IIRC, the author doesn’t use the phrase “letting go” anywhere in the book. He operationalizes all the terms/skills/states he talks about like differentiating between continuity of attention and sharpness of attention. I think the goal’s he’s talking about are very specific/operationalized.
I have not said something about “really wanting to” being bad.
My bad. That was a bit of a straw man on my part.
The problem is attachment. If you have once a really great experience meditating and then get attached to the idea of recreating that experience you usually don’t get anywhere.
The author addresses that specific concern:
A warning is inorder here. It is very important not to sacrifice the development offull-minded awareness for sake of rapid progress in concentration. Todo so will lead to the development of concentration with dullness.This will produce very pleasurable meditative states that are dead-ends in themselves, leaving the meditator without the capacity for full-minded awareness necessary for completing the 10 stages of this method.
Overall, I think the first section of the book is skippable. You can use what’s useful to you and leave the rest.
IIRC, the author doesn’t use the phrase “letting go” anywhere in the book. He operationalizes all the terms/skills/states he talks about like differentiating between continuity of attention and sharpness of attention. I think the goal’s he’s talking about are very specific/operationalized.
My bad. That was a bit of a straw man on my part.
The author addresses that specific concern:
Overall, I think the first section of the book is skippable. You can use what’s useful to you and leave the rest.