This was a month of integration. The recent perceptual shifts have remained. The nootropic I started last month has continued to yield great benefits. I started re-cultivating healthy habits such as diet, exercise, cleaning, gratitude statements, qigong and consuming quality media. I have also restarted reading a bit of the pali canon every day.
My job has provided me ample shaky ground to work with. From what I can tell, morality is about the union of discipline and pleasure. It is the way of acting appropriately in all situations, independent of egoic push-pull (while still connecting deeply with all aspects of humanness). It arises from a very deep grokking of what gives rise to stress on all levels and what gives rise to happiness on all levels. The commitment shifts from the former to the latter through the gradual process of sub-mind conversion.
I was able to confirm with Dhammarato that I am getting closer to 10 fetter stream entry. It feels increasingly like there is no other choice but to act in line with external conditions for the reduction of suffering in myself and others. When this clear-seeing/acting combo becomes an automatic algorithm that occurs at all times, that is the sotapanna stage. From one lens, this makes the rest of the 10 fetter stages inevitable.
I met with my spiritual friend this month and he gave me an add-on to the perfect parent practice. I have not had much chance to practice it yet and it is somewhat confusing to me. It involves trusting the illogical magick of the universe as I call in all of space/time, connect with dukkha in my body and manifest as the buddha. Hope to have more on that next month.
I went on a retreat with the SPUDS and some friends, taught by Tucker Peck. Tucker is a wonderful teacher: wise, honest & funny. He answered all of our questions about a wide range of topics from magick to path shifts to techno-enlightenment. I felt like I got as much air-time as I wanted, which is rare for a retreat, in my limited experience. Afterwards we went to see Amma (whom I got my first a&p from in 2011) and a technique to balance libido popped into my head. I’ll write more about that next month if it sticks.
P.S. - SPUDS is now plotting how to save the world ;)
If you truly think you're close to traditional stream entry, the most important aspect of mind to see through is the non-separation of so-called internal and external phenomenon. That is, you'll need to experience an emptying of the aggregates on both the subject and object side simultaneously.
ReplyDeleteIf you previously focused on technical stage/nana Theravadin practices, this is where you'll need to seriously ditch them—not in the sense of strikingly abandoning, but to let go of their inherent subject-side bias. This is why some hardcore dharma practitioners tend to become interested in stuff like actualism, which is fundamentally an emptying of the object side. Regardless, the point is to see that there never was an object nor subject to begin with. Dzogchen/Mahamudra could be helpful here.
Finally, its best to not over-philosophize metaphysics at this point. Sure, a Magick approach or interconnected universe model makes sense and can serve as delicious gossip. But, if you want to make the breakthrough, just practice.
Sounds like you're doing great. Best of luck!
One more thing, if the opportunity arises, rather than avoiding the apparent content of an A&P and just riding it out, use it to your advantage. Try to combine an A&P with seeing through the Nirmanakaya and Sambhogakaya aspects of mind. If you can hold both simultaneously in mind, this is equivalent to seeing through the inseparability of subject and object, even during a turbulent state of mind, which is effectively realizing anatta not as a characteristic of phenomenon but as the way things have always been—AKA sutta stream entry.
ReplyDeleteThanks! My understanding from my teacher is that sutta SE is a perceptual event like you are describing, but rather a gradual improvement in a variety of levels of being over time, until critical mass is reached.
DeleteWhere or from whom do you get your definition from?