"The Warriors Meditation", TEM, and spherical awareness.

 

"The Warriors Meditation", TEM, and spherical awareness - meditation approach from Richard L. Haight.

A few weeks back I had been reviewing a book "The Warrior's Meditation" by Richard L. Haight. I purchased this on audible several years earlier, went through it, and then recently had a bit of spare time and decided to review the meditation and approach again.

I recalled that the approach related to the 5 senses and there was a favouring of open awareness using each of the sense doors, that then led to an open awareness of spacial positioning. That was about all I could remember. I didn't follow it up much after that time.

This time however, I was struck by the number of 'little gems' that the book/work contained.. topics such as alpha/beta wave brain states, attaining alpha states in seconds, the benefits of relaxed open awareness versus always being in a focused state (which is often promoted by many meditation systems), and many other little topics that proved to be highly valuable on the path.

I also enjoyed the comparisons between today's standard living mode versus the living mode that hunter/gatherers and anicent people would have lived in. This involved a much more relaxed focus with the 5 senses and an open awareness of what's happening (for survival), rather than always being zoomed into a very small point of focus, as we find ourselves often today-- with phones, reading content, projects, computers, driving vehicles, etc. -- and which all  have a small, but accumulative tension effect on our quality of living.

The meditation itself (The Warrior's Meditation), does have a lot of carry-over benefits, such as being able to access relaxed open awareness while going about one's daily activities, and also the ease at which it can be integrated into other approaches or just general daily situations.

It's nice to make an exploration of the 5 sense doors in this regard, and the last step of exploring spherical awareness or awareness of one's spatial location is really an interesting experience. Just using the practice of becoming aware of one's peripheral and total visual field, for instance, and noticing when one shifts into an alpha brain state, is worth having as a tool in the toolbox. Likewise, becoming aware of one's body and then the space around one's body, rather than just focusing on parts (as is usually done in vipassana approaches) is well worth the exploration time.

Richard L. Haight has a good number of videos on YouTube, and I feel that he's generally offering something new in the field with this meditation and his open awareness style meditations. I've not read any of his other books, although he's published a few more than just TWM.

Can it lead to liberation on it's own?

I'm not sure exactly. There's a lot of cross over between this open awareness style meditation and other approaches, such as Early Buddhist approaches to context based mindfulness and insight. Also there's obvious links between this and some of the Tibetan practices that use an open awareness style of contemplation such as Dzogchen and Mahamudra. Some teachers doing a similar thing would be Loch Kelly (Effortless Mindfulness), Shinzen Young (with his Do Nothing technique or SHF Global), Dean Sluyter (Dzogchen), and other teachings in the awareness teaching (Advaita) traditions that favour an open global awareness instead of a concentration approach. Note though that these approaches usually use the foundation of either Buddhism, Yoga, Shamanism, or Vedanta as a base. So, I'm a little doubtful that just picking up one technique or secular approach to things is going to lead to awakening without some of the other important framework parts such as having a stable, solid, ethical life in general, and including some sort of concentration practice on side -- which would serve to help understand the exact difference between open awareness and concentrated attention.

Overally, Richard's work is definately worth a look, and worth considering due to it's simple approach, and compilation of many related topics into an easy to understand frame of reference. Richard himself seems like a nice guy, and has a deep background in martial arts, healing, and cultural studies. 

Offical website:

https://richardlhaight.com/

Mahasi Noting Technique (Mahasi Sayadaw Vipassana) revisited 2018.

Here are a few notes on my experience of revisiting the Mahasi Sayadaw Noting technique (aka Mahasi Sayadaw style vipassana).

For some reason, I felt like carrying out an all day experiment, using considerable effort to keep noting all day long. The noting or labelling was to take place every second or so, and during all activities. I also did it during a few 20 minute sittings in silence.

Although I was fond of this technique before, it seems to have worn out its usefulness for now. In fact, I found it rather tiresome and effortful, versus the simple self-awareness, nondual type contemplation I'm used to these days.

Good:

- Gives some instant focus and withdrawal from discursive thought, analysis etc
- Tunes one into one's environment and the 6 sense doors rapidly
- Makes one ultra sensitive to the senses
- Brings experience back to basic sensations and perceptions, instead of conceptual stories

Issues:

- Becomes tiresome after long extended periods, especially due to the effort in keeping up the noting after each event
- Becomes mechanical and forced after a while, even when done lightly
- Too clunky to be used on subtle levels of experience
- The noting or labelling can get in the way of direct experience at times
- Focuses and habituates the mind to constantly 'go out' into phenomena, and completely ignores consciousness or awareness itself (subject).
- The mind becomes too tense after long periods
- Can strengthen the ego, false self, by engaging it in this whole project of 'doing' and 'getting somewhere' over time.

The technique has some ardent followers and proponents who say that it can lead to "stream-entry". It seems MS created it a century ago to help 'busy people' get into mindfulness and vipassana easier. It seems to be used in monastic and retreat situations these days mostly. I have read/spoken to/heard both success stories from people using the technique (ie attained to what they think is stream-entry), to dissatisfied students having used it for years (30 years in one case) without delivering 'the goods'.

I have my doubts now about how far the technique can actually take a practitioner. I highly doubt it would lead to the destruction of the false self/ego, and seems never to really lead to a thorough investigation of one's identity and underlying beliefs about experience.. but instead lead one to get into the minutiae of one's environment and senses.

Summary IME- it has it's place and is great for certain situations, and as an auxiliary practice, but is unlikely to deliver hard results in terms of self-realisation and transcending the false "I".

Apple juice mindfulness

A few days ago I was boarding a plane from Singapore to Penang island, and noticed that my seat was next to a Theravada (Buddhist) monk in his 40's. He was wearing the traditional brown robe and was already seated.

Although interested in making a connection, I withheld conversation for most of the trip. At the end of the trip I discovered he was a Burmese monk (in the Mahasi tradition) headed for a meditation centre in Penang.

During the trip we were served a snack/drink, and we both chose apple juice as a beverage. Theravada monks due to their vows, do not eat solid food after midday, hence he only took a cup of apple juice. Myself not being particularly fond of airplane food also took the same.

I took about five minutes or so to finish the drink with some minor noting of its taste and color. However, I received a direct, silent teaching in mindfulness from the monk in becoming aware that he took around 20 minutes to finish the small cup. Each sip was savoured completely, mindfully, and slowly, no doubt attending to the sense perceptions such as taste etc., while drinking.

The event left a lasting impression on my consciousness and memory. No big deal, but it does show that mindfulness in action (when done with a high degree of awareness and intent) can and does impact those around us and in ways not always recognized.