Mindfulness has been popularized in the West as a health practice, something like exercise for your brain. That’s unfortunate, and irresponsible, because the path of meditation it is a serious undertaking that has repercussions for the life of the meditator. Once you’re on the path, karma begins to ripen.
“Better not to start, once started better to finish.” - Zen saying
To finish the path of meditation is to taste the fruit of meditation, Enlightenment.
Enlightenment is a word most people have heard before, but one that generally isn’t very well understood, a word that is colored by a series of assumptions.
The first assumption is that enlightenment is difficult to realize, which can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The second assumption is that enlightenment is reaching or achieving some exotic, “higher"state of consciousness, which of course it is not.
the mind that desperately desires
to reach another realm or level of experience
inadvertently ignores the basic light
that constitutes all experience.-Tilopa’s Song to Naropa
Enlightenment is the discovery of something that you already have, only you don’t know it. In a sense, it’s too close to you for you to see it. It is hiding in plain sight.
"What I teach in these talks of mine is the Unborn Buddha-mind of illuminative wisdom, nothing else. Everyone is endowed with this Buddha-mind, only they don't know it." - Bankei Yotaku
The Gradual Ways, such as Vipassana, generally focus on progressive mindfulness training, where attention is developed and refined over time and then eventually turned upon itself in a practice which has been called meditating on mind. Mindfulness as popularized in the West is generally not taught as a series of steps leading from beginner to advanced practice. The following image is a traditional Tibetan representation of the progressive stages of meditation:
The Sudden Schools, on the other hand, aim at pointing out your Original Nature directly, without having to pass through progressive stages of development. The koans of Zen, the self-inquiry of Advaita Vedanta, the Headless Way of Douglas Harding, and the pointing-our instructions of Dzogchen are all techniques designed to induce a sudden Realization of the One Mind that constitutes all experience.
I’m not here to advocate for either school but rather to try to explain the difference between each. Ultimately both schools end up being both gradual and sudden, because the gradual path leads to sudden enlightenment and sudden enlightenment leads to gradual stabilization.
For some of you who have just started meditating, it may make more sense to switch to direct, non-dual practices, such as can be found on Sam Harris’ Waking Up app, which features teachers of all of the aforementioned techniques.
For others, it may be appropriate to continue on the gradual path. If you choose to do so, I highly recommend checking out these resources:
A Complete Guide To The 10 Stages of Meditative Development
Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha: An Unusually Hardcore Dharma Book
If you enjoyed this article, I highly recommend the following talk by Alan Watts on the Easy Way of Enlightenment.
I really enjoyed this article, Michael!