Just as the ocean has a gradual shelf, a gradual slope, a gradual inclination, with a sudden drop-off only after a long stretch, in the same way this Doctrine and Discipline dhamma-vinaya has a gradual training, a gradual performance, a gradual progression, with a penetration to gnosis only after a long stretch. But a number of details from this recent dialogue with the same Dan Harris give me pause.
In the dialogue, the Harris known as Sam is describing to the Harris known as Dan the paradox at the heart of the meditation that seeks to deconstruct the self: how can we use consciousness to penetrate consciousness?
The black box records the flight but not its own recording. How do you look directly at the thing that is looking? Sam uses the analogy of standing before a window. You can look through it to the garden beyond. Or, if you shift focus, you can catch a sudden glimpse of your own face.
He likens the former to meditating on the contents of consciousness, and the latter to meditating on its mechanism. Harris valorizes meditating on the mechanism, and then appears to draw a hard line between the two. Looking out the window is arguably better than closing your eyes or leaving the room entirelyβat least you are facing in the right directionβbut the practice is based on a fundamental misunderstanding.
Given better information, you could just walk up to the window and see your face in the first instant. The same is true for the illusoriness of the self. Some practices can facilitate this shift in awareness, but there is no truly gradual path that leads there. Many longtime meditators seem completely unaware that these two planes of focus exist, and they spend their lives looking out the window, as it were. I used to be one of them.
