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.