ardacigin

Well even for a 'Buddha' once can be always more conscious. Thats wrong regardless of your current insight attainment or mastery overall.

Hyper idealistic solipsism is wrong. This is the main theme of this post. Before we get to that, I see some people on the forum getting surprised or confused about leo's recent remarks on Aliens consciousnesess. Him 'opening a portal inside his skull to a colorful Infinite Cartoon landscape full of striped and polka-dotted sentient Alien creatures doing cartwheeels, backflips, and helicoptering around.' then claming 'I have Awoken to an Infinite dreamscape of pure fun and Love!' This is nothing to be surprised about. Leo already made clear his 'complete awakening' is subscribing to the notion of 'mind only' sect of non duality. His psychedelic sessions make one thing clear: Non duality. But what it confused him is that 'MY mind is the only thing I can be sure of and reality is ONLY composed of the concoction of my mind. The figments of imagination are all there is and the same is true for every other imaginary human mind. There is no 'ultimate reality' DIFFERENT from what I see, observe, touch, feel, generate in my experience' See, all of this hyper idealistic solipsism arises out of the mistaken assumption he made at the start of his psychedelic explorations years ago. 'Nothing exists but MY mind' - He makes it sure that there is no ultimate reality OUTSIDE of 'my mind' and everyone is responsible for 'their' minds. You guys are 'stuck in yout own dreams' while 'I' have broken through alien levels of awakening AND no human on this earth could ever possibly conceive of. I guess not even when said people spend 20 years using 10x more 5 Meo Dmts Leo does. He must have this 'special' intuition skills very few people on this earth is even capable of. This is the current paradigm and worldview of Leo in the way that I can see and understand.Feel free to make it more accurate. I do know what he is talking about tho as someone who has ACTUAL meditation skills and has had many experiences with different psychedelics. --- The fact of the matter is actually even more profound than what Leo make it sound like. There is an ultimate reality BEYOND your human consciousness can EVER comprehend. I'm not talking about 'using psychedelics and attaining transhuman levels of understanding' like Leo. All the alien and mickey mouse and portal into my head sorta experiences are concoctions of your brain and mind. Just like this mainstream everyday reality of chairs and tables and couches are concoctions of one's mind as well. YOU CAN'T EXPERIENCE AND DIRECTLY COMPREHEND THE ULTIMATE REALITY (which is NOT only your personal solipsistic concoction) WITH YOUR EXISTING BRAIN AND PSYCHEDELICS AND MEDITATION TECHNIQUES. Full stop. Ever. What we do as spiritual practitioners with our psychedelics, meditations and whatnot is to get INSIGHTS and understandings INDIRECTLY (via inference and demolisihing of our mind created illusions) to get the MOST accurate and closest approximation to what Ultimate reality is like. Of course, Leo would object here and say 'There is no ultimate reality 'outside' of your personal mind' Of course, he would. But the problem is that just because you CAN'T access any reality DIRECTLY, DOESNT mean that that reality outside of your 'personal' mind and conscious experiences DOESNT exist. Leo's positions is akin to how someone would say 'This Eros planet doesnt exist. We can observe this earth, moon, venus etc but this eros planet you are talking about is a complete fiction of your mind. Why do you assume this Eros planet's existece. I don't observe such planet via telescopes' Well just because you 'dont observe' it doesnt mean it doesnt exist. We don't make an 'assumption' of an ultimate reality beyond our personal 'mind', Spiritual insights of emptiness, no self, impermanence and nothingness PROVIDES said inference necessary to know with absolute certainty that the reality that 'YOUR' personal mind is an absolute illusion and is your brain's 'best guess' at what this ultimate reality (which impinges on your mind and your mind is an intimately part of) might actually be like. But it is a complete farce. Your alien awakenings, mickey mouses and portals in to your head are fun little creations of your personal mind. But NOT what is ultimately true. Actually your human brain and your psychedelics CANT hope to directly perceive ultimate reality and 'Truth' Due to your strongly entrenched solipsistic way of perceiving reality, it will be challenging to accept what you value as 'complete awakening of aliens' is actually nonsensical but I do understand why you feel that way if you have such a solipsistic tendency within 'mind only' school of non duality. ---- You need to make actual arguments as to WHY for instance if a car (which is construct of your personal mind, right?) hits you with and your body flies away to god knows where. Or how you can't walk though walls. Those set of rules of consistency is NOT just how this 'dream' operates. It is a set of rules THAT IMPINGES on your personal mind and body. Those limitations are hard wired VIA the ultimate reality which is outside of your mind. If you assert no such limitations actually exists and you simply need to be 'more awake' to control the gravity and 'walking through walls' and whatnot, feel free to spend the rest of your life consuming 10.000 psychedelics in the hopes of actually making these work. You'll fail miserably and come to know the limitations of your mind only sect of non duality. --- Anyways, I can continue on but this is, in my opinion, where Leo is going the wrong path. There is no particular reason to be surprised or shocked as the signals of such a transformation to alien awakening and portals into my mind and 'I'm the most awakened being' on this planet were there prior to this transformation. Feel free to provide your arguments but this is not a criticism post actually. I just wanted to share how I view things. Much love,

@Moksha Well I think Leo views that argument from 'I value deepest understanding possible compared to embodying an insight'. He must think it is all right suffering and being in normal states of delusion AS LONG AS he is gaining the deepest insights and understandings no one else is having through psychedelics. (which is not a guarantee by the way as mistaken insights are a real possibility) But thats the feeling I got from his demeanor, I may be wrong.

The usefulness of 'dissolving attachment', as Leo says, is not important in this context. Insights actually stand on their own merits and doesnt need to support any 'survival benefits' so to speak. Those attachments dissolve 'on their own' as a symptom of attaining deep and permanent insight. But I do understand what you mean. (in the sense that there is a correlation between reduced attachment and insight attainment)

Well imagine all the states of consciousness Mary can create (which is infinite) in that dream having amazing experiences. Using psychedelics and meditating. Profound truths regarding 'THAT dream' reality. But thats it. She doesnt see that thats a facade. 'She' is a facade. She is having these awakenings and curing sicknesses of unborn babies by raising her consciousness etc. but she is not cognizant of very nature of how 'experience' arises or how there is a reality Mary can never DIRECTLY access (because it is higher order) See, Mary doesnt realize this dream is ONLY a subset of a MUCH larger reality her puny brain and meditation techniques and psychedelics have NO access to. But you CAN realize this 'meta' insight by examining your mind and see how your 'mind' is trying to interpret this 'Ultimate Reality' by creating a coffee table, a hand, a body, a self, a world etc. This is crucial to understand. Your personal mind and its concoctions are NOT all there is to truth. That coffee table is a construct and ONLY represents the very nature of Ultimate reality in a crude and ultimately illusionary manner. (Just like everything) But these 'conscious experiences' are all we humans have access to derive the 'truth' from the illusion by clarity, mindfulness and deep investigation of what is going on here and thats what the Buddhist path is actually about. You gotta be proficient at this path and then come back to psychedelics and you'll see how different of a perspective you have on certain matters like this. It is not just about 'experiencing those insights regarding Ultimate Reality and our states of consciousness but also to 'see' them to be the case 100% all the time 24/7. Thats why it is so powerful and profound. When you do have a permanent insight. Until then, the possibility of misinterpretation exists even in the most experienced psychonauts.

But dont get me wrong here. Psychedelics are VERY useful and deep and profound. It is just that it is possible to have mistaken insight. Same is (to a lesser degree) present in normal meditation is as well. 'Mistaken insight' is not a problem actually but psychedelics are MUCH easier to misinterpret. And harder to see 'What was the misinterpretation?' THAT is my point and is what happened with Leo observing his last few years of content, responses and demeanor.

And hey! you can actually contact that Ultimately Reality that I'm speaking off. It is just not what you think it is. Those insights Buddhists speak of constitute the very nature of that ultimate reality and you can be conscious of them right now! Not via alien awakenings or having bombastic conscious experiences that veer one's constuctions further into 'I'm a being that is omniscient (first of all, all sense of separation is an illusion so you cant even be a 'being' so to speak) AND can control 'reality' (which again implies duality) directly via getting even more conscious' etc. It is easy to slip into that mode when the very experiences that your mind constructs in psychedelics is very convincing. But there is such a thing as a 'mistaken insight' You misinterpret it and reach the wrong conclusion through the same experiences. So don't put psychedelics on a pedestal and think 'it is 100% the truth downloading to your consciousness' or whatever. Sure it is very close to that actually but there is a significant chance of misinterpretation still Especially when you are so attached to said experiences for your entire spiritual development like Leo.

Well just keep going in your own dream analogy. You realize that 'Arthagoaan' fella is sleeping and is living in a different 'dimension' so to speak. My point is from your 'dream' landscape (while you are sleeping at night) is NOT all there is to reality. When you do wake up (both figuratively and literally in this case), you see that there is a new 'constructed' reality that INCLUDES your dream reality (Arthagon waking up from the dream as a person. Washing their face, living their lives). So that dream landscape ıs NOT all there is to reality. There is Ultimate Reality that FULLY includes and is one with your dream landscape but it is much larger and is NOT a part of 'ALL MIND' as subset. It is the higher order. A reality your mind CANT even access directly with your human brains even with the best pscyhedelics or meditations. Thats the insight into Emptiness and it truly is an eye opener. Especially considering Leo is extremely intoxicated with the idea that 'The conscious experiences are really important. They are all you know. There is NOTHING that is higher order than this. This is it!' sorta mindset. It is all the foundation that rests on his solipsistic and 'all mind' position. Not even realizing his alien awakenings are jus as unimportant as that coffee table and conscious experiences OVERALL are ultimately meaningless due to insight into emptiness and impermanence.

There is 'mind' in even dreamless sleep and it isnt 'turned off' as you say. You are just not conscious of the mind sense . That is not 'empty ultimate reality'. It is not about 'Buddhists have this bias' first of all, I'm not even a religious Buddhist and second of all, 'All mind' is just wrong on the insight level and so is solipsism. There is no need to 'reconcile' anything. It just doesnt fit. Simple as that.

You actually do. Otherwise survival worries OP makes clear in his post will rear their heads eventually. For you as well if you are 'peaceful' right now, you wont be tomorrow or the day after. You are not conscious of the magnitude of suffering you are experiencing as a ego and that contrast and understanding can occur with awakening only in the depth I'm talking about. Otherwise, your 'happiness' will always be 'shaky' and 'unreliable' so to speak.

This is exactly what you'll be free of when you permanently awaken. The fact that you experience this as an everyday common occurence tells you that you have lots of work to do and you are not spiritually awakened. Time to get to work and actually apply the insight experiences you've had with psychedelics and living in with those insights 24/7. That will start changing your life on the 'depth' axis, not doing your 58th DMT session this friday.

It is a fearful thing to set out to discern the truth for oneself. If we step away from our consesus, even for a moment, to reflect on the possiblity of the impossible, to consider viewing certain cosmic interactions from a different angle, to dare to questions some underlying principle, what dreadful rearrangements would take place in one's consciousness. If there is a strange and different way of knowing, then it might lead us to know ourselves in a strange and different way as well. In such a case, would it not feel as if we are losing control? We may think that our establishment of a world view and a consensus reality is an purely theoretical enterprise, dispassionately performed and endorsed by our responses to conscious experiences. But the primitive form of experience is emotional. For the highest stages of consciousness those emotions are compassion, empathy and sympathy - 'feeling in other and conformally with another'. That is why it is so hard even for those consciously trying to think new thoughts, and ways of perceiving, to break away from their ingrained habits. There is heavy emotional attachment to our constructs - The way we perceive the world and the attitudes by which we respond to experiences on a gut level. This investigation certainly requires a strong personality - a high level of tenaciousness and an ability to work through strong feelings of initial boredom fear depression and anxiety - where your attachments will be in question and you'll have to let go of those attachments to gain traction. See, you'll always have what is called 'blind spots'. Your job is to maintain greater awareness of the process and dont lose the forest from the trees. Everything that you do and think and feel actively generates and informs the next moment of consciousness. Your life is a holistic and continual process of occurrence precipitated by the intentions hold and let go of. Your mind's resources of attention and awareness are scarce and gather their source from a limited pool of 'conscious power' In general, what you 'focus on', your mind is in a tendency to become 'more attached' to it. This is true for all experiences of all forms. Even the memory of a legit insight is a construct for your mind to crave and create and attach itself to. That is also the danger of what is referred to as 'concentration on an activity as a flow state'. See, if you want your life to be in a state of 'flow', you need to awaken and attain insight. Without attaining permanent insight, you'll always backslide into your ways of unconsciousness. The same unconscious behaviours and addictions will rear their heads and you'll wonder why very little change has occurred both on the big picture and the small picture after years of practice. To not experience such plateau, understand how your mind works so intimately with duality, illusions and attachments to said illusions. To have a satisfying life, I recommend samatha vipassana, then jhana practices (or positive feel as Shinzen calls it) and finally insight practice starting with self enquiry (Who am I) as a foundation. After you break through into awakening permanently, the 'stream' will help you along. Until then, you need to know the traps and always hold the intention of progressing on this path on some level on a daily basis. Otherwise, progress will be almost impossible. Keep these in mind in your spiritual practice. Much love, Arda

There is a fundamental essence that underlies reality. Call it whatever you want. Suchness, ultimate reality, absolute god consciousness true self no self. In the basis of your DUALITY illusory existence in separation, when you experience the substance of ultimate reality (UR) from the 'self looking out' you see 'matter'. That same substance of UR when 'self looks inside' is mind in your illusiory existence, But it is all 1 stuff! What you experience as matter and mind is just the substance of Ultimate reality or suchness or whatever you call it. They are not ALL mind. And 'your' mind is NOT all there is. AND you can't experience UR directly. Not with psychedelics. Not with meditation or not with some combination. That is the insight into emptiness and where ultimate not knowing arises from. What did you think masters were referring to with 'emptiness'? All of these insights are extremely deep and profound stuff. I watched Leo's video on impermanence some time ago and well to say the least, that was one of the most 'beginner' level and barebones understandings of said insight that is not even true in the highest level. See, what you need to realize is that 'ALL MIND' and claims like 'You are God and you have control over this imagination YOU create' etc sorta claims that also dovetails with hyper idealistic solipsism are NOT what non duality in its essence is about. I know it sounds so similar. After all, Leo is talking about non duality as well. But it is making it all 'egoic' and 'imbuing with control' where no such thing exists. He gives this importance to conscious experiences where none exists. There is not even a TINY bit of 'you' or separation of ANY degree where you can exercise such control. His alien awakenings also doesnt mean anything. I dont know this for sure but I do have an inkling Leo is very confused with his psychedelic experiences and doesnt know how to go forward with those experiences I'm sure he is actually changing things on the fly where through feedback and overall progression of his path, he must micro adjust, leave certain insights and morph them etc. This is nowhere as 'smooth' sailing of a process his admittedly authoritative and charismatic persona makes one believe. And this is absolutely not what masters mean by 'this path is infinite' Sure thats true but thats not what Leo is doing. I hope he sees the error of his perceptions but again, he has a touch too much arrogance to introspect on this line of questioning so he probably wont. And hey! Thats ok. Leo is still overall more conscious than your average person and I'm sure lots of people will benefit from him and HAD already benefitted from him A LOT. All the best for him.

Well, I've never said 'you' are different or separate from this 'ultimate reality'. I think you misunderstand the term 'outside of your mind' I'm not talking about some separate reality OUT THERE inherently different from your conscious experiences. I'm saying that the ultimate reality is ABSOLUTELY NOT the way you experience the chair, coffee cup, or apples. I'm saying you are an INTIMATE and ABSOLUTE part of this ultimate reality. I hope you also agree on that. What I'm saying is that you have NO WAY of experiencing that ultimate truth with your human brains and meditation techniques and psychedelics DIRECTLY! You can however, experience this with absolute certainty INDIRECTLY. See, Leo thinks he is accessing some special knowledge or experience in psychedelics. That those said experiences mean everything to him in his progress of spirituality and understaning as a whole. These are actually huge blunders. Experiences doesnt mean anything. All experiences are constructs of one's brain/mind/imagination-survival machine.You need to see how your mind constructs all that 'alien awakening' and actually is INCAPABLE of experiencing the ultimate reality directly. Not even with fancy meditation techniques or with daily psychedelic usage etc. That understanding is emptiness and not even psychedelic experiences can give you 'a way out'. All you can ever experience are concoctions of your mind and brain's processing. Is brain a part of this imaginary reality. OF COURSE! That pink squishy soft substance is also just as illusory as a body. But obviously, brain, IN THE WAY WE EXPERIENCE IT AS A PINK SUBSTANCE, is an illusion. Its function is still important and ultimately unique in the sense that it can change the contents and experiences in consciousness. But again, chasing experiences and overall content are NOT what we are interested in in spirituality. Emptiness is extremely misunderstood in the mainstream context but is a very profound insight. Once thats understood, THEN you'll actually understand what these masters are talking about when they say 'ultimate not knowing'. Not in the sense of 'being uncertain' or whatever but understanding the limitations of human brains when it comes to the pursuit of spirituality.E

See, once we understand that reality is empty of being what it appears to us to be, and why, then questions about whether the things we perceive actually exist or not become irrelevant. “Things” exist – but only in our minds. “Something” exists outside of our minds, there is an Ultimate Reality, but we can never perceive that reality directly. You can't tip toe around this point. We can never have a direct experience of ultimate reality, but we can have a direct experience that reveals this fact to us – a direct experience of Emptiness. Liberating insight comes through this realization of Emptiness. Ignorance is destroyed, the illusion we have been trapped in for our entire lives is dispelled, and true wisdom follows. Claims like 'MY mind is the only thing that exists. There is no ultimate reality any deeper than these visuals, sounds, feelings and experiences of my consciousness (or any profound state of consciousness created via the use of psychedelics). THIS IS IT! CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE ONLY THING THAT EXISTS. CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCES ARE REALLY IMPORTANT. I've awakened to Aliens in my psychedelic sessions etc.' is a mistaken claim (in the particular way that Leo is talking about) that has been initiated by the profoundity of psychedelic usage. See, these are challenging experiences to understand LET ALONE extract their wisdom. It is so easy to turn towards the wrong alley and make big blunders which forms the basis of the rest of your explorations. And what Leo did, in my opinion, is to take the wrong turn on the path. If you think using psychedelics provides ANY user with perfect understanding and absolute liberation from the illusion just read the trip reports of 90% of common people. OR even majority of people who 'claim' to be on the path of spirituality. Psychedelics DO show you aspects of the truth REAAALLLLY deeply but it also confuses and provides incomplete maturation for the uninitiated without a strong spiritual foundation. And I dont know if you are aware of this, but Leo basically has little to no skills in parsing or experiencing the truths of spirituality without his precious 5 meo DMTs and DPTs and whatnot. Stuff people take to progress on the path, not to get stuck there for years. I do understand Leo actually but he is not aware how problematic this path he has chosen is for himself as he also has lots of arrogance. Call it completely unrelated to his spiritual journey. No, actually it is related and his very solid and arrogant leo avatar is getting in the way of his spiritual explorations in psychedelic sessions. The same arrogance that is making it impossible for him to develop skills of introspection and concentration without psychedelic assistance and embodying ANY insight to any deep degree. Tip toeing the issue by saying 'I value peak understanding, not embodiment' etc. Yeah. I totally get him. But I'm not sure he gets what he is missing out on and all the blind spots of his arrogance

Well, I already explained why our insights are not the same (but similar for sure) and you subscribe to what I'd view as 'mind only' school of non duality. (which is also why you subscribe to solipsism where I dont) Which makes the said assumptions I laid out in the posts and in the replies. You need to address them to have an internally consistent paradigm. This is not about 'being scientific' or whatever. A paradigm's fundamental processes needs to be internally consistent to be taken seriously. Non duality is ABSOLUTELY true. But solipsistic mind only - non duality you subscribe to, isnt

And I 100% agree with that

The profound truth is that neither psychedelics, nor meditation techniques NOR any combination above can do the trick. Our brains CAN NEVER attain ultimate reality or Truth DIRECTLY. ıt can only infer the truth and embody it INDIRECTLY via psychedelics, meditation insight etc. Every psychedelic expereince you've ever had - same with your 'sober' experiences' - are both concoctions of your mind. This is how human brains operate. They endlessly fabricate and generate experiences. But your own personal mind IS NOT the only thing that exists. There is an ultimate reality you are a part of and have ZERO direct access to. You can only indirectly access it and this is what all spiritual masters have done and are doing. It is the most rewarding work there is. But this is the truth of the matter. There is no escaping the 'fabrications' via psychedelics.

Well you misunderstand my position. See, I'm a non dualist. All separation in ANY form in ANY way, however subtle, are concoction of one's personal mind. So, no 'humans' actually exist. So does objects like chair couches etc. The subtle crucial difference between what you say and I say is that you say 'My mind or the mind with capital 'M' is the ONLY thing that exists' whereas I know ultimate reality - which my personal mind, conscious experiences not IT, just an intimate part of it) - is IMPINGING on my dream constructed life. Which is why I can't contol a car hitting me in the traffic. And I cant walk through walls. There are hardwired limitations of this ultimate reality but the little illusory perceptions I see as 'a car', 'movement', 'time moving forward', 'space' etc are all illusions that my mind creates. You need to be free from those limitations and actually 'create' the rules of the game (like rewriting the source code of a program and 'flying' right before the car hits you, or stopping the car dead on its tracks as all of these elements are PURELY your mind's construct, right? Why you are incapable of doing them - This is not a matter of 'I need to be more conscious via psychedelics to control my dream reality with omnipotence' You'll never accomplish such feats or manipulate/generate such realities. You need to actually adress these if you want your 'mind only' sect of non duality or hyper idealistic solipsism to hold any water. It is your paradigm that introduces assumptions that can't be verified in practice.

You might have a misconception like: 'I feel very relaxed and chill when I wake up. Why should I meditate formally? I can skip it and just try to meditate throughout the day here and there. Also, formal meditation bores me and actually makes me sleepy.' Your mind is in a complex state of construction of dreams, worries, cravings, and suffering while you are sleeping. Not only you wake up in a state of drowsiness (most of the time) but in a severe lack of equanimity. Your mind doesn't rest while sleeping. It is quite active and its effects are usually seen as slight fatigue, bodily tension and lack of alertness when you wake up. A key reason why people depend on caffeine to start their day and even then, it takes 1-2 hours to re-energize the mind. (which is not dependable as your negative habits drain your energy again). Strong meditation skills will allow you to clear up the egoic tension that arise in deep sleep, re-energize the mind properly and allow extremely high levels of equanimity, tranquility and pleasure to pervade your consciousness body and mind. The after-effects will last all day. Don't wing spirituality. You'll never attain these stages of Samatha development like that. Daily practice with deep introspection of how the mind works (vipassana) will allow such a life to be your default. Even when bad things 'objectively' happen to you in life. You'll have an unsurpassable mind equipped to handle almost anything when insight also deepens in this process. Much love,

Because sleep is essential for health. You shouldnt skip sleep for meditation and my post makes no such claim. But what you are unaware of is how much build up of tension and mind activity persists in even deep sleep. Thats why you need coffee to feel alert or reduce your morning fatigue.

The truth is even more radical than that. 1- We dont 'dream' the same thing at all. Emptiness makes you see that you generate not only the all qualia you experience in consciousness but also the way you experience AND react to it. 2- Your experience of 'salty food' can be my experience of seeing 'blue' and we may never know it because we point to the same thing and give it the same name. You live in your own reality but our human minds are similar enough that we tend to see chairs as chairs and feel pain when someone blows a torch in your face. (unless you have rare brain disorders) When I ask what you feel and think about Jane from work? Everyone will have different perceptions of who Jane is and how they relate to her. (which will be due to each person's different mental conditioning and values that their reality prioritize)

He dated women after separating from his wife. But it wasnt an official divorce due to who gets what etc. The board community and misunderstood/made the situation as if he cheated her and lied to her while in a relationship etc. He didnt sleep with any of his students.

Culadasa has been portrayed in a different way than what actually happened. It was partly Culadasa's fault for not being too direct and cutting the 'BS' as soon as the misinformation came out. There is no actual affair. Or 'scandal'. He was separated from his wife at the time and just moved on with his life like everyone else. You can also read his letter explaining the situation properly on his website. Also, Culadasa died recently. I dont know if you are aware.

Yes. What people mistakenly believe (lot of people in this forum) is meditation is merely superb 'concentration' and if only you could single-pointedly focus on a meditation object, all your spiritual obstacles would be overcome and progress would happen at an accelerated rate. That is one the most dangerous misconceptions in traditional spirituality. You stabilize attention mostly to develop awareness of mind, emotions, intentions and reality. Not for the 'sake' of concentration. You get attention 'out of the way' so that awareness can take over. Once it takes over, now you need to develop introspective awareness. You can only increase the available conscious bandwidth of the mind by increasing awareness and the way to do that is to stabilize attention. Once that is clear, more care is given to awareness rather than 'single pointed' attention. A moment where progress happens at an accelerated rate. That is an insight all meditators need to 'get' to progress further. It is also a key reason why very few people progress further than stages 5-6 in The Mind Illuminated.