In this week’s talk, I respond to some Sangha questions about practice, including the relationship between contemplation and vipassana meditation, the problem of thinking addiction, and the paradox of practice if we’re already awake. Listen to Episode 130 here or in your favorite podcast app.
Links from the Episode
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I was quite struck by this episode. Your image of the alternation between awareness inside & outside of frameworks strongly relates to my experience. The latter in my case is mostly in situ rather than on the cushion (I have sometimes been a regular meditator, but have found diminishing returns, for likely idiosyncratic reasons). My own talking-to-myself term for this has been ‘topologies’ – ie. I can see my whole awareness (inner & outer) switching between specific known configurations, many times a day (/hour/minute). ‘Topology’ fits for me as it all feels deeply spatial in nature, and the configurations seem consistent & repeated, but not identical.
A puzzle for me is how the valence-related aspects of awareness relate to all this. Each topology seems to come with its own distinctive values & motivations. So is the between-framework/topology space or interval value-less, or neutral? In which case, if some aspect of transcendent-ish ‘freedom’ originates from that space or interval, can it be useful, or is it just an empty, and perhaps nihilistic, viewpoint?
Great reflection/question, Cris. to your question about the valence-related aspects of awareness, this is something to be experienced. No discussion of it will satisfy. But the emptiness of pure awareness is not separate from the Awakened Heart, which is why this path doesn’t tip into nihilism – but it has to be known/experienced directly. Appreciate your thoughts, and thank you for sharing!