Date: 07/05/2025 07/06/2025
Location: Star Ocean Meditation Center
Teacher: Sara
Sitting Meditation
The Threshold State Approaching Awakening
As practice deepens, body and mind may approach a subtle and sensitive threshold. At this point, habitual cognitive structures loosen, the sense of self weakens, and a new understanding has not yet fully formed. This is not the climax of extraordinary experience, but a transitional phase before awareness breaks free from old frameworks. Without clarity, one may fall into attachment or fear; with non-grasping presence, insight matures naturally.
1. Core Characteristics of the Threshold State
1.The sense of self noticeably weakens
The feeling of “I am practicing” or “I am experiencing” fades, and the boundary between observer and experience softens.
2.Awareness becomes unusually vivid
Phenomena appear with exceptional clarity and immediacy, seen together without entanglement.
3.Effortful control loses effectiveness
Willful concentration or manipulation no longer works; any forcing creates disharmony.
4.Experience shows instability
Clarity and confusion, calm and fluctuation may alternate, indicating dissolution of old structures.
2. Common Psychological Reactions and Deviations
1.Expectation of a breakthrough
A subtle anticipation that “something is about to happen” becomes a new obstruction.
2.Fear of losing control
As identity loosens, deep insecurity may arise regarding direction, safety, or selfhood.
3.Mistaking special experiences for awakening
Light, openness, or bliss may be misidentified as final realization rather than transitional signs.
4.Attempting to hold the state
Trying to preserve or repeat the experience reintroduces grasping and obscures awareness.
3. How to Abide at the Threshold
1.Completely abandoning pushing forward
Neither advancing nor holding back, allowing the process to unfold by itself.
2.Returning to the simplest awareness
Clearly knowing what appears, without interpretation, judgment, or orientation.
3.Allowing uncertainty and openness
Letting the unformed and undefined remain, without rushing toward conclusions.
4.Maintaining sensitivity to subtle grasping
Any faint desire, aversion, or comparison is noticed as it arises.
4. Signs of Transformation Within the Threshold
1.Experience no longer centers on a subject
Phenomena arise without organizing around an experiencer.
2.Understanding becomes direct rather than conceptual
Insight is known immediately, not derived through reasoning.
3.Ease and equanimity coexist
Neither intense joy nor resistance dominates; balance prevails.
4.Action becomes more natural
Behavior grows simpler, more timely, and less calculated.
5. What Allows the Threshold to Be Crossed
1.Releasing result-oriented intention
Any fixation on “awakening” delays maturation.
2.Trusting the unfolding of awareness itself
Awareness is not achieved by an agent; it reveals itself when conditions ripen.
3.Allow old structures to dissolve fully
Avoid rebuilding new conceptual positions; let prior frameworks fall away.
4.Maintaining ordinariness and humility
The closer the breakthrough, the more natural and unassuming the mind becomes.
Conclusion
The threshold before awakening is not a stage to secure or intensify, but a gate that opens only when fully released. When striving, expectation, and grasping cease, awareness is no longer confined by old structures, and wisdom reveals itself silently and naturally.
