The Core Energetic Beneath the Noise
La energía central bajo el ruido
A vipassana practitioner asks about the tension between continuously scanning through sensations and staying with a single deeper sensation, and the teacher explains how foundational practice naturally gives way to encountering a core energetic that demands a different kind of relationship.
The Core Energetic Beneath the Noise
A vipassana practitioner asks about the tension between continuously scanning through sensations and staying with a single deeper sensation, and the teacher explains how foundational practice naturally gives way to encountering a core energetic that demands a different kind of relationship.
I practice vipassana, and one of the teachings is that you scan the body, flowing through it up and down, without narrowing in on any particular sensation. You keep moving. The idea, as I understood it from my teacher, is that too often we focus on a strong sensation and miss a more subtle one. So you keep feeling all the sensations. I also understand vipassana as an art of living; it's not solely concerned with awakening. But with the approach of focusing on a stronger or deeper sensation, I was curious what your thoughts were on that.
The way I see it is that if vipassana as a practice were directed to focus on a specific sensation, it would be very problematic. It's about the ability to flow through whatever is appearing, just as vipassana points to. And that flowing is going to start clearing what is more on the surface.
The deeper sensation emerges through clearing
But what I was discussing in the previous exchange doesn't begin as a strong sensation. It is actually the most subtle, deep thing. As we start to clear everything and be able to move through it all without getting attached, which is the problem in foundational practices (attachment to certain sensations and thoughts), we go deeper. So what we want to do is move, move, move. That's the foundational practice: staying with the breath, or vipassana. Observe thoughts and don't get attached. Observe the train of thoughts, the train of sensations.
But if you keep doing that, going deeper, clearing, and being able to move through, there's going to be some core energetic that will also be changing and moving. When I say it's one core sensation, I mean it's a core energetic that, as I said in the meditation, is like a chameleon. It will change shape, form, and flavor. But the more you clarify, the more it's going to feel like one big "no." It will be really subtle at first, but the closer you get to it, the more it becomes like a screaming "no."
Avoidance versus attachment
That's what I was addressing in the previous conversation, where it was very different from what would call for a different approach. Once you start relating to and touching that deeper energetic, I would recommend an experiment, an exploration: how can I touch that more directly and not push it away?
Because there's another aspect here. If I'm just trying to move through, it might be an avoidance of something. There is a balance, and it has to do with intuition. The question is: am I now in avoidance, or am I in attachment? Am I avoiding a sensation, or am I attaching to one?
Recognizing the jump
As you practice, you might at some point come to a way of moving through that is actually saying "no" to some sensations. Something might move and appear, and you think, "Oh, not that," and move to the head or to some other space. That can be recognized as you develop your intuition and your capacity to see the mechanisms of your mind. You will recognize, "Oh, that's me jumping away from something. Why don't I just stay with it a little longer and see what's happening, and then maybe move through?"
When it can no longer be avoided
If you continue, you will see in descriptions from people who have gone deep and had profound awakenings that something gets ignited, something you cannot avoid. It is revealed because you've seen through all of the noise. When that starts to happen, there's going to be something needed. It's not exactly a practice, but an invitation into a relationship with something that is really hard to be with.
Yes, that does resonate. I want to explore that. I'm going to spend some time with it. Thank you.