"Do Nothing" Meditation

[J_A_S_G]

For anyone practicing mindfulness meditation this 'technique' might be of interest. It does help to have a solid foundation meditating as it's a challenging 'technique'. What I found helpful at first is settle into a sitting with mindfulness and when breath is barely noticeable transition to do-nothing, and when it invariably became too 'heavy' switch back to breath. With time the do-nothing segments lengthened and eventually led to full sittings.

https://youtu.be/cZ6cdIaUZCA ~ Shinzen Young

https://deconstructingyourself.com/d...editation.html ~ Michael Taft

[Unseeking Seeker]

Thanks for sharing, JASG. I’ve browsed through the links.

Resting in silence as our default orientation as a do nothing non-activity, obviously needs to be preceded by resting thoughts effortlessly. Thus, the preparatory phase is observation, allowing whatever arises to play out and in time subside, wherein we attach no ownership to the manifestation.

It is not thought as abstract objects per se that causes us to stagnate but our attachment to them. So, who is attached? The ego (identity), which is separate from existence.

So, to cultivate detachment, which enables our presence to flow without resistance, we must accept that we are not this body-mind but rather something else, formless, an awareness, an aliveness that operates through mind and senses in this apparatus. Thus, we affirm that there are two of us in here; one, the aspect that is assigns ownership to form, which will perish and die anyway and the other, an eternal, invisible presence.

In my view, this intitial recognition is necessary so that we choose to prioritise living internally at level of spirit. At this stage we may say we have used volition to do so, acting as a doer, using the mind to discern and distinguish between impulses of soul vs those of ego.

The ego identity has set up considerable momentum. As such, it is inevitable that attention will oscillate between say, the truth impulse, as the Tantra seeker/teacher Maharishikaa puts it vs cravings of body-mind. Thus, we need resolve to remain internalised. Energetically this corresponds to the chin chakra and philosophically we may say that we are disillusioned with the external and material and so have chosen to shift inwards.

So, when we begin living internally for the most part, ego yet remains because we are still present as a separate consciousness which has embraced silence and stillness. In most cases, a pattern is set up wherein we delight at magnetisation of form and see what many others cannot or have not. Here we notice both fear as well as desire, the fear of annihilation and the desire for further enablement. We tend to invoke grace, invite the current and this too is an attachment, a desire, which we say is authentic and acceptable. Who justifies? The ego.

Deeper still, we may be offered glimpses of samadhi, the voids and other non-dual immersions. We may even see the light of Self in singularity. But the fact is, what is imbibed has not been assimilated, which we discover when we are back in body, in duality. However, having been, seen and so known in definitiveness, we become relatively empty. Perhaps it is at this stage that meditation becomes an ever present orientation, the word meditation meaning simply resting in vibrancy of our innate awareness wherein thoughts do not arise at all because the mind has been instrumentalised, just like any other limb, used when needed, otherwise not. Then the ‘do nothing meditation’ actually becomes superfluous because we have transformed, we have become the flame, the magnetism itself.

[Gem]

That's a pretty reasonable article, and one of my favorite sayings is 'stop doing that', but when you read into it, it's not like let everything be the same as it always is. It's really about seeing what you're doing and desisting. Of course this would apply to the things that Young teaches, like noting. As such Young isn't consistent and advocates contradictory practices. I wonder how his students reconcile this to themselves, as they are told one thing for a time, and then told the opposite thing later on, and when one gets hard, do the other. As he says, it leads his students to not knowing what to do with meditation.

I think Young is missing the underlying point that intention is coming from reaction, and by saying whatever sensory experiences are happening, let them happen, he implies not reacting to your experience. Your reaction is your control and it is what you do, it is your intention to do something about what happens, and 'dropping that intention' is only achieved by ceasing to react.

I think because he misses the underlying nature of the reactive intentions he advocates contradictory methods, and I personally don't accept contradictions as 'teachings'.

'Noting' was the brainchild of a prominent Buddhist teacher of old. I forget which one. The problem in Buddhism and other religious followings is once something is established as a tradition it can't be weeded out, so these organisations have many things, like bits of litter in an otherwise pristine park, like skin tags on an otherwise unblemished complexion. Young is in robes so he can't take out the traditional trash and has to cling to the old master who advocates noting. I personally don't regard him as a teacher because contradiction is confusion, but I'm of the same persuasion that 'do nothing' is the heart of meditation, and I like the gist of what he said.

[J_A_S_G]

Originally Posted by Gem

'Noting' was the brainchild of a prominent Buddhist teacher of old.

Personally I never cared for counting or noting, not even in the beginning, and as I understand those techniques are beginner supports and to be eventually dropped lest they become habit.

For me Vipassana Shamatha/Calm Abiding meditation was the ticket where awareness attends sensations of breath wherever they arise. It just felt right. Organic. Flowing. Natural and not forced. It's also said that technique in particular has a strong positive affect on the Vagus nerve, the neural information superhighway from brain to most of the major organs, terminating at the huge nerve plexus near the stomach. It regulates heart rate and blood pressure, controls digestion and absorption of nutrients, regulates breathing and respiration, influence the immune system and inflammation and plays a role in the gut-brain axis, connecting the gut and brain.

[Gem]

Originally Posted by J_A_S_G

Personally I never cared for counting or noting, not even in the beginning,
For me Vipassana Shamatha/Calm Abiding meditation was the ticket where awareness attends sensations of breath wherever they arise.

I have never understood teaching a beginner support that they drop later on, and dropping contradicts everything they were instructed to do previously. From my analytic and rational view point, it makes not sense.


I'm sure breath is tied into the body function as a whole and I'm a huge advocate of breath meditation. I hardly talk about anything else, so I wouldn't advise noting and counting or anything else one has to do, and when people are doing that, I'd say stop doing that.


Some people think breath awareness doing, but there is a difference between being aware of what happens and making something happen. If you aren't trying to make something happen, then it's not doing. Like you watch the sunset but you don't make the sun go down.


I think breath meditation can become more and more refined, and the same principle of observation applies to the whole body, mind and everything that happens.


I thought the worse part of Young's talk, which to be fair looked like snippets lumped together out of context, was when he said when your do nothing practice raises anxiety and discomfort, stop (not) doing it and go back to noting. You are supposed to persist when hell is raised - not give in and avoid what's arising with you by fabricating a distraction.


Hence I agree with Young on many points, and on other points I think he's plain wrong, but of he is a monk of some kind, so he's obliged to carry on traditions that have entered the institutional narrative over thousands of years, whereas I'm not a Buddhist so I have no obligation to traditional baggage - anything that contradicts the principle philosophy is out.



I'd probably never be so loose and do nothing, but I advocate breath observation especially to begin with, so I'm totally on board with what you are saying.

[J_A_S_G]

From his Wiki bio - Young was originally ordained in Japan as a monk in the Shingon (Japanese Vajrayana) tradition. He has studied and practiced extensively in other traditions, including Zen and Native American traditions.

Maybe noting is part of the Shingon method of instruction? I've heard other teachers mention noting too as well as counting and neither ever resonated. I tried counting early on and dropped it after maybe 3 minutes! I know of Shinzen because of the Michael Taft piece on do-nothing where he credits that particular label to Shinzen. Taft has some videos on do-nothing but he does a much better job with print whereas Shinzen does a good job with talk on the subtlety of noticing intention/doership without attending intention/doership as attending would be a doing.