What do you think of the second paper that I link to here that tries to create a framework for classifying the various contemplative practices? If it seems like a useful framework, where does “Looking” fall into it?
I really like that framework. This description of the deconstructive family definitely sounds like it’s talking about Looking:
Another approach would be to directly examine your experience, for example by dissecting the feeling of anxiety into its component parts and noticing how the thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations that comprise the emotion are constantly changing. In the context of Buddhist meditation, this process of inquiry is often applied to beliefs about the self, though it can similarly be applied to the nature and dynamics of perception, to the unfolding of thoughts and emotions, or to the nature of awareness.
Also, later in the same section, the paper makes a similar claim as what I was saying in my article: that establishing basic proficiency in meta-awareness / the attentional family is a prerequisite for achieving the basic skills for overcoming cognitive fusion, after which one can start developing skill in deconstructive practices / Looking:
When your sense of self is fused with the presence of anger (i.e., the feeling “I am angry”), the arising of anger is not seen clearly, but instead forms the lens through which you view experience. Attentional family practices train the capacity to recognize the occurrence of anger and other states of mind, enabling one to notice the presence of angry thoughts, physiological changes, and shifts in affective tone. This process of sustained recognition allows for the investigation of the experience of anger, an approach taken with deconstructive meditations. With this added element, one is not merely sustaining awareness of the experience of anger, but also investigating its various components, inquiring into its relationship with one’s sense of self, and/or uncovering the implicit beliefs that inform the arising of anger and then questioning the validity of these beliefs in light of present-moment experience (see Box 4). This investigation of conscious experience is said to elicit an experience of insight, a flash of intuitive understanding that can be stabilized when linked with meta-awareness. Thus, meta-awareness sets the stage for self-inquiry and allows for the stabilization of the insight it generates while nevertheless being a distinct process.
I didn’t really discuss the constructive family in the post, but I did briefly gesture towards it when I mentioned that “I think in terms of meditative practices that work within an existing system (of pleasure and pain), versus ones that try to move you outside the system entirely”; in terms of the paper, meditative practices that worked “inside the system” would probably be classified mostly as constructive ones.
Interestingly, it seems that there are deep disagreements between and even within Buddhist traditions about which mental states count as “enlightenment” or “awakening”, and which ones are merely states of deep concentration.
I didn’t read the first paper yet, but that’s definitely been my suspicion as well. There are probably a number of different states that different traditions call with that label.
Those papers are a great find!
I really like that framework. This description of the deconstructive family definitely sounds like it’s talking about Looking:
Another approach would be to directly examine your experience, for example by dissecting the feeling of anxiety into its component parts and noticing how the thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations that comprise the emotion are constantly changing. In the context of Buddhist meditation, this process of inquiry is often applied to beliefs about the self, though it can similarly be applied to the nature and dynamics of perception, to the unfolding of thoughts and emotions, or to the nature of awareness.
Also, later in the same section, the paper makes a similar claim as what I was saying in my article: that establishing basic proficiency in meta-awareness / the attentional family is a prerequisite for achieving the basic skills for overcoming cognitive fusion, after which one can start developing skill in deconstructive practices / Looking:
When your sense of self is fused with the presence of anger (i.e., the feeling “I am angry”), the arising of anger is not seen clearly, but instead forms the lens through which you view experience. Attentional family practices train the capacity to recognize the occurrence of anger and other states of mind, enabling one to notice the presence of angry thoughts, physiological changes, and shifts in affective tone. This process of sustained recognition allows for the investigation of the experience of anger, an approach taken with deconstructive meditations. With this added element, one is not merely sustaining awareness of the experience of anger, but also investigating its various components, inquiring into its relationship with one’s sense of self, and/or uncovering the implicit beliefs that inform the arising of anger and then questioning the validity of these beliefs in light of present-moment experience (see Box 4). This investigation of conscious experience is said to elicit an experience of insight, a flash of intuitive understanding that can be stabilized when linked with meta-awareness. Thus, meta-awareness sets the stage for self-inquiry and allows for the stabilization of the insight it generates while nevertheless being a distinct process.
I didn’t really discuss the constructive family in the post, but I did briefly gesture towards it when I mentioned that “I think in terms of meditative practices that work within an existing system (of pleasure and pain), versus ones that try to move you outside the system entirely”; in terms of the paper, meditative practices that worked “inside the system” would probably be classified mostly as constructive ones.
I didn’t read the first paper yet, but that’s definitely been my suspicion as well. There are probably a number of different states that different traditions call with that label.