They spend most of their time looking and listening and physically interacting with it. As time goes by, they begin to build up a mental model of the world, and they begin to interact more with their ideas than with the physical world. I assume that their thinking habits gradually generate a felt sense of selfhood. By shifting attention back to the physical world (ie. ATA) and not reinforcing the usual self-referential ideation, I assume that the structure of thoughts supporting selfhood collapses as a result of inattention and disuse.
Does this mean that mind was clear and it took fifteen years for the body to catch up? Or does this mean that mind was unclear and it took fifteen years for mind obscurations to collapse? I have no idea. The important point from my POV is that by interacting with the world like little children it is possible for the idea of selfhood to collapse, and that ends the search. There is then no longer an imagined entity trying to control anything, seek anything, or attain anything. All that remains is THIS, and THIS is "what is."
Another point that needs to be stressed is that this body/mind was an intense intellectual for a long time before starting to ATA. All those years of thinking may have required more years of ATA to overcome than someone who had not spent so much time thinking about existential issues. Some body/minds apparently get free of selfhood much more quickly than this one did. This may be because thinking habits were not so dominant, or it may be because their environment was more conducive to ATA. I was working in a high-stress business environment that required lots of daily thought and problem-solving. A monk in a monastery without a family and a simpler lifestyle might spend a lot more time attending and see through mental illusions a lot faster. Hopefully my story is a worst-case scenario! Ha ha.
I remember how hard it was to ATA more than three seconds when first attempting to shift attention away from thoughts. As I've mentioned before, I had to write notes to myself, and leave them lying around in plain sight, to remind the body/mind to shift attention away from thoughts (and particularly self-referential thoughts). The body/mind was plagued by compulsive incessant thinking, and it took quite a while before there was any noticeable mental silence at all.
Does this mean that mind was clear and it took fifteen years for the body to catch up? Or does this mean that mind was unclear and it took fifteen years for mind obscurations to collapse? I have no idea. The important point from my POV is that by interacting with the world like little children it is possible for the idea of selfhood to collapse, and that ends the search. There is then no longer an imagined entity trying to control anything, seek anything, or attain anything. All that remains is THIS, and THIS is "what is."
Another point that needs to be stressed is that this body/mind was an intense intellectual for a long time before starting to ATA. All those years of thinking may have required more years of ATA to overcome than someone who had not spent so much time thinking about existential issues. Some body/minds apparently get free of selfhood much more quickly than this one did. This may be because thinking habits were not so dominant, or it may be because their environment was more conducive to ATA. I was working in a high-stress business environment that required lots of daily thought and problem-solving. A monk in a monastery without a family and a simpler lifestyle might spend a lot more time attending and see through mental illusions a lot faster. Hopefully my story is a worst-case scenario! Ha ha.
I remember how hard it was to ATA more than three seconds when first attempting to shift attention away from thoughts. As I've mentioned before, I had to write notes to myself, and leave them lying around in plain sight, to remind the body/mind to shift attention away from thoughts (and particularly self-referential thoughts). The body/mind was plagued by compulsive incessant thinking, and it took quite a while before there was any noticeable mental silence at all.
