I will go on a Goenka 10-day retreat, my second, in mid December. I will be looking for stream entry if possible, and have set out a plan on how to do so. I would be grateful for any comment or advice on my plan, which I will put in the second post on this thread.

(I have read many discussions here and elsewhere on potential conflict between attainment goal-setting vs avoidance of craving. All I can say is I hope I can struck the right balance for myself on this issue.)

Relevant background is this:

First meditation experience was a Goenka 10-day around 20 months ago. Prior to that, a fair amount of Taichi and a lot of Alexander Technique. Alexander Technique, for those who are not familiar with it, in its advanced forms involves a lot of work on intention and awareness.

Somehow, I think these earlier experiences helped me make big strides in my first Goenka retreat. By day 3 my concentration got really sharp and steady. By day 6 or 7, once well into the scanning/sweeping stuff, I had a day or two of very intense, very weird, but not really unpleasant things happening to me.

After a lot of post-retreat study, including MCTB and this forum, looking back I feel that I went pretty quickly through the first three Insight Stages in pretty standard fashion. On day 6 and 7 I feel that I hit very solid, fairly textbook A&P. The last couple of days of that retreat also had a fair amount of crappy stuff and some other, briefer periods that seemed pretty equanimity-like, but things were generally bouncing around those last few days and it is less obvious that I moved properly along the map beyond the A&P.

Since that retreat, my home practice has been pretty consistent, usually with a single daily sitting of 45-60 minutes. (Though my daily sitting time has been cranked up considerably in preparation for the upcoming retreat.) I have spent a few months each on a variety of approaches, including some noting, some pure concentration, some open-eye stuff, some work with Shinzen Young's stuff, and most recently sits that combine a little concentration warmup and then a sort of combined noting/scanning.

My home practice, supported by a lot of study, has me now feeling quite comfortable in the area of the first three Insight stages, and confident of my basic concentration skills, but I have not really advanced beyond this and back into obvious A&P levels at home.

That being said, this period has also been marked by an uncharacteristic (for me) degree of frustration and lack of direction in my professional life. This has been irritating and surprising, but I have not been overly troubled by it, and am generally not a person to obsess on my "stuff". It has occurred to me, however, this could be some sort of low-grade, chronic DN stuff, triggered by my first retreat, and now bleeding into life off the cushion. On the other hand, it could be just some sort of mid-life personality transition which I would have hit anyway, so what the heck.

Meanwhile I am looking to work hard throughout the next retreat. I feel that with a much clearer theoretical understand of The Path, as well as some solid grounding in the early stages, I may be able to move quite far in the upcoming retreat, including perhaps through SE.

What follows is my plan to do so. It is based heavily on a writeup due to Nicholai, though I have edited it way down to make it more easily internalized, and also added a few ideas of my own.

I would be grateful for any comment or advice.

I should also point out that as most people here know, Goenka doesn't really present their technique in terms of stages or maps (at least in the 10-day retreats). I do not want to sit a Goenka retreat but "do my own thing", so I intend to follow the course instructions more or less exactly as they are given. However, I will also be gauging my progress using the Insight maps I have become familiar with from MCTB and on this forum.

Believe and Resolve!

Stream entry is possible. Some have got it done on first retreat. Buddha said it can be done in 7 days non-stop practice.

I Resolve That:
[indent]
I will be fully aware of all sensations or all phenomena that arise at every moment during the retreat, as soon as I awake, breaks, resting, sitting, walking, brushing teeth, showering, always;

I will notice all sensations and phenomena central in the experience of “me”, and see through the illusion of "self” until I get stream entry. [/indent]

Belief that it is possible is the most powerful tool. With this mindset, I will get stream entry. I give myself permission to get it done.

Build momentum before the retreat

Sit at least 2 or more hours a day for month prior to retreat. Final week before retreat, sit as much as possible. Mainly, build concentration skills in order to begin course with a calm mind, and with momentum to get stream entry.

Retreat first 3 days: Stick with anapana

More concentration progress here means faster vipassana progress later.

Overloading the mind will reduce space to wander. While perceiving breath, simultaneously be aware of the act of perceiving the breath.

Experience sensing, feeling, thinking all as bodily senses. This brings deeper insight into what the body is, and what perceiving is.

Welcome any Samatha jhanas should they arrive, but no need to strive for them. They are not the objective here.

Maintain and build momentum of concentration practice. Observe the breath non-stop: while awake, during breaks, resting, eating, bathing, walking and sitting.

Retreat days 3, 4: Start three characteristics

On day 3 or 4, start to observe sensations at the anapana spot; at the same time comprehending the 3C: Anicca, Anatta and Dukkha.

Uninterrupted concentration and investigation to keep the mind busy.

When “wandering”, or “getting lost in thought”: 1 Realize what has happened, 2 perceive the mind realizing, 3 return to the object. → Simply repeat this process however much it happens.

Distractions are no more than instructive loops back to the object. Do not identify phenomena, sensations, thoughts, mind states, sounds, images etc as part of an illusory “self”.

Peel back the layers of self-identification to get to stream entry.


Retreat Days 5+: Practice Vipassana

Sweep body, notice all sensations AND 3C, especially Anicca, at all times. Avoid mechanical sweeping.

Noting gets stream entry by dis-embedding and dis-identifying. Sweeping does the same: bare attention to sensations AND their 3C is dis-identifying and dis-embedding.

Any A&P phenomena should simply be examined and understood for its true nature and 3C.

Regard Black Night stuff as simply new, different kinds of objects, useful for learning to perceive and to perceive perceiving; It may suck, but it will pass - no need to delve into content. Appreciate these as important milestones, then burn as fuel. Sit hard and push through.

Upon equanimity, boredom or spacing out may be obstacles. Again, take these as learning objects. To push through, pay special attention to Anicca of all sensations, even pleasant or dull ones.

DO NOT identify with any sensation, mind state, thought, emotion, image, sound, taste, or touch. None of it is “self”or “me”, it is just sensation. To push through, remain aware of Anatta of all sensations.

Even in equanimity, stay with Anicca and Anatta at ALL times - break times, rest times, sitting times, discourse times, walking times, brushing teeth times, showering times, toilet break times, at ALL times!

Unpack all Observer - Observed duality. Any sense of the Observer is just more stuff, with its own 3C.

Seeing clearly and regarding directly all Anicca and Anatta, Dukkha will also be self-evident, thus bringing all 3C into focus.


When the Time Comes -> Stream Entry

In time several realization doors will be passed in rapid succession, all are transitions, and pop! Stream Entry.

No need to anticipate this, just stick to the job. SE will come in its own time.

Note: The first two posts in this thread were in fact my second attempt. I thought the first got lost and so made the second. I then discovered that both got onto the forum, the first already having attracted a nice reply from Daniel. I guess I did a slightly better job writing up the second time, so I will now try to delete the first thread, which i think means deleting Daniel's reply. Apologies for any confusion.

Here then is a copy/paste of what he added to the first version of this thread..

QUOTE from Daniel Ingram:

Regarding craving vs striving, there are some suttas (131-134) in the MN that contain a poem called "One Fortunate Attachment", reproduced here off of Access to Insight based on Ñanamoli's translation:

"Let one not trace back the past
Or yearn for the future-yet-to-come.
That which is past is left behind
Unattained is the "yet-to-come."
But that which is present he discerns —
With insight as and when it comes.
The Immovable — the-non-irritable.
In that state should the wise one grow
Today itself should one bestir
Tomorrow death may come — who knows?
For no bargain can we strike
With Death who has his mighty hosts.
But one who dwells thus ardently
By day, by night, untiringly
Him the Tranquil Sage has called
The Ideal Lover of Solitude."

In short, if your practice is to discern the present, that is very different from striving which is based on future, or on remembering, which is based on the past, but if you keep your practice about what is happening now, comprehending things now, then any effort you put into that is right effort and conducive to insight. This balanced with the other 7 factors: mindfulness, investigation, effort, rapture, tranquility, concentration and equanimity, leads to wisdom.

In short, don't be afraid to practice correctly, meaning comprehend the true nature of sensations as they arise.

Good luck on your retreat. Habitually increase the quality of the stream of present information: this will serve you well.

Daniel

Your plan sounds excellent, very congruent with everything I have been reading and studying here and elsewhere. More than that, I am just making plans to attend my fourth Goenka 10-day (which will be my first since discovering DhO) with goals similar to yours, and I think I could do a lot worse than going in with the plan you have laid out -- in fact, you may have saved me some prep time, thank you!

Two comments:

I have found that the "Alexander position" lying down with the head slightly elevated and the knees up is a very helpful alternative to sitting at times during the course. I got some incredibly positive results with the Alexander Technique many years ago, and I went back to my old teacher when I made my first meditation bench to verify that the fit was correct, that I wasn't fooling myself as to posture.

It has been said that the first casualty of any battle is the plan. Your initiative to condense and internalize your plan seems wise to me. How far can you boil it down? If there were one thing, just one aphorism or admonition or slogan you could count on remembering when the going gets rough, what would it be?

I don't want to get too far off my OP, but yes, it has been very useful for me as well. In fact, my current cranked up practice leading up to this retreat includes around 40 minutes of body scanning stuff done in the Alexander position on the floor beside my bed immediate I wake up. I then go for a pee and drink a glass of water and move straight to my cushion for another 50 minutes of breath following. Its really effective.

I am surprised to not see more on AT and its relevance to Vipassana on this forum. I really think my several years of AT work got me rolling really quickly when I took up meditation.



How about this:

Constant, nonstop awareness of the 3C of everything that arises, including the act of perceiving and even the perceiver. Everything, non-stop.

thanks

Bob this may or may not be relevant to you, but it was to me in a very similar set of circumstances:

Make sure you sleep enough and eat reasonably (assuming you don't eat in the evening, have a fruit juice). And, don't go beserk on the first few days and do yourself in through over exertion for the rest of the retreat!

Not saying don't make huge effort, just make sure it's balanced a little with common sense.

In case you've not seen it, I got some great advice on Goenka retreats here.

Good luck!

Good advice, thank you Bagpuss.

There is no question that one must find the right balance between sustained, resolute effort ("ardent" is the word I recall Goenka using), while still pacing oneself and avoiding over-straining. In my case, in other aspects of life I am generally capable of maintaining calm effort even through sustained, tough going. This quality seems to have worked well for me on my first Goenka 10-day, even though I found the going really tough at periods, and clearly didn't know what the hell was happening to me most of the time. I am optimistic that the same basic ability, augmented this time by a lot more knowledge and experience, will give me a good chance of getting to SE on this upcoming retreat.

As to the other links, I think I have reviewed most everything thing about work on Goenka retreats that can be found on DhO. I am hopeful this thread will attract comment from people who have successfully reached Stream Entry while on a Goenka course - if indeed there are any here. What worked, what didn't?

Since my first Goenka retreat I have gained a fair bit more experience and confidence with a range of practice modes. That said, while on this retreat I plan to simply follow the given instructions. Anyone who has done a Goenka course will know that his earnest taped guidance and his rather amazing voice are not easy to ignore. Moreover, since I will do the course in a non-English speaking country, each Goenka instruction is followed immediately with a translation, so I get it all twice, in two languages, thus doubly hard to ignore. I am sure it would be a bad idea to burden myself with the dissonance of trying to do one thing while being told to do something else.

At the same time, this time through I will be able to mark my progress by reference to the Insight Stages map, which I have learned so much about about on this site and in the wonderful MCTB book. I regard Goenka scanning/sweeping as just another insight practice technique, surely with its own pluses and minuses, but essentially not unlike noting or other Insight approaches. By contrast, the Map is just a way of interpreting the response to or the results of applying a given technique.

As we know, to the extent Goenka provides any structured interpretation of what his course participants are going through, it does not really resemble the Map models most used here. In particular, I recall that at around day 7-8 on the 10-day, he talks a lot about equanimity just at the time when a person who might have done well in the first part of the course might now be hitting a lot of Dark Night crap.

With that in mind, I am hoping for more advice on how to better relate the one technique to the other Map, in such a way as to most readily enable progress through to Stream, without needing to depart radically from the basic Goenka instruction.