Q&A Essential Diagnostic Guide

Q&A Essential Diagnostic Guide

Remember that the four conditions of setting up this Non-Meditation are supportive for the recognition however, not all conditions are necessary that just make it easier.

• Condition 1 Openness: Is the degree of emptiness/openness strong enough for the student to see through the subtle obscurations of the self? If not, point them towards the emptiness of the subtle ‘windows’ in consciousness. This needs to be done gently with love: all doubt is empty…..seeking a realization is empty….waiting for something to happen is empty…..etc.

• Condition 2 Awake: Have they ‘examined the nature of unborn awareness’? Is there a significant degree of mirror-like wisdom to provide the lucidity necessary. If not encourage them to orient their intention to recognize the lucid, naked immediacy of awareness. This is called the Lion’s Gaze. The Lion looks at who throws the stick i.e. who is aware of experience and not the Dog who looks at the stick. If they cannot get there head around ‘taking the mind perspective’ on the lucidity of their subjectivity, then direct them to recognize the inherent luminosity of the field of experience. That way they can recognize the mirror-like wisdom in the luminosity of vision, sound and sensation. 

• Condition 2 Awake: Is there a necessary degree of immediacy? To what degree are they vertically present to ‘The Now’? No past, no future, no present. Just the immediacy of Now. 

• Condition 3 Innocent Wholeness : Make sure that they are not trying too hard to recognize the Wholeness of the field. Wholeness is already there. So the recognition is subtle. Rather than a grasping quality there is a releasing quality. From the perspective of the subject this is a quality of Innocence, of ‘not-knowingness’. This releases the fusion with individual consciousness. If they try too hard the attentional system will get involved.

• Condition 3 Innocent Wholeness: Check that they are really letting go into gravity and relying upon the stability and support of the physical ground. The physical ground is also the Open Ground so any resistance and non-release down will result in subtle holding. This is where deep trust is so important and the most basic skills developed during Calm/Staying come into play. Emphasize qualities of naturalness, ease, rest, letting go etc.

• Condition 3: Make sure they are not trying to make Wholeness into something. It is the absence of anything or any kind of knowledge.

• Condition 4: For the realization to be on-going and unfolding it needs to be continuous and not used as a dissociative strategy of the ego to avoid the suffering of intimacy. As such, make sure that there is continuous metacognitive attunement to the need for the field of experience to be felt. Also, make sure that this is not just framed as personal attunement because the refinement and sensitivity of this level of mind opens the store house consciousness so the student is experiencing the interconnect field of planetary disorganization and suffering.

• Anxiety: If anxiety or panic arise this is usually due to the groundlessness releasing early object-relations, challenging infancy experiences. If this happens emphasize that the openness is an ocean of attuning compassion, and emphasize that the student strengthens their personal motivation to be of benefit for all beings. Suggest that their opening is a beautiful and good sacrifice that will benefit all including themselves. Also, emphasize the holding quality of the Open Ground and not just its boundlessness. Use the term ‘Mother Consciousness’ to seed the possibility that the field is responsive to them.