Quick start
Start where traction is strongest.
Use Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu’s beginner guide as the practical base. Add the three gears as lenses, not as competing systems.
- Prostrate
Begin with mindful prostration if it is meaningful in your practice.
- Walk
Let deliberate movement gather attention before stillness.
- Sit
Sit and note what arises. Recline deliberately if sitting is not workable.
Keep the entry simple.
Return to mindfulness of breathing (ānāpānasati) as needed, then open to the present moment across seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, and thinking.
What is happening?
First gear: attention and investigation
Balance samatha and vipassanā. Meet experience clearly enough to see impermanence (anicca) and unsatisfactoriness (dukkha) for yourself.
Getting started
Use the breath when needed
Let breathing steady attention, then include whatever becomes prominent.
Notice the whole field
Sensations, sounds, sights, emotions, and thoughts all count as present experience.
Let the note frame the painting
A label can orient attention without replacing direct contact. It can become lighter or silent when contact is clear.
Noting mode
Aim awareness
Like a pitcher throwing toward a target. Find the object deliberately and meet it cleanly.
Noting mode
Receive experience
Like receiving a hug. Let the next object arrive inside awareness without reaching for it.
Witness arising and passing
- See phenomena appear, change, and disappear moment by moment.
- Notice how apparent solidity resolves into pulses, vibrations, and events.
- Ask what craving or aversion means when the object is already changing.
There is nothing inherent within things. Holy fuck, this is emptiness lol.
See cause and effect
A personal shorthand, not the canonical twelve-link formula of dependent origination.
Who knows it?
Second gear: self-enquiry
Turn attention toward the apparent knower. If the objects of experience are empty, investigate whether the experiencer has any more solidity.
Questions to stay with
Who am I?
Where am I?
Where is the solidity of self?
Who does this experience belong to?
Who receives these sensations?
Can the apparent knower be found?
Do not answer conceptually. Look for the one who sees, then notice what is actually found. This is the working inquiry into not-self (anattā).
Stop practicing; this is it.
Third gear: be as you are
Experience reality as it is, not as you would like it to be. Let go of the extra move that tries to improve this moment before allowing it.
Nothing to manufacture. Nothing outside this moment to reach.
Third gear is not a trophy. If attention lacks traction, downshift. The useful practice is the one that meets this moment clearly.
Shikantaza
Just sitting, without turning the moment into another project.
Practice notes
Supports
Use chanting when it helps gather or soften the mind. Cannabis is a personal adaptation, not part of Folk’s framework or Yuttadhammo’s guide.
If used, follow local law and avoid it whenever it reduces clarity, stability, or judgment.
Stay grounded
Work with a qualified teacher when possible. If practice becomes destabilizing or distressing, stop and seek appropriate support.
Browse the SI Video Wiki ↗Resources
Primary frameworks, practical instructions, books, guided meditations, and talks for each gear.