I've
been getting a lot of diagnosis questions (where on the path am I and
what practice should I be doing?) and my suggestions are consistent
enough that I feel I should try to write them down.
I
view the classic Threefold Training as a basic guide to the different
areas of practice. Most of the problems people describe to me boil down
to them only doing two (or, more usually, one) style of practice and
being confused why this isn't working. When they encounter problems that
are specifically the domain of a different kind of practice, they
instead believe that they aren't doing their one practice correctly or
hard enough.
Disclaimer:
My take on the threefold training is idiosyncratic by majority Buddhist
standards. So take with a grain of salt. Also, I'm just some guy.
There
are practices oriented towards unifying experiences. These are the
traditional concentration/breath/jhana/samadhi/shamatha/brahmavihara
(metta, etc.) meditations that some people know as the 'main' sort of
meditation. I'll call these broadly 'concentration practices', though
that word has connotations of a certain kind of efforting that is often a
hindrance. But a concentrated mind state is their goal.
There
are practices oriented towards picking apart experiences into their
constituents to see how they work. These are things like
noting/vipassana/pointing out/satipatthana/contemplation of dhamma
factors (such as the three marks of existence, five hindrances,
skandhas, etc.) I'll call these broadly 'insight practices' as having
more insights is their goal.
There are
practices oriented towards engaging with the contents of our experience
such that we lead a more harmonious life. These look more like
psychotherapy, good conduct, habit change, goal-practice coherence,
relational/communication practices, somatic work etc. In other words,
all the machinery that translates between on-cushion insights and
day-to-day life. I'll call these broadly 'integration practices' as
their goal is to integrate the nice sounding/feeling spiritual things
into the concrete stuff of daily life such that less suffering actually
occurs, both for yourself and others.
These
three practice types lead into one another in a cycle. Concentrated
mind states make the mind quiet and calm while at the same time much
more capable of precision than normal. This is the perfect state in
which to do insight practices. Insight practices stir up mundane
'stuff', the various things that are causing suffering in the first
place. Integrating this psychological material cleans up the obstacles
encountered in concentration practice, as it's built from the same
mental movements. Concentration then becomes dramatically easier, and
the cycle accelerates. This is more obvious on retreat.
Concentration-only
typically leads to either getting nowhere and feeling stuck, and/or
peak state chasing. Insight-only typically leads to stirring up trauma
and not dealing with it, which eventually becomes pretty destabilizing.
Integration-only typically leads to endless analysis and working on
oneself but never really getting to big shifts. The problems with each
of these is exactly antidoted by processes that occur in the other two.
This
doesn't mean all of these are happening every sit. One might very well
be focusing much more on one of them at any given time. But if things
are not humming along, it is a solid chance that it means one of the
others needs to be brought up to speed.
