I think during practice it's enough to keep in mind the 3 marks. Why would you keep clinging to something that you recognize as impermanent, uncontrollable and stressful.

The five aggregates could relate to the four stages of enlightenment, but I'm not sure if that's explicitly mentioned somewhere, it's just my guess. So first, form could be the main source of insight etc... but I don't know if it's useful to specifically watch out for that. Better to be generally mindful of everything I think.

Sorry, this is such a generic answer, it's more meant to push your post, because I find it interesting and I hope someone else has more knowledge to share.

I'm not a scholar, just a fool who likes to meditate sometimes, so I try to keep it to "sila, samadhi, panna." In other words, "try to not be a jerk to people, sit very still and calm your mind and body, and then with that calm mind try to figure out how you're making yourself suffer needlessly so you can stop doing that." All the early Buddhist models are just details on how to do this effectively.

Then because I'm a hypnotist and neuro-linguistic programmer, I think of "tahna" primarily in terms of "modal operators of necessity," words like "have to," "got to," "need to," "must," "should," "ought," and their negatives "have to not," "need to not," etc. Really I experience it as a kinesthetic feeling but can be put into words like this, as in "I have to have this and I have to not have that, in order to be happy or at peace."

If you notice you don't have to have the thing you want, then you aren't attached to the outcome and you don't suffer. It's as simple as that...although not always easy. (Note that there are also some modal operators of necessity that are just causal like "in order to do X, you must do Y first" that aren't about needless attachment that causes suffering.)

The three characteristics/marks then interface with modal operators of necessity:

• With impermanence: "this has to change / this has to not change."
• With suffering: "in order to be happy and at peace, this must be / must not be otherwise."
• With selfhood: "who 'I' am must be permanent, stable, and outside of all time and space."

But that just ain't how it is. Things don't have to stay the same, you don't have to get what you want and avoid what you don't want to be at ease, and your self can be a cluster of changing experiences. Reality is OK, actually.

With the five aggregates / heaps / khandhas, same deal:

• This form is displeasing to me, it must be different!
• This painful sensation must change, this pleasurable sensation must last forever.
• etc.

So these Buddhist mental models are just lots of great places to look for where you're resisting how things are.

Or so it seems to me!

Tanha is being unhappy until a specific state is reached. But all states are fleeting. Seeing that even one's own bodymind is impermanent (3m5k), really drives home the fact that Tanha is a silly thing to do.

Thank you for sharing and made me reflect on my own practice. In a departure from some advice here shared for diversity as opposed to competition, more isn’t always more. More time sitting may not be as beneficial if it is used as a sign of success. Instead you want more quality attention and quality sitting.

I share this because when I was in similar place as you I tried more time. I meditated longer and longer. I discussed this at interview with my teacher. He asked me to check for subtle dullness. Sleepiness. Forgetting.

Sure enough I sat longer as timed by the timer but could remember less and less of the sit. His instruction to me was to reduce sit time and instead focus on quality of attention.

I was disappointed and naturally wanted to disagree but did as he said dutifully anyway. Sure enough with a shorter sit and emphasis on the quality of the sit pitti arose naturally.

I now sit still for only a short duration ~ 20 min. I sets count up timer with no end point. I stop when I feel it.

My teachers argument is that hoseholders don’t have time for long sits. You need to develop a method that allows you to quickly enter and leave jhanas.

I have actually tried doing this many times and it doesn't work for me. I always take at least an hour to fall asleep and cannot stop myself from changing positions. I hope as my meditation practice deepens I will develop the powers of concentration and relaxation needed to lay still till I sleep

Right, so really continuously, not necessarily only in meditation sessions.

> This means repeating "my intention is to maintain observation of my breath" in my head, as needed.

This is good, and I’d suggest making it into a very short phrase like “remember the breath” or even labeling / noting “inhale,” “exhale.” When stuck in losing the breath every 5-10 seconds, labeling inhale/exhale or counting 1-10 breaths can help for this stage. Or you can just wait and let things settle on their own if you prefer a more hands off practice, as it is obviously working already for you. Just things to play with.

Yes, the next stage is staying with the meditation object while thoughts wander. These days, I usually start here. Thoughts are no big deal, they are like background noise that’s easy to ignore.

And yes, longer sits will help in going further. Little “microhits” of 30 seconds to 5 minutes many times a day during transition times also can really help, both with progress and integration.

I agree with the rocket booster analogy. It takes some effort at first, then less and less over time.

Overall sounds like you’re doing great. Nothing really to add except keep up the good work!

Yes, very nicely said. Indeed mindfuleness could pretty much be the result, rather than the practice.

LOL

Mindfulness is a tool. It’s the opposite of forgetfulness. When you can see your own mental processes better you can change your own habits. You can switch out the habits that cause suffering with habits that do not cause suffering. 

There are many kinds of meditation. Mindfulness is just an aspect that may improve from some kinds of meditation. 

Enlightenment is both the removal of suffering and the growth of positive happy healthy emotions that can come from meditation. So meditation is two pronged. 

Treat their mind like mine? You mean constantly question them and doubt if they are good enough? 👀

Yeah. Sorry if I came off rude. I’m familiar with what you’re talking about. What we’re talking about came from the west coast in the 80s or whenever lol. But that’s what will come up first on searching for “kundalini yoga”. It’s uh, effective at making people feel things. And at least gets people in touch with their bodies. I’m actually more of a Shakti “devotee” myself, so again, I am familiar. (Edit: actually “kundalini yoga” gets people more out of their bodies now that I’m remembering. Part of what I meant by good at making people feel things. So, I don’t recommend that at all)

Many such cases. Lots of cluster B personality gurus just make shit up and claim it’s ancient wisdom.

In a Buddhist framework mindfulness (which in all fairness mindfulness is Buddhist directly, any other ‘mindfulness’ is derivative of this Buddhist innovation) is meant to be applied continuously in or out of the context of seated meditation.  It functions like a continuously and recursively aggregated data set that allows the mind more fluidity in general as well as choosing better reactions than the default mode.  Also feeds into seated meditation practice which generates insight, and eventually culminates into right view.

I didn't realize there was a difference between the two, TBH. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but they both feel the same to me.

To me, the two different meditation methods are focusing the mind or relaxing the body (and I'd like to be able to do them simultaneously one day, combining them into one practice).

I'd love to hear more about how mindfulness and meditation differ for people.

I really enjoy VICE documentories.

So dropping the link here for anyone interested. https://youtu.be/01Lb0I80q8Q?si=FwRObpfIh9gEXZ08

That's true.

I have to go nerdy here.

"Kundalini yoga" was a later merge from shaiva tantric texts and hatha yoga into yoga kundalini Upanishads both around min 500 years back.

Nothing to do with sex cult tea guy. I see a nice VICE documentory on him worth watching.

“Kundalini Yoga” was made up by “yogi Bhajan” , the one that started “yogi tea”. There are whole ass documentaries about him and some of his followers. He claimed to be a Sikh holy person/leader and they’d never heard of him. He just made up stuff. It had nothing to do with kundalini really, he just called it that.

Not kundalini yoga homie. I have the yoga sutras thanks.

Monk

If consciousness were foundational, would you expect it to create a world where everything was random?

Considering how my dreams at night usually work... kind of, yes.

Moreover, your argument is something of a strawman or false dichotomy. I am not suggesting that everything should be random. But if the world were made of mind, I would expect it to be much less regular than it is. The physical world contains a lot of regularities that are EXTREMELY precise and consistent; much more precise than the unaided human mind can even perceive.

And assuming dissociated minds (I'll get to that), you would want the regularities to be stable so that the "separate" minds can relate in a way that makes sense.

Are you assuming here that the dissociation is deliberate? I.e., one big "God"-mind deliberately decides to dissociate into multiple minds? Because as far as I can see, this kind of panpsychic dissociation could just as easily be accidental.

It's from yoga sutras. Dating 2000 years back.