...and also thoughts and assumptions that are so subtle they aren't recognized at all. My theory, based upon personal experience and the writings of a lot of sages, is that shifting attention away from thoughts dissolves attachments to ideas, even ideas that aren't recognized. Past belief in those unrecognized ideas only becomes recognized when they are seen-through or evaporate.
Again, shifting attention away from thoughts seems to act like the "clear" button on a calculator, but for most people the clarity doesn't happen instantly. It's as if the unconscious attachment to various ideas just bubbles up to the surface and evaporates.
One Zen monk I read about had lots of fears. When he would meditate, some sort of dreadful apparition would appear that would frighten him out of his wits. When this happened, he would get up and go plunge his head into a tub of icy water; it took that kind of physical shock to dispel the apparition. He went to see his Zen Master, and the ZM told him to just keep watching. He told him that what he was encountering was subconscious stuff rising to the surface, and that it would eventually disappear completely. The monk claimed that what the ZM said would happen was exactly what happened.
I assume that ATA, and "alert attentiveness" is pointing to the same thing as the bible verse that says, "Be still and know." I assume that "being still" means "being psychologically still."
Again, shifting attention away from thoughts seems to act like the "clear" button on a calculator, but for most people the clarity doesn't happen instantly. It's as if the unconscious attachment to various ideas just bubbles up to the surface and evaporates.
One Zen monk I read about had lots of fears. When he would meditate, some sort of dreadful apparition would appear that would frighten him out of his wits. When this happened, he would get up and go plunge his head into a tub of icy water; it took that kind of physical shock to dispel the apparition. He went to see his Zen Master, and the ZM told him to just keep watching. He told him that what he was encountering was subconscious stuff rising to the surface, and that it would eventually disappear completely. The monk claimed that what the ZM said would happen was exactly what happened.
I assume that ATA, and "alert attentiveness" is pointing to the same thing as the bible verse that says, "Be still and know." I assume that "being still" means "being psychologically still."
