DID I SAY, “NO HIERARCHY”?Here is the most important part of understanding the spectrum of awareness practices: there is no hierarchy.
Oftentimes people think that natural awareness practice is better than the other types of awareness practices because it seems kind of cool or special or more advanced and because they find themselves practicing natural awareness after working for a long time in their classical mindfulness practice. Also, a lot of the religious literature, such as texts from some Buddhist schools, seems to point to it as the “highest” or most special way to practice.
In truth, there is no high-class awareness practice lording it over the other types of awareness practices. There are just different ways of practicing with awareness, and they can occur or be used at different times, both in life in general and in meditation specifically. Meditation students explore and utilize different ways of being aware at different times in their practice, based on what they need or what is arising for them; in meditation jargon, employing different practices at different times and circumstances is called skillful means. Another definition of skillful means is “whatever works.” Is your current practice leading to more joy, more emotional regulation, more ease of being, less drama? Then it’s the right one to do!
Your practice, like mine, may move through the full spectrum of awareness practices in the course of a session, over many sessions, and over time—even over years. Sometimes one type of practice is called for more than another. Sometimes one type spontaneously arises at one time versus another type. It’s helpful to go with whatever type of awareness practice arises in your meditation and pay attention to what feels organic and natural, rather than contriving to make your meditation be a certain way that it’s not. In other words, if you find yourself in meditation spontaneously focusing on your breath or, conversely, noticing multiple aspects of your experience simultaneously, then go with it. Over time, we learn to be our own best teacher.