This is somatic approach. Very powerful and transforming. There is also cognitive-behavioral methodology.

Mr. RDT indeed. In fact that is key post anatta insight.

John Tan the habitual tendencies are powerful and there is needed skill in applying the correct remedies?

Mr. RDT yes there r.

I see benefits using both reason and somatic approaches in tandem

Jake Casavant that is good. But once u sense the energy patterns and the way of opening up ur body, let go of thoughts. Thoughts can be quite energy consuming.

That seems right. I notice at times in meditation that thoughts are *literally* energy consuming, or energy disrupting. At least, 'sticky' thoughts. It's like they catch on the energy flows of the body and get tangled up in them, disrupting them. Not following thoughts, in the other hand, allows the energy flows to attain their natural coherence

Jake Casavant listen to ur body. Feel ur body and breath and sense the way of opening. What our body currently is attuned is more "karmic" than "natural".

John Tan Hi John, when you say sense the way of opening - are you referring to the energetic body? Opening is sometime uncomfortable and painful even to the physical body in my experience. Not sure if I am on the same page

Seng Yew Meng can be intially uncomfortable due to accustomed patterns but not necessarily painful imo. What is important is to allow the boby to listen instead of the mind. Let loose ur body, ur mind will also let go. What is important is to put things into perspective and open up our understandings of how to deal with attachments. I m not talking about any energy body system in particular, not getting into energy practices.

John Tan thanks

Thanks for the big wack with the stick!

Reifying the inherent existence of any object, including the body is the root of attachment. Attention to breathing etc.are indirect aids pre-anatta insight.

when I sit shikantaza and feel breathing it is liberating but then I go about my daily life and the mind dominates. mind resistant to felt sense of being, breathing .

Mr./Ms. JMB yes there r too much noises in the head and the whole body-mind balance is upset.

John Tan it is like learning to breathe as a child would if they were loved

Mr./Ms. JMB That's one of the most incredible descriptions I've ever heard. Thank you for saying that.

Mr./Ms. PS

Jackson Peterson ?

John, the problem is the sense of a self is being imputed to exist, which can be gotten out of attachments by reason or by using breath and body to let go of attachments. No self entity exists, which means the entity that is attempting to become free of attachments is THE illusion. A non-existent self can’t be liberated. There is no entity to realize anatta if anatta is true.

After believing that using the body was the way for my entire path, I recently started thinking that unconscious and subconscious vasanas could compromise the whole project of just using the body and energy practices, that I needed some more mind based practice to deal with the deep unconscious belief systems that were directing the qi behind the scenes (yi dao qi dao) in my meditation and qigong. But now I see this

Mr. TJ lol. Yi Dao qi dao is already quite an achievement before the "person" doing "disappears". But yi here is "attention" rather than "reasoning"; more like "sensing" than "intellectualizing". In fact taoism paxis is fully anatta into the natural condition.