Hi,

I would like to write a guide as a supplement to my other brief guide on all relevant theory to meditation as a whole.

This guide goes into more detail as to how the process of expansion/contraction works and what meditation really means and how it leads to enlightenment.

Maybe I'll recompile all of the information once more later so that it's not all over the place. I will cover jhana, concentration practice, nirodha samapatti, pure abodes, magick and what not when I actually try those because I haven't and I have no idea what they are or what they feel like directly even though I don't doubt they are a thing. 

Let's start with the basics.

So we know that there are two fundamental ways of operation for consciousness, one which is called "expansion", where things feel empty, quiet, and there is this large feeling of tension that eventually pulls you back to ignore all of reality and force you back into what we call "contraction". This is where things feel loud, full of substance, feel like they are happening "now" and feel stable, as opposed to consistently changing over and over like when you notice during expansion mode.

Expansion mode is when your DMN/PCC part of your brain is off.

Contraction mode is when your DMN/PCC is on. 

When we are meditating, the mechanism by which this whole process works is by puting your consciousness into expansion mode and focusing on being in the state for as long as possible without contracting. Or as people call it, noticing the changing sensations of the present, however that is technically incorrect and misleading because it implies that you have to consciously think about what you are noticing and physically notice them yourself when in reality the sensations happen by themselves with no interference whatsoever. You don't need to worry about actually thinking about the sensations at all. As long as you are turning off your DMN and staying in expansion mode then you are doing everything correctly. 

How do we enter this state of expansion mode?

It's pretty simple. First we just pick an object to anchor ourselves off of so that we have a feedback mechanism to signal to us that we are in expansion
mode. This usually means the breath. Specifically, we use each inhale and exhale. When we notice an inhale or exhale, we know that we stayed in expansion mode for at least that present moment. Each time we notice an inhale/exhale and go into expansion mode, our consciousness stays in that state for a small amount of time. 

Here I am asking you to simply directly understand what happens when you notice an inhale/exhale. What does it feel like? It should feel empty, quiet, some might describe it as having "no thoughts", which is incorrect, but people contract into their thoughts their whole life so they don't understand that they can think thoughts and not have to contract into them. It just feels so quiet that it doesn't feel that you are thinking, so most people would probably describe expansion as having "no thoughts", but you do, don't worry. What happens when you eventually stop focusing on the inhale or exhale?
That is called contraction, because you contracted into content and ignored the changing reality. This is bad. Remember, everything can be observed. If it didn't feel like you were observing, and instead you were "doing something" and feeling "present" (as I would put it) instead of observing then you were not in expansion mode. 

It's important that when I say this, I don't mean to solidify the breath into one object and try to make it feel stable. On the contrary, this is the exact opposite of that. It might be useful to physically shake or have some sort of physical feedback loop to indicate that you notice each inhale and only that inhale and then notice each exhale and only that exhale. I would describe it almost like "resetting" your attention over and over, dropping your attention and then doing that again. 

I attached a video to this point where I demonstrate this in action. 

Notice how initially I go at a very definite rhythm. 3 inhales and 3 exhales evenly spaced. This is what I did initially before I hit my A&P event for the first time. Then immediately after it felt more right to just hit the gas and try to expand as quickly as possible. Almost like running down a steep hill and trying not to fall. This is demonstrated by me breathing really quickly at the 8 second mark. 

You'll see a variety of speeds that I use depending on what keeps me in expansion mode at any point in time. I don't worry about what I am doing or what I am thinking. That's irrelevant. All that matters is that you focus on being in this state and being in expansion mode by using the breath as an anchor. That is the mechanism. 

There is this some sort of obsession in this community with figuring out new intellectual ways of describing experience and claiming that this is some sort of "insight" that leads to progress. This is completely nonsense. This is all completely meaningless because it literally does not matter what you think about this at all. Your thoughts do not matter and will never matter because they have nothing to do with the mechanism of meditation. 

Imagine if I was constantly worried about what sort of sensation I might feel in my foot and trying to figure out ways of getting one sensation or the other in my foot like as if it matters. It doesn't. You don't need to find anything or do anything in particular. All that matters is this mechanism of noticing the present by being in expansion mode. When I am meditating my only concern is if I am in this state or not.

1. Inhale/exhale at a certain speed to stay in expansion mode, changing your speed depending on what feels right and maintains expansion mode.
2. Try maintaining expansion mode for as long as possible.
3. When you eventually contract, you will either notice this immediately or after a while of staying in contraction mode and thinking about whatever you were thinking about. When you notice that you contracted then you are no longer contracted, so just go back to expansion and don't worry about it. 
4. Go back to step 1.

Now, it's important to understand that after you reach the A&P stage and start cycling these stages from the A&P to Equanimity (refer to MCTB2 for guidance) that the rate at which you incline your consciousness into expansion mode to stay in expansion mode changes and generally stays at a certain pace depending on the stage of insight you are in.

Let's take a look at what it feels like for each stage for me from my experience. These are not a hard rule, the rule is that you should figure out how it feels yourself from steps 1-4. These are just what I experienced and may be helpful for you.

Arising and Passing Away - This happens right after a cessation. After a cessation, what people usually say is that your consciousness "boots back up". This sounds cryptic and doesn't make sense if you don't know this theory, but in expansion terms it's quite simple.

What this means is that initially staying in expansion mode is quite easy, but then second after second more and more sensations that are deeper start occurring and the feeling of tension rapidly becoming greater. Eventually, no matter how hard you try, you will not be able to stay in expansion mode because the sensations that are too deep and out of reach all start occurring and you get overwhelmed. This is completely normal.

There are some ideas in the community that you can just brute force notice all sensations at will and reach enlightenment immediately in a few hours/days, completely ignoring the fact that these cycles exist and that you literally will not be able to stay in expansion mode and notice the sensations you are missing no matter how hard you try because they are literally out of your reach. In maybe a minute or two you will fail and go into contraction for some time, this may be as little as a second (in that period you can think of all the sensations you are missing as being in that period, like a wall that you will slowly chip away at as you cycle the stages of insight) or a few minutes.

For 1st, 2nd and 3rd paths you just complete one large cycle for the each path, but for 4th path you have thousands of these cycles that slowly clip away at the remaining sensations that prompt you to contract (and create a feeling of self/stability). Here you really get to know how staying in expansion mode gets slightly easier cycle after cycle. 

Dissolution, Fear - 

I actually started perceiving this stage slightly different after 3rd path. Before, I would get here and it would feel emotionally "meh", where things aren't as existing as they were A&P and you need breathe at a moderate pace. However, after 3rd I get the impression that by the time I realise that I was contracted then I am already out of dissolution and in the stage of Fear (the part where you stay contracted is itself dissolution). It's called this because the sensations that "boot back up" after the A&P suddenly pass and no longer shove themselves into consciousness. The difficult sensations no longer occur. The sense of self that booted back up after the cessation has dissolved (hence Dissolution) and staying in expansion mode feels relatively easy as long as you are breathing at a quick pace. 

Misery -
Here often I breathe at the quickest pace possible. Using the analogy of running down a steep hill at top speeds, trying to stay in expansion for each sensation by breathing really quickly, as seen in at the 9 second mark in the video. It also has a distinct feeling of pain that accompanies this stage that feels you can pass through if you go really quickly. It's such a distinct feeling that I always know I am in this stage when I am in it. But that's a topic for another thread about the stages of insight, which I will describe in a later detail.

Disgust - Here I feel the need to slightly slow down again but breathe at a moderate pace to stay in expansion mode. Nothing much about it, just a "meh" stage that never really causes any problems. 

Desire for Deliverance - Same as Disgust, though the stage can often be difficult for me, is the pace is still the same pace.

Re-Observation - 
This is where the magic happens and where I got mixed up the most due to getting the wrong impression of what to do from MCTB2. In the book, Daniel Ingram implies you have to notice as quickly as possible, implying you have to incline consciousness into expansion mode really quickly, and as I said, this is not correct. The rate at which you expand constantly changes, with general patterns associated with each stage.

Here, the rate and way at which you were expanding suddenly does not work. I repeat, it doesn't work! Why? Because the layer of sensations that you were noticing during the cycle all of a sudden happens by itself, without you having to expand on it. And in it's place, a new, deeper layer of sensations start shoving itself into consciousness whether you like it or not. These sensations are more broad and deeper and harder to notice. What this means in practice, is that now you have to hold expansion mode for as long as possible (people call this letting go) because any inclination into expansion mode will actually just contract you further, and then when it feels just right, you try to notice and expand more broadly, noticing the deeper layer of sensations.

You actually just have to do this once, a bit like hooking onto the new deeper layer, and then immediately you'll notice you can speed back up again and expand quicker. In the video I demonstrate this at seconds 30-33. I simply let go and hold expansion mode without trying to do anything in particular, and then expand when it feels just right, and then slowly speeding back up. Though sometimes I had cycles where I would need to hold up to 15-20 seconds. 
Hence, this stage is called Re-Observation because you (or you can think of consciousness) is re-observing reality. As you speed back up and maintain a moderate pace you then enter into Equanimity.

Equanimity:

Here you just again maintain a normal pace at this new layer. This stage also has this unique feeling of awareness that doesn't occur in other stages and a bit of a more robust feeling of each sensation having it's discrete starting and ending point, making meditation feel quite easy. I often would start feeling happy before I even reach a cessation, almost as if the cycle already starts looping back around back to the A&P stage. If I have this happy feeling and I haven't reached a cessation yet, then it almost always without fail occurs in the next few seconds. Congratulations, you then reach a cessation and permanently unlocked a layer of sensations in your repertoire that you no longer need to put any effort to notice, it just because part of all the other sensations that you have noticed and "unlocked" in the past. 

Now you can just have a go at staying in expansion mode for as long as possible in this new stage of the A&P, then eventually getting overwhelmed, returning to Fear, and so on. Repeat these cycles over and over and you'll notice that you'll be able to stay in expansion mode for longer and longer, notice more broadly, and eventually everything will be observed and you will reach your last cycle that leads to enlightenment. After you reach the final Equanimity stage you will basically told your brain that you noticed all sensations that you could possibly contract into and then you get the final shift and the final cessation that leads to enlightenment. Though you still cycle the stage of insights after enlightenment, though they're not really relevant at that point so you don't need to worry about that. 

This is basically what I've been doing for the past 1.5 years. Slowly grinding away. I haven't had any new insights so to speak (actual direct insights, not intellectual ones) in over a year. I literally have not changed anything or experienced anything new in the way I meditate. It's just a slow grind at this point to the finish line.

This is basically my ramble on expansion. 

It's as simple as I could get. I don't know how else to put it. It's literally how it works. If someone explained this mechanism to me when I started meditating then maybe I wouldn't have needed to go through the hassle of figuring out what theories are complete gibberish and what not and trying to figure it all out myself. 

Hi Andrew 

Thank you for sharing your personal method here and some claims around the personal efficiency of your practice.
I felt so drawn to it, that I finally stopped lurking and registered an account in order to get back to you with some questions : )

I did also read your other posts and comments and partially will refer to them, especially:

• https://www.dharmaoverground.org/de/discussion/-/message_boards/message/32073967

but I am answering here because the other threads are already quite long due tu discussions about other things, mainly controvery about attainments, that I am not that much interested in (and as a "pre-stream-entry beginner" could not evaluate anyways). Completely independend from you attainments, I would assume that it is worth both of our time to try to outline your findings in a way, that more people can understand to a degree that enables them to try it out for themeselves. Only then can be evaluated, if the method is really feasible for the mainstream, or you went some path that is legit but narrow, thus only open for very talented people like you might be lucky to be:

So here many questions - sorry for the lenght and my bumpy english. Also, maybe you feel like one answer would answer most questions, as some are a bit similar to each other, but please note that there are quite some aspects to it. And even if basically the same question receives two different trys of an explanation from you, the chances are higher that intersubjective communication succeeds (aka my understanding : )

Mainly, first, could you elaborate ("for dummies") concerning your concepts of "expansion" vs. "contraction"? Is it either:

A) 
"contraction" the everyday's mindstate, where we are sucked into experiences or thoughts, so that our extistence temporary is the experience itself and we are not aware of ourselfs in a broader sens (and sometimes "wake up" into mindfulness, meaning awareness of ourselfs in the particular moment).
Whereas "expansion" is, as stated, awareness or mindfulness, in the sense that we know that "right now" we observe some sensation but are not that sensation?

Or,
do I get it wrong (why else would you come up with new terms?) as you mention here:


is "contraction" the minfulness of a particular sense object, and "expansion" is kind of "sense-object-less mindfulness", meaning kind of an mindfulness fo the mindfulness itself (that does not need an anchor like the breath any more)?
That following paragraphs from the other thread sound a bit like that for me:

Also that one, there in one of your answers:

so in those quotes it seems, that you are kind of talking from a "noticing the noticing" or perhaps less paradoxy framed "being aware of noticing, but being not drawn into which particular sensation is noticed, even not labeling it"?
Finally another hint:

With that other term for "expansion", a "Choiceless awareness" implies the existence of also a "not-choiceless awareness":
Like when I am noting hard my steps of breaths - then I am observing and being aware of the moment, but I execute controll of the direction of the awareness and don't let a free experience or sensation get through to me except the anchor object.

That, by the way, would explain, why noting the anchor-sensation is so exhausting - because part of the brain still have to fight off other sensations instead of relaxed observing whatever comes up.

On the other hand, the reason why not everyone is doing that (and every tradition is focussing on it), might be, that it is really heard to balance between enough accesss concentration to keep mindfulnesss up and not too much concentration to not be controlling/determinating the mindfulness object. 
Some thoughts on that:
Particularly double-edged might be the noting technic, as from my experience, noting a repetitive process boosts progress in mindfulness by helping with building access concentration naturally, but the price might be that the "verbal or at least conceptual noting in the head" preserves yet too much controll? Moreover, the noting traditions seem to be quite conservative as to when you are allowed to not any more note the anchor but only note the other sensations, or even to drop the noting alltogether? And then, people are left with nothing, so if your concentration derails, you are completely off and don't recover into mindfulness that fast?

But enough premature speculation - it might be even some option:
C) 
that I can not even understand/conceptualize?

Please help me (and others) out here by taking the time and try to get as precise as possible with your vocabulary, also bring up practical examples if possible....


Well, now I will continue with the technical manual you drafted above, because there are some more practial hints that might be helpful if I understand them better:

That phenomenologic description is very interesting, but I fear to either have not the fine skills to get those particular difference in my practice, or the experience itself and metaphors for the inner experience are with a broad individual range?  : /

Only if handy, do you (or does someone) have some further reading recommendation about that? 
And again, this hints again towards a plain definition of "contraction=lost awareness" and "expansion=mindfulness"....

That far I think I get it. Especially, as I tend to make the mistake / can not yet avoid getting sucked into (contracting) into the anchor (for example breathing) - that I of course intend only to use to anchor myself to not loosing awareness about the moment (staying in expansion)....
 With "thoughts" you mean "mental objects" (like a specific thought coming, and refer to that most people identify with their thoughts, are not able to observ them without loosing themelfs in it and therefor temporarily loosing mindfulness)?

Or  do you refert to "thinking itself" as the tool or basic synaptic brain process, that enables the mind to observe? That following reads more like that:

By "stop focussing" you mean "loose awareness of the moment"? For the sake of me having a chance ot understand you, please avoid the term "focus" in the context of mindfulness, as that is (as I learned) heavily bound to on point concentration on something ; )

Maybe I don't get it, could you tell me:
1. "ignored the changing reality" means when you clinch to a sensation more for the one partucular moment it came up, and therefore do miss the next one?
And 2. if with "present" you mean awareness of the moment (as in mindfulness) or you mean being sucked into the eperience, being the feeling or the thought (and over that temporarily loosing "consciousness about the broader situation)?

this seems like a crucial technical trick you came up with and would be spectaculary if it works for others, too. So let me clarify:
What do you mean by "physically shaking" as a feedback loop? Is it that in the video you are not only for us moving your hand/fingers up and down in accordance with your breath, but you are doing that as kind of a "second anchor" to stay mindful, like a double check if you are still observing the breath instead of being with your mind sucked into the breathing?
I would find that charming, as it is kind of a "nonverbal noting" that surely takes less concentration as language, but as it worked for you, may be as effective as a control or feedback loop if we are still observing or (a) we are drifting into controlling the physical process with our mind (contracting) or we are physically drifting into auto-pilot and the main mind deams away (would that be contracting or even less of a not at all concentrated state?) 

Stop stop stop: "ressetting" like "adjusting" (that you vary the breath speed for) I would get it, but why dropping? Or do you refer here to the maximum expansion duration of only some seconds, that you mention elsewhere?

Very helpful and I would say criminally underrated - as nobody picked up on it yet. More:

I think I get it, but let me clarify as the video is your million times alreay used, professional fast-practice. Thus I can not distinguish if it would look different for another person, especially at the beginning of the practice. Questions:

1. Are you really splitting up your in- and out-breaths to 2 or 3 (or even more) little sucessive in- or outbreaths?
2. Why - is it because you could not breath in shallower, if needed quicker in- and out?
3. Are they symmetrical, so that you in- and outbreath equally for example exactly 3 little in and then 3 little breaths out? Or is that irrelevant?
4. At the beginning (pre Stream-entry), how fast and how consistant has the breathing anchor been? Could you please perhaps provide another educational video, again with explanations to time tags?
5. How do you avoid hyperventilation being that fast and doing that for hours? Or stress due to the quick pace and changing pattern? Or is it not only the sensation density that works for you, but that also the variable stress on the body seems particularly important, so that the stress-fine-adjustment helps staying in the moment/mindful? 
6. Alreadys mentioned: Are you, also when meditating for yourself, also accompanying the breath with the hand/fingers ? if so, is it as additional feedback loop instead of verbally noting?
7. how do you avoid needing to control your breath pattern in order to keep up with your "expansion needs" - or does it get naturally synchronized pretty quickly?
8. Are you having your eyes open or closed, or does it even matter?
   (I sometimes try to vary the sensations input to keep mindfulness: for example when I feel to soon getting to distracted by thoughts, so I open my eyes, and the visuals are dominant to thoughts but easier to stay in mindfulness for me)
9. [... if you answer those I would probably have some more, that only makes sense if I undestand the above better]

Sounds like the things they tell again and again during noting meditation, that it is not about analysing and thinking (about what content of the experience could be insights), but that one should do the practice dilligently with mindfulnes of the moment, but kind of "in stupid mode" (really no analytical or reflected thinking besides observation). So that the insight can unfold one day naturally, and without any intellectual bias.

I think I get that, like when one gets from pure noting through observation into actively trying to find the next sensation (be it somewhere or specifically a place) or to being sucked into analysing the sensation...

Again, if not answered yet: Are you talking about trying to stay pure mindful versus distracted?
With emphasis of being ideally only "mindful of the mindfulness itself", instead of "mindful towards the sensations", which keeps you always a bit too sucked into the sensation itself and therefore away from your mindfulnes - as paradoxically as it sounds?

I remember someone got provoced by the word "grinding", perhaps I as a non-native speaker don't get the nuances about the term. But as I understand you, you are just saing, that it is work to again and again refining your mindfulness?

From the other thread:

Do you mean by "meditating" exclusively mindfulness/vipassana meditation? If so - I have not much experience, so perhaps getting all wrong - but are you saying all jhana states are concentration, that is NOT necessary to build up for getting insight? That would be revolutionary!
Because as I understand, kind of everybody else thinks they necessarily come together, if not "organically" at least because it seems one needs the more concentration the higher one wants to get with the mindfulness/paths... ?
For example see Daniel Ingrams map of coresponding jhana to insight stages:
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5037f52d84ae1e87f694cfda/t/506fcc5c84aefb9a79a610b3/1349504092518/Pathways.jpg
Haha, that one is also not making you a lot of friends - even in secular circles like here. Because it sounds like a lot of hubris. But although I have hardly no clue at all yet, also for my analytical mind those 3 characteristics definition seems a bit arbitrary. I was particularly astonished, that everybody keeps holding them up word by word, and not one tries to regroup or rearrange them (even Daniel Ingram, undoubtly a master of fine examination of the various states). Thus I am looking forward to hopefully experiencing the insight for myself - and getting convinced, evaluating your proposal or coming up with my own framing (hubris, I know ; )
Even worse do seem the quite misleading terms of the stages in the insight cycle, but nobody came up with a more concise and less abstract terminology? How would you frame / term them in modern language?

Thank you very much in advance, if you take your time and effort to trying to help me - and possibly others - to  understand it better : )

PS: Edited some details and for better language