Mi'sen

Eg: I noticed that I have a pretty subtle & ingrained preference — and intentional skew — for restful states of mind, so much so that I am deliberately breaking up my meditation when I start to veer towards stillness, so that I can investigate the mind more in full-chaos mode.

Also helpful to look at imaginal elements in our practice, ritual aspects. Eg: I noticed that when I maintain a sense of lineage, the general texture of my retreat feels much more earthy, grounded, stable. I can see how one could make v.strong beliefs out of that sort of symbol.

Feedback Questions: • Does any of that make sense? • Any immediate thoughts/insights in relation to those notes? • Has your relationship to traditional goals/stages/states changed noticably as your practice matured? • Does any of the above invoke an emotional reaction?

Yes…particularly re the language. I agree that the language of the framework within which one practices both prescribes and interprets experience. (There is always a framework tho is not always obvious or understood by the person practising).

And there is substantial qualitative difference across methodologies, even though the same practice labels might be used.

Yeah, I’ve been having a number of chats recently with senior practitioners/teachers and there seems to be a big issue around language, and a general lack of semantic maturity. One person I spoke to also highlighted issues between oral tradition and textual sources (in teaching)

The qualitative differences across methodologies is also a really good point. Even where the phenomenology of a state/stage/insight sounds very close across traditions, the value & interpretations relating to that can be really different, and a source of much confusion.

Yes, I think this is important. Worldview from one tradition or another can radically change what a practice means, or what you should/can do with it.