Insight Into Reality: Conditionality

"Seeing in this way, the well-trained disciple of the Noble Ones grows disenchanted with form, feelings, perceptions, formations, & awareness. Disenchanted they become dispassionate. Through dispassion they are liberated from the taints. With liberation there is the knowing; 'There is full liberation.' There is knowledge that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, what had to done has been done. There is nothing more of; 'this'.'" SN 12:61 The Buddha

In this lesson we will cover how to systematically investigate the conditioned nature of the Five Aggregates: form, feeling, perception, conditioned formations and awareness, in order to develop understanding on how to bring habitual clinging to an end.

Meditation Type: Vipassana (insight)

Insight Requirement

TIER 3 Access Concentration

Equanimity 4th Sukha-vedana Jhana

Daily Meditation

You continue to practice daily mindfulness of breathing and the first four jhana.

1st Path Fruition

Conditions are now present for Sotapanna (Stream Entry).

Instruction

• Read Instruction: Developing Insight into Conditionality.
• Read Instruction: Specific Conditionality & Five Aggregates.
• Read Instruction: Cutting the Chain of Specific Conditionality.
• Read Instruction: The Weak Link in the Chain: Vedana.

Meditation

• Meditation Skill 23: Observe Thinking Patterns.
• Meditation Skill 24: Observe Past, Present & Future.
• Meditation Skill 25: Observe Pleasant Feeling.
• Meditation Skill 26: Observe Unpleasant Feeling.
• Meditation Skill 27: Observe Conditionality.

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In this series of investigations your task is to develop the perception of the conditionally constructed nature of experiences (idappaccayatā: specific conditionality)). A refined perception of this nature is necessary for the perception of anatta to mature and develop into nibbida (disenchantment).

While the perception of anatta is cultivated by noticing that experiences 'arise and cease; by themselves'. 

The perception of conditionality is cultivated that these anatta experiences are 'within themselves autonomously constructing the conditions for other anatta experiences to arise and cease'.

The perception of conditionality developed by intentionally directing attention towards idappaccayatā  (the law of specific conditionality). This is done by precisely observing the specific conditions for experiences to arise, and the specific conditions for experiences to cease.

To truly experience idappaccayatā requires not only that experiences arise and cease due to specific conditions, but also that they arise and cease due to conditions, outside of themself. It is the 'outside of themselves' aspect that matures the perception of anatta and reveals the law of kamma.

"When this is, that is.

When this is not, that is not.

With the arising of this, comes the arising of that.

With the ceasing of this, comes the ceasing of that."

The Buddha  AN 10.92

• Next: Specific Conditionality & the Five Aggregates

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Investigations in this section are based on observing the natural law of Specific Conditionality (Idappaccayatā) in regard to the Five Aggregates Associated with Clinging.

The Five Aggregates Associated with Clinging:

1. Form. (F)
2. Feeling Tone. (FT)
3. Perception. (P)
4. Conditioned Formations. (CF)
5. Awareness. (A)

*(_) = abbreviations for the Five Aggregates.

** These five aggregates are what we tend to habitually cling-to as self.

Meaning:

• Form = all the views and judgements in regard to our body.
• Feeling Tone = pleasantness & unpleasantness, or neither (worldly & meditative).
• Perception = identification and dividing of the experienced world into individual things.
• Formations = the process of conditioning joining experiences as a causal chain.
• Awareness = the passive knowing of an experience in which the previous four take place.

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Insight into Sankhara is developed by observing causal chains in regard to:

• Recognising them.
• Understanding the conditions for each step to arise.
• Observing the conditions it creates by its arising.
• Understanding the conditions for each step to cease.
• Observing the conditions it creates by its ceasing.

The five aggregates can be observed in a causal chain during meditation as:

1. Sensoury Contact (A).
2. Initial Perception (F).
3. Feeling Tone (FT).
4. Layered Perception (CF). *****
5. Like & Dislike (CF).
6. Craving (CF).
7. Initial Thinking (CF).
8. Proliferation of Thinking (CF).
9. Speech (CF).
10. Action (CF).

*(_) = where the Five Aggregates can be observed in this process.

****It is important to understand that from an arisen relationship to feeling tone, that each of these links from 4-10 have the potential to create the conditions for a back-feeding-loop that triggers another release of feeling tone (vedana) and potential causal chain.

Meaning:

• Sensoury Contact = meeting of sensoury experience, sense organ and awareness.
• Initial Perception = "I know what this is".
• Feeling Tone = feeling produced a a sorting mechanism of the mind.
• Layered Perception = layers of past & future judgements overlayed as perception. 
• Like & Dislike = "I want, I don't want".
• Craving = longing for the object that triggers the feeling tone to stay or go.
• Initial Thinking = initial story overlayed to personlise what has been experienced.
• Proliferation of Thinking.
• Speech.
• Action.

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 How it unfolds as the experience of hearing a dog bark:

1. Sitting peaceful in meditation.
2. Hear a sound.
3. Dog barking.
4. Unpleasent feeling.
5. My neighbours dog.
6. I don't like it when their dog barks.
7. Aversion.
8. Increasing unpleasant feeling.
9. Wanting the sound to stop.
10. Irritation.
11. "I want their dog to stop barking".
12. Stronger unpleasant feeling.
13. Anger.
14. "How dare they allow their dog to do this, don't they care about my well-being".
15. Shouting: "hey you, stop your dog from barking."
16. Standing up and slamming the door in anger.

• Next: Cutting the Chain of Specific Conditionality

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Let's start with a reference based on my own experience in MIDL:

1. Bodily sensation is not pain
2. Feeling tone is not bodily sensation
3. Feeling tone is mental not physical
4. Feeling tone is not always present
5. Feeling tone can cease

I have offered these to remove some of the common confusions in regard to vedana.

I experience vedana as being the weak link and the optimum link in conditionality. However, any part of the chain can be interrupted.

from Madhupiṇḍika Sutta MN 18'

• Dependent on the eye and forms, eye-consciousness arises ...ear ...nose ...tongue ...body ...mind. 
• The meeting of the three is contact. 
• With contact as condition there is feeling. (note: notice at this point no human being exists). 
• What one feels that one perceives. (note: notice at this point a person has arisen).
• What one perceives, one thinks about it.
• What one thinks about that one mentally proliferates. (notice at this point it moves from the person thinking, to the person becoming a victim of their own thought process. It is at this point that a person will harm them self or another).
• With what one has mentally proliferated as the source, perceptions and notions coloured by mental proliferation, overcome them in regard to past, future, and present forms cognizable through the eye (...ear...nose...tongue....body...mind). 

'You can break this conditioning at any stage of the process by:(in reverse order of above list)

1. Abandoning the desire to physically move.
2. Abandoning the desire to speak.
3. Abandoning the desire to proliferate.
4. Abandoning the desire to think.
5. Abandoning the desire to like or dislike.
6. Abandoning the desire to believe perception.
7. Abandoning the desire to react to feeling tone.
8. Abandoning the desire to engage with seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, minding.

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Seeing for example requires three things to create 'contact':

1. A sight
2. A working eye
3. Awareness

If any of these is absent, then you cannot see.

This also means that everything else in this conditional process can not arise. If you break contact, nothing else, including feeling, including thinking, including violence, cannot exist.

Unifying attention for jhana, as an example, removes awareness from the eye door, so sight is not possible. This is the same for hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and minding (thinking, likes, dislikes, views, opinions etc). 

Abandonment of the function of the sense door itself, while it works in regard to interrupting the chain of conditioning, also means that you cannot function of the world, because you need your senses for the world to exist. This is why you have to emerge from jhana so that you can eat and drink. You have to release the suppression of your senses by allowing awareness to engage with them. Otherwise, your body would die, since it is in the physical world and subject to its laws.

So, abandonment at this point, of the senses, while possible, is not a solution.

• Next: The Weak Link in The Chain: Vedana

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The next point in the conditioned process is feeling tone (vedana).

If we abandon our relationship towards feeling tone, we still have the use of our six senses, but everything else in the conditioned process can not arise. Notice earlier, that a person arises between feeling and perception. With the arising of a person, is the arising of all the conditioning in regard to that person, the arising of all suffering, of all habitual conditioning and delusion.

If I abandon my relationship to any feeling tone that arises from contact within the six senses, then I can still see, hear, smell, taste, touch etc. But everything else in the conditioned process collapses. 

The mind, in this moment, is free. 

When seeing I just see, when smelling I just smell etc. 

If through the development of wisdom, we can penetrate delusion (habitual not knowing) for long enough, to see the reality of feeling tone, then we can gradually change our mind conditioned response to feeling tone, and therefore change the arising of all suffering.

This is the understanding that arose for me in my own practice of MIDL: 

"Unpleasant feeling and pleasant feeling are impermanent, they are empty, impersonal. They are not found within any experience within the world, or within any experience within the mind. They are illusions produced by my own mind, a simple impersonal sorting system. They are produced through the minds delusion, so cannot be trusted."

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As abandoning of identification with feeling tone (vedana) has weakened through abandoning (softening). The habitual attachment and aversion in regard to that identification has significantly weakened. As attraction and aversion has weakened, their intensity and strength has faded. 

With the fading of attraction and aversion, there has been a significant lowering of the production of pleasant and unpleasant feeling tone, produced by my mind. At times some feeling tone is present, at other times I experience all feeling tone cease.

This is clearly seen in regard to experiences that once were accompanied by strong feeling tone. 

Now this feeling tone has significantly is weakened or is no longer present. This is because, in my experience, feeling tone is a sorting mechanism produced by my own mind, and when my mind does not feel the need to sort experiences as good or bad, then it also no longer produces pleasant and unpleasant feeling tone.

In this way I can see the cessation of feeling tone in regard to sensory stimulation at the six sense doors.

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And for the common question:

"But I want to experience pleasant feeling!"

Pleasant feeling can still be accessed, but it is not accessed by sensory stimulation, it is accessed through the engagement of attention. This means that it does not arise from the beauty of a sight, this is a judgement. What one person sees as beautiful; another may see as ugly. 

Pleasant feeling arises from the quality of the attention applied to seeing. Attention itself has feeling, beauty and pleasure built into it. If you give your full attention towards anything, through a wholesome mind, it will become interesting, and pleasurable.

The pleasant feeling that arises from the beautiful sight, is conditioned and impermanent, therefore it cannot be relied upon and will lead to suffering if grasped on to. 

The pleasant feeling that arises within the quality of attention, can be experienced again and again, regardless of whether the sensory experience is normally considered good or bad, if the attention is based in continuity of mindfulness and wisdom. 

• Next: Meditation Skill 23: Observe Thinking Patterns

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CAUTION: These investigations involve triggering unpleasant feeling tone, in this way meditation can become very real. Be cautious and only do this with guidance from a skilled teacher and/or appropriate training in both samadhi and insight.

To develop insight into habitual tendencies of your mind and observe the constructed nature of thinking patterns and their relationship to bodily sensations (kaya), feeling tone (vedana) and heart/mind (citta) as an autonomous, conditioned process.

For this investigation it is important not to develop access concentration or jhana, instead create a foundation of kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed in the body).

The reason for this is because if attention is too unified in samadhi, all habitual movements of attention will cease, and its autonomous nature cannot be observed.

In this meditation you ground awareness within your body and relax control, in order to allow the habitual mind to produce thinking in order to observe its constructed (sankhara) nature. Thinking patterns can be observed during this investigation as the interaction between kaya: bodily sensations, vedana: feeling tone, and citta: mind. During this meditation learn separate these three Satipatthanas and observe the intimate relationship between them.

CAUTION: These investigations involve triggering unpleasant feeling tone, in this way meditation can become very real. Be cautious and only do this with guidance from a skilled teacher and/or appropriate training in both samadhi and insight.

Instruction:

Meditation is practiced in a seated position.

1. Ground Awareness Within Your Body

Ground awareness in the experience of your hands touching each other.

2. Relax your Mental Grip

Relax your mental grip on your hands and allow your mind to think. 

3. Observe any Habitual Thinking

Hold the intention to observe the habitual patterns driving your thoughts.

4. Observe How Body Reflects Your Mind

Notice any changes within sensation within your body as a reflection of that thinking. tightness around the base of the throat, chest or belly is common.

5. Observe any Emotional Charge

Observe any emotion charge and its feeling tone of pleasantness or unpleasantness that arises within your body as a reflection of your mind. Soften/relax your relationship towards the feeling tone present to reset your attention.

Investigation:  Take interest in what is driving your thinking patterns like remembering, worrying, planning, fantasising etc. and use a simple label to describe it. Observe the feeling or pleasantness or unpleasantness underlying that emotion and see what happens when you soften into it.

PROGRESSION

Once you understand thinking patterns as an observable experience:

• Next:  Meditation Skill 24: Observe Past, Present & Future

CAUTION: These investigations involve triggering unpleasant feeling tone, in this way meditation can become very real. Be cautious and only do this with guidance from a skilled teacher and/or appropriate training in both samadhi and insight.

This investigation develops understanding of the role between attention, bodily sensations and feeling tone as a reflection of whether attention is sitting on past memory, future thought or present experience.

Advantages of this are:

• Through understanding the conditioned/constructed nature we learn to clearly separate sensations that arise in our body due to the touch of the world, from sensations that arise in our body due to the touch of our mind.
• We also learn the important skill of separating vedana (feeling tone) from these sensations allowing us to decondition habitual relationships of attraction, aversion and indifference.

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For this investigation it is important not to develop access concentration or jhana, instead create a foundation of kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed in the body). 

The reason for this is because if attention is too unified in samadhi, all habitual movements of attention will cease, and its autonomous nature cannot be observed.

In this meditation, you continue to observe the habitual patterns within your mind by intentionally directing your attention towards the movement of the focus of awareness between past, present and future. 

By doing this in a methodical way you will learn to observe the changes in feeling within your body in relationship to memories of the past and thoughts of the future. This interdependence will become clearer to you. You will also be able to observe the uncomplicated nature and your body’s response when awareness rests within the experience of the present.

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CAUTION: These investigations involve triggering unpleasant feeling tone, in this way meditation can become very real. Be cautious and only do this with guidance from a skilled teacher and/or appropriate training in both samadhi and insight.

Instruction:

Meditation is practiced in a seated position.

1. Ground Awareness Within Your Body

Ground awareness within your body and the experience of your hands touching. 

2. Observe What it Feels like to be Present

Observe what it feels like to be present, within your body – here, now. Observe the experience of just sitting here, the simplicity, no past no future just here.

3. Bring a Pleasent Past Memory to Mind

Bring to mind a pleasant memory from the past, holding it gently within your mind. 

4. Observe What the Past Feels Like

Observe the change of the experience of your body in regard to sensations and feeling tone. Soften into it.

5. Bring a Pleasent Thought of The Future to Mind

Bring to mind a pleasant thought of the future, holding it gently within your mind. 

6. Observe What the Future Feels Like

Observe the change of the experience of your body in regard to sensations and feeling tone. Soften into it.

7. Reground Awareness Within Your Body

Reground awareness within your body and soften into it. 

8. Observe What it Feels Like to be Present

Observe what it feels like to be present, within your body – here, now. Observe the experience of just sitting here, the simplicity, no past no future just here.

Optional Training: Repeat with an unpleasant memory and thought.

Investigation:

Take interest in the focus of your attention and the changing landscape of sensations within your body. Be curious in regard to the underlying feeling: pleasant, unpleasant or neutral in regard to past, present and future focused attention. Observe the undeniable urge to escape from unpleasant feeling, to search for pleasant feeling and to stop paying attention when neutral feeling is present. 

PROGRESSION

Once you understand past, present 7 future as an observable experience:

• Next: Meditation Skill 25: Observe Pleasant Feeling

This investigation develops the ability to separate pleasant feeling tone (vedana) from sensation and observe its function as a sorting mechanism of the mind (to signal safe).  This requires earlier training in sensitivity to body sensations and enough samadhi and insight as to not to get entangled with the experience.

For this investigation it is important not to develop access concentration or jhana, instead create a foundation of kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed in the body). 

The reason for this is because if attention is too unified in samadhi, all habitual movements of attention will cease, and its autonomous nature cannot be observed.

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Pleasant feeling tone can be observed by bringing to mind a happy memory or thought. As you do this notice that a feeling of pleasantness appears in your body as a reflection of the contact between attention and the thought or memory.

Separating out a feeling tone from what is being experienced is like separating the texture of a banana as you eat it, from its overall flavour/taste. Bodily sensations are the texture, feeling tone (vedana) is the flavour of that experience.

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Instruction:

Meditation is practiced in a seated position.

1. Ground Awareness Within Your Body

• Ground awareness within your body and the experience of your hands touching. Observe what it feels like to be present, within your body – here, now. Observe the experience of just sitting here.

2. Bring to Mind a Pleasent Memory

• Bring to mind a pleasant memory, holding it gently within your mind. Observe any change of the experience of your body in regard to sensations and feeling tone. Soften into it.

3. Bring to Mind a Pleasent Thought

• Bring to mind a pleasant thought of the future, holding it gently within your mind. Observe the change of the experience of your body in regard to sensations and feeling tone. Soften into it.

4. Smile Into the Pleasantness

• Smile into this feeling of pleasantness with your eyes and allow it to enter your mind. Observe the relationship between the feeling tone, your attention, and the magnification of that pleasant feeling.

5. Soften Into the Pleasentness

• Gently soften/relax into that pleasant feeling and observe whether the pleasant feeling tone grows or fades.

6. Reground Awareness Within Your Body

• Reground awareness within your body and soften into it. Observe what it feels like to be present, within your body – here, now. Observe the experience of just sitting here, the simplicity of it. Notice what happens to the pleasant feeling tone now that your attention has moved from the thought/memory and feeling tone, to the sensations within your body.

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• Take interest in how the experience of your body changes as a direct reflection of turning your attention towards a pleasant memory.
• Notice how the pleasant feeling is not produced by the world around you but rather is a carried sorting mechanism attached to the memory, that is released with the contact of attention.
• Notice any wanting or longing that arises in your mind as well as the feeling of 'something missing' when you dwell on this pleasant memory. 
• Observe the effect that softening your interest in the memory and its associated feeling has on the pleasant feeling in your body, how it fades.
• Observe how as you soften a pleasant feeling arises in your mind, then fills your body, taking its place.

Summary: 

Through this investigation, we can observe how the mind sorts memories by attaching vedana (feeling tone) to them. When attention contacts the memory, the feeling tone attached to it releases in the body.

We can also notice how the 'worldly' pleasant feeling tone leaves a feeling of lack, of wanting more or not having enough. We can also observe how it fades as the attention resting on it is softened and that as we continue to soften, the 'worldly' pleasant feeling tone is replaced by a 'meditative' pleasant feeling tone produced by the quality and structure of attention itself.

From this we get a glimpse of where liberation is found.

PROGRESSION

Once you understand pleasant feeling as an observable experience:

• Next: Meditation Skill 26: Observe Unpleasant Feeling

CAUTION: These investigations involve triggering unpleasant feeling tone, in this way meditation can become very real. Be cautious and only do this with guidance from a skilled teacher and/or appropriate training in both samadhi and insight.

This investigation develops the ability to separate unpleasant feeling tone (vedana) from sensation and to observe its function as a sorting mechanism of the mind (to signal danger).  This requires earlier training in sensitivity to body sensations, skill in softening and enough samadhi and insight as to not to get entangled with the experience.

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For this investigation it is important not to develop access concentration or jhana, instead create a foundation of kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed in the body). 

The reason for this is because if attention is too unified in samadhi, all habitual movements of attention will cease, and its autonomous nature cannot be observed.

Unpleasant feeling tone can be observed by bringing to mind an unhappy memory or thought. As you do this notice that a feeling of unpleasantness appears in your body as a reflection of the contact between attention and the thought or memory.

Separating out a feeling tone from what is being experienced is like separating the texture of a banana as you eat it, from its overall flavour/taste. Bodily sensations are the texture, feeling tone (vedana) is the flavour of that experience.

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CAUTION: These investigations involve triggering unpleasant feeling tone, in this way meditation can become very real. Be cautious and only do this with guidance from a skilled teacher and/or appropriate training in both samadhi and insight.

Instruction:

Meditation is practiced in a seated position.

1. Ground Awareness Within Your Body

Ground awareness within your body and the experience of your hands touching. Observe what it feels like to be present, within your body – here, now. Observe the experience of just sitting here.

2. Bring to Mind an Unpleasant Memory

Bring to mind an unpleasant memory to mind (weak one at first), holding it gently within your mind. Observe any change within the experience of your body in regard to sensations and feeling tone. Soften into the effort to resist this feeling.

3. Encourage the Memory to Grow

Once relaxed, encourage the thought/memory and observe the relationship between the feeling tone, your attention, and the magnification of that unpleasant feeling.

4. Gently Soften into the Effort to Resist

Gently soften/relax into the effort to resist its unpleasantness and observe whether the unpleasant feeling tone grows or fades.

5. Bring to Mind an Unpleasant Thought

Bring to mind an unpleasant thought/anticipation of the future, holding it gently within your mind. Observe any change within the experience of your body in regard to sensations and feeling tone. Soften into it.

6. Encourage the Thought to Grow

Once relaxed, encourage the thought and observe the relationship between the feeling tone, your attention, and the magnification of that unpleasant feeling.

7. Gently Soften into the Effort to Resist

Gently soften/relax into the effort to resist its unpleasantness and observe whether the unpleasant feeling tone grows or fades.

8. Reground Awareness Within Your Body

Reground awareness within your body and soften into it. Observe what it feels like to be present, within your body – here, now. Observe the experience of just sitting here, the simplicity of it. Notice what happens to the unpleasant feeling tone now that your attention has moved from the thought/memory and feeling tone, to the sensations within your body.

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• Take interest in how the experience of your body changes as a direct reflection of turning your attention towards an unpleasant memory.
• Notice how the unpleasant feeling is not produced by the world around you but rather is a carried sorting mechanism attached to the memory, that is released with the contact of attention.
• Notice any wanting or longing that arises in your mind to avoid this feeling, as well as the feeling of 'disturbance/unease' when you dwell on this unpleasant memory. 
• Observe the effect that softening your resistance to the unpleasantness of the memory has on the experience of your body and mind.
• Observe how as you soften a pleasant feeling arises in your mind, then fills your body, taking its place.

Summary: (as in previous investigation). 

Through this investigation we can observe how the mind sorts memories by attaching vedana (feeling tone) to them. When attention contacts the memory, the feeling tone attached to it releases in the body.

We can also notice how the 'worldly' unpleasant feeling tone leaves a feeling of lack, of wanting something else or not having enough. We can also observe how it fades as the attention resting on it is softened, and that as we continue to soften, that the 'worldly' unpleasant feeling tone is replaced by a 'meditative' pleasant feeling tone produced by the quality and structure of attention itself.

With this insight we clarify where liberation is found.

PROGRESSION

Once you understand unpleasant feeling as an observable experience:

• Next: Meditation Skill 27: Observe Conditionality

CAUTION: These investigations involve triggering unpleasant feeling tone, in this way meditation can become very real. Be cautious and only do this with guidance from a skilled teacher and/or appropriate training in both samadhi and insight.

To continue to observe the intimate relationship between bodily sensations (kaya), feeling tone (vedana), mind (citta) and their conditioned/constructed nature (sankhara) to develop deep understanding of Specific Conditionality (Idappaccayatā). It is the understanding of the experienced world regarding Specific Conditionality that reveals the path for targeted deconditioning of vedana.

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For this investigation it is important not to develop access concentration or jhana, instead create a foundation of kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed in the body). 

The reason for this is because if attention is too unified in samadhi, all habitual movements of attention will cease, and its autonomous nature cannot be observed.

CAUTION: These investigations involve triggering unpleasant feeling tone, in this way meditation can become very real. Be cautious and only do this with guidance from a skilled teacher and/or appropriate training in both samadhi and insight.

Instruction:

Meditation is practiced in a seated position.

1. Ground Awareness Within Your Body

Ground awareness within your body and the experience of your hands touching. Observe what it feels like to be present, within your body – here, now. Observe the experience of just sitting here.

2. Methodically Observe Elemental Qualities

Methodically break your bodily experience into elemental qualities following four ranges of experience: softness-hardness, coolness-warmth, dryness-wetness, expanding-contracting. Expand your awareness and observe these qualities within the six sense fields.

Investigation: 

Develop intimacy with the interconnectedness of elemental qualities.

3. Observe any Perceptional Borders that Arise

Observe the mirage like and unreliable nature of perception in regard to all of these until the borders of your body and mind lose their solidity or cease.

Investigation: 

Observe how perception rests on elemental qualities to a 'thing'.

4. Relax your Mental Grip and Allow Wandering

Next, relax your mental grip on the touch of your hands and allow your attention to habitually wander.    All your attention should be towards observing the arising of energy within the mind as it flickers out to engage sensoury input.

Investigation: 

Observe how attention flickers between elemental qualities within the sense fields giving rise to 'things'.

5. Bring a Pleasant Thought or Memory to Mind

Bring to mind a pleasant thought or memory from the past, holding it gently within your mind. 

Investigations:

• Observe any changes in sensations within your body as a reflection of that memory. 
• Observe any changes within the borders of perception in relationship to this memory.
• Observe and separate the feeling of pleasantness from bodily sensations.
• Observe your relationship of liking and wanting that feeling.

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6. Soften the Underlying Effort to Like

Soften into the underlying effort to like pleasantness and observe whether it grows or fades.

7. Bring an Unpleasant Thought or Memory to Mind

Bring to mind an unpleasant thought or memory from the past, holding it gently within your mind. 

Investigations:

• Observe any changes in sensations within your body as a reflection of that memory. 
• Observe any changes within the borders of perception in relationship to this memory.
• Observe and separate the feeling of pleasantness from bodily sensations.
• Observe your relationship of liking and wanting that feeling.

. 

8. Soften any Underlying Effort to Dislike

Soften into the underlying effort to dislike unpleasantness and observe whether it grows or fades.  

9. Allow Your Mind to Habitually Function

Allow your mind to habitually function. 

Investigations:

Observe the building of experiencing from the ground up starting by observing:

1. Sensoury contact.
2. Arising of perception.
3. Feeling tone.
4. Like, dislike, indifference.
5. Mind based bodily sensations.
6. Desire.
7. Thinking, fantasising, etc.
8. Habitual construction.

Soften into the underlying effort beneath each of these and learn to break the causal chain.

PROGRESSION

Once you understand specific continuality as an observable experience:

• View the Progressive Menu to see your next step.