Who is this document for?

This document is for people are curious about, serious about (and anything in between) very long-term, goal-oriented meditation, as in years and a lifetime. (And "goal-oriented" includes "no goal" and/or radical, self-determined, open-ended provisionality!)

(So, this document is intended to comprehensively support both complete beginners and "maximally advanced" meditators.)

To get a sense of timescale, working with the practices in this document can be risky for approximately the first 10,000 hours or so, give or take a few thousand hours. (That’s ten thousand hours, 10k hours.)

(Do see the sections links, below, for more about risks.)

If meditating "full time" or "full time plus," ~10,000 hours takes something like three to seven years. If meditating an hour a day, ~10,000 hours takes about twenty years.

(Note! Sort of like how a weightlifter can’t get very strong by lifting weights for a week straight, night and day, without breaks, one can’t just choose to meditate "full time plus." "Maximum available meditation hours" follows a natural, personal rhythm, which is sometimes "five minutes per day." It’s more about how much someone is able to, or choosing to, prioritize meditation in their life, over other things, when potential meditation hours become "endogenously available." "Full time plus" might look like lots of long walks and lots of sleep. Most people will need/want to start very slowly, and take long breaks, and interleave life experiments and valued life experiences, and explore and synergize with, or cut over to, other practice systems or life priorities.)

It’s ok to noncommitally play with (or use à la carte) the practices in this document, or to circle back to this document, on and off, or to use this document as an intermittent touchstone/umbrella/index, while exploring lots of other things. (In any case, there's many ways "up the mountain," and there's no obligation to climb the mountain, and sometimes it happens all by itself, or with the tiniest of nudges.) Just know that this still carries risks! There’s an apocryphal saying, "Better not to start; if you start, better to finish." If one is dabbling, experimenting, tinkering (and there’s nothing wrong with that), one has to be careful, as best they can, to not "start" if one doesn’t intend to start, or one isn’t yet ready to start. (Of course, some people have aleady "started," long ago, etc., etc.)

*

Note:

• (You can find more on "better not start; if you start, better to finish" in this linked section).

Partial Guided Tour

(NOTE: FOR TAKES ON THIS MATERIAL BY OTHER PEOPLE,
SEE ALSO: closely related external resources
[this note is repeated in like three places])

• How can I immediately get a flavor of what kind of meditation this whole document is about?
  • See these sections:
    • guided on-ramp for main practice p2 [draft]
    • pith instructions (experimental)
    • more compressed pith instructions
    • yet another pith instruction formulation (experimental)
    • a bare-bones, bottom-up, noting-esque practice (without labeling)
    • manipulation-themed pith instructions
• Does meditation carry risks? Yes, meditation is psychologically, physically, and financially risky, for oneself and even others.
  • See these sections:
    • preconceiving, direct reifying [draft]
    • risks; maximally cautious warnings/​directives (first-pass, without explanation)
    • document-level meta-warning
    • epistemic status disclaimer
    • but what actually makes it risky?; how do risks obtain, when they do?
    • More sections:
      • environment [and subtlety; (more) risks and rabbit holes]
      • "psychic" and "supernatural" stuff: what/how/how-not [draft]
      • human epistemic dynamics and phenomena
• What's the theoretical, metaphysical, ideological, sectarian, opinionated, telic, soteriological basis of this kind of meditation?
  • See these sections:
    • introduction; getting over the hump; text interpretation
    • an exoteric doctrine v0.2
    • an esoteric doctrine ("going full buddhist?" / "is this full buddhist?" / "is this even buddhist?" / "never go full buddhist"*)
    • goal (draft)
    • end state (draft!)
    • no fixed conceptualized goal or end state part one ("goodness")
    • no fixed conceptualized goal or end state part two ("better")
    • meditation is concrete problem solving
    • wellbeing and sacrifice
    • ok-ness and cosmology
    • seamless hyphenation [draft]
• What's the "practical core" of the document? What do I actually do?
  • See these sections:
    • practice preliminaries
    • nuts and bolts considerations
      • what to do when
    • top-level practices/categories
      • meta protocol
      • preliminary/auxiliary practices
      • main practice
      • creativity(/unsticking) protocol
      • "many" protocol (interpersonal practice)
• How do I use this document? Also, is the above sort of "everything"? No! This just scratches the surface!
  • (After you read about risks, warnings, cautions, etc., do jump around in the document as per your interest.)
  • See these sections:
    • introduction; getting over the hump; text interpretation
    • preconceiving, direct reifying [draft; suggested above as well]
    • Full Table of Contents

(NOTE: FOR TAKES ON THIS MATERIAL BY OTHER PEOPLE,
SEE ALSO: closely related external resources
[this note is repeated in like three places])