Uncovering Subtle Experience

Develop concentration, sensory clarity, and equanimity with three exercises based on the teachings of Shinzen Young: expansion-contraction breath practice, simultaneous attention to internal and external sound, and working with "don't know mind.”

Transcript

As you settle into your posture now,

Go ahead and start drawing your attention to your breathing process while you start letting everything else fade to the background.

Notice whether there seems to be a volition to your breathing or whether you're attending to something that's just happening.

It's just one of many things you can notice.

And wherever you are on that continuum,

See if you can have equanimity with that so that we can release our attention from thinking we need to be non-volitional or I should direct my attention more.

Let's just let breathing be breathing and be unconcerned about whether or not it's effortful.

That's not going to be where our attention is.

Now,

See if you can notice the simple fact of expansion of the lungs when you take in air,

Feeling them growing larger,

The contraction of the lungs when the air leaves your body.

Okay.

And you don't need to be concerned with whether there's a pause or a continuance at the top and the bottom.

Just tune in to expansion and contraction.

Now let's notice something a little bit more subtle or for most people not the first thing they notice is that when you breathe in,

There are a lot of muscles and tissues that have to contract to make room for the lungs expanding.

So particularly beneath the lungs but really in every direction you might be able to feel some pressure,

Hopefully not unpleasant,

But that compression that is contraction when you inhale.

And there's a sound aspect that you really don't want to be survive as so although for And as you exhale,

Even while there's the contraction of the lungs and the pushing of the diaphragm,

There's a relaxing all around it too,

An expansive quality of ease as the muscles around the lungs relax.

There may even be a global sense of relaxation on every exhale,

An expansive sense of letting go,

Even while that is made up of a contractive pull of gravity and bringing some of these body parts closer together as they relax and just compress gently.

So we're always using all of our attentional skills to some degree.

You know,

There's some clarity involved and noticing things you may not have been attended to before.

There's some equanimity needed to hold other arisings in the background to be okay with what's in the foreground.

But you can also intentionally put the juice behind your concentration,

Letting go of the need for anything in particular to happen,

And putting some effort into tuning in closely.

So concentration is a thing that you can do,

But it's also a thing that results.

So we can say that part of concentration is this effort.

The concentration that happens as a result of that effort has a reward flavor all its own,

That attending to where you intended to place your attention.

So let's up the challenge level a little bit and see if you can notice both expansion and contraction at the same time after having investigated two ways of each that it's available.

So while the lungs are expanding,

Can you also feel the compression,

The contraction,

Where space is tightening to make room?

And when you exhale and the lungs contract and the diaphragm pushes,

Can you feel the expansion as other muscles relax and move back into their ordinary space?

So for just a couple minutes,

Work with this,

And if you'd like,

Labels to support that practice.

One option is to label expand,

Contract,

Both.

And if you don't notice any of the above,

You can label rest.

And it's likely that it becomes both all the time,

You might wind up labeling both,

Both,

Both.

You might even develop a taste for the effort it requires to stay with both at the same time.

Okay.

So I want to point out that each time we switch techniques today,

It's an opportunity for equanimity training.

It's really valuable when we let go of one technique and pick up another that's really different.

There can be some disease,

Some resistance.

So see if you can intentionally relax and let those responses be,

To not fight them,

But to let them come and go gently.

So we'll release our attention on expansion and contraction in the breath,

And move our attention to auditory space.

I'm going to work with auditory,

So if you're able,

Let visual and somatic start falling to the background.

If you try not to struggle,

It may take a couple minutes for them to be willing,

So to speak,

To be in the background.

We can assist that by just placing our attention in our focus range,

Which is now auditory experience.

Starting with hear out,

You may notice right away the sound of a space heater in the room,

Or you may notice my voice.

For some people,

They can kind of tune out the voice of guidance,

But that's not part of the perceived experience.

That's fine too.

But what else is there in hear out?

What do you hear to your left?

Not looking for an object,

But just sensing into external auditory space on your left.

And then on your right.

You may notice that how you perceive the sound of the heater changes with where you place your attention.

You may notice quiet in spaces outside of that sound or other sounds.

What if you hear the space in front of you?

And behind you?

So this tends to develop some sensory clarity around how sound changes influenced by your placement of your ears on your head,

Placement of your body in the room,

Placement of your attention,

Where there's bleed over into other directions,

And where there's not,

Discovering whether there is a periphery like there is in vision,

Or is there not.

This is a more subtle experience than we're used to.

It requires concentration,

But our emphasis is on clarity,

Detecting more subtle experience.

What if you attend to the auditory space above your head?

And then let that go with equanimity and place your auditory attention beneath you,

Beneath your chair,

Beneath your feet.

Trying to let the minds that struggle with that be in the background,

Trying to let go of knowing where sound should stop and just listening.

Like just in case we were on a hollow box and somebody was about to knock,

There may be something there.

So letting go of that,

Place your attention to where you hear mental talk or mental quiet.

For most people,

This will be around your ears or inside your head,

Even in your throat.

But those are just general principles.

Whatever is true for you is good.

And as you watch very closely,

Several different things could occur.

You may be attending to an impression of mental talk.

Most often when you watch it closely,

It won't be very distinct because that takes.

.

.

There's a certain degree of thinking involved for the words to be really clear.

As you get closer to the present moment,

What we were calling yesterday the point of contact,

Herein can seem more like an unintelligible murmur or quiet but with a sense that something is there in that space.

Or it could be absolutely quiet.

So similarly to what we did in the first part of this practice,

We're going to increase the challenge level a little bit by expanding our focus range to just here.

And just here means we're attending to both inner and outer at the same time.

But here's the challenge level that I'm suggesting is not just toggling back and forth,

In,

Out,

Out,

Out,

In,

But noticing in particular whether you can attend to both in and out at the same time.

Kind of like a juggler,

Can you juggle paying attention to the space heater or whatever else is easy for you to note in here out,

And then introduce this other ball,

What's going on in herein at the same time.

Maybe quiet,

Maybe a tug,

Maybe some sound.

So if you'd like to label,

The labels are in,

Out,

Both.

It's possible that your entire auditory experience could disappear,

An experience of absolute rest,

Especially if you happened to get seized by a body sensation.

It's possible that you may notice auditory going away completely,

In which case you could label none.

If there's even a tug to either one,

You would use the label in or out.

And if you'd like to work your clarity by noticing those at once,

You can label those if that's available to you.

Now working with in and out at the same time,

It may feel like a concentration workout too,

But the clarity that develops in an exercise like this has a direct relationship to increasing skillfulness in everyday life.

Being able to be clearly aware of what is arising in thought and emotion space while you're interacting with the world in focus out space.

And see what a useful skill that would be to develop that kind of clarity.

So again,

With all the equanimity you have available to you at this time,

We're going to let go of that practice and auditory space and do something really,

Really different.

Going to note the level of don't know.

Our labels will be a Likert scale of 0,

1,

And 2.

If it seems weird to you,

You could also say none,

Weak,

Strong.

That's what these are going to stand for,

Or like none,

Some,

Clear.

That's what the 0,

1,

And 2 stands for.

So at first there might be a little grasping around like you're feeling around in the dark when your eyes haven't adjusted,

But then your eyes adjust a little bit and you can put your hands down and you might be able to walk through a pretty dark house.

And that's often what the don't know practice is like.

With just a few minutes you may start to notice something.

So in that way,

Yes,

There's a detection skill,

There's some clarity arising.

Skills always all work together.

But the dominant feature is working with strengthening equanimity directly by challenging our ordinary operating principle.

The body wants comfort,

The mind wants answers.

And that's all the same thing.

These aren't two different things,

Comfort and answers.

For the mind,

Answers are comfortable.

For the body,

Comfort is answers.

So as we start sensing into for ourselves,

Where does that arise?

You may notice a discomfort spike in the body.

You may notice something like a dis-ease,

A frustration.

It could be a clear question in your mind.

It could be a sense of confusion.

It could be a massive lack of clarity where you know something is there but you can't see clearly.

So being able to be clear is not what matters here.

We're exercising equanimity.

When you're drawn to or notice no lack of clarity whatsoever,

Note zero.

When you're aware that the flavor of don't know is there,

Whether you know where it is or not,

If that feels pretty ordinary,

You'd label one.

And if you have a spike of basically lack of equanimity in the mind or the body or both,

You'd label two.

Once you get the hang of this,

It's usually a deeply satisfying and relieving exercise as you embrace the very phenomenon that's at the root of much of our discomfort.

So note the general level of don't know.

Zero for not present,

Not noticeable.

One for present,

But not particularly troubling in any way.

And two for pretty strong,

The kind of thing that I wish to be rid of in my daily life,

The kind of thing that drives me to find answers and drives me to seek comfort.

So you may have noticed already kind of a fun thing about this,

If you can apply equanimity to it,

Is that you're looking for a don't know,

And you might be aware that you don't know.

I don't know if that's it.

I don't know what the level is.

Well,

Then you can note that.

One or two.

You can re-note it so that you don't wind up chasing your tail.

You can just stay with that.

Notice if it changes while you note it.

All right.

The patterns of developing skill and ease in this technique are quite profound,

And enable us to not force answers,

To be open to more and better possibilities than are available if we are driven by a desire for comfort.

Of course,

Any increase,

Any significant increase in equanimity can bring tremendous amount of ease into daily life experience and practice experience.

Just a couple more minutes.

For the best of your ability,

Don't try to be too precise.

Note the general level of don't know.

Zero,

One,

Two.

Zero,

One,

Two.

Zero,

One,

Two.

Zero,

One,

Two.

Zero,

One,

Two.

Reviews

Very interesting combination of techniques to explore! Thank you!

Very clear work through the in/out modality. I found a few things I haven't been able to before. Downloading for future practice. Thank you.

Terrific guidance on expansion and contraction of sensory experience. 5 stars because the specificity of the guidance is useful for practice and training at any level. I suspect I will be back to practice with this class more than once.