The usual move the teachers suggest is to imagine the mind as the sky with thoughts and feelings and sensations as clouds floating through it. You don’t have to get involved with the clouds, just watch as they grow and change and float on by. Let them be. You could also use the ocean or a river if you like waves and eddies and fishes better than clouds. I like the ocean, myself, because the waves on the shore analogue pretty well with the breath (the breath is the standard meditation anchor, though you could actually use any sensation).
Another move would be to imagine the whole of experience as taking place on a stage, with each of the “sense doors” (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, thought) as an actor. The role of attention itself becomes more obvious here (maybe use a spotlight if you like concrete images), but it’s a step back toward the movie/viewer metaphor. Come to that, tho, I’ve never heard a teacher talk about an audience...
As for changing cognitive habits, the effect is something like taking things less personally; stuff just unfolds and you can choose to get involved or not.
In my experience, even a little taste of anatta has helped me to better notice—and take more advantage of—the space between impulse and action. I’ve found that skill to be extremely beneficial, even at what I assume to be the lowest levels!
My imaginary naturalist discipline should avoid this usual thing, though, because if you want to imagine the function of your own brain in materialist detail, you can’t be imagining “you” as something that can be uninvolved with your thoughts and feelings, or as something separate from the rest of your mind that watches what’s going on. Instead, you have to be primed to imagine “you” as something emergent from the thoughts and feelings—if any watching is done, it’s thoughts and feelings watching themselves. A play where the audience is the actors.
As I understand it, the sense of self eventually vanishes entirely, leaving only the immediate psycho/physiological phenomena that “know themselves”, whatever that means. ;)
The usual move the teachers suggest is to imagine the mind as the sky with thoughts and feelings and sensations as clouds floating through it. You don’t have to get involved with the clouds, just watch as they grow and change and float on by. Let them be. You could also use the ocean or a river if you like waves and eddies and fishes better than clouds. I like the ocean, myself, because the waves on the shore analogue pretty well with the breath (the breath is the standard meditation anchor, though you could actually use any sensation).
Another move would be to imagine the whole of experience as taking place on a stage, with each of the “sense doors” (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, thought) as an actor. The role of attention itself becomes more obvious here (maybe use a spotlight if you like concrete images), but it’s a step back toward the movie/viewer metaphor. Come to that, tho, I’ve never heard a teacher talk about an audience...
As for changing cognitive habits, the effect is something like taking things less personally; stuff just unfolds and you can choose to get involved or not.
In my experience, even a little taste of anatta has helped me to better notice—and take more advantage of—the space between impulse and action. I’ve found that skill to be extremely beneficial, even at what I assume to be the lowest levels!
My imaginary naturalist discipline should avoid this usual thing, though, because if you want to imagine the function of your own brain in materialist detail, you can’t be imagining “you” as something that can be uninvolved with your thoughts and feelings, or as something separate from the rest of your mind that watches what’s going on. Instead, you have to be primed to imagine “you” as something emergent from the thoughts and feelings—if any watching is done, it’s thoughts and feelings watching themselves. A play where the audience is the actors.
As I understand it, the sense of self eventually vanishes entirely, leaving only the immediate psycho/physiological phenomena that “know themselves”, whatever that means. ;)