Other schools
I’ve discovered something interesting. While writing these texts, I’ve been using ChatGPT to polish the English and style. Out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT: “What other teachings, styles, and methods are similar in approach and ideas?” I didn’t expect much, but to my surprise, it provided a list of 5–6 references, claiming these books describe approaches similar to what I’m outlining here.
Now I’m reading those books. If you like what you’ve read so far, you might want to look into them as well. It could be that all this writing turns out unnecessary if I can just point you to one of those sources. We’ll see. I need to read them first. A copy-paste of my ChatGPT discussion is attached at the end.
Recap
We’ve mostly agreed that attention can be voluntarily moved. There are different “places” or areas where attention can be directed—these differ, but they have a kind of geometric or cartographic relationship. Attention can be focused or unfocused, and sometimes it jumps around involuntarily.
Attention as a muscle
This is both super cool and super boring. The first strict prerequisite for further progress in meditation—and for using certain attention tricks to achieve WILD (Wake-Induced Lucid Dreams)—is to train the “attention muscle.” It’s very similar to working out at a gym. The same rules apply: practice (i.e., meditation sessions) should be regular (daily or every other day), not too short or too long, and the exercises can vary (for now, one basic “workout” is enough).
Good news: there’s a very clear metric of success. While you could theoretically “hack” it, that’s not useful. The goal at this stage is to build your attention muscle until you can maintain what we’ll call “uninterrupted attention” for about 2 minutes.
Where you place your attention for these 2 minutes doesn’t really matter. Some objects of focus are easier (for example, the feeling of the breath at your nostrils), while others are harder (the top of your head, or abstract “sensory space”). I recommend starting with something easier.
The meditation itself is straightforward: as before, sit in a comfortable pose with a straight spine. Set an open, engaged mood. Close your eyes. Focus your attention (without straining) on the chosen object and keep it there for 2 minutes. (here’s a good timer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dAorgAB0I4).
What counts as interruption?
A careful meditator will notice that interruptions occur on different time scales. For this first step in muscle building, an “interruption” is any train of thought that sweeps you away for more than about 1 second. If that happens, consider it a “failure.” But just to be clear, “failure” here is not negative. Don’t take it too seriously. You got distracted, you noticed it, you return to the attempt—that’s it.
You might also notice micro-interruptions at a much faster scale: “Oops, I drifted to my hand—no, back to the breath.” If you catch these very quickly and bring your attention back without truly “getting lost,” that’s fine. Let’s not count those as interruptions at this stage.
Tales of power
Old Buddhist legends (and our likely incorrect interpretations) say that uninterrupted attention is the only meditation you need to become whatever enlightened, magical being you desire—and that if you manage 45 minutes of uninterrupted attention, you’ll get there. This might give you some idea of just how challenging a 2-minute run can be.
TODO
That’s all for now. Train your attention until it hits this 2-minute mark. Even at this stage, you might experience some very pleasant “goodness” and a new state of mind. After all, attention is almost everything you need. Strong and focused attention, when placed inside of “place of interest,” will magically reveal insights about that place’s nature and workings—almost like an RPG game. Harder “places” require stronger attention to unlock.
Keep at it!
Books recommended by chatGPT
Below is a curated list of books that either explore similar “engineering” or analytical approaches to meditation, or that break down traditional Buddhist meditation practices in a methodical, experiential manner. These works, while differing in style and lineage, share a spirit of direct observation, experimentation, and a willingness to map the mind’s terrain with precision and clarity.
“Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha” by Daniel M. Ingram This book is notable for its pragmatic, no-nonsense approach. Ingram treats meditation practice as a skill to be honed through systematic methods, clear criteria, and a results-oriented perspective. He deconstructs stages of insight, presents a taxonomy of experiences, and encourages a peer-to-peer scientific spirit that resonates with the “engineering” mindset.
“The Mind Illuminated” by Culadasa (John Yates), Matthew Immergut, and Jeremy Graves A step-by-step guide through the stages of concentration and insight, this text melds traditional Buddhist teachings with a modern, systematic framework. Culadasa provides detailed instructions, mental models, and progressive milestones that mirror the iterative and exploratory approach you’re taking.
“The Science of Enlightenment” by Shinzen Young Shinzen Young bridges meditation practice with the language of science, psychology, and modern analytical thinking. He breaks down meditative experiences into manageable components, offers clear conceptual frameworks, and continuously encourages the reader to test and validate practices through their own direct experience.
“The Attention Revolution” by B. Alan Wallace Wallace, a former Tibetan Buddhist monk with a background in science, explores the development of sustained attention (shamatha) through a series of stages. He presents meditation as a learnable skill, much like mastering an instrument, with clearly defined benchmarks and a strong emphasis on empirical verification.
“Waking, Dreaming, Being” by Evan Thompson While not a meditation manual per se, Thompson delves into the nature of consciousness from a Buddhist, neuroscientific, and phenomenological perspective. He analyzes states of waking, dreaming, and deep meditation, and how they relate to each other. This broadens the conceptual framework for understanding attention, awareness, and altered states in a way that aligns with a systematic, inquiry-based approach.
“Seeing That Frees” by Rob Burbea Burbea’s work is a deep-dive into insight meditation (vipassanā), re-examining how we relate to experience. He encourages a very investigative approach, constantly probing how perception and meaning-making arise. While more poetic at times, it still maintains a methodical spirit of exploration.
“Zen and the Brain” by James H. Austin This is a more academically dense work, connecting meditative states—particularly within Zen traditions—to neuroscience and cognitive science. Although it’s a heavy read, the detailed analysis of neural correlates and phenomenological data can inspire a more rigorous, engineer-like approach to understanding meditation.
“Why Buddhism is True” by Robert Wright Wright takes evolutionary psychology and applies it to meditation and Buddhist philosophy. He provides a rational, evidence-based lens, showing how these practices can be understood as experiments in understanding the mind’s biases, conditioning, and subjective reality.
Additional Considerations:
Scholarly anthologies like “Meditation, Buddhism, and Science” (edited by David McMahan and Erik Braun) offer a collection of essays examining intersections of scientific inquiry and traditional practices. Works by Nyanaponika Thera, like “The Heart of Buddhist Meditation,” provide a classical yet remarkably clear and systematic exposition of insight meditation, suitable for re-interpretation through a more engineering-oriented lens. In exploring these texts, you’ll find a spectrum ranging from highly technical, step-by-step approaches to broader theoretical frameworks that still encourage meticulous observation. All share a spirit of analytical inquiry and experiential testing that can complement and deepen your own evolving methodology.