Interesting! My vague hunch was something like outer vs inner tantra may have a connection, or mahayoga vs. anuyoga vs. atiyoga might have one, perhaps something about how the sense of self and other differs across the stages by comparison to relationship with the yidam.
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Replying to @nnickhay @Meaningness
There is the idea that to be at the starting point for practicing Sutra one needs already to be good at Samsara and suspicious that ‘even though I have everything I might need, I am somehow not always satisfied’. That means having a socially functional situation.
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If life, literally or psychologically, is so chaotic that it is not possible to have some sense of dissatisfaction _despite_ relative fulfillment, then Sutric practice is out of reach.
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It’s better in that case to work towards functional, stable psychological circumstances to the extent that is possible. So I think practising Sutrayana requires stage 3 sensibility, at least.
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The Sutric path, particularly Theravadan Buddhist practice, has potential to facilitate stage transition from 3 to 4. Good Theravadan schools are strongly systematizing.
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I’ve seen Sutrayana work for individuals in this way a number of times. S.N. Goenka’s tradition, for example: all the hardcore Goenka students I have met are solidly stage 4 or beyond.
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Stage 4 requires capacity to follow instructions, rigidly, whether or not they have present meaning. Yidam practice, due to its intensely repetitive nature, at some point _always_ stops making sense. (It becomes empty.)
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Even to embark on yidam practice, I think one would need capacity to give one’s self up to a process, regardless of any contrary feeling in the moment.
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Yidam practice has the potential to facilitate shift from 4 to 5, due to the interplay between self and external form: self is empty to the form of the yidam, the yidam shapes the form of experience.
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When yidam practice naturally transitions to guru yoga, fluidity (spontaneous, contextually congruent action free of habitual responsiveness) is the result.
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This is better than my attempt!
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Replying to @Meaningness @nnickhay
Dunno, think I was just repeating you wasn’t I?
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