Jason:
Richard, thanks for the reply. You say,
"Equanimity is when you don't have to block things out with concentration but can let negative perceptions and thoughts arise and pass away without being disturbed."
Which I think gets at the heart of some my confusion, i.e. the relationship between concentration and insight. Specifically, between 4th Jhana equanimity and Equanimity as an insight stage. Would you classify the former as "blocking things out with concentration?" Somewhat more generally, I can relate to the points in your post - seeing phenomena arise & pass, feeling disturbed by certain passings, meeting this with equanimity - but with the major caveat that this happens only some of the time and within the limited context of light concentration states. Is it necessary that I practice observing 3Cs outside of concentration states, and outside formal meditation, if my goal is stream entry? I've been drawn to the idea of developing concentration as a "tool" to focus insight, perhaps this is ultimately a dead end?
Concentration towards an absorption on just the breath is like blocking out thinking. It's a refined form of pleasure but there's more that can be done. Concentration is helpful in daily life to deal with agitation (see 7 factors of awakening for how concentration can be used as a tool instead of an end). I'm sure you notice that the jhanic benefits fade over time (which is another example of the 3 characteristics). Another example of the 3C's is the stress from striving to keep in the concentration state. Concentration in dealing with insight is helpful for seeing more detail of the 3 characteristics when not exclusively looking at the breath.
Just so you understand: Consciousness, knowing, and awareness are all words meaning the same thing. You know when you're thinking, you know when you're seeing etc. Thinking is treated as a sensation because if you like or dislike a thought you can feel it in your body.
Some people do all the jhanas and get disenchanted with them (because they are impermanent sources of happiness). Some use the concentration to get up as high as they can and let go keeping it. Then they let the momentum of the concentration continue with any object in experience until they get a cessation of consciousness AKA nirvana. You see the purpose of insight practice is to show there is no-self part in your experience. Your consciousness can't be separate from objects. Experience is really consciousness-objects. All parts breakdown into smaller parts down to sub-atomic particles and we still haven't found a permanent indestructible part.
Seeing things vibrating with cause and effect is enough. We'll leave the physics to the physicists.
In insight practice (like with noting) you are looking at anything that can arise and not just exclusively the breath. Rumination is thinking about problems instead of thinking about solutions, which makes us feel stuck. This is the enemy. When this is a habit we need to target the conditioning the same way we forget other conditioning/habits/skills/addictions etc. Eg. If I learn to play piano and develop the habit/skill and then I stop for 5 years the skill atrophies. I don't need to meditate for this to happen. How about putting negativing thinking through this process, and condition positive thinking in its place? Metta is a good concentration practice that can go up to the 3rd jhana and is valuable conditioning. I would also recommend cognitive behavioural therapy for further conditioning of healthy beliefs:
http://www.dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/message/5211785How we think and believe affects how we feel.
If you get good at consistent noting (please do this in daily life as well) after about two years of good practice the habit of ruminating and releasing stress hormones decreases markedly. The habit of staying in the present moment is replacing ruminating. Over more years it decreases further until people start getting to the point where they are struggling against feeling good most of the time. Sometimes we give up too soon but giving up at certain stages is not the end of the world.
The popular version of the Advaita Vedanta enlightenment is to rest in knowing/awareness/consciousness. It's like a mirror reflecting all 5 senses plus thinking and this consciousness doesn't ruminate or judge. That brings a lot of relief.
Here are some guidances for that:
http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/talk/11119/Cittamatra
http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/talk/11125/
Cittamatra - guided meditation
People tend to stop here because it feels so much better but there's still some flaws:
- Consciousness has no shape, color, time, or location in space.
- Clinging to no thinking is simply more subtle aversion.
- Are habits really changing? Often people feel better but their old habits are still running.
- If consciousness is not a static mirror reflecting then there must be more actions and moving around that isn't being seen.
- When I pay attention to thinking it doesn't hurt. Yet if I'm not paying attention then the negative thinking habits will hurt.
- When I welcome negative thinking habits or negative perceptions the stress seems to drain.
So we need to delve deeper into dependent arising which is very subtle. At first they look like separate links in linear time bouncing off each other like billiard balls from consciousness to having stress. With further investigation it's more like vibrating scaffolding acting much more quickly on each other with a seamless interdependence. Consciousness is simply inferred because experiences are happening. There's no mirror. Consciousness is also conscious of subtle operations like intentions moving your actions (eg. habitual intentions moving your head to look at objects to like or dislike in the same ways you have done in the past). Any measurement of objects, including how good or bad they are for you in time, can have a stress hidden in them.
Some dharma talks with much more detail I would recommend listening to over and over again:
http://www.dharmaseed.org/retreats/1044Rob Burbea's emptiness retreat. Especially 2/12/2010 - 2/15/2010.
http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/210/talk/11929/How we process time.
So you can see that there are many insights and I'm still learning more. Some like to call it peeling an onion. Many people stop off at different layers and that's up to you how far you want to see.
Have fun!
Richard
