The development of calm-abiding in the SigmaTropic System (Draft)

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Sigma Tropic, modified 1 Year ago at 7/13/22 9:38 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 7/11/22 9:43 PM

The development of calm-abiding in the SigmaTropic System (Draft)

Posts: 368 Join Date: 6/27/17 Recent Posts
                                                                                  Map of Calm-Abiding in the SigmaTropic System
                                                                                         3CC – Three Category Concentration
In early practice, the mind is in either of three different types or levels of general mindfulness and continuity of attention. At each category, different practices are employed, in order to maximize the transfer of energy from the hindrances and the ambient energy of restlessness and other stress to the energy of calm-abiding and alert presence.
 
Category I Concentration –This mind state is characterized by interrupted attention, frequent dullness and distraction, and gross manifestations of the 5 hindrances. The meditator attempts to engage with a meditation object, but soon finds they cannot stabilize the mind or when they do so, they fall asleep. Each person tends to be different, but most people have either of two tendencies. In this category of consciousness, the meditator is stabilizing the mind and generating a positive foundation for the practice. The practice system capitalizes on repetition, devotion, and diligence. Practice themes include:

Category II Concentration – This intermediate category has more subtle manifestations of the grosser hindrances defeated in the previous category. There is relatively continuous attention, with a tendency toward either subtle dullness and/or subtle distraction. Continued diligent application of the meditation technique is essential in this stage of practice. Practice themes include:

Category III Concentration
– In this category of concentration, there is continuous attention, vivid mindfulness and clarity with infrequent subtle dullness and distraction, but effort is continually needed to keep the mind on track with the chosen meditation object. The meditator has yet to reach meditation without effort and, they have a highly subject-object based relationship to the object. 

                                                                                                     SSS - Three Stage Samatha
Without the hindrances, the mind has a naturally radiant and blissful nature. When the meditator begins to experience deeper and deeper states of calm and focus, a series of energetic and physiological blossoming processes start to occur. They happen as the different parts of the mind unify into a collective, self-realized, effortless flow machine. During the process, the personal identity is seen to be a set of sensations that were somehow emphasized or exaggerated to create a sense of "me" from stuff in the senses and mind. This disappears and the meditator no longer feels like a separate entity from the world of sensations. When the mind has the qualities of samatha (calm-abiding), insight experiences occur. These can be thought of as events that challenge and contradict some assumption held in the mind, and that event can lead to realization, which is the integration of the new information into the mind system as a whole. Insight, as described in this system is knowledge gained by insight experiences that lead to a cessation of dukkha.

Stage I Samatha – Effortless sustained attention with vivid mindfulness.  The mind is sharp and focused and has a high level of baseline mindfulness, with freedom from gross manifestations of the 5 hindrances as a baseline state. At this level of samatha, a state free of the hindrances is easily reached via intention, and the seven factors of awakening are all present to a moderate degree. With the slightest intention the mind is vividly present with everything and there are no hindrances. There is a distinct, skilled clarity that can be easily reached at the slightest intention. However, in daily activities this state of mindfulness is often lost and contractions and suffering can occur. At this level of samatha, the main themes are:

Stage II Samatha – Effortless mindfulness with autovipassana. The mind vipassanizes itself automatically, spontaneous jhanas and insight experiences occur.  Jhana and cessation ability are developed off cushion and in daily life, and synchronous events and intuition/empathic phenomena tend to become more obvious, common, and compelling. This is quite a pleasant state of mind. The jhanas are readily accessible at a light intention, the mind is quite unified and intentions therefore carry a powerful charge on the mind. This is assumed to be the end state, as the jhanic baseline and sense of flow and satisfaction is quite enjoyable and profound, but it naturally develops into stage III samatha.

Stage III Samatha – Synchonization - Flow and perfection. "Rigpa" All events, sensations, phenomena are seen as synchronous, perfect, comprehended in context, and this perception comes along with a removal of the personal self-other distinction, the self-other duality collapses and there no longer is a sense of a personal distinction in basic perception between oneself and the world. Things are seen as they are, an energetic process of interaction. The sense of jhanic bliss may fade away once we've reached this stage of development, but even for this person just inclining toward noticing the seven factors (that continue to be in the background) put them into a blissfully pleasant Stage II Samatha state, which is a baseline state similar to 3rd jhana.
From this supramundane perspective, the personal dukkha has ended, and now there is an energetic process of energy exchange in the "person" and their effect on and benefit for the collective. It is no longer about the personal identity, and they experience themselves as an energetic process and part of the totality, there are no borders and thus transpersonal thinking becomes a baseline way of seeing.



**The above descriptions are the major perceptual milestones of the development of calm-abiding in the system. The map of insight that I am formulating is accessible through category III concentration and higher and the equivalent of stream entry (level 1 non-self insight as will be desribed in the next post) unlocks the three stages of samatha. Thus, the three samatha stages are arrived at through insight alone, a practitioner who is before "stream entry" will not be accessing any samatha, they top out at category II and most work within category III to unlock effortless flow. This is only truly possible with direct non-self insight. Stay tuned.**

**The following map is not a technique map it a map of the knowledges/understandings gained during the systematic training** 



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Sigma Tropic, modified 1 Year ago at 7/11/22 10:18 PM
Created 1 Year ago at 7/11/22 10:18 PM

RE: The development of calm-abiding in the SigmaTropic System (Draft)

Posts: 368 Join Date: 6/27/17 Recent Posts
I am here to get feedback and answer questions on the system in this thread. I am trying to figure out the text size thing, I remember Chris telling me way back but I can't find the message. This will link back to my page. The levels are entirely my creation, I have not referenced any books in creating my system, this is all my own direct experience. I am not calling the levels any Buddhist labels. I am working on organizing the teachings in my head as they are coming in, and so it's a messy process but I want to let people in on the incoming transmissions as they occur. There seems to be a new energetic prinicple that is coming through in the transmissions. I also am getting increasingly vivid feedback with my magicakal elucidations. I will attempt to describe the techniques I'm currently inventing and testing on myself and my students. 
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 7/12/22 4:19 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 7/12/22 4:06 AM

RE: The development of calm-abiding in the SigmaTropic System (Draft)

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
When I had transmissions coming through strongly like that quite some time ago, my teacher Michael Taft adviced me to slow down my practice considerably for a while and stay grounded. I was a bit pissed at him at the time, but I know that he knows what he is talking about, having gone through all sorts of super-special developments himself. I do think that the model that came to me at that time elucidated some things for me that were quite helpful (and still are), but the only one who really appreciated the genius of it was in a fullblown psychosis, and that probably said something about that creative energy. It can mess with us really badly. It seems to me that it's making you reactive and brings up unresolved things for you in ways that quite frankly don't look good. I'm not saying this to disregard your system as such, or you as a person for that matter. I guess what I'm trying to say is this: if what comes through can't be bothered to wait just a little for you to intergrate things and make sure that it aligns with your highest intents, then maybe what you are channeling has some agenda of its own that isn't quite as awakened as it thinks it is. It has quite a demi-god realm vibe. Be careful, okay? 
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Sigma Tropic, modified 1 Year ago at 7/12/22 4:24 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 7/12/22 4:24 AM

RE: The development of calm-abiding in the SigmaTropic System (Draft)

Posts: 368 Join Date: 6/27/17 Recent Posts
Thanks for the feedback Polly Ester and I will consider it. 
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Linda ”Polly Ester” Ö, modified 1 Year ago at 7/12/22 4:25 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 7/12/22 4:25 AM

RE: The development of calm-abiding in the SigmaTropic System (Draft)

Posts: 7134 Join Date: 12/8/18 Recent Posts
I appreciate that. 
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Chris M, modified 1 Year ago at 7/12/22 8:17 AM
Created 1 Year ago at 7/12/22 8:03 AM

RE: The development of calm-abiding in the SigmaTropic System (Draft)

Posts: 5117 Join Date: 1/26/13 Recent Posts
..  I remember Chris telling me way back but I can't find the message. 

The problem lies in pasting text to DhO from a formatted document like Word or from a web page formatted with html. Save the document as plain text and then copy/paste it here.

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