[Gem]

Originally Posted by jonesboy

In Buddhism that next step is called applying skillful means.

It's what Buddhism is all about.

Cool. But you have to understand thet saying 'skillful means' is entirely vacuous unless you elaborate on what that term means in practice, and training in a formal setting involves noticing things about yourself that one was previously unaware of. For example, on the first day of a retreat the novice will notice how they react to all the feelings because they are required to sit for long periods and experience significant discomfort. With that discomfort, they are made aware of all the adverse reactivity they generate toward it. Hence they can't sit still and keep moving around to alleviate painful sensations. In that day's discourse the teacher will talk about discomfort and the mind reacting adversely, so the novices became fully aware that this what they're doing.

On the second day they are more self-aware, aware so their reactivity can't go by as if it's normal anymore. The novice is far more conscious and endeavours to keep a balanced, non-reactive mind - 'just watching' as the sensations come and go - but they also become more disturbed and want to quit the thing and go home. That night the teacher talks about the doubt and fear and the impulse to give up and run away so the novice realises that sort of negativity has been been pervading their lives whenever things get uncomfortable and difficult. Thus these avoidance tendencies start to come into view. There is also the fact that the novice can't pay attention for even a minute. They observe the breath, 30 seconds later they're off with the fairies and they don't notice they've drifted off for minutes at a time. So they start to realise just how distracted they are in their day to day lives, going from thought to thought randomly like a mad-person, along with all the reactivity disturbing them, and they get a sense just how wild their mind actually is.

On the third day, being somewhat humbled by the truth of how messy and what an emotional wreck they are, they settle in and start to work more seriously. They find they don't have to react to their discomforts; they can sit still and just let the feeling be there 'as it is'. The aversion toward their feelings wanes along with their desire for 'something special'... and with the waning of aversion and desire, they get a bit of a taste of equanimity - which is the ability of ardent awareness free from aversion and craving. Of course the teacher knows this will be happening so he talks about it that evening so the novices get the intellectual understanding by seeing themselves in it.

When the teacher talks about these things, the novice is like, farout, he is talking about me. This is exactly what is going on with me. The adepts understand because they have been through it, and they are still going through it, but on a more subtle level.

By the fourth day things quieten down in the halls. The novices in back stop squirming around and getting up and down, and start sitting still for the duration of the period, so determination is introduced "I shall not move. No matter what I shall sit perfectly still until the bell", and that's a good skill: determination. Also, what was physically not possible for the novice only 2 days ago is now possible, so the novice sees the progress and feels more confident being better established in mindfulness.

From there, with the ability of equanimity regardless of the feelings that come and go, one can now go deeper and work at a subtler level of feeling and subtler reactive tendencies so that even quite slight disturbances are noticed. Maybe after 5,6,7 days the novice starts to experience the emotional depths and instead of keeping level minded with hard physical feelings that same principle of quiet observations is applied to the emotional trauma rising like storms, and passing away. The novice realises that in the past, these trauma would rise slightly in conscious awareness but they would react adversly to it and find a desirable distraction from it. Always avoiding the adverse and chasing thr desire. It is around this point that one realises how the dynamic between craving and aversion has been such a hinderance to them resolving life issues, and indeed, the means by which they created them in the first place.

By that time a person knows a lot more about themselves than they did just a few days prior, and they really have calmed themselves through the conscious recognition of 'what they do'; all the unskillful things I mentioned here; and how these generate so much misery for them in their day to day lives.

Now that the novice has ceased to react significantly, and they are able to endure so much more that were before, the purification begins to accelerate up to their particular individual limitations, There will be point at which they can't take any more and they will be overcome by reactivity at that point, and they then know where they are in terms of their ability for equanimity and continue to work on increasing the strength and capacity to remain completely unperturbed regardless of what experiences arise for them.

Suddenly they are working on something which itself is not an experience, and is worked on entirely regardless of what experience happens to arise, and understanding 'what they are doing' they are able to work with complete self-determination, become seriously ardent, and learn that this is not just meditation periods, but a continuous 'way of being' without any lapse. The mind now stays 'here with this' for long periods, and the periods of distraction are short - and not much can get by that novice unawares anymore.

Now that a novice has settled the mind and the purification is taking effect, they can include metta practice in their daily routine and attend group-metta with the rest of the sangha.

From there, one can continue to practice and work at more subtle levels, and this is OK because they were trained properly and understand what it is to meditate, and have developed the skillful mind required to traverse what's to come, come what may, whatever that may be.