The hindrance called Jhana

Jhana and insight, hand-in-hand

There's no jhana for one with no discernment, no discernment for one with no jhana. But one with both jhana & discernment: he's on the verge of Unbinding.

— Dhp 372

Jhana seems to be a buzz word again in the Theravada western lay circles with a few new books in the past few years on the topic. Jhana is mentioned often in the suttas. They are spoken of as the sense pleasure for the monks, the monks go to a secluded place and abide in these states. There has been much discussion on the need for jhana for liberating insight and this seems to be an ongoing theme for discussion. In this blog post which is based on a talk a gave in for New Haven Insight I am intending to highlight the process/ conditionality that leads to these calm states called Jhana.

There are many different meditation approaches, these tend to be different ways of working with the hindrances. You could think of them as different ways people have found to either subdue the hindrances or become familiar with the activity of the hindrances. My sense is Jhana arises with letting go, we let go of the identification with the activity of the hindrances as they are arising in our present conditioned experience. They do not necessarily arise from a particular practice but how skilfully the practice is held, the integrity and wisdom of the individual doing the practice.

Jhana arises as the five hindrances fall way and the Jhana factors arise. The hindrances are described as sensual desire(which the desire for jhana is a form off, ill will, sloth and torpor, restlessness and remorse and doubt. As these are understood/ dealt with/let go off depending on the chosen technique, the conditions come around for the jhana factors to arise. The mind takes up the object, the object becomes stabilized in awareness, with this stabilization, joy( physical pleasure in body and mind arises), happiness/equanimity( a sense of contentment and resting independent of sensory objects) and equanimity arise as the pleasure is let go off.

A base for calm/insight is ethics, some of us may use precepts to help hold our experience to highlight our sensory inclinations.I feel that most of us who come to practice our good human beings, and that by developing a mindfulness practice we become aware of how ethical we actually are, we develop the ability, to be honest about our experience as we begin to see ourselves as a conditioned process rather than an independent ongoing, somebody.There is always ground to tidy up our act if we are sensitive to ourselves in the process of being aware then being ethical can become quite natural rather than need to be enforced externally. I large part of knowing and finding freedom from the hindrances is a trust in oneself.Trust in one's own goodness, leads to calm as there is a lack of remorse about how we live our life arising to disturb the mind.
There are different ways of approaching the calming and understanding of the hindrances. Some approaches focus on the calming, taking an object such as the breath, getting to know the breath and how the different aspects of the breath effect our experience. We then use this information to calm the body, which in turn highlights the processes of the mind, then the relationship to the breath is used to calm and know the mind. As we calm and smooth out the breath, the breath becomes ease-full, flows undisturbed, the body is felt as pleasant, the breath is felt as a pleasant abiding, the mind stays in relation to the breath with ease, not much effort is needed as it is pleasant it draws the mind to it, as we become familiar and we let go of controlling the experience the breath seems to breathe us, we may become absorbed in the sign of the breath( this can be a light, colored shapes feeling tones, images etc.) At first, this letting go can happen by fluke, but as we become aware of the conditions this becomes something that happens within our awareness and becomes more of a choice, this is when meditation has become a developed skill and we know how to respond to different conditions arising to bring about the desired effect. So with this training in regards to the breath we begin to feel a withdrawal from the external senses, the internal thoughts begin to settle as the attractiveness/pleasure of the breath grasps the mind and mind become composed as a pleasant abiding, when the mind is settled and restlessness settles and doubt in regards to this practice drops away we become absorbed and absorption feeds faith back into the practice .How long for depends on how skilled and how well we know the hindrances/conditions arising.
Other practices such as mantra work similarly, it very much comes down to personal understanding in regards to the results we will get. Myself I was very forceful at first and would suppress the hindrances with my will. This took a lot of effort and did not make me a very sensitive human being, over sensitive in terms of being disturbed by the sensory experience. So I was using the hindrances to suppress the hindrances. It is very much about object relationship, how to develop a friendship with the meditation object, to hold it in a wholesome way.
Some practices seem to involve keeping the mind busy as if staying ahead of the hindrances. I have found some body- sweeping approaches have done that for me. Letting go is the key, but letting go is not that easy, we have to become familiar with our inability to let go, be gentle and get to know ourselves and the conditions of this particular self-story, and letting go will happen.

In recent years I have been working with the Recollective awareness approach as taught by Jason Siff. Ethics in this practice arise in relation to the individual's personal choices rather than imposed, Our personal choices and effects of them are the grounds for our knowing ourselves. Our sensory experience arises and we make choices in relation to this. This process becomes familiar and we can directly feel the benefits or harm off chosen actions.
With this approach, my sense is that we get to know the hindrances intimately. We open to how they are arising, being with them in a gentle interested way and giving permission for them to be present. As we become familiar with them they do not seem to have the same hold on us. As we drift with the conditions arising, these conditions become the object, as the mind gently travels with this, the mind becomes held by the experience, as it is held there the gentleness can transform into a pleasant holding, the body and mind feel settled and joy arises. I find this can lead on depending on the familiarity and wisdom present in regards to the object arising in the mind. It is as if a stranger walks into your house, your response/ or reaction to them is quite different to a friend entering your home, you have a sense of knowing them, feel at ease. As we get to know the hindrances they become our friends, it as if we enter a conversation with them, we ask questions, we listen and this leads to us becoming familiar. This lead to a non-stick experience. The object tends to transform so the ability to travel with the change develops. If the mind is attracted to a particular object that has arisen the process leads to being with and becoming familiar with that object until it is known enough to be put aside let go off or another condition comes into the foreground. Within the practice, there is permission to stay with an object to hold it in awareness longer if we wish.We begin to become absorbed/stabilized in the process of change.  What I have found is that absorption arises in a more integrated way as it is a gentle drifting with conditions/conditioning of the experience rather than taking a position in regards to the experience. The intention to sit in the meditation and through the knowledge of knowing the intention in regards to our practice story does calm arise.
I have found with this approach that the doorways to calm have become many. Sometimes the calm arises in more of a Samatha style with a sign and an absorption into the sign, or it can arise through the absorption into the three characteristics of experience, impermanence, suffering our not-self. The images and signs that arise in the mind can be varied, calm can arise through drifting into a lucid dream-like state and then absorbing into images arising within them. How this arises is not such a big deal, but I find the important part of this approach is the jhana/calm states are part of the process and are naturally investigated. The desire to regain an experience of calm can become the object of meditation. We get to know what we are projecting upon this state of mind, hopes, values etc. As this becomes an ongoing part of practice, what is here now is investigated. Jhana arising when the conditions are right, we get to know the hindrances as they arise now, without trying to get past them as this tends to be a hindrance. We become aware of the desire for jhana arising as a desire for sensory pleasure, from ill will in relation to our experience, in relation to wanting to disassociate in regards to our present experience, desire to be getting practice right and not knowing if we are. We know the desire and idea of jhana to be a hindrance to experiencing jhana. Becoming familiar with the process of letting go, we know Jhana as an effect of letting go, it is more about what is not present than what is. It is a natural part of letting go.

When we first get a taste of jhana we are unlikely to know which jhana this is. Our first glimpse may be very short and feel quite intense, even amazing as it is a calm that is not familiar to us. I have found that jhana feels nicer than drug experiences I had when I was younger. As we develop in skill and wisdom, we may find that we stay absorbed for longer periods. I have found that this is an aid to my delusion. I may be absorbed longer, the condition of being there longer makes me feel I have gone deeper. Yet I am still entering the same depth just the perception being created is stronger due to the experience lasting longer. It is hard not to imagine I have gone deeper, yet with time and becoming familiar with the conditions of that state, by traveling into it again and again over time I become aware of the conditioning process.These states I have noticed for myself has become more accessible since practicing Recollective awareness, I feel this is due to having become clearer about what my meditation story is.Why I meditate, taking time to be with my experience as it arises, becoming friends with the hindrances, views, and opinions I have, rather than taking a position against my experience and trying to calm it. I have found that learning to understand the conditions that I call comfort and discomfort, my self-hatred and my self-love I am beginning to unfold in a more holistic way as I become more aware that they are a process and not fixed positions.

By becoming familiar with our experience, this familiarity reveals the uncertainty we feel in regards to impermanence, this calms the hindrances. The mind stabilizes with the experience this feels like a pleasant abiding. The power of the calm and insight at this stage can lead to us noticing  how the witness is also impermanent. The uncertainty this process brings around gives rise to stress. As we become familiar with this process, as wisdom in regards to the conditioning of the stress arises a deeper sense of stabilizing occurs. This brings about the conditions for equanimity to arise. Insight and calm go hand in hand when we give the mind space to unfold rather than making a battleground of practice.

Take care.

Shamelessly Alive

As we sit to meditate we become acutely aware of this experience of sensing. How we relate to this present experience of sensing is the arena for creating new wholesome action by body/speech and mind or how we recreate from our past experience. What tends to happen is that we may get a little space around the arising experience and get a sense or belief that we know it yet it is still influencing how and who we are. This is not an experience to feel ashamed about, it is an ongoing process of becoming familiar with our arising experience and allowing the needed resources to come to to the foreground to aid in the process of not interfering.

Having this body, the self-story that has been created other the years of relating to and as the body, are old kamma. This is a stimulation system so it is in constant contact through the senses, depending on our context and the health and state of this body/mind we will find different effects arising.

So here we are sitting, what do we do?

Do we follow an instruction?

As I have grown in my practice other the years I find it helpful to just take the intention to me.ditate as my meditation. Having done so, I sit gently with interest in my experience, giving permission for whatever is arising to arise, whatever is staying to stay and for whatever is passing to pass. This I find is like opening Pandora's box by allowing my thoughts, letting them unfold, becoming aware of how I interact with them. I begin to become familiar with my thought world, this leads me to become familiar with the emotional current running through these thought patterns. The familiarity that arises in relation to the emotional current brings me to become familiar with my bodily experience. This I find eventually becomes a 3D experience leading to understanding Dhamma. Insight into impermanence, stress and no self.

Here I would like to suggest that there are similar features between becoming familiar and Samadhi (composure of body/mind). As awareness develops in relation to experience as it arises instead of turning the mind towards a chosen technique we begin to know the hindrances to the arising of a composed mind more intimately. Becoming familiar with them instead of resisting and pushing away. I find it is possible to become familiar with sensual desire, ill will, sloth and torpor restlessness and remorse and doubt. To know them, allow them to reveal themselves like making a good friend. In doing so I have found I become wiser in relation to them and they do not have the same hold on me and my experience. This gives rise to the potential for composure and absorption to arise in gentle integrated ways. As we are not intending to seek the experience it comes to the foreground when the conditions are right, and the process of investigating/ becoming familiar means that if the desire to chase the experience down to get it again, can be  understood and so the addiction to absorption becomes weakened leaving the mind to focus on being with the past/present/future as they arise conditionally in this moment.

There is something very relaxing to understanding that this present moment addiction that I had developed is an addiction to one aspect of the chain of time, it is not freedom. The past is arising now, meeting the present, the present moment in itself is just a moment in time. Yet it can reveal how we are relating to our past experience and generating our sense of the future. Giving space to feel the past helps to reveal how we have become this, the thoughts about the future reveal what I am wanting, needing and reacting to the pain, neutral and pleasure of the past and present. They can help to understand what we may need in our lives to feel more nourished, whole and alive.

I notice that with this sense of familiarity that has developed by being with my experiences as it arises, that when the mind does drift to the breath it does so with ease and drifts into a deeper sense of calm in a shorter period of time rather than intentionally returning to the breath. This I sense is due to the knowledge of the so-called hindrances.

This is all very interesting and I have found that as I release from the bounds of identifying with this experience the more human I become. As shame dies away, conditioned by the social interactions this body/mind has encountered in its journey. There is a sense of raw aliveness, an awareness of the levels of frustration that we buried in this body/mind again through identification with its desires/urges and needs and the repression that happened unintentionally and intentionally in relation to our contexts/ plus the reality that we can not fulfill every sensory stimulated desire.How these lead to noncongruent behavior so that we can get what we want/need. This awareness is entering the stream of being human not doing human. We become more fully human the more awake we become to this conditioned process, and find are self-being real about who we are.

Life as it is.....

What is this I at the centre of our experience? This internal sense of being something that experiences.

So today driving to work the car makes a funny sound, lights begin to flash on the dashboard. A sense of confusion arises, I pull over. I try to think what it could be, Sounds like it is coming from at the front and the fan sounds like it is working extra hard. I am aware of thoughts arising about what this could be, plus aware of a sense of anxiousness that I still have 30 minutes to get to work. Nothing overwhelming just noticing the hope that it is nothing and the car will start and I can continue my journey to work. I open the bonnet and notice that there is no coolant. So wander over to the petrol station and to buy some, aware of the relieve when it only cost $8 as my awareness of a background tension of having very little money and not wanting something to be wrong with the car. Get back to the car aware of a sense of optimism that this will solve my problem. Pour in the coolant and let it sit for 15 minutes before attempting my journey. Then of I go, I get out onto the road and the temperature dial hits HOT almost immediately. I pull into the next road to find somewhere to park.

Opening* to my thoughts I become aware of my thoughts working out what to do next, mixed in this is some emotion about my money concerns, picking my daughter and her friend up from preschool this afternoon, losing wages by not going to work. I message my wife, then call roadside assist who ask me where I would like to be towed to. Problem number one, not sure where I am. Plus towing is free if you are towed less than ten kilometres and I am 25 km's away from home and my mechanic. So I decide to call back later after I orientate myself on planet earth. So I wonder around the corner to the petrol station where I bought the coolant to find out what suburb I am in. Opening to my thoughts I notice the potential for me to become upset about all this. Gently opening to my situation the perception that "this is the world" arises and this situation happened because it was meant to happen. It is a conditioned process, although I may not be aware of the actual issue with the car, I am aware of the conditions arising in my mind in regards to it and can open to that. Naturally beginning to reflect that cars like everything else are conditioned and deteriorate and they are not aware of their owner's bank balance so this situation is not one of ill will towards me, it is life as it is.  

I notice that there is a mechanics workshop next to the petrol station, I call the number on the board to see if their answer machine will tell me when they open, it did not. I walk back to the car and work out how I can get the car to the mechanic. I take the handbrake off and roll, down the hill; brakes don't seem to want to engage? Minor panic turn engine on brakes work yippee turn a corner then another and now I am parked outside the mechanic. Sitting in the car waiting for the mechanic I open to my experience aware of this sense of "I" who the sensory experience is happening to. This sense of "I" is ignorance, consciousness identifying itself with the nervous systems process of ordering the sensory experience. This sense of ordering is fine in itself but when it becomes a self it tends to be controlling.  In this case, its desire was to control the situation so that I don't have to feel the unpleasantness of the insecurity that arises with having little money. I sense of concern for my survival, which I noticed is part of my conditioning due to having been brought up by parents who also did not have much money and inheriting this stress pattern. Opening to this I am aware of my self-story and aware of the unpleasant feeling that arises with that.

Opening to this sense of "I", where sensory contact hits and the internalization of experience arises allowing its stories to arise and cease, aware of attachment to the story opening to the attachments. Feeling this internal sense of suffering, a not quite rightness, not comfortable. Opening to that as it rises and drifts away. Aware of how entwined this sense of I has become into the deep primordial nervous system with its fight/ flight mechanisms and the desire to survive. Opening to this, allowing the process which is arising. Opening to any ideas or concepts about this process, opening to the desire to have a concept to explain this experience. Drifting with this. Sometimes it is a case of just opening to what's happening, noticing how any concept about practice can hinder the ability for equanimity to arise or convinces us that we know what is happening. So just opening to the agenda we have with what is arising, the agenda we have with our sense of self and how we think that should be right now. Each process arising we have to start again as if a new. Opening and allowing this awareness which has arisen with these conditions to mature in relation to these conditions, rather than trying to fit what is arising into a particular technique to get the result we think we should be getting. A technique can be useful in mirroring some of the internal processes but it has an effect on the process.

Opening to the sense of  "I" can lead to knowing the "I" as part of this human process. Which when misunderstood it becomes an attachment to being a separate person, a person who needs to be protected, fed, loved and respected. If these conditions are not present we suffer. We manipulate our contexts to get these needs met, they are valid needs and should be listened to, yet understood that they are not always going to be to be met. The experience of not-self when it arises shows us that there is freedom from this suffering that arises with selfing our experience. This "I" is not to be destroyed it is a functional part of being human.

*What I mean by opening is like attention is a spring loaded door, when opened it closes again. This closing which happens due to the spring which is our habitual patterns closing in on pleasure and pain. So the process of opening to what arises is the effort to keep the door open so what is arising may pass through without resistance. And if there is resistance we open to that too.

Perfect as you are

Opening to the sensory experience of life, the feeling tone, self-stories that arise. I have found that by being willing to allow life to touch me, open to what is arising in each context in a gentle non-judgmental way, I find myself growing emotionally and psychologically not by hunting down trauma (wanting for a better word), not by seeking a particular experience but by allowing the contact with the present context arise opening to my self-story that arises with those conditions. By opening to the self-story that arises in a gentle non-judgmental way, I allow the story to run. Opening to this story gently gathers the resources to be present with it. As I open I am not identifying with the story which allows the story to unfold in its own way without editing if editing arises I open to that. To me, the sense of editing our self-story is the 5 hindrances.  These are the ways we defend ourselves or engage with the conditions arising wanting them to be different. 

As this process of opening gathers its resources depending on the conditions arising the ability to release the self-story arises bringing ease and the potential for insight into this body/mind system. Revealing how we have attached to the idea of being this body and the emotions and thoughts that arise with it. By opening to this process, we begin to let the body/mind story run, as that is what it does, it is a sensory stimulating experience. As Dhamma practitioners our job is not to numb it out, it seems more of an allowing this story to be. When we let it be, it begins to reveal many treasures which were held out of awareness due to holding on to certain ideas/beliefs. The process of maturing is continuous, with each arising condition awareness arises with it, each awareness has to go through the process of opening/maturing with the conditions arising, when the process of awareness matures it leads to cessation, but not always. The experience of cessation gives faith to continue this process of practice. Maturation of awareness is gradual but can be experienced as maturing at different rates dependent on the conditions arising. Sometimes we are opening to a process which feels painful, uncomfortable. As we stay opening to this process we realize that this is where we are at, our awareness is at the stage of finding this experience painful, other times we may drift on with a process till awareness reaches equanimity. All we can do is be willing to open to the process we cannot force release. The process of opening to what is arising releases the ambition to achieve which allows a more thorough maturation with less by-passing of experience.

 When the process of opening begins to maintain itself I find there is a sense of stabilizing in what I call the primordial nervous system our deep fight or flight systems. These are the primary felt experiences, it can feel like a raw direct experience of Dukkha. We may find that while opening to these experiences we become aware of our deeper motives in life and the self-stories we have to create in reaction to this Dukkha. As we steady in this and insight knowledge arises we may experience deep states of calm and joy. I feel much of practice is opening to our stories that arise in relationship to our lives, opening and releasing the stories of self. When conditions are right we drop the selfing process of this sensory experience. This creates a shift in perception which gives permission for every aspect of our human experience to rise into awareness, we are learning to question ideas and self-believes.  In this process of letting go we are emptying everything, and due to the process of opening we are not blind to what we are letting go of, so letting go humbles us as it reveals our perfections and imperfections. Leading to the realization that who we are right now is perfect as due to the law of conditioned arising this is what is happening right now.

Worldly winds. Simply complex.

Do any of us make it through a day without having contact with one of the worldly winds?

 Praise and blame, self-image success and failure, pleasure and pain, fame and disrepute. These are the different polarities of this human life, with its relationships and the nature of the body.Looking at these you could probably identify a base for these images we have. Have we built a self upon praise? on blame? on pleasure? on pain? on fame? or disrepute?. I know I have, I reckon I would have a self image built upon each of these, some of them coming together to create a nice little complex. I feel like I take one as base, this is who I think I am. Depending on how self obsessed I am I may not notice its polarity as it passes by through the day. This sense of crystallising around a particular wind, creating a self position is ignorance. When we crystallise it becomes hard to sense wholesome qualities, because the crystallised self has taken the central seat, rather than sharing the seat with what ever is arising.  My sense is that these eight qualities are a foundation conditioned into our nervous systems by our bodies, parents, ideologies, society, religion, education. They begin to form our super ego, that voice in our selves that judges, measures and decides the value of what we are doing/thinking/being.

How do we live with these winds, how can we take the power of these winds to fuel our wind mills of growth and maturation?

Usually we react to them, we may try to take them as positions for a self and attach to them. Once we have a position we then need to maintain it.This can be either a positive or negative self image. As conditions are impermanent this position is in constant flux, so we try to maintain the original perception developed , this can not happen, we may get close but never again the same. The original perception of self is now in conflict with the ever changing conditions of life=suffering. Watch how mindful you are off maintaining a self image? I am a calm Buddhist, I am a person of integrity or authenticity. If your being mindful of being a particular way you have taken a position against conditional arising.

Life is the worldly winds, these winds are not-self. Life is complex, when we stop resisting complexity life is simple. Simply complex.

How do we not take a position? I find in my practice that positions I take arise dependent on the conditions arising. So it is more of the case of knowing a position as it arises, when we open to the arising of a position we begin to see the conditions that are bringing around that particular position. We know it as conditions, by opening to the conditions we become aware of the conditions which have formed our attachments to taking certain positions.

Enjoy your investigations. Open to the winds, let them blow through, humbling and removing the formation of self.

Process of opening

The process of opening as a meditation practice instead of the more traditional direct and aim practices I have found has brought about a normalizing effect. It has the potential to take down the boundaries of life in a receptive manner rather than one of cutting of that can arise when keeping ones attention upon a single object, which leads to absorption, which gives the sense of having removed boundaries. The process of opening to thought/emotion as it arises gives permission for life to be present, whatever it is. Which in itself is insightful as it reveals that you are not that what is arising. The process of opening is not taking a position; it is just opening to the processes arising right now. This is interesting as it reveals the positions that we do take in meditation/life.

The processes of ego which are about our survival, these fit nicely into the process of aim and direct meditation. As ego aims and directs and feels into its environment to achieve its goals. When we aim our attention we are training the ego to not get caught up in the environment .Yet if this is done from a lack of wisdom, based on ideas of attainment what tends to happen is a form of suppression. What happens when we can’t maintain the suppression? This form of meditation can give some quick results in feeling composed, focused and energy. But this is all dependent on conditions and can be hard to maintain. Hopefully must of us create enough suffering in this approach that we let go, revealing a more natural and sensitive approach. This is what I found for myself and when I came upon unlearning meditation it made sense to me. The process of opening as a meditation practice opens to all the above influences, revealing how this ego system works, allowing it to arise rather than cutting it off/suppressing. This allows energy to flow, as there is less resistance as we are not trying to control a process, the energy softens and becomes more wholesome as it begins to naturally release that which is unwholesome.  As we begin to open and this becomes a natural inclination in our practice we no longer need to seek special conditions. Yes there are environments which are more conducive to the mind settling yet our relationship to life is not one of escaping from, running from retreat to retreat, teacher to teacher.

 By opening we find stillness in the flow of conditions.

What is opening? To me opening is a sense of being just a little bit bigger than what is arising. This allows me to notice thoughts, the emotion travelling with the thought and the bodily energy associated with it. Which I find gives me a holographic perception of this human experience arising NOW.  What the process of opening isn't to me is becoming vast, massive, absorbing into a sense of oneness through avoidance of life. When we come to a point in having a deep faith in the process of opening we don’t seek experiences, this non -seeking brings about release and cessation of self when the conditions are right. As we open we naturally begin to let life in, which brings about a maturation of our nervous system which is the condition for release.

Happy travelling and be well.

Little self, Big self and Not-self

I have noticed in my practice over the years three types of self. Firstly there is the little self, this is the contracted me caught up in my neurosis, worry, reacting to life as it arises. Doing my best to find some stable ground from where I can set about planing how to control this chaotic vortex of experience. This is the self built upon strategies and self images ( I used to be a Buddhist monk, I am a long term meditator, I am a psychologist  these ideas do not have any actual effect on the chaos apart from creating suffering). They are positions taken due to delusion and the feeling of being overwhelmed.
Then there is the Big SELF. To me this is the experience of space, stillness, equanimity a capacity to be bigger than life. This to me shows up in the areas of my life where my practice feels mature, developed, it is my optimal experience. It has a kind of freedom to it, yet it is the illusion that arises from having developed a practice, having had some insight, yet this has been gathered up to create a insight persona,we have become the one who knows.
Then there is Not-self, the big self thinks it knows this. Yet there is a big difference between equanimity and release of the self. It is not a sense of largeness, or vastness that can be attuned to when then mind is very still. It is the end of Self, not ego. Self is the stickiness that believes it is ego. Not-self is a moment of non stickiness, when life is not taken personally, no self is being constructed, it is a non experience. A hole in the fabric of self experiencing. Giving rise to faith in liberation, leaving a perception which seems to be neither a perception or a non perception that informs the process of spiritual development which aids in the maturation process. Does the experience of Not-self mature? or is the maturation the process of self structures being  released when Not-self arises?
I have to admit my experience in the Not-self arena has been rare, yet it has greatly informed my being. Big self and little self I know well. I feel it is not appropriate to make value judgements on these different types of self, just to open and know them when they are present.