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Summary: I model life as: absurd conflict transformation -> my interpretations -> my emotions

I can not know: The absurdity of enlightenment and promoting structural change in society

EDIT: Based on multiple reports, Reddit username mention notification system is glitchy. This means that: (1) When I tag someone (like this: u/aweddity), I can not know if they ever get notified, and read my message. (2) I can not know if someone has tagged me somewhere, so I can not know if I have read the messages people may mistakenly think I have read. I elaborate on my own personal approach to "I can not know" at I can not know: The absurdity of enlightenment and promoting structural change in society.

EDIT: I am also in the business of promoting structural change in society. One way I can try to do that, is to provide resources for you to get more of this "knowing" out of your way, so that you can better focus on doing what needs to be done on society level.

u/air-sushi, cc: u/abhayakara, u/Fortinbrah, u/iloveyou_really, u/jtweep, u/Dingsala, u/genivelo, u/raggamuffin1357, u/Mizanthropist, u/dinosaurnoodles, u/infinitelydeep, u/5adja5b, u/batbdotb, u/MachinesOfN, Sawubona! <- Zulu greeting ("We see you")

Thanks for sparking a fascinating discussion here on r/TheMindIlluminated, which I found by accident few months ago. And on r/Secularbuddhism, which I found today by clicking your name. I read your opening paragraph there regarding TMI and orthodox Buddhism. I think this is potentially also related to Is awakening possible? by u/dinosaurnoodles, and why are so few people getting to stage 10? by u/infinitelydeep.

I did not notice this (outsider) perspective mentioned yet, so I hope it adds value:

The Absurd (adapted version): We humans living in an universe, which will never provide any conclusive answers to anything - but most importantly - to the questions we find most interesting like:

• "How did the universe come to be?"
  
• "What happens after death?"
  
• "What is enlightenment, and how do I measure progress towards it?"
  
• "How do I best promote structural change in society?"
  
  Related to "the absurdity of enlightenment": A Buddhism-inspired friend shared this with me from "The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana" (whatever that is) (also see u/smokeinhiseyes's awarded reply to "Is awakening possible?"):
  
  >Because of not truly realizing oneness with Suchness, there emerges an unenlightened mind and consequently, its thoughts. These thoughts do not have any validity to be substantiated; therefore, they are not independent of the original enlightenment. It is like the case of a man who has lost his way: he is confused because of his wrong sense of direction. If he is freed from the notion of direction altogether, then there will be no such thing as going astray. It is the same with men: because of the notion of enlightenment, they are confused. But if they are freed from the fixed notion of enlightenment, then there will be no such thing as nonenlightenment. Because there are men of unenlightened, deluded mind, for them we speak of true enlightenment, knowing well what this relative term stands for. Independent of the unenlightened mind, there are no independent marks of true enlightenment itself that cane be discussed.
  
  Related to "the absurdity of promoting structural change in society": My own personal approach includes:
  
  
• Practicing experimentation, which I find easier to do on personal level, but much trickier on society level - I am sure a teacher of sociology can relate to this. (Thanks to u/MachinesOfN for mentioning that here).
  
• Practicing Absurdism: I understand that trying to stay alive is most probably futile, but hey, I just happen to find it fun/interesting to try to do that anyway. Same goes for promoting structural change in society.
  
• Practicing thinking that (Montaigne) "I am just a guy. You are just a guy. We are all just a guy." (Thanks to u/Mr_My_Own_Welfare for mentioning that here).
  
• Practicing other emotional conflict transformation skills (basic model: events --> my interpretations --> my emotions). For this, I have found the book Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication by Oren Jay Sofer a helpful resource.
  
  I do not need a reply, but I would really appreciate any feedback on if/how this added value, because that would help me improve my "really listening" skills, which would help me better promote structural change in society.

I don't have a lot of information about you or your practice but...

Part of waking up is opening up.

How is your cultivation of joy in your practice?

When you say you are feeling "more-or-less neutral", what does that mean? Like calm and steady, or literally feeling neutral and devoid of feeling?

Have you tried including any smiling? As simple as bringing a smile, a very light smile, to your face for 4 seconds, then let it go (and repeat as necessary). If that feels fake, you may just need to fake it until you make it.

Instead of 'manipulating' your emotions, it is exercising the metta muscle. You may find it possible to love or accept the resistance.

Alternative - gratitude:

I had also avoided metta for a long time or found it didn't seem to 'work' for me. A better gateway for me was gratitude. I kept a gratitude journal using what was said in this book Gratitude Works (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1118131290/) for about a month a year ago and suddenly I had this feeling that I did not know existed. Gratitude. Even if it's not love, it's still a powerful and often underestimated feeling. Gratitude does bring joy. I still don't feel that I entirely know what love feels like, and that's okay. I'm still far more open than I used to be.

Previously, I found I was selectively not seeing all the good things in life. It's hard to find a positive / happy memory for me since a lot of my memories seem more neutral-ish.

When I do metta now, and if I am triggering metta based on a memory, I only focus on memories that have happened within the last 0-12 hours since those memories are more fresh (don't get stale with each metta sit) and more resonant. I also try projecting metta into the next 0-12 hours too instead of just using past memories, I want to infuse my future with the possibility of joy too.

What memories do you try to trigger with (if using TWIM)? Who or what makes you feel good in your life? A pet? A friend? Hiking? etc

​

For those of you who have the old edition, the newer edition of the book has a foreword that can be read on the Amazon page.

First Impressions

The first few paragraphs of the Introduction was all it took to reel me in. To explain, I need to provide a little backstory:

There are tons of research papers highlighting exactly what the benefits of meditation are, ranging from stress reduction to mood regulation and more, many of them mentioned on page xiv. In fact, that was my initial motivation for starting a practice several years back, but rather quickly I became confused by the often contradictory instructions online and all the Pali and Sanskrit words everywhere. I ended up doing basic samatha practice, but my motivation waned at times because I didn't have any clue about training the mind. After a while, I settled into a state of strong dullness and had no clue that it wasn't what I was looking for. I remember wondering why I felt spaced out all the time after my sessions.

One of the reasons I no longer frequent the meditation subreddit is because with hindsight I recognize there is a lot of bad advice there from people who don't know any better. I'll share a rather humorous example: I recently read a thread where a guy was clearly experiencing dullness/drowsiness, and the only thing making him aware of this was the fact that his own flatulence startled him to wakefulness. Well, the top few responses were just jokes and everyone who answered him seriously gave bad advice because they didn't know any better.

I just remember thinking that if I didn't have TMI I would've been stuck in dullness forever, probably. I wouldn't have gotten out of it with the help of that sub. So you can imagine my feelings of relief to find this book, and to have my gut feeling be validated.


Key Points

I think overall there are four key points in the Introduction:

• Through meditation it is possible to train your mind and to ultimately achieve awakening.
  
  
• There is (or, was) a strong need for a clear map of the process because with meditation's rise in popularity, fewer and fewer people are even aware of the potential for Awakening through meditation.
  
  
• Both samatha and vipassana are necessary for Awakening.
  
  
• "Brief episodes of samatha can occur long before you become an adept practitioner. Insight can happen at any time as well. This means a temporary convergence of samatha and vipassana is possible and can lead to Awakening at any stage."
  
  I find that last point in particular to be a tremendously powerful idea- one that I've used to great success during my sits. I have a problem with being impulsive. Thanks to meditation it's much less of an issue, but I'm not able to always maintain the long-term view. Being able to remind myself before every sit that if there is sufficient cooperation among the sub-minds Awakening can happen at any moment - that's a very important concept for me. It makes it much easier to cultivate a joyful attitude.
  
  

So as the author of that article: I do hold that I've had reduced procrastination, and that a major part of it seems like it can be traced to meditation and mindfulness practices. That said, at least so far meditation alone hasn't felt like it could fix everything, though it's possible that it would be even more transformative if I was further along the path (I'm around TMI's Stage Five at the moment).

According to procrastination researcher Piers Steel, your motivation for some task is affected positively by your expectancy (how much you believe in your ability to pull it off) and the task's value (how rewarding the task is to do, and what you expect to get out of it). On the other hand, your motivation is reduced by the delay (how distant in time the rewards for doing the task are) and your impulsiveness (which covers both your personal impulsiveness and situational factors that might distract you). [See also](http://lesswrong.com/lw/9wr/my_algorithm_for_beating_procrastination/I feel that meditation has helped me reduce procrastination by decreasing impulsiveness and making my subconscious more aware of what the true value of doing different tasks is.

But my suspicion is that for people who have big problems with procrastination (including some of my past selves), their main problem is with some kind of internal conflict, with different parts of their mind having various deep emotional needs and conflicting ways of achieving them; which may manifest as conflicting evaluations of expectancy and value. TMI says that eventually, meditation will lead to a unification of mind where different parts of your mind become united behind a single goal, and others on this forum may comment on that. But my experience as a Stage 5-meditator is that this seems to be a pretty long process, and I'm not there yet. When it comes to procrastination reduction, what's been more useful for me has been to apply techniques that address internal conflicts more directly.

I described this in my recent post on self-concepts; apparently a big part of what was going on was that I had an unstable self-esteem and kept feeling bad about myself, and a part of my mind wanted to prove myself by being productive and accumulating positive evidence about myself. At the same time, the exact nature of my insecurity was such that no amount of additional evidence that I accumulated was going to fix it; the problem was with some particularly negative memories and ideas that I had about myself, which had to be dealt with first.

In terms of Steel's research, you might describe this as a part of my mind thinking that productivity would have a high value (since it would fix this gaping emotional hole in my mind), whereas another part kept sabotaging my efforts to be productive by assigning the plan of "feel better about yourself by being productive" a low expectancy (as it had correctly previously noticed that this wasn't useful for actually making myself feel better).

It's possible that sufficient practice with meditation could eventually have fixed this, by healing those emotional wounds through a different route; but the techniques that I used fixed the biggest problem much faster.

On the other hand, I do still stick with what I wrote in my original article as well: meditation and mindfulness has also continued to produce major gains in reducing procrastination. Notice that the article you were referring to was written several weeks after I had fixed my self-concept: mindfulness has made it much faster to really take advantage of all the changes that have been happening on their own after I fixed that emotional wound in my mind. And on the other hand as well, I believe that the improved introspective ability that comes from meditation, made it easier for me to be able to apply those techniques which did heal the emotional wound. Both meditation and the techniques for changing self-concepts, have worked better for me together than I expect either would have worked alone.

I described the self-concept tools I used a bit in my self-concept post, and they're described in much more detail in this book (yes I know, the cover doesn't exactly inspire confidence in its contents). You may also want to look at other techniques which aim at fixing internal conflicts directly, such as Gendlin's Focusing, aversion factoring, and Core Transformation. (Necessary caveat: while several of these techniques have been developed by e.g. psychotherapists, there hasn't been very much - and in several cases no -
rigorous scientific research on validating their usefulness. I'm suggesting them because they have been useful to me and other people that I know, but you should give such a recommendation the same skepticism as any other anecdotal evidence. I can't make any promises of whether they will work for you, or whether the cause of your procrastination even is what I think it might be.)

Good luck!

Are you accusing me of lying about having a graduate degree in psychology? Do you want to see my LinkedIn?

>This is another indadvertedly revealing thing for you to say. Why? Because this way of thinking about the field is one that people who only know it from say, watching TED talks, or reading pop psych websites tend to believe.

Just to make sure I understand you, are you saying that only people who watch TED talks, or read pop psych websites believe IQ is valid?

If so, that's just demonstrably false. In fact it's the opposite, amongst researchers, it is known that is those in the general public who don't believe that IQ tests are reliable and valid are the ones who have been misled. See SNYDERMAN, M., & ROTHMAN, S. (1988). The IQ Controversy, the Media and Public Policy

There was a random survey of 681 psychologists and they came to the consensus that "On the whole, scholars with any expertise in the area of intelligence and intelligence testing (defined very broadly) share a common view of the most important components of intelligence, and are convinced that it can be measured with some degree of accuracy."

Or if you want a recent book on the subject, check out Stuart Ritchie's ["Intelligence: All that Matters"] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00RTY0LPO/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)

Here is the book jacket, which sums up what I have been telling you.

"There is a strange disconnect between the scientific consensus and the public mind on intelligence testing. Just mention IQ testing in polite company, and you'll sternly be informed that IQ tests don't measure anything "real", and only reflect how good you are at doing IQ tests...

Yet the scientific evidence is clear: IQ tests are extraordinarily useful. IQ scores are related to a huge variety of important life outcomes like educational success, income, and even life expectancy, and biological studies have shown they are genetically influenced and linked to measures of the brain. Studies of intelligence and IQ are regularly published in the world's top scientific journals..."

I don't want to add extra reading to your life, but here goes ;-)

You may find "The Four Foundations of Mindfulness" to be of help off the cushion. I found this is of great benefit for dealing with what you're speaking about as well.

Awareness of form, feeling, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness (the five aggregates model) -- powerful stuff.

This is the [book] (https://www.amazon.ca/Satipatthana-Direct-Realization-Bhikkhu-Analayo/dp/1899579540/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502836095&sr=8-1&keywords=the+direct+path+to+realization) I found of great help.

I am hesitant to add more to the bibliography as it is growing rapidly with great sources and ideas. My two cents are that TMI is unique in how it integrates classical sources and modern theories and then presents them in an accessible and practical way. We can do the hard work that Culadasa and his co-authors did with going straight to the primary sources. The challenge is that these are ancient texts that sometimes hard for those of us without sufficient background in the culture and native languages.

Culadasa heavily relies on Asanga, especially as outlined by Kamalaśila in his Bhāvanākrama (here https://www.scribd.com/doc/81456034/Kamalashila-Bhavanakrama is one of the translations. You can also check the Dalai Lama's commentary titled "Stages of Meditation: The Buddhist Classic on Training the Mind." Culadasa also relies on the classical Theravāda manual by Buddhaghosa "The Path of Purification" (https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nanamoli/PathofPurification2011.pdf). There are others, but if you would like to follow Culadasa's sources, these are two excellent places to start.

The complementary aspect that the TMI does not dwell on is the rich Buddhist ethical teachings. Here two excellent books to begin with are Thich Nhat Hanh's "For the Future to be Possible: Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life" https://www.amazon.com/Future-Be-Possible-Buddhist-Everyday/dp/1888375663. Or the Dalai Lama's Ethics for the New Millennium.

I hope it helps. I would say that I find the TMI well organized and indispensable to my practice. I intend to keep using it pragmatically and continue cultivating the moral teachings that are indispensable to the path.  

I agree with everything u/Dr_Shevek said. I think it would be best to find a good tai chi or qigong instructor to work with. I haven't been able to find many helpful how-to guides online, and energy work seems to be more of an art than a science in a lot of ways. I personally don't have much money to spare, so I've been using the free Zhan Zhuang videos Dr_Shevek mentioned. Before my first sit of the day, I'll do a few minutes of the warm-up exercise, 5-10 minutes of the posture, and a couple minutes of the cool-down exercise. I feel like it's helping so far!


As I mentioned in response to another comment, I've also been practicing ashtanga yoga for a while now. I don't see as much of a correlation between my yoga practice and these energetic phenomena, but I've also been practicing ashtanga since I was in stage 4, so maybe the energy stuff I'm dealing with now would be a lot worse if I hadn't haha. Ashtanga in particular seems to have a pretty steep learning curve wherein you're just trying not to pass out and/or fall over before you can actually "flow" through the poses with your breath, which is the main goal of the practice. I've gotten a lot better at this over the past couple of months, and have felt some energetic stuff happening during my practice and more relaxation/groundedness after my practice during this time. But I'm not sure if this is an effect of the yoga itself, or just my increased perception leading to me noticing what has been happening all along.


In terms of books, here is the book written by the gentleman who made the Zhan Zhuang videos. I've heard good things about it. I've also seen Energy Work recommended quite a few times.

> I quickly lose mindfulness when I use the internet or talk to people

Those activities are a bit more challenging because our inclination is to give them 100% of our conscious power. If you want to be more mindful during these activities than you simply need to slow down. Not a lot - just slow down a bit and it will allow you to be more aware of your thoughts/feelings.

> mindful of what: current activity, my body, thoughts, vision, sounds, space, all at once, one by one…? My mind tends to complicate things and create “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts”.

Many great masters have said you should be mindful of everything. There is the cliche advice of focusing on the scent of soap while washing the dishes. I think this is horrible advice personally. The reason people peddle being mindful in this extrospective way is either unstated or to be more generally calm. But the point of mindfulness is not calm - it is insight. You pay attention to washing the dishes to realize the experience is arising and passing away perpetually. This kind of mindfulness I do not suggest until you begin having insights while sitting. So for now don't focus on extrospective mindfulness. I anticipate many people disagreeing with me on this point (the dreaded "traditionalist" as I call them), but I just do not see a realistic benefit.

At your stage you should only be mindful of thoughts and emotions. Mindfulness does not mean you are meditating all the time. Mindfulness simply means you are aware of what you are feeling. If negative emotions arise, know you are in that negative state and sublimate it. I had a mentor that always stated: "Get better, not bitter". It was his way of saying to know what you are feeling and use it instead of buying into them and believing their reality.

> What do you recommend?

None of them. I recommend Letting Go. IMO Hawkins is the best teacher of self-awareness, second to none. I hypothesize someone could reach stream entry doing nothing but their sitting practice using TMI and using Letting Go (as described in the book I linked) as their auxiliary "vipassana" practice throughout the day. Why do I say this? Because all the true Insights I have ever gotten (yes, including Insight into no-self) occurred through either sitting TMI practice or using letting go in the way Hawkins describes.


> How much mindfulness in daily life is expected from me at this point (I am around stage 4)? Is it more like “be mindful few times a day, while eating, brushing teeth etc, and everything is fine” or “aim at being mindful in every single moment”?

There are no expectations, there is only cause and effect. The more mindful you are the faster things will go.

> Is all of this not so necessary and all I need is developing virtue and naming distractions? Is naming distractions going like this - for example: I speak with someone, and every time I have some unrelated thought I label it?

Yeah - but don't use labeling while engaged in an activity. When you are talking to someone then just ignore the thought and keep doing what you were doing. Only use labeling when you are not doing anything and find your mind wandering. I think Letting Go is far superior to labeling - read that book and do that instead, I only suggest labeling because most people are unwilling to read another book.

> Sorry for too many questions :)

Nah, it's all good dude.

Sounds like you and I sit the same way. It honestly took me a couple months of daily sits before my mid-back muscles got accustomed to it. It was painful and discouraging for the first month, but I could tell after a month that it was slowly getting better and better. Now I can sit Burmese for 2 hours+ without much discomfort.

Do you sit on a zafu? That was a huge help for me as far as comfort in meditation. I think mine was $40 on Amazon...I'll post a link if I can find it. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N39UKQG?aaxitk=E.4KbShYVWKAiuFv3w01rA&pd_rd_i=B01N39UKQG&pf_rd_p=44fc3e0f-4b9e-4ed8-b33b-363a7257163d&hsa_cr_id=2345076710901&sb-ci-n=asinImage&sb-ci-v=https%3A%2F%2Fimages-na.ssl-images-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FI%2F315Dbxw4r7L.jpg&sb-ci-a=B01N39UKQG&th=1&psc=1

If you get one like this, try sitting just on the front 1/3 of the cushion, and sort of wiggle your butt side to side when you first sit down, which will move the "stuffing" toward the back of the cushion, behind where you're sitting. This makes sort of a ramp, with the thinner part of the ramp under your butt, and the taller side of the ramp behind you. I learned that from a YouTube video, and it helped my back a TON.

>However, the real question is: "Even if I knew the answer to that question, would it affect my decision making while I am alive?". As far as I am concerned: "No it would not". Therefore, the whole dilemma is irrelevant, for me. Or as in the link you posted: "This questions belongs to the category to: best put aside."

Yep, I think so. Thank you for the reminder on Sapolsky, he is brilliant. I watched something like 10 episodes of that series a few years ago. His Behave has been sitting untouched on my bookshelf for quite some time so maybe it's time to give it a look?

As Culadasa's approach in TMI jives well with you, you might also find that Joanna Macy's Mutual Causality in Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems of interest. He has recommended it emphatically a number of times.

Yes. Watch from 1 hour and 17 min in:

r/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhtU5ei6YaM&t=247s

In terms of learning to work with energy the number one most important thing IMO is to learn to really ground/root your energy. That can be done very deeply through standing meditation postures from qigong (called Zhan Zhuang). You can also directly learn to sink your energy.

A few good books for learning to do standing meditation and to ground

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Energy-Mastering-Internal-Strength/dp/0671736450/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536310978&sr=8-1&keywords=way+of+energy

https://www.amazon.com/Opening-Energy-Gates-Your-Body/dp/1583941460/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1536311094&sr=1-1&keywords=opening+the+energy+gates+of+your+body

And for working with energy in general:

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Promise-Qi-Creating-Extraordinary/dp/0809295288/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0809295288&pd_rd_r=f2a13599-b27c-11e8-ad5d-f9d1f1abea37&pd_rd_w=jSsme&pd_rd_wg=PHn62&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=6725dbd6-9917-451d-beba-16af7874e407&pf_rd_r=4E6D4PWEM54GBZ9TJKQP&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=4E6D4PWEM54GBZ9TJKQP&dpID=51wRmSyNaFL&preST=_SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=detail

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Light-Tao-Foundational-Practices-ebook/dp/B004J4WM6S/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1536311129&sr=1-1&keywords=healing+light+of+the+tao

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Qigong-Science-Chinese-Healing/dp/0345421094/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1536311155&sr=1-1&keywords=way+of+qigong

My opinions:

There is spiritual wisdom, and there is worldly wisdom. The former does not lead directly to the latter. To serve your fellow man effectively requires worldly wisdom. What works, and what doesn't work?

To answer that, one must go beyond the common wisdom regarding politics, economics, science, and the social sciences. All of those are spheres of power that are too corrupt to provide answers to the problems of mass suffering.

Real change happens primarily at the level of individuals working with individuals, and secondarily at the level of public discourse.

The one solution I can recommend as being the best hope for changing the world is the theory and practice of Permaculture. And the best introduction I know of is David Holmgren's https://www.amazon.com/Permaculture-Principles-Pathways-beyond-Sustainability/dp/0646418440. It's worth the price, but you will probably want to find a used copy.

I'd add Bhante Gunaratana's 8 Mindful Steps to Happiness to this recommendation.

Not quite as concise, but one of the best "plain English" outlines of the Eightfold Path I've had the pleasure of reading. I regularly revisit it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0861711769/

I also mostly practice around stage 4 but still found choiceless awareness very useful. The instruction I followed were from the following book... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Unlearning-Meditation-What-When-Instructions/dp/1590307526, In short, it's worth experimenting by letting whatever arises in meditation happen (even mind wandering and dullness), for me, it highlighted any aversion quite nicely by contrasting it with a mind that is fully accepting. I got to know the contracted and non-contracted mind and the process of going between them quite well. Anyway, just my 2 cents...

Thanks for the comment. For what it's worth, I heard that there are two versions of the ebook: the one that came out shortly after the original 2015 publication, and a newer edition that came out on January 2017, without many changes to the content, but with much improved format for the ebook.

The fact that a new version of the ebook was released is already a telltale sign that many technical publication improvements have been made. That's the usual reason they re-release ebooks not too long after the original, and without many content differences.

I have repeated rocking during meditation. Pretty much every monk I talked to told me to ignore it and just focus on the meditation. No one seemed concerned that it was dangerous. One monk told me that if I set a strong intention to not move, that could stop it, but he didn't say that I needed to stop it.

I have done some Qi Gong and it might be helping, not sure yet. The Qi Gong can be very spastic, like an exaggerated rocking of what happens in meditation, but maybe it will calm things down eventually. I like the simplicity of Qi Gong. If you're interested, this is a good book https://www.amazon.com/Way-Energy-Mastering-Internal-Strength/dp/0671736450 .

For those of you questioning TMI in light of recent events, I would encourage you to take a broader perspective about the practice.

In my personal experience of 11 years of practice of the Eightfold Path, my results are that I am calmer, less stressed, happier, less knee-jerk reactive, and more at peace. Most of the time, I feel entirely at peace. I believe that my immediate family, although not practitioners, have benefited from my improvement over the past decade. It has been worth the effort!

I have only picked up TMI recently and it has already helped me with some meditation blocks that I wanted to work through. TMI seems to be a good meditation manual and particularly useful to those (like me) who do not have regular access to a good meditation teacher.

However, in traditional Buddhist terms and IMHO, TMI is incomplete in terms of Buddhist awakening. TMI covers 2 factors from the 8 in the Eightfold Path. Practicing one or two of these without the support of the other factors COULD be a path to nowhere for some people; others may find that TMI alone works well for them.

My recommendation to anyone questioning TMI is to continue to practice its meditation techniques but also consider incorporating the rest of the Eightfold Path into your practice and see for yourself whether it is worth the effort. Some sources for the Eightfold Path.

• Bhikkhu Bodhi: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html
  
• Eightfold path ‘class’ taught by Gil Fronsdal on AudioDharma: https://www.audiodharma.org/series/1/talk/3840/
  
• Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0861711769
  
  This is offered only in the spirit of being helpful and I in no way mean to criticize TMI.

\> It seems the perfect time for deep consideration.

Yes, you are correct. Some buddhist teachers like Leigh Brasington make the argument that that is "Right Concentration" from the eight fold path i.e. stable concentration leads to jhanas (flow like states) and which are then conducive for insight meditation practices e.g. insight into annicca, dukkha and anatta (What is the self?).

TMI alludes to a similar process in the middle to later stages through jhana and still point/witness practices.

https://www.amazon.com/Right-Concentration-Practical-Guide-Jhanas/dp/1611802695

Here's a quote from the book that compeltely transformed my experience of the process of TMI and allowed meditation to become much more enjoyable and progress to really happen.

"“To succeed, we need to approach the practice in a relaxed manner, free from judgement and expectations. Although we may start out this way, we can quickly slip into a critical, striving attitude when faced with problems such as mind wandering, sleepiness, and impatience. This attitude becomes the greatest impediment to our progress. When words like 'struggle' or 'difficult' come to mind, or if you feel like you're 'trying really hard, but not making any progress', you'll know it's time to examine your attitude.
Meditation is a series of simple tasks, easy to perform, that only need to be repeated until they bear fruit. So where is the sense of difficulty and exertion coming from? We usually describe a task as difficult because we're dissatisfied with our performance, which means we've started judging. Your expectations haven't been met, and maybe your starting to doubt whether you'll ever succeed, which can sap your motivation. You're not actually struggling with meditating, you're struggling with unrealistic expectations and an idealized image of what you think 'should' be happening... You can blame the teacher, the method, or concoct a story about how meditation isn't right for you. The real issue isn't that meditation takes too much effort, or that something is innately wrong with you, it's your judgement and expectations."

I hope this helps you too. I really think you need to let go. There's also a highly recommended book on that subject; perhaps it may be of use to you. Letting Go by David Hawkins : https://www.amazon.ca/Letting-David-Hawkins-M-D-Ph-D/dp/1401945015/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=letting+go&qid=1564334160&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Off topic from TMI, but I've been doing some of the exercises from "Core Transformation" and it might be helpful:

Core Transformation: Reaching the Wellspring Within https://www.amazon.com/dp/0911226338/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_jkLsDb81MDJ3G

Great answer, the second paragraph especially! Just one thing to add about how you do metta:

Usually we give metta to ourselves, and then to others. We send it to those we are close to, then those we are neutral to, then those we have difficulties with, and then finally all people, and the universe.

Bear in mind that sending metta to different types of people can bring things up from the past that need to be purified, and therefore might end up affecting your situation. This occurs to me particularly when sending it to people I have difficulties with, so as you can probably imagine, they are sometimes pretty intense. You get better at dealing with this though.

A good idea is to avoid sending it to those you have difficulties with for now. Maybe even only send it to yourself.

Oh - and one more thing - Letting Go by David R Hawkins will be good for your current situation. It is basically an entire book on purification!

And some good books to start with:

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Promise-Qi-Creating-Extraordinary/dp/0809295288

https://www.amazon.com/Way-Qigong-Science-Chinese-Healing/dp/0345421094/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525452385&sr=1-1&keywords=ken+cohen

https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Light-Tao-Foundational-Practices-ebook/dp/B004J4WM6S/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1525452407&sr=1-6&keywords=mantak+chia

The thoughts are just the manifestation of something deeper, I think realizing that thoughts have causes does not per se exclude free will. The whole topic of free will vs determinism has a specific framing to it that heavily relies on the western understanding of causality and the logic of A causes B. Eastern philosophy knows different logics and mutual causality where A and B cause each other. I just started reading about Mutual causality and maybe this can provide a rational stab at the paradox of free will vs determinism. I can't say more yet, sorry.

I just know many Buddhist scholars make the assertion that there is a middle way between the two extremes. But I suspect it as experiences we may have in meditation that can resolve this. Until then I try to avoid falling into extremes and try to dwell in the "don't know mind'

As you know, there are quite a lot of types of meditation, so I would start by searching a good teacher, who says right words from your POV and have some proven results, namely, students who have achieved the results you want to achieve - and use the method he uses. Check the book https://www.amazon.com/Right-Concentration-Practical-Guide-Jhanas/dp/1611802695, which is available on b-ok.cc too.

https://reviewmeta.com/amazon/0671736450

https://www.fakespot.com/product/the-way-of-energy-mastering-the-chinese-art-of-internal-strength-with-chi-kung-exercise-a-gaia-original