Because formulating an investigation in your head IS being beguiled. The practice is to remain relaxed and present, in this present moment... whatever arises you just let it be as it is... and go as it goes, and that includes thoughts. It does itself. "You" don't have to "do" anything.alpha wrote:When it comes to doing the SMS the explanation of various practices contained in Precious Vase one has to do is very sparse and incomplete.
Ex. In the investigation on" How one is beguiled by Diverse secondary causes" there is only one paragraph of 6 or 7 lines .That's it...There is no more of how you should investigate and how you formulate in your head this investigation....
Or another example is Kumbaka....I honestly do not understand how you do it...
And these practices are among many others who seem vague and incomplete.
So the question is how one studies the P.V for the SMS when the information given is incomplete...?
Yeeeah.....How do you practice Kumbaka from a book ??????
All the practices are supports to help you do the main practice if you can't seem to. None of them are necessary. Be careful of the SMS too just because people can read and recite facts from the precious vase doesn't mean they KNOW the teaching. It's like reading and reciting baseball statistics, doesn't mean you know anything about the ins and outs of playing the game on the field.
Kumbaka isn't necessary either. It's a secondary practice. Like yantra yoga, like guru yoga, like any of it... they're all methods.
If you can see what you're being pointed to, and rest in that, it will do the work for you... all effort (though it may be needed on some levels) is ultimately misleading... and if you don't know when to let go of the practice.. or know what you're looking for in the practice. Then you're lost.
Someone told me something that helped me tremendously when i first started all this... and they said it even before i started. They said "never stray from the basic message... don't get caught up in the bullshit"
wise words.