This fourth insight stage, called the Arising and Passing Away,
is also the beginning of the second vipassana jhana.
As in the second shamatha jhana,
the applied and sustained effort of attention begin to drop away,
and meditation seems to take on a life of its own.
As this is the second jhana,
which has the basic attentional phase quality of
having maximum clarity at the center of attention,
this stage is noted for perceiving things clearly
wherever the attention is directed.
In fact,
this is the stage where
clarity of what is going on in the center of attention is greatest.
This focused way of working, in which you
direct attention and perceive whatever is there
very easily is understandably compelling
and forms the basis of the stage.
It also reinforces this way of relating to the meditation object,
which is okay to a point, and in fact amazing to a point,
but it can limit practitioners
if they continue to try to apply this same
attentional strategy and paradigm at later stages,
as will be discussed when I get to the third vipassana jhana.
Keep that in mind so you can
compare this stage and attentional mode to later ones.
An overall general point about this stage is
that it tends to be very impressive.
When people say to me, “I had this big experience…”,
ninety-nine percent of the time it is almost certainly related to the A&P.
The descriptions I give of it may not line up exactly with how it happens
or has happened for you,
but pay attention to the general aspects of the pattern,
as you will notice many elements described here
that you won’t see described elsewhere.
~~~
I tend to describe the A&P as it happens on retreat and with strong practice,
but it can happen off-retreat in daily life, spontaneously, without warning,
in people who don’t think of themselves as meditators,
and even in dreams and to young children.
Why some people seemingly spontaneously get into this territory
early in life with no meditative training
and some people who have done decades of meditation practice
never get to this stage, I have no idea.
It can go on for seconds or months.
Intensity can vary widely; it can occasionally be subtle,
but the general trend is for it to be very intense, high definition, and dramatic.
~~~
The A&P works the same way functionally in terms of insight
and of moving practice along, regardless of intensity and duration,
so don’t worry about those factors.
In the early part of this stage,
the meditator’s mind accelerates more and more,
reality begins to be perceived as
particles or fine vibrations of mind and matter,
each arising and vanishing utterly at tremendous speed.
This stage is marked by dramatically increased perceptual abilities
when compared with the previous stages.
For example,
we might be able to hone our awareness to laser-like precision on
the tip of our little finger and seemingly be able to perceive
the beginning and ending of every single sensation that made up that finger.
Spontaneous physical movements and strange jerky breathing patterns
that showed up in Cause and Effect and became more pronounced in
Three Characteristics may speed up significantly.
This stage explains where many practices such as
Tibetan inner heat practices (tummo) come from,
as a lot of heat and energy can be generated.
Sweating is common for those who are having a lot of heat arise.
This stage can also reveal the source material that inspired
teaching systems involving the chakras, energy channels, and auras.
Nearly all descriptions of “Kundalini awakening”
are talking about this stage.
Reality may be perceived directly with great clarity;
great bliss, rapture, equanimity, mindfulness, concentration,
and other positive qualities arise.
Practice is extremely profound and sustainable,
and there may be no pain even after hours of sitting.
Unfortunately,
the positive qualities that have arisen can easily become what are called
the “Ten Corruptions of Insight”
if
the true natures of the individual sensations
by which they are known are not realized as well,
and until this happens
a meditator can easily get stuck in the immature part of this stage.
The trap is that these are all positive qualities, and in this stage,
they may show up with surprising intensity, much to most meditators’ delight.
It is understandable that people would not investigate those positive qualities too clearly and instead back off the investigation to bask in them,
regardless of how conscious this backing off is.
However,
lack of investigation can convert positive meditation factors into
more golden chains.
The ten corruptions of insight are:
illumination
knowledge
rapturous
happiness
tranquility
bliss
resolute
confidence
exertion
assurance
equanimity
attachment
Visions, unusual sensory abilities
(such as seeing nearby things through closed eyelids),
and out-of-body experiences are common.
Bright lights tend to arise for the meditator,
sometimes first as jewel-tone sparkles and then as a bright white light
(“I have seen the light!”).
Some people will have the light persist and grow very bright and steady;
just note it or notice every moment of its apparent steadiness
and it will eventually break up and go away.
Meditation in dreams and lucid dreaming is common in this territory.
The need for sleep may be greatly reduced.
People often don’t recognize the A&P when it happens in dreams,
because lots of weird stuff happens in dreams.
This stage is a common time for first-time hyper-lucid dreaming,
and out-of-body experiences
(what I generally refer to as “traveling”)
or, for those who have done that before,
this stage makes it much more likely to occur.
it is also a common time for people to become highly interested in
lucid dreaming and out-of-body traveling.
~~~
As to the cycles, they tend to proceed as follows,
with this description assuming you are using the breath as object.
The mind kicks in, follows faster and faster vibrations,
attention engages and speeds up, perhaps accompanied by
more pronounced shaking or strange breathing patterns increasing in speed.
Finally,
halfway down an out-breath there is a shift,
our mind may drop down slowly with the breath.
It takes work to stay with sensations as they slow down,
and then the breath and attention bottom out.
The breath may stop entirely for a while.
Then the mind may come back up with the breath,
attention tends to waver, things relax, and then the cycle begins again
with investigation speeding up.
These breathing cycles may happen on their own
and may even be difficult to stop
when we are deeply into this stage.
Those using visualizations as objects may notice that the objects begin to
spin with the phase of the breath,
or move in ways that suggest they have a life of their own,
albeit a largely two-dimensional one,
as compared to the more strongly three-dimensional visions
that may arise in later stages,
though three-dimensional visions can occasionally also arise here,
just to make things confusing.
~~~
As this stage deepens and matures,
meditators let go of even the high levels of clarity and
the other strong factors of meditation,
perceiving even these to arise and pass
as just fluxing sensations and/or vibrations,
to not satisfy, and not to be self.
Some will notice the slow variant of the A&P
and may plunge down into the very depths of the mind
as though plunging deeply underwater
to where they can perceive individual frames of reality arise and pass
with breathtaking clarity, as though in slow motion.
It can even feel as if we have been partially sedated with a
strong, opiate-like drug and submerged in thick syrup.
At the bottom of these depths,
however they present themselves,
individual moments may sometimes have a frozen quality to them,
like garish snapshots of the bottom of a well,
as if sensations were stopping completely in the middle of their manifestation
for just an instant, and this way of experiencing reality is unique to this stage.
Somewhere in here is the entrance to the third vipassana jhana.
Wild “kundalini” phenomena are very common at this point,
including powerful physical shaking and releases, explosions of consciousness
like a fireworks display or a tornado, visions, and especially vortices of powerful fine “electrical” vibrations blasting up or down the spinal column
and/or between the ears.
These vortices can be very loud.
Anything that might be described as a “vortex”
is nearly perfectly diagnostic of this stage.
If someone is describing some sort of fast, buzzy energy
that seems to want to burst out or be darting around,
the vast majority of the time they are referring to this stage.
~~~
While people generally think kundalini phenomena and energy will be great fun,
not everyone finds them so.
The energetics that can occur in the A&P can be
disconcerting, painful, even occasionally excruciating,
like we are being electrocuted.
Sometimes energetic openings can feel like we are being ripped open
and our nervous system fried.
People can imagine that something is horribly wrong with them
and some reasonable number will seek spiritual, medical, and/or psychiatric care.
I dream that one day basic kundalini awakening phenomena will be taught in medical schools and other therapeutic institutions,
but we are likely a long way from that level of sophistication on that front, unfortunately,
being the primitive, materialist culture that we are.
I have no idea why the A&P is extremely blissful for many and painful for others but, if you are looking for a PhD dissertation research topic,
that might be a fun one!
~~~
Those who have crossed the A&P event
have stood on the ragged edge of reality and the mind for just an instant,
and some will feel certain that
awakening is possible.
The whole of the A&P stage can produce that feeling in some practitioners.
Those in this stage and those who have recently left it typically have great faith,
may want to tell everyone to practice, and are generally evangelical or
uber enthusiastic about spirituality, religion, and/or philosophy for a while.
This zealous or evangelical quality can latch onto all sorts of other approaches,
like yoga, veganism, and whatever other cause, practice, setting, or movement they might associate with their experience.
They will have an increased ability to understand dharma teachings
due to their direct and non-conceptual experience of the three characteristics.
Philosophy that deals with the fundamental paradoxes of duality
will be less difficult than it might once have been,
and they may find this fascinating for a time.
Those with a strong philosophical bent
will find that they can now philosophize rings around those
who have not attained to this stage of insight.
Further,
if you read about the lives of the great philosophers,
many report episodes that are clearly the A&P
at the start of their illustrious careers.
René Descartes and many others come to mind.
The stage of the A&P is a common time for people
to write inspired dharma books, poetry, spiritual songs, etc.
If you are on retreat and suddenly creativity is pouring out of you,
that song or screenplay or whatever is suddenly seemingly writing itself,
then having a way to write the ideas down or a phone to record them on
so you can remember them later can be helpful
if it doesn’t take too much time away from the retreat.
The level of creativity that the A&P can produce is astounding.
A bit of journaling here and there can be helpful
in the more dramatic stages of insight,
as it helps get the ideas out of our heads and it can help to process them.
When we see something on a written page,
we think about it differently than when it is in our brains.
If you are on a retreat and find yourself journaling a lot,
perhaps discuss this with a meditation teacher
so they also know what is going on.
The A&P is a major milestone on the path of insight.
It is also a point of no return,
since soon the meditator will learn what is meant by the phrase,
“Better not to begin. Once begun, better to finish!”
as they are now too far into this to ever really go back.
Until they complete this progress of insight,
they are “on the ride”, and may begin to feel that
the dharma is now doing them rather than the other way around.
This article was Inspired by
Buddha’s step by step instructions to obtain Enlightenment
as refined by The Arahant Daneil M. Ingram.
Buy this book for Full Immersion!
