| Vipassana | Zen | Dzougchen | Tantra |
|---|---|---|---|
| found in 19c/beg20c by theravada budhism | |||
| –ascethic according to https://substack.com/inbox/post/138685943 | non-doing and not trying to write things down, more intuitive, koans etc. | ‣ finds inpsirations there | Supposedly invented by Budha for people who want to do budhism through pleasure and avoid renouciation (get rid of bad emotions, especially desire) link |
| Many sub-traditions | |||
| The author of the most popular system, Mahasi Sayadaw, a burmese monk, introduced several innovations: Skipping explicitly developing concentration (samatha), a meditative stability and tranquility, in the assumption it’d take care of itself while you focus on the raw insight. link history of vipassana | |||
| less people achieve stream entry then vipassana according to https://substack.com/inbox/post/138685943 |
“Knowledge of the Arising and Passing of Phenomena” (typically shortened to “Arising and Passing away” or “A&P”). In it a meditator’s attention gets so precise they are able to “penetrate” the meditation object (like the sensation of breath on their nostrils) and perceive that behind the curtain this solid sensation is actually a series of individual sensations arising and passing away in quick succession several times per second. Sort of like seeing a rope on the ground, coming closer, and realizing it’s moving — it’s actually a line of ants.
Arguably, getting a meditator to A&P is even more important than getting a stream entry. A&P shows there is something unusual going on in your mind beyond what’s normally accessible “reality” and something to this thing people call “spirituality”. A&P is also a threshold where a meditator can be said to “properly know” how to meditate. Pre-A&P you are somewhat aimlessly wandering around, post-A&P you can sharpen your skills more deliberately.
The interesting thing about these individual flickering sensations making up a solid one is that their frequencies tend to correlate fairly well to the frequencies of brain waves.
If we have many agents inside meditation is a place for recalibration of inside waves, to listen what’s happening inside, seeing what floats up, giving space so different agents needs feelings have time to reveal
Meditation benefits, in large part, come from realizing what’s actually happening. For example: 1) you might not even realize you’re feeling something, 2) you become aware that there is, in fact, a feeling, and 3) you tune into how that feeling actually feels
I don’t know why—but it seems that, by default, our minds project a conceptual overlay onto the world around us, so we see the concept of “chair” along with the chair itself, and this diminishes the visual richness of underlying reality.
I can still narrativize about past and future, but the narratives are obviously illusory thought-wisps, making up part of the stagecraft of the present moment, not reflective of any truthful prognostication or recollection. They have the same truth value as birdsong—neither true nor untrue.