is that who we THINK we are ("me") can't control what happens. This is because who we THINK we are is imaginary even though it doesn't feel this way, and an imaginary person can't do anything. This means that whatever unfolds is mysteriously unpredictable. Whether one sits in meditation, ATA's, or inquires "Who am I?" can only be probabilistically related to what happens.
Although some people, such as Niz, may have followed a single strategy (focusing attention solely upon the sense of "I am"), I suspect that most people follow a shotgun-wide approach and try a bit of everything. Koan study, ATA, shikan taza, contemplation, self inquiry, etc. are all forms of shifting attention away from thoughts to "what is." The entire pathless path can sort of be summed up as "attention, attention, attention."
I remember thinking at one point early in the search, "OMG, at times I get busy and forget to meditate. How can I ever find out what I want to know if I continually forget to meditate?" Ha ha!
The good news is that people who desperately want to know the truth are people through whom THIS is wanting to know the truth. This means that there is a high degree of probability that such body/minds will keep returning to the search.
This body/mind tried dozens of techniques and strategies (breath counting meditation, breath awareness meditation, breath following meditation, being the breath meditation, shikan taza, ATA, koan contemplation, mantra repetition, heart sutra recitation, mindfulness, etc), but it was never interested in Tibetan visualization meditations (I saw no point in using imagination to visualize stuff because imagination seemed to be what generates the consensus trance in the first place). I also never tried the loving kindness meditations used by many Tibetan Buddhists because my interest was in understanding reality rather than attaining happiness or becoming "more spiritual."
The word "persistence" is used more as a form of encouragement than anything else. It is also a recognition of certain probabalistic tendencies (ie. those people who relentlessly pursue the truth tend to find it or, in Enigma's words, "they tend to find what is not true).
Have some people gone "all the way" using ATA? Sure. Breath awareness meditation is a form of ATA, and that is a primary practice in the Zen tradition. The reason I spent a great deal of time looking at the world non-conceptually during everyday activities was my intuitive sense that that form of ATA could free the body/mind from the compulsion of incessant thought. I wondered what it would be like to look at the world in the same way as a small child--in silence--and ATA was a way to find out. I theorized that little children lose their direct interaction with the world because they shift their attention from "what is" to ideas, images, and symbols. Taking attention away from ideas, images, and symbols and holding it upon "what is" would probably reverse the process.
As it turned out, this speculation was correct. Sustained ATA leads to mental silence at will, and mental silence makes many things obvious that otherwise might remain unknown. For example, being able to go about daily activities without having to think, and without constant verbal commentary, makes it obvious that 95% of all thinking is unnecessary and is usually superfluous.
Although some people, such as Niz, may have followed a single strategy (focusing attention solely upon the sense of "I am"), I suspect that most people follow a shotgun-wide approach and try a bit of everything. Koan study, ATA, shikan taza, contemplation, self inquiry, etc. are all forms of shifting attention away from thoughts to "what is." The entire pathless path can sort of be summed up as "attention, attention, attention."
I remember thinking at one point early in the search, "OMG, at times I get busy and forget to meditate. How can I ever find out what I want to know if I continually forget to meditate?" Ha ha!
The good news is that people who desperately want to know the truth are people through whom THIS is wanting to know the truth. This means that there is a high degree of probability that such body/minds will keep returning to the search.
This body/mind tried dozens of techniques and strategies (breath counting meditation, breath awareness meditation, breath following meditation, being the breath meditation, shikan taza, ATA, koan contemplation, mantra repetition, heart sutra recitation, mindfulness, etc), but it was never interested in Tibetan visualization meditations (I saw no point in using imagination to visualize stuff because imagination seemed to be what generates the consensus trance in the first place). I also never tried the loving kindness meditations used by many Tibetan Buddhists because my interest was in understanding reality rather than attaining happiness or becoming "more spiritual."
The word "persistence" is used more as a form of encouragement than anything else. It is also a recognition of certain probabalistic tendencies (ie. those people who relentlessly pursue the truth tend to find it or, in Enigma's words, "they tend to find what is not true).
Have some people gone "all the way" using ATA? Sure. Breath awareness meditation is a form of ATA, and that is a primary practice in the Zen tradition. The reason I spent a great deal of time looking at the world non-conceptually during everyday activities was my intuitive sense that that form of ATA could free the body/mind from the compulsion of incessant thought. I wondered what it would be like to look at the world in the same way as a small child--in silence--and ATA was a way to find out. I theorized that little children lose their direct interaction with the world because they shift their attention from "what is" to ideas, images, and symbols. Taking attention away from ideas, images, and symbols and holding it upon "what is" would probably reverse the process.
As it turned out, this speculation was correct. Sustained ATA leads to mental silence at will, and mental silence makes many things obvious that otherwise might remain unknown. For example, being able to go about daily activities without having to think, and without constant verbal commentary, makes it obvious that 95% of all thinking is unnecessary and is usually superfluous.
