4.0 Instruction: Developing Introspective Awareness

Part 4.0 of 10. A progression of brief sessions of instruction for developing stable attention, still awareness, and global compassion. Recorded live.

Transcript

So far in our meditation practice,

We have been working with one of the very important skills that is necessary in meditation,

And that is mindfulness.

So mindfulness in the shamatha traditions is defined as your attention focused on a chosen object without forgetfulness or without forgetting.

So with sati,

The Pali term means recollection.

So that's exactly what we are doing.

We are recollecting what we are intending to place our attention on.

Along with mindfulness,

There is another very important skill that is necessary to develop for meditation practice,

And that is introspection.

So along with being able to recollect and develop stability of attention,

In order to make real progress,

We're going to also have to evolve our introspection.

And so you can say that,

And the Lam Rim texts,

The Tibetan texts that describe meditation practice in the comprehensive cookbook of Lam Rim,

Say that introspection is like a sentry that is checking in periodically to let you give you a quality control report about your attention.

Basically,

It's asking these two questions.

Have I become distracted or am I getting drowsy?

Is my attention become lax?

Am I not brightly engaged with my object?

So it's asking those two questions.

So you could say that our goal is to be driving down a two-lane road,

Using this metaphor,

And to stay out of the two ditches with excitation in the left ditch and dullness or laxity in the right ditch.

And so we're constantly making micro adjustments on the steering wheel to stay on the road,

Noticing excitation and laxity,

Hopefully before we go into the ditch.

So in order to do that,

In order to actually not just recognize,

Oh I am in the ditch,

I have already become distracted.

I have already become lax.

And then to recover from that,

All of the from Tsongkhapa,

Je Tsongkhapa,

To Asanga,

All of the great Kamalashila,

They say that we have to begin to notice laxity and excitation,

First of all,

As soon as they appear.

So noticing more and more quickly,

So that the thoughts that take us off into default wandering aren't as sticky,

And so we recover more quickly,

We disengage,

Because the news about disengagement from wandering is the same,

Really,

As attention.

It is an unconscious process.

So neither can we,

There's an unconscious weighing process that determines where attention goes,

And disengagement also is spontaneous.

We can't will it,

But we can train it,

And so we train it,

Train to disengage more quickly than with introspection,

And so introspection can become a sentry,

Can be a sentry,

And then the classical texts,

When asked the question,

Well,

How often does the sentry check in?

And in the Lamrim Chenmo Volume 3,

Je Tsongkhapa says,

Well,

Frequently enough to be effective,

But not so frequently that it becomes intrusive.

And you get the point there,

That there's a balance.

If you check in constantly,

That becomes your,

Can become your meditation object.

But there are also,

Then,

He describes this evolution of introspection.

Your introspection has to become a motion detector rather than a sentry,

So that you can begin to notice motion away from your chosen object as soon as it happens.

So this is what the way that Alan Wallace translated this term when he translated the Lamrim Chenmo,

This the third volume of the Lamrim Chenmo,

Anyway.

He said that you have to be able to notice excitation and laxity while they are incipient,

Before they have fully formed.

So there are two ways,

Then,

That this introspection operates.

One is introspective attention,

And that is the sentry model.

So the introspective attention is taking a snapshot of peripheral awareness,

And because it is only awareness that can give you a report on the state of your mind.

Attention can't,

In real time anyway,

Attention can't do that.

Attention can only take a snapshot of peripheral awareness and then give you a report.

So if I ask you,

How are you doing right now,

You know,

Your response would be,

Fine,

Good,

Hopefully,

Rather than bored,

Tired,

Whatever.

But it would be some,

You know,

So when I ask you how you're doing,

You would give me a one-word response,

Let's just say,

Because that's what people do when they're asked how they're doing,

And that would be a snapshot of peripheral awareness,

And the real story would be a very complex picture that you couldn't even describe in words,

Right?

A snapshot is always giving you a retrospective report.

It's always past tense of what,

Hopefully,

You know,

Briefly previous to that,

But it's always past tense.

It's not real time.

So if we are going to notice incipient excitation and laxity,

What I think of as the nose of the camel in the tent,

Before the camel comes into the tent,

Right,

If we are able to notice the camel,

The nose of the camel,

We have to be getting real-time reports from introspection.

So in order to do that,

We have to cultivate introspective awareness,

Not attention.

And so introspective awareness,

When everything that is new to us when we engage with the world,

Everything enters our senses,

Our knowledge of the world,

Always through awareness first,

And then attention plucks one thing out of awareness to examine in detail.

So what is present to awareness gets represented to attention,

But what we want to do then is really begin to cultivate this awareness itself,

Rather than just knowing the world only through attention,

Which is largely conceptual.

And the thing about awareness is that it is not only giving us knowledge of the room,

The environment,

The street that we're walking down,

Much more than we attend to,

But it is also able to give us reports about our own mind,

And that occurs in real time.

And that is exactly what we need to develop to get these real-time reports about if we are going to be able to notice incipient laxity or incipient excitation.

And when we can do that,

Then the remedy that is required is minuscule,

Takes almost nothing.

And in fact,

It could be just the breath itself is all that is necessary.

And so that quality that Tsongkhapa is talking about,

Being able to notice incipient laxity and excitation,

Requires continuous introspective awareness.

So you are getting continuous real-time reports while you are attending to your chosen object.

This is a demanding skill,

But this is exactly what's necessary if you are going to be able to go very far beyond level three of the nine stages,

Basically,

Or certainly beyond level four of the nine stages.

So continuous introspective awareness as we are developing attention.

So you can then,

You would notice excitation and laxity even before they Shanghai you,

Because once you are Shanghai'd,

It could be ten minutes or so,

Because that happens,

Doesn't it?

You know,

Hopefully it becomes,

You know,

A minute rather than ten minutes,

And then thirty seconds,

And then ten seconds,

So you notice it more and more quickly,

But to notice it before it's even fully formed,

That is how you are going to really make progress in developing stability.

So the meditation that we are going to be doing next then is called the Padmasambhava Oscillation.

Tomorrow we'll be doing another Padmasambhava Oscillation,

And that one will be Padmasambhava Oscillation of Awareness,

But the two principles are the same.

The oscillation is the same.

It is an oscillation between invigoration and release,

And so we are going to be oscillating now,

Invigorating clarity.

We are going to be oscillating between invigoration of our clarity on the inhalation,

And we are going to be deepening our relaxation on the exhalation,

And because of a physiological response,

Or probably correlated with a physiological response,

Called vagal toning,

There is a slight increase of your heart rate on the inhalation,

And there is a slight slowing of the heart rate on the exhalation.

So when you really pay attention to those,

Perhaps you exaggerate that effect,

And what you notice is,

With your introspective awareness,

Is that there is a slight invigoration on the inhalation.

It's a natural physiological response,

And because you are attending to it closely in this deep state of meditation,

Tranquil state,

No turbulence,

You really notice it as invigoration.

You really notice the release and relaxation of the exhalation is a real deepening of your relaxation,

And so with the Padmasambhava Oscillation,

It can become the difference between the invigoration and the excitation can become so great that,

In fact,

As you are invigorating,

It can become too much invigoration,

And it will,

As think of yourself as being on the high wire,

Perfectly balanced now your meditation.

You're on the road,

So it's no longer staying between the two ditches,

Now you are on the high wire,

Perfectly balanced,

And so the invigoration that you get on the inhalation is so great that it will knock you off into distraction,

Too much energy,

Unless the very next out-breath you release and release and release and relax,

And that can be so great that it will send you into laxity,

Too much relaxation,

Unless on the very next inhalation you invigorate.

So it is a constant inhalation or oscillation of invigoration and release.

Think of it as being like being at the beach,

And the surf washes onto the beach and floods the beach,

And then it recedes back out again.

It's just this constant oscillation of flood and then,

You know,

Surging onto the beach and then flowing back out.

So that change of invigoration and release,

When you're at the beach,

That's really compelling,

Right?

I live at this really flat beach up in Cape Ann,

Massachusetts,

Just a really,

Really flat beach,

So when it washes onto the beach,

It goes up 15 feet,

And then it recedes back down.

And I can just sit out there with my ankles in it and be fascinated by that for a long time.

It's that the oscillation,

The change,

Is really,

Really fascinating,

And so that's the power of this meditation,

That the change between invigoration and release is so compelling that it really keeps your attention.

The only way that you're going to be able to pull that off is with continuous,

Real-time,

Introspective reports,

Right?

Otherwise,

The invigoration is so much that it knocks you off into distraction,

Or the release is so much that it knocks you off into laxity.

So let's try that one next.

Reviews

Fascinating, but THIS IS NOT A GUIDED MEDITATION but general super valuable instructions.

Fits to perfection in my hermeneutics universe. Looking forward the complete series.

I am learning so much from each of the instruction sessions and meditation sessions. It is great to understand the thinking behind what you are doing! Namaste 🙏

Describes the balance between the in breathe invigoration and the outbreath relaxation.

Good explanation as to how to maintain mindfulness of the breath.

Thanks you learn somthing every day.

A bell signaling the end would be nice. Otherwise I love this instruction. Thank you

It started out really slowly, but then really moved into analysis of the process of breathing and meditation. Became quite fascinated with it.

Thank you, extremely helpful !

Excellent instruction. Very helpful insight. Thank you Doug!