Getting It Done

People who practice a little bit of meditation may notice that they become somewhat more aware and relaxed.  But much more than a little bit of awareness and relaxation can be accomplished if one takes it far enough.  I wouldn't go quite so far as to promise the wonderful "ever increasing bliss" that Yogananda suggested, but there can be substantial tranquility, relief from anxiety and psychological suffering, as well as a substantially new way of looking at the world.

"Getting it done" isn't that complicated.  It is mainly about doing enough quality training to "cause" the mind to permanently shift, and implies a relatively serious part-time commitment to practice.  This does not necessarily mean years at a monastery, but rather points to consistent high quality daily practice.

Start Slow

Don't feel like you have to jump in right off the bat with a half hour of meditation.  I mean, that would be great, but even one minute of practice a day is something to start with, it's doable, and you're not going to burn out.  Experiment, have fun with it, and work your way up.

Motivation

Just about anyone who gets much of anything accomplished in life had some kind of desire to get it done, some kind of great love, hope, or interest.  In the meditation world it is often driven by a search to solve life's many problems along with the magical promise of some kind of blissed out Buddha-like perfection.  Although fantasies like the latter should be seen as such, the practical reality of shifting the mind to a relaxed, aware, open, non-conceptual view can be a very big deal.  Most people have no idea of how many burdens they are carrying around, and how much can be let go of.  And from where I sit, this seems completely possible, it is just a matter of getting the quality and quantity of training high enough.  In my own case, the shift from relatively uptight to relatively serene was a big deal, a game changer.  Your mileage may vary.

For many people, reading books and watching videos can be inspiring, so dig in, but just make sure that you are actually doing the practice.  If you want to get it done, it's not so much about some kind of conceptual understanding, it is about training the mind to be mindful and relaxed.

Dedication

Like many other things in life, getting it done tends to require a daily practice, very similar to something like playing a musical instrument.  Imagine learning to write extremely well with your other hand, for example.  That's going to take a lot of consistent, conscious practice, but it would be completely possible to do.  It's like that.  Establish a minimum daily practice routine, a time and a place, and stick to it.  I used to keep a notebook where every line was a date, how long I practiced, and a word or two that summarized the main experiences of that session.  If I missed a day, that meant I skipped a line, and I didn't like to see blank lines in the notebook.

All Day Awareness

A short (30 minute) daily practice, if extremely high quality, can do some amazing things.  But the effect can be greater if one's mindset is to be repeatedly aware of mindfulness throughout the day, rather than just an isolated block once a day.  Normally conditioned minds naturally fall out of mindfulness, but the idea is to become enough of a mindfulness enthusiast that you come up with creative ways of bringing yourself back to the present moment throughout the day.

Noting out loud in the car on the way to work, practicing in the shower, on breaks, washing dishes, etc.  Spending a minute here and there while watching TV with the full awareness that you are in fact in a room watching images on a screen, without getting lost in the narrative.  Coming up with certain events that trigger mindfulness, for example, maybe whenever you walk through a doorway.  Maybe use reminders (I did), like signs that says "aware, relaxed, open" taped to your computer monitor, in the bathroom, on top of the TV, above the kitchen sink, etc.  Set a timer to go off every hour or something.  Use an app that randomly prompts you during the day.  Invent ways to get it done.

Quality

It is really important to stress the importance of the quality of practice, quality being something like the percentage of time one is actually aware of being aware.  There is the practical sense that intention is important, and practice time is important, but it's really important to get the quality aspect down.  Practice makes permanent.  So what are you practicing?  What are you actually getting done in terms of this percentage-of-time-aware metric?  How many quality hours are you piling up?  The path to quality is sometimes going to be the more structured methods that require you to maintain this kind of awareness.  I recommend noting, breath counting, mantra, and combinations of those.  If those aren't your thing, maybe try to at least occasionally check in with a structured method to get a read on exactly how you're doing.  Feedback is extremely important in learning, and many people aren't aware of how often they are losing their mindfulness.

Continuity

The longer you can stay with this kind of meta-awareness we're referring to, the better.  Longer stretches of continuous mindfulness tend to be a marker of progress, so be aware of how you are doing on the continuity scale as well.

Tight But Loose

It needs to be emphasized that ultimately, with practice, with the structured styles, only a small amount, maybe about 5% of one's attention should be on the structure - the note, counting or mantra itself.  Most of the attention, eventually, should be on the actual object in awareness - the seeing, hearing, and feeling.  One has to adjust to circumstances, tailoring one's awareness to the relative ease or difficulty that presents itself.  When and if awareness is stable and continuous, one can let go of structure, while if one is spacing out left and right, this is a cue to reintroduce structured methods.  These structures are tools, and it's not about the tool, it's about the work you do with the tool, and that work is the mindfulness itself.

Attention at the Edge

One small key might be to notice some things around the "edge" of your experience.  At first a person may notice a kind of binary quality to meditative awareness.  Either they are aware and present, or oops, they are lost.  It may seem very black and white, but maybe try to start to notice the edges of that.  Notice when you are losing it, and maybe note "losing it".  Or maybe you notice "boredom", and that's a cue to reinvigorate your structured practice.  Or maybe you could notice the underlying desire to go think about that thing you've been wanting to think about, and note: "desire".  Being aware that the quality of your awareness has changed, that you have lost some clarity and are getting fuzzier or sleepier, this can be noticed and you can take appropriate measures.

In everyday life, I notice that the times that the mind tends to start to run off is when there is some kind of slowdown or break in the action.  While watching TV, you might have to pay attention to some verbal exposition to follow the plot, but then there is a break with a purely visual transition to set up something like a new location.  The mind immediately notices that there is more room to go off and think and off it goes.  You can notice this at times, that desire to "fill that space", the desire to think and the movement towards that.

The Dogmatic Approach

"It is not a matter of good or bad, convenient or inconvenient.  You just do it without question.  That way your mind is free."

-Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki

The dogmatic approach is to take a structured method and just dogmatically follow it.  Kind of silly in a way, this method is to literally follow the method, but it needs to be said.  Many people take a laid back, laissez-faire approach to meditation.  They're chilling out, relaxing, and, while that's fine in its own way, they may be spacing out left and right, very much like they do off the cushion.  The structured styles exist because there is a real need for them, because our minds have been conditioned to go off and think about those things, and to be very attached to that.  We're like addicts in that way.

A Hindu teacher once remarked on a practice seen in many Asian street markets where people buy cups of raw rice and other products.  The vendors have a practice where they continually and repetitively count out loud each cup during the process of scooping up the product, transferring it, putting it in a bag, so the counting would sound something like "one, one, one, one, two, two, two, two" etc.  It's a practical way of keeping the transaction honest, but it's borne out of the human tendency to space out.  It's necessary.  At some level it might look silly, but it needs to be done, it's the only way to be sure when you have small measuring cups and no scale.

So the dogmatic approach is like this.  It is based on the understanding, in a twelve step kind of way, that we are otherwise powerless against the tendency to space out.  And one remedy is to make this dogmatic agreement with yourself, that similar to the vendors, you will count every breath, or that you will note once per second, or whatever your technique requires.  So you agree to note 3600, yes 3600 times in one hour.  That you have no choice in the matter.  You've signed up for boot camp.  Just do it and stop complaining about it.  Stop imagining that there is some other choice or that you can just wing it without technique.

Someone who wants to be a professional jazz musician doesn't have some kind of choice about whether they practice scales or not.  And even for a die hard musician, some of that might be tedious from time to time.  But they do it because they want to get to the end goal, to play jazz.  A guitarist is not born with the ability to play through a scale with 64th note triplets with perfect alternate picking technique.  It takes a lot of "dogmatic" practice, and they don't get to just lazily pick a few notes and then space out for a minute.  They stay focused on the task for minutes at a time, continuously.  And over time it indeed changes them into a person who can play 64th note triplets with alternate picking technique.

So "you" give up, you surrender to this process.  That's kind of useful in itself, as part of the path.  Wax on, wax off.  The way that your mind has been living life for however many years you have been alive, you are going to abandon those habits and become a slave to these methods that are going to interrupt and interfere with those habits.  Again, useful in itself.  You are just going to sit and do this possibly insane sounding practice, and you probably won't like it at first (because the mind wants to do what it's always done), but that's it, you just do it.  No sneaking off for a few seconds here and there, no buts, no thinking "I'll just wing it", you just do the freaking practice.  The practice that forces you to stay continually aware of your awareness.

It is possible to do this.  If you wanted to, you could count 3600 little spoonfuls of something in a hour, at the rate of one per second.  It's entirely possible, and counting out loud is one way you would be able to do it without losing count.

But you have to agree to this, you have to be okay with this, you have to let go of your resistance.

And Yet Let Go

Although dogmatic practice is goal oriented in this way, it's equally important to emphasize the idea that you don't beat yourself up about the lapses that absolutely will occur.  If you slip, you slip, and you just smile at yourself and go right back into the practice.  Don't stress yourself out with it.  You'll need to get up to speed with a new practice, learn a bit, get adjusted to the process, it will take time.  Some people might even panic or worry a bit, but just keep it simple, relax, and just do it.

At first, it may be hard, but eventually it will become easier, as it becomes second nature.  Find a way to do it in a relaxed way, even if you're learning.  Find a way to be okay with it.  And as it becomes easier, you can focus more on that relaxation aspect.  When you've got the awareness of awareness going, within that you can relax.  Notice whatever physical, emotional, or mental tension there is.  Let it be there.  Don't fight it.  If you can let go of some of that, great.  If you can't let go of it, great, just let it be there.  Feel your resistance to that tension, let it be there.  If you can let go of some of that, great.  If you can't let go of it, great, just let it be there.  Repeat ad infinitum.

Lean into the Sensate

Our culture leads to a population of people that could be described as brains on popsicle sticks, relatively out of touch with our bodies and overly oriented towards thought.  We are out of balance in this way.  So another great pointer is to lean in the direction of the basic senses, seeing, hearing, and feeling.  All you have to do is continually and wordlessly check in with basic sensory stuff.  What am I seeing?  What am I hearing?  What am I feeling?  With no conceptual elaboration, no stories, no spin.  Just the sensate experience.  Your techniques should lead you to a continual nonverbal answering of those questions.  In a way it couldn't be easier: just what is here, right here, right now, seeing, hearing, feeling.  All we have to do is set up a bit of structure to keep us from running off into daydreams, and we can just sit and be and witness.

Examples of Structured Styles

• Noting
• Breath Counting
• Mantra
• Noting with breath counting
• Noting, timed with breath
• Breath counting with mantra

Support

Local meditation groups and teachers can be helpful, often giving people more motivation to practice well.  These are almost always going to be promoting a non-structured, mainstream style, but you can meditate any way you want.

There are a couple of online communities that are well oriented to the approach of actually getting it done.  A person who really wants to get it done might consider joining these communities and possibly keeping an online practice journal for feedback.

• Dharma Overground is the biggest, this is a typical "wild west" kind of internet forum
• Awake Network is a very small and protected community
• Reddit Streamentry group is relatively on point
• Many traditional Buddhist or other forums

For many people psychological work with therapists and groups, bodywork, yoga, etc. might fall into this category, and has the potential to reduce suffering.

Gadgets

Whatever gadget or technique that works for you, use it.

I'm not super into smart phones and their apps, but I understand that the

•  Insight Timer (some free)

is relatively popular meditation app, and there are many, many others such as:

• Waking Up (some free) - I have used this app and recommend the content.  It lightly introduces the basics while spending a lot of time pointing out some pretty advanced topics.
• Headspace (some free)
• Calm (pay)
• Buddhify (pay)
• 10% Happier (some free)
• Simple Habit (some free)
• Breethe: Sleep & Meditation (some free)

Also, not exactly pure meditation but the

• Unwinding Anxiety app (pay) comes highly recommended

When I was getting it done I often used a device (the Motivaider) that was essentially a modified beeper that vibrated every so often.  I had it set to the minimum, one minute.  I would hold it loosely (so I would notice it more easily) in my left hand, and I logged probably over 1000 hours with it.  They also have a mobile app.  And I'm sure there are many other apps that do this.

Recently I have experimented with the Random Reminder app on Google Play.

RESPeRATE is a device designed to help pace and slow down your breathing.  It is considered a medical device in that it has been demonstrated to lower blood pressure.  I used one several times at a biofeedback practitioner's office and it is extremely effective at inducing relaxation.  Cultivating slow, relaxed belly breathing is very worthwhile.

Gadgets might also encompass guided meditations, ambient music, supplements, whatever might help to keep you mindful and relaxed.

Walking meditation is another possible "trick".  The Theravada community spends maybe half their meditation time walking, and neurologically speaking, that kind of exercise helps with learning.  And we are trying to learn.

Non-Dual Teachings

Another approach, or supplement, would be to check out the people who are doing talks where they are pointing very directly at or from an enlightened perspective.  This would be the realm of Advaita/Non-duality/Dzogchen.  There are more of these teachers now than one could count, but a couple of the more famous would be Adyashanti and Eckhart Tolle, for whom there are innumerable Youtube videos, books, and recordings.  These can sometimes be helpful, teaching something about the direction to lean towards.

Traditional Buddhist dharma talks might also be helpful and motivating, there is a huge repository at dharmaseed, for example.

Head-Butting Your Worldview

Another supplemental approach would be to do a kind of intellectual inquiry, digging straight into the concepts and seriously confronting one's entrenched views about the world.  A good example would be the book Gateless Gatecrashers (pdf, also available in print).  They have a website, Liberation Unleashed, with forums where people work on this kind of stuff, and like the meditation forums above, you could start a personal thread to directly engage with people on your journey.  Or you could engage with the Liberation Unleashed AI bot, highly recommended.

The classic Alan Watts "The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are"  might be an additional example.

Effort vs. No Effort

 

Many would place me in the "effort" camp of meditation.  There is some of that.  But I believe the dichotomy of effort vs. no-effort is solved, like most things, by understanding that both things are happening, both things are required.  One has to simultaneously remain mindful (effort?, at times) in order to notice the grasping and resistance that can be let go of (no-effort).  So I recommend some kind of structure in addition to a basic intent to be aware, and I recommend feeling your feelings and letting go of everything that can be let go of.  And letting go of the structure is fine.  Just be realistic about how mindful you actually are, and return to structure when you need to.

Feel Your Way Into It

Don't beat yourself up about this.  These structured techniques are just tools, use them, and relax while you're using them.  You're just doing the equivalent of counting cups of rice, it doesn't have to be stress inducing, far to the contrary, it can be relaxing.  Counting a cup of rice isn't hard, but it does mean you don't get to go off and think about that thing.  That's the job you signed up for.

Maybe I should end by making the point that this is ultimately or eventually something that you very much have to feel your way into.  Feel the sensations, feel the emotions, feel the grasping and resistance, feel the breath.  And relax, relax, relax wherever you can.  Counting the breath, for example, is not about the counting.  It's not about controlling the breath.  It's about using the counting as a tool so you can feel the breath continuously, until you are just watching it happen, until you are just being, effortlessly experiencing an animal that happens to be breathing.

Best of luck to you.

Next: Mahasi Noting Style

Table of Contents for How to Meditate
 

Why Use the Noting Style?

First off, use whatever works.  Whatever works to get you present and aware of what you are aware of, and keep you there a high percentage of the time.

The noting style comes from southeast Asian Theravada Buddhism, from a monk called Mahasi.  The style came out of a period of experimentation and regrowth in the Theravada communities due to various cultural factors.  It was an attempt to replicate what Buddha described in his talk about mindfulness.

The following is a bit technical, but here are some of the reasons that this style may be effective:

• Perhaps most importantly, the noting requires you to continuously prove one is aware, to provide evidence that you are aware, unlike most methods where one merely intends to be aware
• Regular noting at approximately one second intervals doesn't allow much time for mind wandering
• Coming up with the note uses up a certain amount of mental bandwidth that might otherwise be used to wander
• Practiced earnestly, it allows for a very high rate of continuous mindfulness or awareness of awareness, true for many structured styles
• Freely noting from any points in awareness, "dancing" from one object of awareness to another, trains mental flexibility and gives insight into impermanence
• Similarly, continually breaking up one's experience into parts, deconstructing and objectifying the experience, "busting it up", gives insight into no-self
• Every note is telling you what experience, what attachment, to let go of
• The regular noting (around 3600 times per hour) provides a unique type of feedback, allowing the mind to see patterns it might miss otherwise, at times providing insight into dependent origination, the billiard ball like physics of our experience (for example: loud sound > fear > body tensions > fearful thoughts > realization > relief > relaxation)
• This style is perhaps exceptionally good for interrupting the conditioned prejudice towards, and attachment to, thought
• This style is recommended by Dr. Jud Brewer, who has tested out many types of mindfulness with subjects using fMRI, comparing the results to that of advanced meditators.  Brewer uses this style in his apps.
• Ultimately, it is a complete by-the-numbers approach to learn how to pay attention to the present moment.  If you actually do it, you are being mindful.  If you are doing mainstream mindfulness practice where you merely intend to be mindful, it may be that much of the time you won't be mindful.

But again, whatever works.

Next:  Intro to Noting and Meditation

Table of Contents for How to Meditate

Meditation and Psychedelics

Many, if not most, of the senior members of the meditation community and teachers came to meditation at least in part as a result of psychedelic experiences back in the sixties and seventies.  Books like Zig Zag Zen discuss this phenomenon.

Clearly the use of psychedelics is not widespread in classic Buddhism.  Yet they do make the rare appearance in the form of the Amrita (and Soma) sacrament in ancient Tibetan Buddhism (and Hinduism). Descriptions make it sound likely that these were mushrooms, described as both "red" (likely amanita muscaria) as well as "blue throated" (likely psilocybe cubensis).  These mushrooms have been associated with many other cultures and religions.

Adepts would go through a certain amount of meditation training before being presented with an initiation experience with the Amrita substance intended to provide a glimpse of the "deathless".

Psychedelics can be enormously helpful, but they should come with a big warning label.  Pragmatically, anything that can amplify the underlying psyche, bringing our deepest psychological baggage into full, naked awareness, and/or destabilizing closely held beliefs about world views, should probably come with a few caveats and precautions.

In the same way, intensive meditation practice and intensive psychotherapy should come with similar warnings.  The difference is simply that psychedelics can get you there quicker.

The general recommendation is that you would already have your stuff together psychologically and so forth before you embark.  For the studies that have been done on psychedelics they typically screen out people with various problems, family histories of schizophrenia, etc.  But the reality is that a far broader spectrum of people will be experimenting with these substances.  While I would recommend starting a meditation practice as part of the preparation, I would say at minimum familiarize yourself with at least one of the many guides to tripping that are available.

Meditation and Psychedelics

Some initial research indicates some usefulness for meditation in conjunction with meditation.  For example the paper, Psilocybin-occasioned mystical-type experience in combination with meditation and other spiritual practices produces enduring positive changes in psychological functioning and in trait measures of prosocial attitudes and behavior.

“There was a participant in the study who had had an extensive, extensive practice, like tens of thousands of hours of meditation, which is an incredibly extreme amount,” said Frederick Barrett, PhD at the Johns Hopkins Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. “And she indicated after her psilocybin session that she relived all of the peak experiences she had ever had meditating. Wow.” 

Similarity of the Brain on Psychedelics with that of Advanced Meditators

FMRI studies show substantial correlation in brain activity patterns between people using major psychedelics like LSD or psilocybin and that of advanced meditators.  Both show a dialing down of the Default Mode Network (monkey mind).  So it is plausible that this might be helpful with some kind of crossover or training wheel effect.

Seeing Things in A New Way

Psychedelics are a useful tool to see that there are alternatives to the way we usually experience the world.  This can help us to open up to new ways of seeing things.  While we humans are continual learners, I feel that once we reach a certain age it becomes maybe even more useful to begin to unlearn some of the stuff that we learned wrong the first time around, letting go of entrenched dogmas and psychological viewpoints that aren't helpful anymore.

Creativity

Similarly, psychedelics may help us to connect various ideas and concepts in new ways.  The brain scans show that there is a type of interconnectivity in the brain that is not normally present.

Openness

One of the ground breaking findings from research into psilocybin is that changes were observed in the personality domain of openness, one of five dimensions of personality that were thought to be relatively fixed by adulthood.  As with other positive trait changes resulting from psilocybin, the effect was correlated with the degree to which the individual experienced a genuine mystical experience.  From the paper:

The long-term positive impact of hallucinogens may depend on their ability to occasion profound insights and mystical-type experiences. The core features of mystical experience, are feelings of unity and interconnectedness with all people and things, a sense of sacredness, feelings of peace and joy, a sense of transcending normal time and space, ineffability, and an intuitive belief that the experience is a source of objective truth about the nature of reality.

Because such experiences appear to enable individuals to transcend their usual patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting, it is plausible that they could occasion changes in core dimensions of personality.

Offering A Glimpse

By offering people a chance of a mystical experience, there is a possibility to glimpse the kinds of insights that would otherwise be possible only after years of meditation.

Magnifying Glass

Psychedelics are sometimes described as a non-specific magnifier of experience.  They can sometimes bring hidden issues to the forefront in clear detail.

Concentration Practice

The meditative absorptions known as jhanas or samadhi are easier to attain on psychedelics and more intense, this makes various aspects of jhanas clearer than they might be otherwise.  Again, a training wheel effect.

Although controversial, I think a retreat practice that included some days of very low microdoses could be effective.

Oneness

The dropping away of the ego into pure consciousness or oneness is easier to stumble into.  This could help with a training wheel effect or perhaps more realistically it simply gives one a better idea of the ultimate direction to lean into.

Psychological Healing

Under certain conditions psychedelics can help with the healing of difficult psychological problems.  The use of MMDA for PTSD is relatively well established, now in stage III clinical trials, but this type of thing can happen with major psychedelics as well.  The short version is that the challenging material needs to come up under the influence and be "allowed" without resistance.

Neurogenesis and Plasticity

There is some sparse evidence (studies on mice, I believe) that the major psychedelics enhance neurogenesis and plasticity, things that are beneficial for training and learning of all kinds.

On the other hand

Promotion of Delusion

Because things can seem more real under the influence of psychedelics, and the mind is particularly open and vulnerable to different ways of seeing things, strange beliefs and superstitions often arise. In the world of recreational psychedelics, pseudoscience rules.

Often doesn't make for Permanent Changes

Occasionally, yes, particularly under the right conditions, but as a rule, probably not so much.  Spiritually, one gets a glimpse.  All too often a person will simply fall back into their previous patterns.  Can be very helpful, but the way it is typically used recreationally is not ideal. Used properly, and in combination with a good meditation practice, I think there are some real benefits.

Some Personal Experiences

Around 1980 or so, early in my twenties, I had my first psychedelic experience, with LSD.  It was blotter with the image of something like a blue dove.  Whatever it was, it was not weak.  It was an interesting and surreal experience, but at the time, I didn't take it as much more than that.  Looking back I can see there were a lot of important insights that I passed off as merely unusual.

No-Self

For example, seeing that everything was happening, without "me".  There were clearly many experiences like this during the trip, but I find it fascinating that it didn't really impress me as mind blowing or anything.  I think the basic problem was that I was still living with a very solid assumption of self.  And I had not really considered the notion of ego-death, if I had even heard of it at all at that point.  Frankly, if you had asked me if ego-death had happened to me, I would have said no.  And I did not release into what I would call pure consciousness.  That would be decades later for me.

I did a little bit of drawing with a sketchpad, and I noticed that the drawing was just happening.  I wasn't controlling it or guiding it, or cognizing about it as I usually might.  No lining things up or checking angles or proportions, rather it was just flowing naturally and the pencil was moving as if by itself.  I was just watching.

A friend took me to a video arcade where I played the game Asteroids. As I played, it was as if I wasn't doing anything, but again, just watching it happen.  Like the sketching, I wasn't trying to direct or control anything.  My hands were moving by themselves and stuff was happening on the screen.  I ended up with a score that was about 10% higher than I had scored before or since.  I would say this is primarily because "I" got out of the way, perhaps in the same way that Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter while high on acid, or when Jimi Hendrix knocked out that incredible set at the Monterey Pop Festival.

Being very purely in the moment

We then went to a repertory showing of the Beatles movie "Let It Be".  This became very strange, because I lost the ability to understand music.  My experience was so intensely, concretely, so hard into the present moment that it was as if the past and future didn't exist.  With no past and future, only the present moment, there was no continuity of sound and therefore no "music".  In that context, all I could perceive was the fundamentals of sound in each moment, each happening in an utterly independent way, with no connection to the next or previous moment.  Just isolated, random sounds, with no perception of melody.  I'm not sure if I could perceive harmony, but there was certainly no enjoyment or appreciation of what we would call music.  It was just sound.  In the hearing was just hearing.

I also lost some ability to distinguish visual objects at times.  I can remember being unable to separate the microphone from Paul McCartney.  It was as if it was one object, microphonepaulmccartney.

Thoughts Are Just Happening

Winding down at the end of that evening, as I fell into bed and maybe for the first time relaxed and went within (something that decades later I wished I had done from the start), I was noticing my thoughts, and what was peculiar is that it was as if they weren't my thoughts.  It was as if I was separate from the thoughts and I had no connection with them.  Once again, they just seemed to be happening.

All in all, that one experience on LSD was jam-packed with insight.  I feel fortunate to have gotten so much, but it changed my life almost none.  Only years later, with extensive meditation, did it all come together for me.

5th Jhana

Many years later, the first time I experienced 5th jhana, which is a meditative absorption with the predominate feature of "infinite space", was while taking psilocybin.  It blew me away.  This was a bit of a game changer because, for me, it was such an unusual distortion of my normal reality in a way that was inescapable.  And since it was repeatable, I couldn't explain it away as imagination, suggestion or whatever.  The fact that it plays on the primary sense of vision as well, making whatever space you're in look and feel enormously big and sometimes expanding, wow.  This is an example of the way that psychedelics are what I call spiritual steroids, they allow you to go beyond your cutting edge and see a bit more.  Within weeks I experienced it in normal meditation.

At the time, I didn't know it was 5th jhana.  I didn't know enough about jhanas to know that.  But I did guess it was one of the higher jhanas, and afterwords I pulled a book off the shelf with some descriptions and found out what it was.  I was almost disappointed it was "only" 5th.  Hah, the ego.

5th jhana on psychedelics holds a special place for me, not only because of that first experience, but there was something about continually experiencing that, and expanding out to infinity, it kind of literally opened me up, it was as if it physically connected me to all things, to all people.  Literally expanded my world.

Fading out of Senses

On many other occasions with psilocybin and various combinations I have experienced the loss of one or more senses while on psychedelics.  Most commonly the sense of hearing.  Sometimes sound became distorted like the clipping of an overdriven amplifier, more rarely it would drop out completely, sometimes turning off and on as if someone was flicking a switch.  And, one time, on my highest dose, I experienced a void where there really weren't any senses.  I didn't know where I was or what was happening, and my cognition was very limited.  Might have been something like a hard 8th jhana.

Bright White Light

I have also experienced a significant brightening of the visual field on many occasions.  I sometimes would use a light and sound machine for the entrainment and entertainment of flashing lights.  On the most extreme occasion I can think of, the white brightness of my visual field became so intense that I couldn't even make out the LED's on the light goggles that were flashing directly over my pupils.  I remember resignedly taking off the goggles muttering to myself, "well this is pointless".

Caution and Final Words

These personal stories are some of the more extreme experiences of someone who, for a period of about 5 years in particular, was something of a psychonaut.  This is the cream of extreme out of hundreds of experiences, although I can't even begin to do justice to them, and the hundreds of other insights that came along the way.  Out of all those experiences, I should mention that there were maybe 3 sessions that were substantially challenging, one particularly so.  That's going to happen at some point, although the most difficult experiment resulted from too high a dose in combination with an mao inhibitor. Not a good choice, stay away from both, and work up slowly. The other two difficult experiences were a result of tripping while experiencing a lot of unsatisfactoriness. Again, not a great choice, although the underlying psyche can be difficult to read.

Also, that first experience on LSD had a segment of very intense paranoia.  For me, it took a long time to get past that paranoia, and I encountered it a little bit on every trip for a while.  Then, perhaps starting a dozen trips down the road, I started to finally be with that paranoia, allowing it to be there, allowing the underlying part of me that I was resisting to just be what it is, accepting it, making peace with it.  That process played out over about 5 trips for me and ended up being the most important therapy of my life.  It fixed me.  I really want that for everyone, but, you know, be careful, be prepared.

Supplements for Meditation

Besides a reasonable healthy diet, there may be supplements that make sense for a meditator.

As meditation training is a kind of learning, the concepts of neurogenesis (adding brain cells) and neuroplasticity (creating lasting changes) makes sense.  Neuroscientists are not exactly supplement junkies, but they do typically recommend two things over and over:

• Omega-3 Fatty Acids
• Aerobic Exercise

I find it interesting that the Theravada Buddhists include substantial portions of walking meditation on retreats, sometimes 50% of meditation time, as much as 8 hours a day.  I think that much might be overkill, but the general idea gives one at least the incentive to do what the medical establishment already recommends, about 30 minutes a day of moderate activity like walking.

It is fairly common in retreat environments for stimulants to be provided, such as:

• Tea and Coffee

I'm a bit sensitive to those myself, but if those work for you and you don't overdo it, use them intelligently when you need to.  On the other hand, if you need to sleep, sleep.

Rather than, or in addition to caffeine, I recommend one of the earlier "cognitive enhancing" drugs:

• Piracetam

The research on piracetam is somewhat inconclusive with respect to the kind of things it is often tested for, such as cognitive impairment, etc.  I can only point to a small number of advanced meditators that have gone on and off the substance and noticed the difference.  There are other more potent "racetams", but the original is the best studied, probably safest in that regard, and seems to work fine.

My take is that piracetam is helpful in keeping the mind aware and mindful, a literal mindfulness supplement.

It is often suggested that one start off with higher doses of piracetam, around 4.6 grams twice a day, and perhaps gradually tapering down to a maintenance dose of around 2.4 grams once a day, but you could also just start at the maintenance dose if you're more patient.  Your mileage may vary.  I've been satisfied with a modest 0.5 gram per day for many years now.

Even more controversial, and based on even sparser research, it might be worth mentioning perhaps even a:

• Major Psychedelic

There is a very small amount of research showing that major psychedelics, such as psilocybin and LSD, promote neurogenesis and neuroplasticity.  Perhaps that by itself is not enough to recommend it, and at some point I intend to do a more detailed post about psychedelics and meditation, but for now I would speculate that, if you are comfortable with these substances, a very small microdose, perhaps 1-5% of a dose, taken first thing in the morning on retreat, might not be the worst thing to do.

Of course, better than any supplement would be to make sure you are:

• Regularly, repeatedly, earnestly engaging in the practice of mindfulness and letting go

Alternative Noting

The kind of noting described so far could be done anywhere, but an alternate or additional form can be used off the cushion, which is to describe actions being performed.  For example, the practice of focusing on the breath is often noted with the "rising" and "falling" (of the diaphragm), or sometimes "in" and "out" if noting the breath at the tip of the nose.

Walking can be noted as "stepping", or during slow meditative walks as a sequence of "lifting", "moving", "placing", "pressure", etc.  Getting a glass of water, there might be "reaching" for the cabinet handle, "grasping" the handle, "pulling" the handle, "reaching" for the glass, "holding" the glass, "moving" the glass, "reaching" for the faucet, "turning" the faucet, "moving" the glass, "filling" the glass, "reaching" for the faucet again, "turning" the faucet, "raising" the glass, "turning", "sipping", "tasting", "swallowing", etc.

Next: Getting It Done

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Second Stage - More Detailed Noting

A second stage might be to begin to flesh out the feeling component into basic physical sensations like "pressure" or "tension", as well as basic emotions such as "anger", "joy", "sadness", and "fear", and to flesh out thinking into a few categories like "planning", "wondering", "remembering", or "imagining".

We don't have to go crazy with a million notes, but I will list a few more here for reference.  Pick and choose what works for you.

Feeling physical sensations:  pressure, tension, release, itching, tingling, twitching, pulsing, throbbing, warmness, coolness, softness, hardness.  It doesn't have to be complicated.  99% of the time I find myself using pressure or tension.

Feeling emotional sensations:  Besides basic emotions such as anger, joy, sadness and fear, there can be related subcomponents:

Related to anger: disgust, frustration, annoyance, rage, irritation.
Related to joy: love, bliss, exhilaration, wonder.
Related to sadness: depression, grief, hopelessness, despair.
Related to fear: anxiety, worry, surprise.

There is also a category of mind states that might not fit neatly into thoughts or feelings, such as amusement, curiosity, compassion, relaxation, tranquility, anticipation, apathy, boredom, etc.

Experiencing thinking: thinking, remembering, imagining, planning, visualizing, wondering, analyzing, judging.

I would say that when I am noting, I am probably using less than 20 notes on a regular basis.  It's just a tool to keep us aware, and it doesn't take tremendous variety to go beyond the benefit of a simple mantra.

Next:  Third Stage - Grasping and Resistance

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Getting In Touch With Emotions

Realize that when you are having an emotional experience, there may be many things going on.  There could be a primary emotion such as anger.  Easy enough.  But there could also be tensions in the body that are related to the anger.  One of the better habits to cultivate is an ability to quickly (or slowly) scan through the body and notice where there are any tensions.  Often, a fair amount of that tension can be let go of immediately, once you are aware of it.  In addition to the emotion of anger, and the body tensions associated with anger, there could also be angry thoughts or something subtler like a grumpiness.  If you're experiencing dissatisfaction, gently explore the body, the emotions, the mindstates, try to understand where that is, what it is, what you are really experiencing.

Understand that I'm not suggesting you intellectually analyze your emotions or try to figure out the "why" behind them.  Why is not so important.  I'm encouraging you to actually feel your feelings.  For some people it might be useful to probe a little deeper, i.e. maybe there is a surface emotion, which is enough for basic noting practice, but maybe check to see if there is anything deeper.  I don't normally advocate "hunting" for objects of awareness in noting, rather just note what is there, but if emotions are tricky for you, it might be worth poking around a bit.  Are you noticing all of the emotional material?  Are you avoiding or resisting any emotional material?  Be curious, and try to make sure you're feeling everything that is there, that you aren't skipping over or ignoring something.

It may be worthwhile to remember that when you are experiencing anything related to emotions, maybe check out the other parts of the body-emotions-thoughts complex, and see what else can be noticed and possibly let go of.

This is similar to the idea of breaking things down into their component parts.  What is this sensation made of?  Where is it in the body?  Does it change?  These are questions to be asked and answered without words.  Feel this stuff.  Adyashanti once made the analogy of being like a mad scientist, exploring the feelings that you are resisting or fearing.  What is that nasty depression like when you break it down in this way or stop fighting it?  Or that rage or fear?  Plunge into it and first try to just let it be what it is and break it down, or simply experience it again and again.  Let it be what it is.  Be curious, as curiosity is a great tool for maintaining awareness.   What are the basic sensations, where are they in the body, what does that feel like, what are the thoughts, might I be able to let go of some of that?  Could I let that be without resisting it?  Do this until you begin to do this wordlessly.

I hesitate to get too deeply into the beliefs underlying emotions, because we are trying to break everything down into component parts, and simultaneously we're trying to avoid going into stories and narrative.  For our purposes the why is not so important.  However, I should mention that on this emotional axis and the body-emotion-mind experiences that are woven there, there is typically an underlying belief, an opinion, an assumption, often a fear, that lies beneath resisted phenomenon.  Letting go of the underlying belief can facilitate the letting go of all the various sensations.  If you are aware enough of your own psychology to go down that road, I recommend keeping the concepts to simply noticing something like "my parents were controlling", and then go right back to noting basic phenomenon.  Nothing to see here, move along - it is just phenomenon like any other.  Psychological analysis can take place outside of formal meditation practice.

So the recommendation for things you are resisting is to lightly and continuously, repetitively, explore the usual suspects of body, emotion, and mind, investigate without creating a bunch of stories, let go of what can be let go of, and ultimately let everything just be with as little resistance as possible.  The background of the meditative path is one of relaxation, which is about letting go of the tensions that we are often unconsciously creating.

"get comfortable with being uncomfortable"

Sometimes we may be dealing with something that is more persistent or troublesome emotionally.  This requires more of the same.  The pointer is to work in a very continuous way on feeling, accepting, allowing, acknowledging, welcoming, surrendering, opening up, making friends, being receptive, holding the space, letting be, letting go, etc.  This aspect of treating everything that comes up in a non-judgmental way, relaxing with it, allowing it, is a very important part of the practice.

Next:  Alternative Noting

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