Nick's Practice Notes Number 3

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But with this letting go approach to any given state, the mind is being taught that any holding a sensation in a certain way is stress, and not holding a sensation in any way is freedom from stress. It is dropping tanha like a hot potato. There is an immediate sense of freedom from dukkha when things are continuously let go of like so. And letting go means one has to be 100% present in the moment. If the mind is holding a sensation in a certain way then this will generally set off a volley of thoughts that set up a particular mind state. Here one may not be present with what is happening but off with the faeires, embedded and identified. For example, if the sensation is unpleasant, the mind holds it with aversion, thoughts may be triggered to arise that are also unpleasant which will in turn make the sensations be read as even more unpleasant and the mind's grasp around those sensations will tighten and more stress ensues and the vicious circle of cause and effect continues to build momentum. This isn't being present.

Every time I do this letting go practice, the mind will always end up in the 1st jhana. This has nothing to do with manipulation or desire to dwell in jhana. I am describing what happens in a purely natural way just by 'letting go' of the grasp of tanha. If the mind is not in jhana it may be conditioned by mental and physical components that could be read as one of the five hindrances; craving, illwill, restlessness, sloth and torpor or doubt. When the conditioning factors for each of these hindrances are let go of, what naturally results seems to be the 1st jhana for me. I continue letting go of the conditioning factors of the 1st jhana. As I let go of these conditioning factors, they drop away to leave underlying factors that condition the next jhana up.

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These factors are the vibrational component of the body, the eye focus, and the mental focus. As I continue doing this practice, the mind will move up naturally and automatically to the 8th jhana where the state seems conditioned by a mind perceiving and not perceiving in the very moment (hard to describe). This will be let go of, and a fruition will occur. In the rebooting period after a fruition, the period of a blank not fully rebooted mind will seemingly continue for longer periods than usual. I will continue to let go of even more conditioning factors'¦.the very factors that seem to condition the rebooting period.

When I do this, it feels like I may be in the pure abodes, but its hard to tell. Eventually after letting go of everything else, there is just this thin thread of awareness (possible 13th jhana). Even this awareness presents as a subtle form of tension. When this awareness is let go of, the mind quickly sinks into what we've been calling nirodha samapatti here. The entrance and exit seem prolonged and different to the kill switch method of NS. The mind will repeatedly sink down and up, continuously hitting the event horizon.

I am not looking to get NS with this technique. It is not the aim nor is jhana or any other peaceful state. The aim is to impress on this mind/body organism that letting go is the means to ending stress and not letting go is stress. And this is what has been seemingly happening this past month. My default mode has seen a profound shift occur. I no longer crave and feel aversion like I once did. It feels seriously even more attenuated than before.

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I have ceased to even have the slightest urge to 'look for' the so-called 'self contraction' nor even care about 'grounding emotions'. There are no urges to do such things. Any so called self-contraction or emotion is just another state in the moment with its own conditioning factors and there is nothing more to do than allow those factors to arise, be and pass away without holding on to them. In other words, to just let them go.

Something seems to be happening due to this practice. Tina Rasmussen and Stephen Snyder talk about it in a Buddhist Geeks' podcast as a process of 'thinning the me' and 'loosening the aggregates'. For lack of a better explanation, this seems to describe what has been happening to me this past month or so. Suffering levels have dropped to an all time low. I do not fuss over any so called self-contraction nor any emotional upheavals (there have been none since taking up this practice). I simply attend to whatever conditioning factors that have arisen in the very moment to condition an experience of this mind/body organism. Letting go of factors, seems to stop the process of conceiving sankhara after sankhara.

Tina Rasmussen: www.buddhistgeeks.com/2010/02/bg-160-the...ng-of-concentration/

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This 'loosening of the aggregates' seems to have allowed it to be much easier to see each of them arise in any given moment. And this has also allowed my practice to evolve somewhat. At times instead of simply letting go of factors, the mind will pay attention to three things, keeping these three things in the forefront of the mind. They are the arising, staying and passing away of any aggregate in any given moment. I am paying a lot of attention these days to the aggregate of perception and the aggregate of the tones of sensations. What is interesting is that it is becoming extremely clear that all the aggregates arise and pass away all the time. Seeing this in real time, is also imprinting on the mind the stupidity in 'holding onto' and misreading the aggregates as 'me'. I know they are not, but there seems to be a residual tendency to read them as such, which results in tension and stress. This mind/body organism is being shown that its stress-free to not do that.

So what I have been doing these past few days is seeing when there is a very unpleasant sensation in the body. I will observe how the mind seems to hold it with aversion. A flow of thoughts may or may not be triggered. I will focus purely on the perception of 'unpleasant' of the sensation, the way the mind conceptualises 'unpleasant' thus setting off unpleasant sankharas.

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With the idea that there is but the arising , staying and passing away of the aggregates and nothing more in the forefront of the mind, the perception of 'unpleasant' will be observed. Because the mind has been set up to expect these three things to occur or rather knowing these three things will occur (there seems to be a difference between expecting and knowing it), the mind steps back and stops holding the 'unpleasantness' with aversion and tension seems to cease. Eventually the conceptualisation of 'unpleasant' passes away to leave just the bare sensations seemingly without a tone. The perception of 'unpleasant' will again arise and I will just watch it arise, be there and then pass away again.

This is showing me that even the concept of pleasant or unpleasant is impermanent. And this seems to have imprinted on the mind that it doesn't matter what arises. Unpleasant, pleasant'¦who cares????!!!! All you need to do is watch it arise , be there and pass away. The mind seems to cease 'holding on to it' and thus the stress of 'holding' seems to cease too.

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One more thing seems to be developing for me. As I have said, the aggregates seem to have become 'looser' for lack of a better way to describe things. It has become very easy to take everything arising in the moment as just 'object' and nothing more. This includes those subtle feelings of 'I AM' which pop in and out of any experience to give the feeling of duality. But they are just objects too. No need to analyse them nor suppress them. Just see them as objects and they lose their hold. When I take this angle , immediately there is a sense of liberation. A sense of being free of something that was causing suffering. There seems to be a sense of background observing foreground and this can be seen to create tension because the background feels like it can manipulate the foreground. How can it? Thus the tension. But when the background is seen as just the same as foreground, just another object, an ever flowing stream of objectified experience starts to occur unhindered by the mind duping itself into a duality condundrum. Any idea of subject is just a thought, an inference and another object too.

Having sat and taken this angle continuously for an hour at a time, the mind will eventually fall into the calmest, most serene state ive experienced. Not a jhanic state. It's like the aggregates are taking a rest. And no sankharas are arsing to force the mind in a direction of stress. Something that Chelek said in the Mahasi and Chah thread seems to point to this:

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'Stop looking in the moment for some powerful thing or event. Relax. Just see if there is a sense of ease at the periphery. I described it in my journal as the sense of standing next to a serene lake with by back to it. I could sense it but not see it. Kind of like trying to see a faint star - if you look right at it, it will disappear where as if you look off to the side you can notice it. As it deepens there is a growing sense of ease - but that is not something to attain to but rather as you let go of the tension it just deepens accordingly.' Chelek bit.ly/ibCNIo

That serene lake that I have my back too feels like nirvana. Everything is else in experience is object. But behind all those objects is the serene lake that can't be looked at and this really seems to have deepened since in the last month. It is really hard to describe. So, I'll leave it there. Well this is where I currently am. My default mode is one of 'not many urges'. I have changed once again but I find it hard to pinpoint what has changed. There is much less suffering than even post 4th path. All good in my books.

Awesome post, Nick. Thanks!

"There is much less suffering than even post 4th path. "

This is really neat stuff Nick. It almost like you have described a Dzogchen practice in non-jargon-y terms. (I'm not an expert/scholar/practioner in this area, so it's just an observation.) And it seems like being post-4th you have the foundation for actually doing this kind of work at the necessary subtle level. Pretty cool!

Beautiful!