Don't practice in a way that is too tense or fabricate any experience otherwise it leads to energy imbalance.. be natural and effortless which you are now starting to experience. Because of anatta and emptiness insight, presence is experienced as totally natural, spontaneous, non-referential and traceless in accord with dependent origination, otherwise it will be something or a special state to be fixated or held on to, be it as an absolute background (in I AM), as a seamless field of oneness (one mind), as physical actual world (post anatta physical sidetrack). Be light as a feather and immense as the universe. And also Buddha's teachings about the vina that is neither too taut nor too loose - https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/AN/AN6_55.html

I can't advise you well so will let John Tan reply.

Was reminded of this including "Do not fear challenging your imaginary split. In time to come, you will realize you can't re-experience the 'division' even if you want to.", for me it didn't take long for all sense of division and agency and any lingering trace of background to stop arising. But d.o. and emptiness took some time. (post anatta D.O. is clear but there are still varying depths of deconstruction as you know by now - http://www.awakeningtoreality.com/.../different-phases-of... )

"John Tan wrote to me shortly after my anatta realization (he wrote this in Jan 2011): “AEN,

The summary of the experiences and realizations that you have written for your teachers and masters are good documentations of your journey but not to get too attached to external 'authentication'.

What that is more important now is to realize after the arising insight of anatta, how through the adoption of 'right view' lead to thorough seamless and effortless experience of non-dual. As I have told you in the earlier post:

The initial break-through although may appear thorough to you but the clear experience of no-mind should not last more than few months. It will lose its grandeur and the 'split' will surface intermittently.

So go through few cycles of refining your experience of no-mind and continue to adopt the 'right view' of understanding the experience. Have no doubt that Phenomena in their primordial purity is Dharmakaya. Always check whether there is any lingering trace of a background. If there is, there will always be division.

Do not fear challenging your imaginary split. In time to come, you will realize you can't re-experience the 'division' even if you want to.

Once again, check and fearlessly challenge whether such lingering trace remains. Is non-dual intermitent or reversible and has the right view sunk into the deep most of your consciousness. This step must be done with utmost sincerity and must not be compromised.

The grandeur will disappear after a few months but once the right view is practiced correctly, your experience will be stable and continuous. There must be complete thoroughness and effortlessness in non-dual.

This is the only true authentication.”"

Good friends, since ancient times, this Dharma teaching of ours, both its direct and indirect versions, has proclaimed 'no thought' as its doctrine, 'no form' as its body, and 'no attachment' as its foundation. What do we mean by a form that is 'no form'? To be free of form in the presence of forms. And 'no thought'? Not to think about thoughts. And 'no attachment,' which is everyone basic nature? Thought after thought, not to become attached. Whether it's a past thought, present thought, or future thought, let one thought follow another without interruption. Once a thought is interrupted, the dharma body becomes separated from the material body. When you go from one thought to another, don't become attached to any Dharma. Once one thought becomes attached, every thought becomes attached, which is what we call 'bondage'. But when you go from one thought to another without becoming attached to any Dharma, there's no bondage. This is why no attachment is our foundation.

Good friends, 'no form' means externally to be free of all forms. If you can just be free of forms, the body of your nature is perfectly pure. This is why we take 'no form as our body.' To be unaffected by any object is what is meant by 'no thought,' to be free of objects in our thoughts and not give rise to thoughts about Dharmas. But don't think about nothing at all. Once your thoughts stop, you die and are reborn somewhere else. Students of the way take heed, don't misunderstand the meaning of this teaching. It's one thing to be mistaken yourself, but quite another to lead others astray then to criticise the teaching of the sutras while remaining unaware that you yourself are lost. Thus the reason we proclaim 'no thought' as our doctrine is because deluded people think in terms of objects, and on the basis of these thoughts they give rise to erroneous views. This is the origin of all afflictions and delusions.

Nevertheless when this school proclaims 'no thought' as its doctrine, those people who transcend objects and who don't give rise to thoughts, even though they have no thoughts, they do not then proclaim 'no thought.' What does 'no' negate? And what thought is 'thought' about? 'No' negates dualities and afflictions. And 'thought' is thought about the original nature of reality. Reality is the body of thought, and thought is the function of reality. When your nature gives rise to thought, even though you sense something, remain free and unaffected by the world of objects. The Vimalakirti sutra says, 'externally, be skilled at distinguishing the attributes of Dharmas, and internally, remain unchanged by the ultimate truth.'

Good friends, in this school of the Dharma, when we practice Zen, we don't contemplate the mind, and we don't contemplate purity, and we don't talk about being dispassionate. If someone says to contemplate the mind, the mind is basically a delusion. And because a delusion is the same as an illusion, there is nothing to contemplate.

Yes hui neng wrote a lot on negating the quietism approach of people taking a blank shamatha state of thoughtlessness as the goal and main path of practice

Instead his emphasis was on spontaneity and non abidance including the spontaneous functioning of thoughts

No-Self is Not Associated with a State of No Thoughts

"The association of anatta (no-self) to the cessation of thoughts is due to a lack of insight that anatta is a seal, not a stage of attainment. In thinking there are always only thoughts, no thinker. In fact it is the realization that the continual arising and ceasing of thoughts without a thinker that is precious. The 2 important qualities that must be experienced are non-dual and spontaneity. Thoughts can slow down or even completely ceased but it has nothing to do with the insight of anatta."

- John Tan, 2009

“[commenting on some posts misinterpreting freedom as a state of thoughtlessness]

[9:51 PM, 9/15/2020] John Tan: I dunno what to say and dont want to comment. It is just seeing through reification that results in pristineness of appearance free from imputations... that is thought free wakefulness. There is clear intuitive discernment that is boundless and spontaneously free.

[9:53 PM, 9/15/2020] John Tan: One should first have the experiential insight of anatta as it is the exhaustion of the background self as the reified construct. To just say free of thoughts or to say it is a blank state that one can't differentiate left from right is just nonsense and pure ignorance.

[9:55 PM, 9/15/2020] John Tan: I think even taoism i ching has more clarity if understood correctly.

[9:57 PM, 9/15/2020] John Tan: Buddhism proviides such clarity but I just don't understand why is it presented or misunderstood to this extent... maybe I am wrong...lol.

[9:59 PM, 9/15/2020] John Tan: But since I am out of all these idle talks, I just don't want people to disturb me unless condition is there. No point to keep engaging in fruitless idle talk. You too, be sincere and practice.”

Dakpo Tashi Namgyal, Clarifying the Natural State:

"At this moment, allow a feisty thought, such as delight, to take form. The very moment it vividly occurs, look directly into its identity from within the state of aware emptiness.

"Now, is this thought the intangible and naked state of aware emptiness? Or is it absolutely no different from the identity of innate mind-essence itself? Look!"

Let the meditator look for a short while.

The meditator may say, "It is the aware emptiness. There seems to be no difference." If so, ask:

"Is it an aware emptiness after the thought has dissolved? Or is it an aware emptiness by driving away the thought from meditation? Or, is the vividness of the thought itself an aware emptiness?"

If the meditator says it is like one of the first two cases, he had not cleared up the former uncertainties and should therefore be set to resolve this for a few days.

On the other hand, if he personally experiences it to be like the latter case, he has seen identity of thought and can therefore be given the following pointing-out instruction:

"When you look into a thought's identity, without having to dissolve the thought and without having to force it out by meditation, the vividness of the thought is itself the indescribable and naked state of aware emptiness. We call this seeing the natural face of innate thought or thought dawns as dharmakaya.

"Previously, when you determined the thought's identity and when you investigated the calm and the moving mind, you found that there was nothing other than this intangible single mind that is a self-knowing, natural awareness. It is just like the analogy of water and waves.”

Mahamudra teacher Gharwang Rinpoche said,

“Understanding these qualities of the mind—its essence, nature, and characteristics—is fundamental to the features of mahāmudrā practice. For example, in mahāmudrā practice, you may encounter the instruction to not abandon thoughts. This might sound very strange to meditators from other traditions, but if you really understand the nature of the mind, then you will understand the profundity of this instruction. Thoughts are not harmful things in and of themselves. The final goal of mahāmudrā practice is not the cessation of all thoughts. This is not something that we strive for. It is said in the mahāmudrā tradition the essence of thought is the dharmakāya, the truth body of a buddha. So, in a certain sense, practicing with the aim to abandon thought would be like aiming to abandon the dharmakāya. In fact, many mahāmudrā masters say that when thoughts arise, they feel so happy and joyful because, for them, more thoughts means more opportunity to experience the dharmakāya.” - Mahamudra: A Practical Guide by Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche

(12:31 PM) AEN: hi i replied you just now

(12:31 PM) AEN: i mean forum

(12:54 PM) Thusness: don't talk about effortless and spontaneity

(12:54 PM) Thusness: if we look at Isis question, why is it so?

(12:54 PM) Thusness: why is there fear and phobia?

(12:55 PM) Thusness: What is mind?

(12:56 PM) AEN: bcos of past experiences right

(12:56 PM) AEN: like something happened before

(12:56 PM) AEN: and so when he/she experience something (like dog)

(12:57 PM) AEN: then he/she will react through conditioned thinking

(12:57 PM) AEN: so give rise to fear

(12:57 PM) Thusness: you are using logical reasoning

(12:57 PM) AEN: its like habitual reaction

(12:58 PM) AEN: or karmic propensity?

(12:58 PM) Thusness: all experiences that resulted has just one impact, they becomes imprints

(12:58 PM) AEN: oic

(12:58 PM) Thusness: so what is mind?

(12:58 PM) AEN: imprints and mental activities?

(12:58 PM) Thusness: you must feel it

(12:59 PM) Thusness: it is not an entity...

(12:59 PM) Thusness: it is a tendency

(12:59 PM) Thusness: that is not as an entity...u still have that sensation as if it is a Witness, an entity because you cannot feel this truth yet.

(1:00 PM) Thusness: can you see that mind As an arising tendency

(1:01 PM) AEN: the other day when meditating i had a sense suddenly that my entire mind is just tendencies arising, and there is like no thinker

(1:01 PM) Thusness: yes