The Power of GoneStudents sometimes ask me “is there a quickest path to enlightenment?” My standard answer is “perhaps, but I don’t think it’s currently known by humanity. In our current stage of spiritual science (dhamma), different approaches seem to work for different people. That’s why I like to give you folks a wide range of contrasting techniques to choose from.”
A few days ago, I decided to do a thought experiment. What if I were only allowed to teach one focus technique and no other? Which technique would I pick? Hard choice. But I think it would be the technique I call “Just Note Gone.” Here’s why (and how).
How.
Here are the basic Instructions:
Whenever all or part of a sensory experience suddenly disappears note that. By note I mean clearly acknowledge when you detect the transition point between all of it being present and at least some of it no longer being present.
If you wish, you can use a mental label to help you note. The label for any such sudden ending is “Gone.”
If nothing vanishes for a while, that’s fine. Just hang out until something does. If you start worrying about the fact that nothing is ending, note each time that thought ends. That’s a “Gone.” If you have a lot of mental sentences, you’ll have a lot of mental periods – full stops, Gones!
....
Relief
How much can micro-endings help? It depends. Depends on what? It depends on three things:
• Sensory Clarity: Your ability to detect moments of vanishing.
• Concentration Power: Your ability to stay focused on moments of vanishing.
• Inner Equanimity: Your ability to allow sensory experiences to come and go without push and
pull.
....
The Dark NightAre there any possible negative effects from working with vanishing and the related themes of Emptiness and No-Self? Occasionally there can be. In extreme cases, the sense of Goneness, Emptiness and No-Self may be so intense that it creates disorientation, terror, paralysis, aversion, hopelessness and so forth.
Unpleasant reactions such as these are well documented in the classical literature of contemplation both East and West. In the West, it is sometimes referred to as “The Dark Night of the Soul.” In the East, it is sometimes referred to as “The Pit of the Void” or as “the unpleasant side of bhanga” (dissolution).
This doesn’t happen that often, but if it does, there are three interventions which you need to remember in order to transform the situation from problematic to blissful.
1. Accentuate the good parts of the Dark Night even though they may seem very subtle relative to
the bad parts. You may be able to glean some sense of tranquility within the nothingness. There
may be some sense of inside and outside becoming one (leading to expanded identity). There
may be some soothing, vibratory energy massaging you. There may be a springy, expandingcontracting
energy animating you.
2. Eliminate the negative parts of the dark night by deconstructing them through noting.
Remember “Divide and Conquer”—if you can divide a negative reaction into its parts (mental
image, mental talk, and emotional body sensation), you can conquer overwhelm. In other words,
eliminate the negative parts by loving them to death.
3. Affirm positive emotions, behaviors, and cognitions in a sustained systematic way. By that I
mean gradually, patiently reconstruct a new habitual self based on Loving Kindness and related
practices.
In most cases, all three of these must be practiced and maintained for however long it takes to get through the Dark Night. In the most extreme cases, it may require ongoing and intensive support from teachers and other practitioners to remind you to keep applying these interventions. The end result, though, will be a depth of joy and freedom beyond one’s wildest imagining.
The Dark Night is a kind of awkward inbetween zone. The classic Johnny Mercer song from the 1940s gives a mnemonic for how to get through it quickly.
Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark,
What did they do, just when everything looked so dark?
You gotta…
Accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister Inbetween.
