...but I suggest ATA because I think it is easier for most people to attend what is seen and heard with the eyes and ears rather than attending thoughts (which are "sticky"), or the "I AM" (which is unclear to newbies), or THIS (which is equally unclear.) Unlike SC and Andrew, most people do not think that everything they see is a thought, so I tell them to shift attention away from thoughts to what they can see or hear.
Even ATA, in the everyday informal sense, is difficult for most peeps, and many newbies have to narrow down ATA to breath awareness (which is a form of ATA) to achieve enough mental silence to do ATA informally. Why suggest ATA? Well, there are lots of people who dislike sitting meditation. Also, many people get attached to sitting meditation and think that sitting in the lotus position for hours on end is the end-all be-all of a spiritual life. The same people also often think that "hard sitting" is symptomatic of "progress" and this idea reinforces the illusion of selfhood.
ATA, by contrast, is something that a person can do anywhere and at any time. It is informal and less "special" than either esoteric practices (think "Tibetan Buddhism") or formal zazen (think Zen). Many meditators set aside thirty minutes or one hour each day to sit in silence. I am suggesting that informally practicing ATA while driving down the highway or walking in the woods can be equally effective without creating a sense of "specialness." It also eliminates the artificial time allotment that people often identify with formal meditation. I have had countless people tell me things like, "I never miss my thirty minutes of meditation each day at exactly six o'clock in the morning!" I always feel like asking them, "Okay, but what's going on during the other 23.5 hours in your day?" In all likelihood they're lost in the mind reinforcing the idea that they are separate entities moving around in an objective external world.
I use the term "actual" to distinguish the difference between what the eyes see and what the mind's eye sees or what the mind's ear hears. From my perspective there is a vast difference between an image of a tree seen in the mind when the eyes are closed and what the eyes see when looking at what we call "a tree." I say that what the eyes see is "actual" and what the mind's eyes see is "imaginary," but I'm only using those words provisionally and without attachment.
From my perspective there is a big difference between thinking and attending, looking, or watching, and thinking is what causes enormous human suffering. It doesn't HAVE to cause suffering, but in most cases it does. ATA is therefore a simple exercise for the suspension of thinking until SOT (structures of thought) can be seen through.
I suspect that if a person did nothing more than sit on their front porch in a rocking chair and look at the world in silence, s/he would wake up. With sufficient mental silence I would recommend AT (attend THIS) rather than ATA because it broadens the field of attention to include everything--what is seen, heard, felt, imagined, etc. I think AT would gradually morph into Niz's practice as thoughts ceased and everything fell away.
After he became enlightened, Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen, became famous for saying "Enlightenment is Zazen; zazen is enlightenment." I would rather say, "Enlightenment is sipping a coffee at Mcdonalds." This is because sipping coffee at McDonalds is not special; it is part of ordinary everyday life. The spiritual path is, in effect, circular. As adults, we start off living life unconsciously. We think we are human beings living in an externalized objective universe. We think that time and space are real and that the world, as we imagine it, makes sense. After following the pathless path of non-duality, we end up back where we started, but with a different outlook entirely. All beliefs have been left behind, and who we once thought we were has disappeared into THIS. There is no time or space or separateness. There is no cause and effect. There is no before or after. There is only THIS--Presence. THIS is beyond comprehension, and it is what we ARE. The body/mind at this moment is sitting in a McDonalds Restaurant typing on a laptop computer. Outside it is snowing. Inside, voices are murmuring in the background, a timer on a machine is beeping, a TV on the wall is chattering, and a child is crying. Just THIS. To paraphrase Rumi, "Ideas of God, non-duality, a spiritual life, progress, life, death, enlightenment, and anything else........blown off into emptiness."
Even ATA, in the everyday informal sense, is difficult for most peeps, and many newbies have to narrow down ATA to breath awareness (which is a form of ATA) to achieve enough mental silence to do ATA informally. Why suggest ATA? Well, there are lots of people who dislike sitting meditation. Also, many people get attached to sitting meditation and think that sitting in the lotus position for hours on end is the end-all be-all of a spiritual life. The same people also often think that "hard sitting" is symptomatic of "progress" and this idea reinforces the illusion of selfhood.
ATA, by contrast, is something that a person can do anywhere and at any time. It is informal and less "special" than either esoteric practices (think "Tibetan Buddhism") or formal zazen (think Zen). Many meditators set aside thirty minutes or one hour each day to sit in silence. I am suggesting that informally practicing ATA while driving down the highway or walking in the woods can be equally effective without creating a sense of "specialness." It also eliminates the artificial time allotment that people often identify with formal meditation. I have had countless people tell me things like, "I never miss my thirty minutes of meditation each day at exactly six o'clock in the morning!" I always feel like asking them, "Okay, but what's going on during the other 23.5 hours in your day?" In all likelihood they're lost in the mind reinforcing the idea that they are separate entities moving around in an objective external world.
I use the term "actual" to distinguish the difference between what the eyes see and what the mind's eye sees or what the mind's ear hears. From my perspective there is a vast difference between an image of a tree seen in the mind when the eyes are closed and what the eyes see when looking at what we call "a tree." I say that what the eyes see is "actual" and what the mind's eyes see is "imaginary," but I'm only using those words provisionally and without attachment.
From my perspective there is a big difference between thinking and attending, looking, or watching, and thinking is what causes enormous human suffering. It doesn't HAVE to cause suffering, but in most cases it does. ATA is therefore a simple exercise for the suspension of thinking until SOT (structures of thought) can be seen through.
I suspect that if a person did nothing more than sit on their front porch in a rocking chair and look at the world in silence, s/he would wake up. With sufficient mental silence I would recommend AT (attend THIS) rather than ATA because it broadens the field of attention to include everything--what is seen, heard, felt, imagined, etc. I think AT would gradually morph into Niz's practice as thoughts ceased and everything fell away.
After he became enlightened, Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen, became famous for saying "Enlightenment is Zazen; zazen is enlightenment." I would rather say, "Enlightenment is sipping a coffee at Mcdonalds." This is because sipping coffee at McDonalds is not special; it is part of ordinary everyday life. The spiritual path is, in effect, circular. As adults, we start off living life unconsciously. We think we are human beings living in an externalized objective universe. We think that time and space are real and that the world, as we imagine it, makes sense. After following the pathless path of non-duality, we end up back where we started, but with a different outlook entirely. All beliefs have been left behind, and who we once thought we were has disappeared into THIS. There is no time or space or separateness. There is no cause and effect. There is no before or after. There is only THIS--Presence. THIS is beyond comprehension, and it is what we ARE. The body/mind at this moment is sitting in a McDonalds Restaurant typing on a laptop computer. Outside it is snowing. Inside, voices are murmuring in the background, a timer on a machine is beeping, a TV on the wall is chattering, and a child is crying. Just THIS. To paraphrase Rumi, "Ideas of God, non-duality, a spiritual life, progress, life, death, enlightenment, and anything else........blown off into emptiness."
