The Progressive, Direct and Pathless Paths

In both the progressive path and the Direct Path, we assume a separate self; the Pathless Path does not. In objective meditation – the progressive path – we direct attention, stretching it towards an object like a mantra, focusing and steadying the mind. Eventually, the mantra fades, and due to habit, attention returns to the objects of experience, requiring a repeat of practice. Subjective meditation – the Direct Path – involves relaxing attention, allowing it to return from the objects of experience to the unstretched state of pure awareness. The sun metaphor illustrates this: awareness, like the sun, illuminates itself simply by being itself, rather than needing to attend to itself. The Pathless Path, in contrast to the other two, is one of ‘non-meditation’ or ‘non-practice’. We begin in our true nature, awareness, foregoing the presumption of separation and the need for attention to traverse between subject and object, and we stay there.

In both the progressive path and the Direct Path, we assume a separate self; the Pathless Path does not. In objective meditation – the progressive path – we direct attention, stretching it towards an object like a mantra, focusing and steadying the mind. Eventually, the mantra fades, and due to habit, attention returns to the objects of experience, requiring a repeat of practice. Subjective meditation – the Direct Path – involves relaxing attention, allowing it to return from the objects of experience to the unstretched state of pure awareness. The sun metaphor illustrates this: awareness, like the sun, illuminates itself simply by being itself, rather than needing to attend to itself. The Pathless Path, in contrast to the other two, is one of ‘non-meditation’ or ‘non-practice’. We begin in our true nature, awareness, foregoing the presumption of separation and the need for attention to traverse between subject and object, and we stay there.