be skillfully employed when necessary if the person wants to awaken to their own goodness as soon as possible. We need more awakening. 

The reason I said you have to give you hope, while that may seem like a somber and serious prospect, actually the key thing that devotional practice does is it lets the person put aside their self-centeredness temporarily and experience a different way of being. The "giving up hope" is actually not so much of a sad loss type of thing (with regard to worldly objects it is). But in my teaching and my book I will use devotional practices also. Prayer allows people to experience a power greater than themselves, which is a key insight into emptiness if the person also develops the skills in the Buddhist path. I don't care if people believe in God or what they believe, I'll help them grow in God.  I am not only a Buddhist/Therevada teacher, but I regard that as a useful method and I am fully qualified as a Therevada Buddhist teacher. 

For you Polly, I would suggest looking into devotional practices and using your eccentric and intutive aspects and use them as your powers. I think you could get a lot out of deity yoga and other tantric approaches because I read your log and there is a lot of energy and mindfulness and there is some tranquility but there's a fear that I see and I think you're looking for something bigger, you've been told not to beleive in Magick maybe and insight is about sensations but I think you are at least Sotapanna and I think you understand emptiness from reading your log and so I think rather than trying to get a cessation or worry about learning all the nuances and insights I described above, trying to find the right sensations, I sense you are more mature in your practice-  just go with your intuition and weirdness and maybe get a teacher and find your cat. 

Polly, also, what I see in your log is you already are going with your intuition and I like it, but you don't develop any one practice for long, it seems kinda like you are looking for a guiding principle of sorts, you see all these cool dream states and jhanas and that's super interesting and fun, but then we have to use a POI framework to talk about the insights and what about the dream world and the waking world are the same? I think if you did a simple devotional practice of your choice with a faithful trust for like 30 days (do the same practice every morning, every evening, you don't have a consistent routine and you're senseitive to food and that throws you off a lot), good things will happen in your practice.  

https://mybodhisattva.com/teaching-2/ 
23SigmaTropic@mybodhisattva.com
Sam Bartko, PhD
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Ben V, modified 1 Year ago at 5/15/22 6:15 PM
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RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 417 Join Date: 3/3/15 Recent Posts
Hello Sigma Tropic/Sam Bartko,

Just wanted to say I appreciate what you shared here. The trap of hope you speak of post A&P speaks to me/my experience. A term that pops in my mind with this post A&P hope is "meditation neurosis".  Would you say equanimity is a phase where one begins to taste the letting go of hope? Also, though I've never experienced cessation yet, what you say about it somewhat resonates a lot for me.

Another question: How do you see the place of the 'noting technique' in your teaching? Or do you use it at all?

Looking forward to read your posts and sharings.

Ben
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Arena Heidi, modified 1 Year ago at 5/15/22 6:40 PM
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RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 73 Join Date: 4/16/22 Recent Posts
Sigma, I resonated with this response that you wrote for Linda/Polly. I also think that you are and are going to be a great teacher. I love your openness and that you are combining different types of practices, that your range is broader than just Theravada practices. I read everything on your website and there were a handful of posts that I resonated with and found helpful. I will reread them. (I would have given likes and left comments if you could somehow do that without needing a wordpress account.)


they can get a lot of benefit out of heart centered practices which can be framed and guided such that the student will see emptiness and non-self when they do those. I can help a person vipassanize metta and prayer, and see that the buddhist methods and skills are not specifically useful for getting buddhist attainments, and other teachings, methods, and traditions can be skillfully employed when necessary if the person wants to awaken to their own goodness as soon as possible. We need more awakening. 

I feel very much aligned with what you said here. I agree that we need more awakening. And also that any movement towards awakening and any level or type of awakening is all good. Not everyone is going to aspire to (or have the skill to) be an arhat. But awakening to their own goodness is in reach of many, especially a lot of young people. Thank God evolution is moving us this way!
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Sigma Tropic, modified 1 Year ago at 5/15/22 8:49 PM
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RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 368 Join Date: 6/27/17 Recent Posts
Would you say equanimity is a phase where one begins to taste the letting go of hope? Also, though I've never experienced cessation yet, what you say about it somewhat resonates a lot for me.

The giving up hope that leads to cessation is very much like equanimity nana in the POI, and you can have moments like that in early equanimity where suddenly you shift from Reobs to low equanimity, and there's a letting go of once level of gross fabrication. It's cool to notice that it can happen in the moment very quickly, which is what led me to develop ways of framing that experience and promoting certain states. 

In my view, the equanimity that releases all formations, including things like hope, is perfectly attainable through metta and devotional practice, without a whole lot of gross dukkha, and actually devotional practice is perfect for the letting go of all formations, becuase the higher power or divine aspect that you are connecting with, allows you to go beyond self (even a self in equanimity with nothing wrong)

That's what I did around the time I got stream entry, I had some skill in samatha and then the release of hope basically for me involved letting go of trying, letting go of the notion that I could attain enlightenment or freedom, and that type of internal letting go- that was a common theme, and I was also getting very direct knowledge that I could attain freedom in the here and now by a sincere wish for others and a mind free of hindrances. That's the type of mind that lets go- perfectly satisfied already.

You can approach equanimity through pain and suffering, and that leads to an emotional deep letting go, but you can also promote experiences of letting go that come about doing devotional practice and understanding the intentions you are trying to instill. It's not about gaming devotional practice, it's about using them to understand the nature of self and dependent arising. People seem to be able to have a "heart awakening" that can come in different phases and chunks too. That seems required on some level in order to get past certain deep emotional blocks it seems. It really seemed that way for me, always with each shift in understanding there seems to be a mirrored heart shift. It's really cool seeing my students have this happen. 

In my teaching, I would reccomend noting in specific instances when identification with content or phenomena is very strong, and the noting can be used to regain presence. I am familiar with the different noting styles, and so if someone is committed to doing a practice I won't hinder them, if they insist on sticking with noting I would refer them to another teacher. But in my teaching, I only see use for noting when there is very gross, intense fabrications going on, strong emotions, and such, and the noting is used as a recalibration tool in the moment, then I prefer dropping the notes.  Even in the Mahasi standard method the noting is dropped for bare awareness rather early on, and so I see noting as a technique that can be useful for a person to get to access concentration, but after that I see no reason for a person not to develop tranquility and bliss- that will eventually lead to a great state of equanimity. 

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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 5/16/22 4:03 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/16/22 4:03 PM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
Thankyou, SigmaTropic, for your thorough answer!

Yes, it is tough that my cat is still missing. I fear the worst. He's not the kind of cat that stays away from home more than for a few hours at a time. I have tried all available conventional methods for finding him and also some unconventional methods. No response. 

I do believe in devotion, even though at the moment I'm sometimes too sad and angry to feel devotional. I do both chanting and prayers at times, and I have an altar - or two, actually: one Bhuddist altar and one that just sort of came into being organically (perhaps more than two, depending on what counts; for instance a have a Shiva statue as well, and lots of spiritual images). I sometimes make offerings. I tend to talk to bodies of nature, like lakes and cliffs and trees and the moon. I use subtle magick to help wasps find their way out when they are lost in my apartment (many wasps are surprisingly receptive, but there was one today that I had to help out in a more conventional way). I do believe in magick. I believe that it's at the core of everything and that the consensual reality is collective magick.

However, visualization is not my strongest suit, and tantra doesn't really do the trick for me. I have a hard time relating to specific deities, especially in an institutionalized and ritualized way. It doesn't feel devotional. For something to feel devotional to me, I need spontaneity. 

At the same time as I need spontaneity, you are correct in your observation that I don't stick to a specific practice consistently, and that probably holds me back. I guess my most consistent practice is the unclenching (body level) and disentangling (energetic level) that my bodymind demands of me on a very regular basis, and of course the yoga (close to daily and sometimes several times per day). Oh, and the Yi Rang (Tibetan anti-depression practice that focuses on sympathetic joy and wishing all beings well), which has become automatic. I just don't write much about it, as I take these parts of my practice for granted. 

I also generally try to stay aware while I fall asleep and while I wake up from sleep. I don't write about that either. I guess I don't want to conceptualize it. 

So actually, I do have some consistency. But yeah, it's rather scattered, so I'll do my best to feel into what I can make into a core routine that feels devotional. And - ahem - maybe try to renounce some of the StarTrek bingewatching that has taken too much space recently. At challenging times, I have a propensity for escapism, unfortunately. It's deeply rooted since childhood. Is that the fear you were referring to? 

I wonder if starting and ending the day with improvised devotional dance movements would be a fruitful way to combine spontaneity and consistency. What do you think? But I would still need to do the yoga and the unclenching and the disentangling and the feeling into what the process wants and the Yi Rang and the falling asleep and waking up with awareness as well (yeah, I'm a horribly stubborn student). I can tell you what I will not focus on the upcoming month, though: shamatha on the breath, due to allergies. (I recently remembered that's the reason I tend to drop the breath shamatha in the spring and keep it dropped until September at least.) 

Thanks again, and sorry for being stubborn! 
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 5/16/22 4:16 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/16/22 4:16 PM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

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By the way, I think I will sign up for teachings some time relatively soon, to see of it clicks, but I'll wait for a while because I'm rather messed up right now and I wouldn't want to waste your time. 
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 5/16/22 4:27 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/16/22 4:27 PM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
Oh my goodness, I'm in your blog! Weird! Haha! But I'm honored. Also, that response from you really deserves sharing, as it was very helpful. 
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Sigma Tropic, modified 1 Year ago at 5/16/22 6:49 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/16/22 6:49 PM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 368 Join Date: 6/27/17 Recent Posts
Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö

Yes, it is tough that my cat is still missing. I fear the worst. He's not the kind of cat that stays away from home more than for a few hours at a time. I have tried all available conventional methods for finding him and also some unconventional methods. No response. 

Ok Polly well if I were you I would plan a ceremony and prepare to wish your cat off, be happy knowing that your kindness and goodwill to him and your dharmic nature will rub onto the new family.

I do believe in devotion, even though at the moment I'm sometimes too sad and angry to feel devotional. I do both chanting and prayers at times, and I have an altar - or two, actually: one Bhuddist altar and one that just sort of came into being organically (perhaps more than two, depending on what counts; for instance a have a Shiva statue as well, and lots of spiritual images). I sometimes make offerings. I tend to talk to bodies of nature, like lakes and cliffs and trees and the moon. I use subtle magick to help wasps find their way out when they are lost in my apartment (many wasps are surprisingly receptive, but there was one today that I had to help out in a more conventional way). I do believe in magick. I believe that it's at the core of everything and that the consensual reality is collective magick.

I didn't say you don't believe in magick I just said we are told not to but beyond a certain level of understanding everything is magick. So the sense that you have of these weird little symbolic meanings and the ritual and novelty of everything - yeah I live like that too, we could get along ;) I'm sorry for doubting your Hogwarts card ;)

However, visualization is not my strongest suit, and tantra doesn't really do the trick for me. I have a hard time relating to specific deities, especially in an institutionalized and ritualized way. It doesn't feel devotional. For something to feel devotional to me, I need spontaneity. 

At the same time as I need spontaneity, you are correct in your observation that I don't stick to a specific practice consistently, and that probably holds me back. I guess my most consistent practice is the unclenching (body level) and disentangling (energetic level) that my bodymind demands of me on a very regular basis, and of course the yoga (close to daily and sometimes several times per day). Oh, and the Yi Rang (Tibetan anti-depression practice that focuses on sympathetic joy and wishing all beings well), which has become automatic. I just don't write much about it, as I take these parts of my practice for granted. 

Ok well there are things about your system that are abnormal so you'll just have to explain them to me in person unless you're already adressing that. I have some thoughts. Regarding spontaneity, that's a quality that I like in my students, it's a more awake/meditative, insight-prone way to be. Different than impulsive. 

I also generally try to stay aware while I fall asleep and while I wake up from sleep. I don't write about that either. I guess I don't want to conceptualize it. 

So actually, I do have some consistency. But yeah, it's rather scattered, so I'll do my best to feel into what I can make into a core routine that feels devotional. And - ahem - maybe try to renounce some of the StarTrek bingewatching that has taken too much space recently. At challenging times, I have a propensity for escapism, unfortunately. It's deeply rooted since childhood. Is that the fear you were referring to? 
Yes, I do/did the same shit. Even mental fabrications like "space travel" and "apocalypse" that are in movies are good to keep things in perspective and ground the mind in some world that we can control, there's always some fear of a loss of identity and fantasizing about a world beyond those identities is comforting if you really pay attention to what's happening. You watch Walking Dead and see people getting there faces eaten and your boss being an ass doens't quite seem so bad.  No need to escape, just have better experience of current experience with a reasonable view and plan. And teacher. 
I wonder if starting and ending the day with improvised devotional dance movements would be a fruitful way to combine spontaneity and consistency. What do you think? But I would still need to do the yoga and the unclenching and the disentangling and the feeling into what the process wants and the Yi Rang and the falling asleep and waking up with awareness as well (yeah, I'm a horribly stubborn student). I can tell you what I will not focus on the upcoming month, though: shamatha on the breath, due to allergies. (I recently remembered that's the reason I tend to drop the breath shamatha in the spring and keep it dropped until September at least.) 

Ok Polly sounds good. If you want to talk in real time just go through my site (sorry not advertising or anything) https://mybodhisattva.com/teaching-2/

Thanks again, and sorry for being stubborn! 
You are welcome
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 5/16/22 7:17 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/16/22 7:08 PM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
Haha, I have said exactly the same thing about apocalypse movies many times. It really does give perspective.

I'm sorry for doubting your Hogwarts card ;)

I forgive you. emoticon
Oskar M, modified 1 Year ago at 5/20/22 8:08 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/20/22 8:08 AM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 266 Join Date: 3/22/21 Recent Posts
Devotion is fun emoticon 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQaoHkBgraQ&t=439s

Also few interested accounts on simple devotional buddhist practice. 
ttps://thanhsiang.org/en/demise-his-eminence-drubwang-rinpoche-0
https://www.modernmahasiddha.com/t/attaining-buddhahood-with-guru-rinpoche-mantra-alone-the-story-of-benza-guru-drubthop/84
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Sigma Tropic, modified 1 Year ago at 5/20/22 1:56 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 5/20/22 1:56 PM

RE: Notes on View, Dependent Arising, and Cessation/Fruition

Posts: 368 Join Date: 6/27/17 Recent Posts
Thanks Heidi. Come to think of this, you've been on my mind lately as someone I'd like to learn from. I have been to your site as well and the dream stories are fascinating. I can totally resonate with some of the things you've experienced. My path has felt similar in a lot of ways, with the "bigger than me" kind of ideas sort of discouraged in the pragmatic dharma forums. It's cool that all that stuff you dreamt has come true and it's very similar to the way I view certain guiding principles (intention) as almost deterministic in the path of a person, until they have the next breakthrough, and that intention may then shift to the next type of intention. Very similar to how vividly you experienced those dreams and then saw them manifest in reality- my hypothesis is that you had a guiding force that was provided by the dream, and strong faith and intention, and then manifest into reality. It's awesome to see the same thing in another. We shoudl chat sometime emoticon

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