I had the good fortune to speak with Daniel Ingram Sunday morning on a conference call, and he recommended that I find a teacher to work with, suggesting that perhaps you all might be a good resource for recommendations.

So I'd welcome ideas or suggestions.

Here's what I imagine a potential teacher might want to know about a potential student:

I'm a 49-year-old lawyer, husband and father (with children still at home) living in the suburbs south of Denver, Colorado in the US. I originally became interested in contemplative practices through the discovery of yoga more than a decade ago. When I began experimenting with it, I was surprised to discover that yoga opened spiritual experiences to me at least as much as it did physical ones. Since that time, I've practiced yoga consistently 3-7 days a week for 60-90 minutes. About ten years ago, I became interested in deepening the yoga practice, and I experimented with a sitting meditation practice. At about the same time, I ran across Jack Kornfield's A Path With Heart, and followed the noting instructions he provides. I found the experience fascinating, if difficult to practice for very long at a time. As I continued to practice, my tolerance for the physical discomfort of sitting increased, and I began a more serious sitting practice. Since then, I've maintained a relatively consistent sitting practice of 5-7 days/week, 35-50 minutes per session. My practice has generally been consistently vipassana in what I've come to understand to be the Mahasi Sayadaw approach, though I read dharma books voraciously, and I find a lot of value in Zen teachings, as well as vipassana materials.

Then I discovered DHO and MCTB. At first I was skeptical that the very-fast-noticing practices recommended in MCTB and here at DHO were even possible, but as I tried it out, I found that I could accelerate my noticing very significantly. Shortly after that, my practice changed quite significantly, leading to an experience that I've come to think of as stream-entry, but which lacked a number of what I've come to understand are the usual characteristics of stream entry. I posted a too-long summary of that experience here:

Thank You Thread

Since that time (whether that was stream-entry or not), I've had a much longer and more slow-developing experience with meditation. For about a year (2010) I lived in an extended dark night, where almost every sitting and much of my life off the mat was characterized by obsessive fear and a fair amount of misery. That culminated in a December 2010 Spirit Rock retreat when, with the help of Mary Grace Orr, I was able to turn *toward* the fear and pain and misery in ways that I had been unable to do off retreat. During an afternoon sitting at Spirit Rock, I felt a distinctive shift deep inside my body -- like the odd sensation of a brief earthquake. And suddenly, I was ok with sitting with pain and fear and the rest. Turning toward it became easy. And at the end of that retreat, while walking in the hills, I encountered a Buddha statue with lots of little offerings lying on and in front of it. Gratitude arose in me in relief of all the suffering that I'd been able to lay aside. That seemed to trigger another shift, and "I" dropped away, with only gratitude remaining -- but not only was there "my" particular gratitude, but the perception and sensation of also the gratitude of all those who'd left mala beads or pebbles or house keys or feathers in front of the Buddha statue. All offerors were one offeror, and all different expressions of gratitude were the same action. And as with such experiences, it continued briefly, and then subsided.

That was followed by about a year of comfortable equanimity. I was fine with uncomfortable sittings. I was fine with comfortable ones. I was fine when fears arose. I was fine when they subsided. I returned to Spirit Rock in October and with the help of the retreat leaders and the practice of explicit resolutions, I got to high equanimity, experiencing what for me was incredibly fast, energetic noticing practice, incredibly calm mindstates, incredibly beautiful perceptions of ordinary existence. But no path.

So now I'm back to "normal" life, and I've come to recognize how much more progress I seem to be able to make with the help of teachers than I seem to be able to make sitting by myself in my basement.

In terms of what sort of interaction I'm interested in pursuing with a teacher, I'm pretty open to a variety of approaches. I'd prefer someone with a strong vipassana background. I'm comfortable online, I'm comfortable talking by phone or skype. I'm most interested in finding someone who can help guide my practice toward path (whether first or second or whatever). My guess is that talking once a month and trading emails once or twice is sufficient for my current needs.

If you have ideas or suggestions, please feel free to pm me with them. If you'd like to share this bio information with someone else who might have ideas or might want to get a better sense of me, please feel free to do so.

And, of course, if you have questions, please feel free to pm me or to post them on this thread.

Thanks for taking the time to consider this.

sean

The best teachers for one-on-one meets that I have been with is the Diamond Approach. It's a bit of a different take than what we do here on the DhO, but their teachers are powerful and knowledgeable. They talk about things such as Self moving to pure witness, agency-less, Being, Non-Being, and many other attainments that are considered high attainments here on the boards, and they are very personal and in depth. They get a 7-10 year training course before they are allowed to teach and rely extensively on psychoanalysis, even tho they teach spiritual enlightenment.

I benefited from it and it's highly recommended. Many of the people who go are your age as well, middle class, with families, so you might find a nice fit.

www.ridhwan.org

With deepest respect,
Oliver

Hi Sean,

An attorney, eh? Hummm. Never had much luck finding compassionate or honest people in that crowd. But be that as it may... (BTW, that's not meant to be a slight on you; just the profession in general and people I've come across.)

The profession you've chosen allows you a perfect opportunity to hone any skills you might have developed on the meditation cushion to assist you in that profession. In practicing law one has to develop the ability to recall a tremendous amount of mental detail about whatever circumstance they are addressing and to be "present" (in the present moment) when in a situation that calls for a recitation of that detail. This necessarily involves the development of mental concentration and mindfulness, which is a BIG part of what one should ideally learn from meditation/contemplation. So, in that sense, you've been developing good mental habits all along that serve one well in Dhamma practice.

Where the Dhamma differs from this is in the area of self-identity, self-honesty, gratitude, compassion, recognition of reality (what is there as opposed to what one may "think" is there, meaning the ending of delusion and biases), and retraining the mind to react to "things as they are" without bringing in suffering. Basically the development of Sila, Samadhi, and Panna, or moral and ethical training, concentration training, and the development of wisdom through insight into "things as they are" in terms of the three characteristics of existence. If this is what you are seeking, then this is what Dhamma practice can help you to achieve.

When it comes to path achievements, I differ from many here in that I follow a more traditional sutta definition based on my own experience with it. Whether or not you've achieved stream entry is something that only you might know or be aware of. I wouldn't be too concerned about this right now if I were you; just keep it in the back of your mind to pull out every once in a while for an honest self-evaluation. Stream entry, from my experience, involves a personal recognition and adherence to what Gotama had to teach as being the most honest, liberating, and forthright path to self-awareness that has ever been taught on the earth. That kind of recognition and reverence for the Dhamma is a personal experience that only you in your deepest heart can know and appreciate. It sets one on the stream of adherence to the practice of the Dhamma, hence "stream entry."

From your descriptions, it sounds as though you are well on the path, and have been able to arrive at some important plateaus along the way. Remember what Gotama said about his path and the simplicity of it: "Formerly, Anuradha, and also now, I make known only suffering and the cessation of suffering." (MN 22.38; SN 22.86) This was made clear in the teaching of the Four Noble Truths. One ennobled seeker, Ven. Nanavira, once described the Four Noble Truths as the ultimate tasks for a man's performance, namely: Suffering commands "Know me absolutely!", Arising [of suffering] commands "Abandon Me!", Cessation [of suffering] commands "Realize me!", and the Path [leading to the abandonment of suffering] commands "Develop me!" The whole of the path was summarized by this teaching.

The practice itself involves being able to identify those moments that cause us suffering (dukkha or dissatisfaction) and being able to surmount that through mindfulness of the truth that the Dhamma teaches. In this way, one's suffering in life can be alleviated. Once again, it sounds from your description that you have experienced some of this alleviation from suffering.

The development of mindfulness (sati) with respect to the Dhamma and to each moment that you experience is the key to the ending of suffering. The most direct pathway to this end goal that Gotama had to teach was the practice of satipatthana, or "the establishment of mindfulness" focused primarily on four areas: the body and material objects (rupa), feeling (sanna) and its identification, the mind (citta) and mind states (recognition of the presence or absence of greed, hatred and delusion), and mental objects (dhammas, which can be characterized by several Dhamma teachings beginning with awareness of the five mental hindrances, the five aggregates, the six sense spheres, and the awakening factors).

Where most people (myself included at one time) have become hung up is on all the minutiae of meditative experiences that can sometimes distract one from adhering to the path itself. When dealing with the mind (and especially an untrained mind), you have to accept that there are a variety of "strange" or "weird" experiences that might come up. What a good teacher can do is to help keep you focused on the practice itself and not on these "strange" or "weird" experiences, to help you stay on track to walk the path. That's basically what the teacher is there to do.

I've just outlined everything that is important about the practice itself without going into elaborate detail. If these resonate with you, then hopefully it will help give you some goal posts to keep in mind as you progress along the path.

In peace,
Ian

In journeying amongst lawyers, I've found it more productive to seek honesty and compassion in Manjushri than in their more kindly-dispositioned avatars.



Though my practice no longer includes a lot of courtroom time, your summary is nonetheless an accurate view of both the recall and the present awareness requirements.



Those are my objectives -- both outside of my profession as well as inside it. I'm as troubled by my delusions and the suffering they spawn in my office as I am by their effects at home and in the marketplace.



This seems sensible to me, though I wish to avoid self-deception to which I have been prone in various stage and aspects of my life -- hence my desire for a teacher who may be able to see my self-deceptions more readily than I can, and also hence my queries here at DhO. As for the occurrence of stream entry as a (non)experience in my life and its conformity or nonconformity to the experiences of others in this community, I'm relatively equanimous with seeing what can be seen from where I stand at present. Mostly what I'm interested in is how to move forward toward less delusion and suffering than are present now and how I can become more useful in alleviating the suffering of others.



Originally, my entry into practice felt decidedly "against the stream" of my life. That has changed. Though I'm sure there is much more that I don't know than that which I do know, I find my mind more readily flowing into and through the constructs of the Four Noble Truths than in or through other constructs.



I have.



This is useful.



Thank you for your attention and efforts here on my behalf. I deeply appreciate them and will revert to these comments again (and again).

Just as your observations based on your knowledge of my profession were useful, it is my sense that a more extensive exchange could result in more particularized insights that would be of even greater utility. I do not seek to take that which is not offered, but I make my understanding of my needs known.

With appreciation,

sean

Thank you, Oliver. I've studied the website you suggested. Are you aware of any place where the details of this school's approach are articulated? Did you find the guidance you received to be consonant with Buddhist practice or is the school reliant upon some other set of principles?

One thing I forgot to mention is that your age and life experience at this stage of your life is perfect for taking up the study and practice of the Dhamma, if you are truly sincere about doing so. You should have developed enough "street smarts" to avoid falling into many of the mind traps in which so many people become enveloped. That, and the fact that when read from the standpoint of one's own direct life experience, the discourses of the Buddha can take on a more insightful and meaningful hue than if read from the standpoint of a religious fanatic or seeker.

If you have further questions, ask away. I have PMed you some details. You'll have to click on the "Messages" tab in the site toolbar to access the private messages.