A Practice Guide for Pre-Stream-Entry

Don’t delete this. This forum is for practice and for anyone who is sincerely dedicated to awakening. Anyone is welcome, from beginner to advanced practitioners. Your question is useful.

My general guide for pre-SE:

• “Exquisite practice” is a meme. There is good practice and there is bad practice. Good practice is about deep learning, getting intimate with the mind, and not being harsh on yourself when the mind naturally slackens off. This is a skill and we’re learning it. If you can do 1hr of good practice per day instead of 4hrs of practice where you coast and not learn, you’re doing yourself a favour. Check out the book “The Talent Code” and read the chapter on Deep Learning to see what I mean.
• Start with some structure. TMI is a fantastic resource. Adi’s posts are excellent. MIDL, while I have no personal experience with it, seems great too. Structure gives you support and gives you a guide on where you are, where the traps are, and what you’re learning at each stage. Unlike the Path of Insight — structured programs actually give you tangible skills to learn and correctly execute with demonstrable effects, rather than a vague mishmash of statements to get fixated on to determine where you are.
• Start with Samatha skills. They are pleasant to learn and applicable at any stage of awakening. They’re also the gentlest. 1st Jhana is all you need for stream-entry. If your mind is free of hindrances, it is fit for work to investigate the process of identity-making and identification. So, do not stress about needing to go higher. 1st Jhana is incredibly easy; sustained and applied effort with piti-sukkha. That means, talking to yourself in a motivating and wholesome way that makes you feel like you’re a winner, that you’ve overcome the stuff holding you back. In essence, you’re having the thoughts that you wanna have.
• In TMI-talk. Stage 6 is probably the most important single stage of development, IMO. Here you’re learning Jhana skills (you’re learning how to have the mind-moments that you wanna have) and you’re learning the distinct feeling of awareness. If you can get through stage 6, stage 7 is a breeze. Start diligent vipassana once you have mastered stage 7 IMO. That’s when things are so calm, relaxed, and easy, it makes seeing the mind’s movements VERY easy.
• On cushion practice, I would aim for a minimum of 3hrs per day. That way you are rapidly making progress, attuning the mind, and also punching through the hindrances. The question you must be always asking is: “how am I experiencing X?”. The answer is always, “I’ll meditate to find out”. This is what I did pre-SE. Tired? Meditate. Angry? Meditate. Hungry? Meditate. Hyped up? Meditate? Horny? Meditate. Etc., etc., etc…
• Daily practice helps. Look at my post about the Middle 4 Links of Dependent Origination for an example of how to start noticing how the mind moves in day to day life. Or do basic noting in daily life. Noting is just a fancy way of saying, “noticing”. AKA: being aware. If you’re being aware, you’re practising (to an extent!). Being mindful is just keeping something in mind for a sustained period of time. Being mindful of brushing your teeth is just that — keeping that intention alive. If you want to be mindful of how it feels to brush your teeth, well that’s a different thing. And if you want to be mindful of how you brush your teeth, you can do that too. They’re all related but subtly different — refer to the 4 Bases of Mindfulness (Sattipatthana) to see how they relate/are different.
• Go on retreats when you can. Treat them as a holiday. Have fun. Do not treat it as more work to do. This is for your benefit, not another tool you’re going to mindlessly bash yourself with like everything else.
• Choiceless awareness is a meme. All awareness is based on a choice. Don’t get fixated on these highfalutin concepts. Stick to structure, stick to the process, and stick to working at it bit by bit. Crack in and don’t waste time on buzzwords (non-dual, luminous awareness, choiceless awareness, doing nothing, etc…).
• Likewise with phenomenology. You can, with enough skill, craft any experience of your choosing. Phenomenology to determine where you are is a misguided and immature notion of what the path is about. Your goal is to have life be as simple, stress-free, and satisfying as possible. Seeing luminous energies and magical centrelessness or whatever isn’t necessary to achieve this (although its fun and can teach you something, its presence isn’t the diagnostic criteria of your attainment).