this also has been my suspicion for quite some time,that is,
"detach attention" i.e mindfulness is gonna needed until the end of
path,or at least the very last stage.
Yes, detached attention is necessary, but also when we say
'detach' it doesn't necessarily mean a sense of a witness subject
detached from objects. But even that sense of duality is
unavoidable according to Thusness, until non-dual insights, so at
the beginning it is unavoidable to observe as if there is a
separate observer.
When one realise non-duality, or the third path/Anagami, one's
path becomes increasingly effortless and natural as one's insight
into Anatta and Non-Duality as 'Always and Already So' deepens,
thus one's practice moves from ‘efforting’ to natural luminosity
and spontaneity, and one begins to see the benefits of practice and
the nature of reality even in the midst of daily actions and
activities in all sensate reality. Even at the Anagami level
however, it is sometimes possible to lose sight of non-duality
occasionally when one have unpleasant experiences, and thus some
'mindfulness' is still necessary in the sense of reminding oneself
of the nondual reality. However it is no longer a mindfulness
divided into a witness and a witnessed, in fact no focusing is
necessary, there is only allowing the mirror bright clarity to
shine with its natural radiance fully present already as all
sensations. Rather than trying to focus and make awareness present,
the more the separate-self sense is seen through and dropped, the
more clearly it is seen that all sensations are already
self-luminous or 'aware as/where they are'.
So Thusness wrote:
Division of subject and object is merely an
assumption.
Thus someone giving up and something to be given up is an
illusion.
When self becomes more and more transparent,
Likewise phenomena become more and more luminous.
In thorough transparency all happening are pristinely and vividly
clear.
Obviousness throughout, aliveness everywhere!
and..
There is no lack of clarity in whatever that is manifesting,
simply forgo the self and be fully participating.
As Thusness said to djhampa previously: Direct experience
does not imply consciousness being detached from whatever arises.
Experiences are "direct" because the common misunderstanding of an
agent that can be attached or detached from whatever arises is
thoroughly seen through; therefore nothing to divide to begin with,
thus, direct.
I also wrote based to djhampa on what Thusness
said:
In short: there is no false self nor true self, there is
only 5 aggregates.
Do not think that that there is a problem in the five
aggregates. There is no problem with the aggregates, the 'problem'
lies only in the illusion that there is a self. The 5 aggregates
when experienced without the agent (watcher, thinker, doer, etc) is
a completely new dimension. They are the Buddha Nature. (see next
page for references)
However, when experienced with a sense/illusion of self,
whatever arises (all the aggregates and 18 dhatus) appears to be
problematic. In truth there are no problems whatsoever, only the
wrong understanding that self exist.
It should be noted furthermore, that even while the sense of
self is present, there is still in truth no-self/perceiver apart
from perceived. No-self is a dharma seal, an ever-present nature of
reality.
On the most direct path, there is no one to let go and
no-thing to be let go of and hence no 'how to let go'. Reality is
'letting go' at all moments. There is only what arises and subsides
(self-liberates) every moment according to conditions,
luminous-empty phenomena roll on with no one at the center that can
seek nor distant himself (since there is no 'self') from the
self-knowing transience.
However if we are unable
to arise this insight and with the tendencies still strong, then we
have no choice but resort to the gradual path of practice.
Resorting to watching the arising and ceasing of the 5 aggregates
as if there is a separate watcher but with the right view that
there is no self apart from the aggregates. By practicing this way,
insight into Anatta can still arise
eventually.
But if the path consists of practice without the right view,
almost without fail it will result in Advaita sort of
experience.
p.s. for a long and concise description of the different
'levels' of the path (from witnessing, to transmutation and
self-liberation, and more), you can refer to
http://awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/search/label/John%20Welwood
Before enlightenment, mindfulness is important. In Vipassana
context, mindfulness means bare attention + reminding oneself of
the 3 dharma seals. As Thusness told me before, mindfulness means
reminding and directly experiencing the 3 dharma seals in one's
experience. We often forget that.
It is not just direct experience, because one who has direct
experience of the Eternal Witness or I AM may not be mindful of the
3 dharma seals. The dharma seals has to be factored in as part of
the investigation in Vipassana to be 'right mindfulness'.
agree.and the reason im attracted to mindfulness practice is bcause
it leaves the mind and all it's conceptual knowledge out and simply
observe/perceive as it is.enlightenment is not a conceptual
undestanding(and neither is it experiencial,in the sense
experience comes and goes)
Enlightenment is not a conceptual understanding, but an
experiential awakening. There is direct realisation of what reality
is, what it's nature and essence is, and that is seen from one's
experience in the most direct sense - without superimposition of
concepts and mental constructs. It is simply sensate reality
awakening to its true nature.
If as Thusness said, there is only 5 skandhas or 18 dhatus, and
that alone is Buddha-nature, you may wonder 'who is it then who
awakens?'
As Daniel Ingram said:
So who is it that awakens? It is all of this transience
which awakens, though for a more mystical, thorough and seemingly
ridiculous answer take a look at"No-self vs True Self" in Part
III.
