Know what meditation experiences are and are not: the experiential vision

Notice a vivid meditation experience, such as warmth, light or stillness, and hold it as an appearance that arises and passes rather than as an attainment.

Pourquoi ça marche

Reading of this page, not a quotation from the Sakya text: the sakya.org course page names the vision of experience as the second of the three visions, and Drogmi.org calls it the vision of experience within the Triple Vision. This page reads the practice as recognition: appearances in absorbed meditation are real as experiences, and treating them as an attainment is the habit the practice addresses. Naming an experience briefly and returning to the object is this page’s guidance for keeping attention on the practice rather than on the appearance.

Comment faire

1. Before the sitting, settle the body and breath, and decide the length of the session in advance.
2. Rest attention on the breath or on the object you normally use. When a vivid experience arises, note it in one word, such as “warmth,” “light” or “stillness.”
3. Do not follow it, judge it or try to make it last. Return to the object each time attention goes to the appearance.
4. At the end of the session, write one line: what appeared, and what you did with it. Notice whether you were looking for more.
5. Bring any question about what an experience means to a qualified teacher rather than settling it alone.

Données probantes

Vivid appearances in concentration are reported across many meditation traditions. This page’s practice is its own reading of the Sakya topic; no study has tested it. (anecdotal)

Drogmi.org names the vision of experience but does not describe its contents, and the fuller Sakya instruction is given within the lineage.

Sources

• Sakya.org. “Dharma Discussion Series: Three Visions” — course page announcing a teaching on the Three Visions by Ngorchen Kunchog Lhundrub, with the impure vision, the vision of experience and the pure vision listed as topics.
• Drogmi.org. “Lam Dré” — overview of the Triple Vision, the Triple Tantra on Hevajra, the lineage (including Gayadhara, Drogmi Lotsawa and Sachen Kunga Nyingpo, with dates), and the Lobshé and Tsogshé lines.

Erreur fréquente

Treating vivid experiences as proof of progress and chasing them in later sittings. This page’s reading is that the chasing, not the experience, is what to watch.