Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book

by Daniel M. Ingram

If you are using a mantra, it is more likely to get much more silent and diffuse, or even morph into something more vibrant, symbolic, and alive in this jhana. One time, entering the fourth jhana with a mantra, it began to manifest as silent, golden, rotating, three-dimensional symbols far out in space.

So, if you are having a hard time getting into jhanas, set yourself up to succeed, meaning: give yourself some high-quality protected time, pick a technique you really enjoy that has a demonstrated track record of producing strong concentration states, such as the standard kasina practices, of which a candle flame is my favorite. I have also used blue, red, and white disks and even large filled-in circles and other images such as stars with circles around them on my computer screen.

Again, refer to works such as Bhante Gunaratana's writings or the Vimuttimagga or Visuddhimagga, and practice all day long every day for a week or three or longer.

It is amazing what that sort of momentum will produce, and it can open whole worlds of access that you never dreamed existed and might not have been able to reach, or reach to that degree of depth and with that facility, had you not done this. The works of Venerable Pa Auk Sayadaw are also very wo...

The key here is just to watch the images do what they do and follow along concentrating on the images as objects.

When we gain enough concentration to steady the mind on the object of meditation, something called “access concentration”,

However, as we have been practicing insight meditation, we are not trying to solidify this state, but rather trying to penetrate the three illusions of permanence, satisfactoriness, and self by understanding the three characteristics.

There is a sudden shift; many mental phenomena, particularly the main narrative thought stream, shift out away from the illusory sense of “the watcher” and are just out there along with the sensations of the other five sense doors.

This is an important insight, as it shows us clearly and directly in some basic way that we are not “our” mind or “our” body.

That first taste of a little space around thoughts can be a huge relief for those who have never noticed they could observe their thoughts as thoughts, and the emotional benefits can be profound for some people.

With the sensate experience of both mental and physical phenomena being clearly observable and distinguished, the relationships and interactions between the two start to become obvious, and what is meant by “the dualistic split” is more easily comprehended here.

Some will stop noting quickly or stop noting completely, thinking that they are “messing up the breath”. The advice here is as before—note quickly, and don't worry about what the breath does. It may do crazy things—keep practicing regardless, as this is just one phase, and in later phases attention won't modify the breath in this way, so just keep going. Avoid having some idealized notion of how meditative breathing must be, as it will just confuse, frustrate, and slow you down at this stage. Do not pathologize this stage and the fact that attention, intention, and movement interact in unusual ways, as this is a sign of progress, not problems.

The three characteristics of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and no-self become predominant, which is good, as these are the basis for insight, except this stage is one of the hard ones and can really throw people.

strange jerky breathing patterns

Those that are attached to the notion of themselves as being something other than at least partially bisexual or just generically sexual may find these dreams and feelings disturbing.

Further, if you have unresolved issues around sexuality, which we basically all have, you may encounter aspects of them during this stage.

They started meditation to gain relief (or just paid enough attention to their ordinary daily life to cross the A&P), hit the Dark Night, and are now like a pregnant woman who doesn't know what pregnancy is or what caused it.

How the fuck do i progress to here?

A related question is the role of pharmaceuticals in meditation, such as SSRIs, SNRIs, other antidepressants, mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics, and the like. Reports from the field so far have been mixed. Unfortunately, we have nothing like enough data at this point for definitive recommendations. Hopefully, someone soon will do that science and try to sort out what optimal blend of meditation and medication helps various populations best in the Dark Night. Unfortunately, you and your prescriber will have to do your own personal experiment and hope for the best. I have a general prejudice, based on not much information, that people should continue their medications and stay in close contact with their mental health practitioners, meditation teachers, and dharma friends. I wish I could say more, but this science is still in its infancy. Also, exercise, a good diet, and just trying to maintain a sense of humor can go a long way sometimes.

Meds?

Grounding attention in trying to gently synchronize with the sensations of things vanishing, falling away, and shifting can help. It is very important to recognize that Fear is not dangerous unless we make it so. The classic quote, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself,” is of relevance. If we fear the fact of fear, indulging in telling ourselves stories about it, we can amplify this stage. If we ride it, flow with it, welcome it, dive down into it, play with it, revel in it, dance with it, and dissolve with it, letting it tear down the illusion of permanence and control as it begins to do so, we can appreciate that this is the third vipassana jhana, which can be a fascinating meditation adventure given the right attitude.

I have an awakened friend who has found it very useful to take medication to treat his very real bipolar disorder.

Meds

This is vipassana. Notice that every little background sensation already is its own comprehension, where it is, as it arose and vanished, and that trying to pretend to be a little point in space observing and controlling all that sensate complexity is absurd and just causes suffering: that is the lesson here. That is the three characteristics, and the three characteristics are the key in this stage, as with all the others. Do not get all caught up in my psychological descriptions, they are there to help only if you get thrown totally off your vipassana game. As soon as you get back on your game even a little bit, get back to noticing all this come and go on its own, naturally, effortlessly, at a basic, fast, sensate level. This is the most important paragraph of this whole section.

In Achaan Chah's analogy, practice is like sitting by a still forest pool in a jungle at twilight. If you sit quietly, all sorts of animals show up and drink from the pool and vanish back into the shadows on their own without you having to do anything. Equanimity is like that for the whole field of experience all the way through, including the pond, the forest, and yourself. Experience phenomena arise and vanish on their own, where they are, as they are, with no effort at all required to perceive them, as they contain the perception as a part of their being sensations: that is good practice advice in Equanimity.

The breath may begin to be tight, may seem to start to do its own thing, and may even halt and jerk on its own, as in the insight stage of Three Characteristics.

The best result of this increased clarity is that when it is well-developed and locked in as the default mode of perception, reality naturally shows its true nature without any effort required to perceive it, what the Tibetans refer to as phenomena “self-liberating”. There are many names for this way of perceiving things found in other traditions, but regardless of what you call it, I would highly advocate for trying to establish this way of perceiving sensations as the default, as the vivid freshness that results from this is remarkable and vastly better than other modes of reality perception. It is common for people to have glimpses of it along the way, and the memory of these experiences can help keep us not only motivated to practice, but also to point the way, and that way involves being meticulously attentive to whatever is going on and trying to perceive the bare sensations just as they are.

impermanence, suffering, and no-self,

“ego strength”,

One of the explicit requirements for entering intensive psychoanalysis (and intensive meditation for that matter) is highly developed ego strength, the ability to face our reality and dark stuff without completely freaking out. Thus, eliminating this form of “ego” would be a disaster.

“In this full field of experience or manifestation, there seems to be no special or permanent spot that is observing, controlling, separated from, or subject to any other point or aspect of the rest of this causal field of experience or manifestation.”

can erode or disturb the centerlessness of perspective. Done

The first understanding is that sensations are sensations, thoughts are thoughts, and this forms the basis of further inquiry.

Toying with kundalini effects can also cause psychosis, severe emotional imbalance, and bizarre physiological conditions, not all of which may be entirely reversed.

In fact, seeing sensations clearly enough to see that they are all just happening—coming and going—is extremely straightforward once you finally realize that this is what you are supposed to be doing.

All that said, there is some debate about what factors or progress allow some people to just notice the three characteristics of the sensations that make up their world in the face of their stuff as opposed to those who just flounder in their stuff. This question applies to many of skillful meditative practices. Some would argue that you must have done enough psychological work and have dealt with enough of your issues or grown up in a sufficiently healthy psychological context to get to the place where you can move on to the next stage. I must reluctantly admit that there is probably some truth to this for many people. However, I did not consider myself particularly psychologically advanced, mature, or evolved when I started insight practices, nor did anyone who knew me well. I had all kinds of stuff to deal with and still do. Despite this, through good instruction, complete faith in the straightforwardness of the technique, and perhaps some other factors I have yet to identify, I was able to practice well despite everything and make the shift from being lost in content to noticing how things are.

It is true that attaining a sufficiently wise and functional perspective on some issues can facilitate having a better life and also mastering insight practices.

People can get all fixated on eliminating a “self”, when the emphasis is supposed to be on the words “separate”, “unchanging”, and “permanent”, as well as on the illusion that is being created.

Awareness, though formless, is sometimes conceptualized as pervading all of this while not being all of this, and sometimes conceptualized as being inherent in all of this while not being anything specific. Neither is quite true, though both perspectives can be temporarily useful in very specific contexts and dangerous in others, and finally we have to come to something that is actually much simpler than the term “awareness” generally implies, nothing more than just the sensations themselves, much more fundamental and yet more ordinary than anything grand that those terms would suggest, “Bubba” obviously excepted.

Starting at the top, we have the obvious and undeniable fact that sickness, aging, pain, lamentation, grief, despair, and death are dependent on birth. That link in the chain is an important thing to notice and get to know very well, as, curiously enough, studying that link well leads to understanding the whole thing.

“Telling the truth to someone who can't understand it is tantamount to telling that person a lie.”

First, most Western Buddhists don't really believe that after a few months of good practice you could awaken or awaken more. They do not believe it is simply a matter of following simple instructions, moving through the clearly defined insights, and tagging a path.

Practice, practice, practice! This is the big difference between those who are merely giving lip service to Buddhadharma and those who really get what the old boy was talking about. Go on retreats with sane teachers and follow the instructions to the letter all day long. Find people who know how it is done and hang out with them. Keep it simple. Avoid magical thinking (except when doing magick, more on that later) and don't lose your common sense.

Two interesting and practical questions for you are, “Who are you in direct experiential terms?” and “What is it that knows?” Answer these, and you will come to know all of this directly for yourself.