It'd be cool to have a punchy practice manual that quickly sketches out the maps and the fruit, and then exhaustively explains good techniques for each stage.
- It would have a typology of the different types of insight techniques: noting (including variations, like Ken McLeod's "Look at it ___" noting, noting-with-an-anchor, and noting with choiceness awareness (my favorite; I think it can be applied from the get-go), six realms); mu and other koan insight-mantras; dropping the ball (arguably not an insight technique but I think it kinda is); self-inquiry; watching the mindstream (for Equanimity ñana and thereafter); no-distraction no-control no-technique (for third path people). It would explain relative advantages and disadavantages and shadow-sides.
- I would place a really huge emphasis on surrender, something that I didn't really get from the dharma books I read. While I'm sure Daniel said this somewhere in MCTB, I didn't fully understand that it was okay to surrender (in the immediate perceptual-decisional sense, not in the "what are my ideal ethical standards abstractly" sense) to absolutely everything, including laziness and perceived immorality, until late in the game. There is no need to force the mind to plan or make goals; let it do that by itself. If it doesn't, no worries, just keep surrendering. I would articulate the general principle that the only way to perceive something as not-self is to stop trying to do that thing, so that way it has a chance to arise on its own. I think insight progress depends on (1) time on the cushion perceiving the mind run through its variety of patterns with relatively free rein and (2) the degree to which you surrender all control. A lot of people have (1) but little (2), leaving them stuck. Some people meditate a lot but don't even have (1), because they're super forceful with their mind. The job of a yogi in daily life is to simply just be. Nothing else! Be with action, be with inaction. "Letting go of attachments" means letting go of control—as long as you're doing that, you can have your cake and eat it too.
- I've worried a lot about how to balance energy in practice, and so I'd write a lot about how to do that. I often worried that I was getting distracted too much as a result of insufficient energy. I didn't know exactly how much force to apply to my investigation; my misreading of MCTB suggested I had to apply a ton. Reading Shargrol's stuff on his "gentler approach" helped disabuse my of my notion. I would tell practitioners that you should investigate like gentle flowing water. Over the years, you end up with the Grand Canyon. Distraction is okay; you don't control when you'll get distracted, and cranking up the energy is unsustainable and will not banish distraction. As your practice progresses, the difference between focus and distraction decreases, until they eventually become equally vivid and basically identical, and your mind will be able to drop the intention to investigate and abide in clarity without the need for control. (At least, that's how it's happening for me.)
I think it'd be cool to have a dharma resource framed specifically as a remedy for procrastination and perfectionism. This was my door into the dharma. That feeling of "Fuck, now I have to wrangle myself into doing this" or "Fuck, I'm not doing this, I'm garbage" really just dominated my life before. People think that their bodies are machines, where they just press the button and it whirs. So when it doesn't whir, they blame themselves and grow a rotten identity. Telling people that there's no need to police themselves (again, on the moment-to-moment perceptual-decisional level, not the ideal ethical standards level) and no need to perpetually analyze why they aren't doing all this stuff and no need to self-lacerate and self-coerce—that can be a huge relief. Unconditional surrender. Resting in procrastination does not prolong it. Summoning shame doesn't help; indeed, it makes the experience more painful, breeding more avoidant behavior, more procrastination. Negative reinforcement in this sense does not work. Analysis can be useful, but do not try to manufacture analysis; let it arise on its own. This is the self-help book, the non-cure "procrastination cure," that a lot of people are looking for. I would be very frank in saying that this may not actually decrease your procrastination, but it will probably provide a heck of a lot of pain relief.
