Bottom-Up – Top-Down

A question that all meditators confront is how to stabilize the qualities we experience in our natural state – serenity, spontaneous realizations, freedom from conditioning, and a natural simplicity and ease. These qualities often appear only as fleeting experiences, easily disrupted by the pressures of daily life. 

In other words, we tend to know them as temporary states, not enduring traits. A state is transient, a trait is stable. The work of meditation is the transformation of momentary states into abiding traits, so what was once a passing glimpse becomes a resilient way of being.

Transcript

                                     Bottom-Up –– Top-Down

A question that all meditators confront is how to stabilize the qualities we experience in our natural state – serenity, spontaneous realizations, freedom from conditioning, and a natural simplicity and ease. These qualities often appear only as fleeting experiences, easily disrupted by the pressures of daily life. 

In other words, we tend to know them as temporary states, not enduring traits. A state is transient, a trait is stable. The work of meditation is the transformation of momentary states into abiding traits, so what was once a passing glimpse becomes a resilient way of being.

There are two approaches to stabilizing a healthy mental state – bottom-up and top-down. The first, bottom-up, is applying effort towards creating a healthier day-to-day life. The second approach, also called the direct approach. It begins by bypassing prolonged methods and techniques, immediately dropping into awareness and presence.

The bottom-up approach begins at the level of the ordinary self. Our efforts aim at creating a healthy human life. The first approach is shifting from entanglement in thoughts, feelings, and mental images to a witnessing stance. Rather than being lost in mental activity, we step back and observe it. 

That shift – like switching on a light in a dark room – opens and loosens our mental space. Over time, by practicing mindful witnessing both formally (in meditation on body, feelings, thoughts, and mind) and informally (in daily activities such as listening, walking, or washing dishes), we reinforce this habit of witnessing awareness and non- attachment. What begins as an effortful state gradually matures, with practice and patience so that non-entanglement becomes our default, a stable trait 

Social and environmental factors can support or hinder our efforts to stabilize a healthier mind/body. The Buddhists have a term for this, “cultivating and abandoning.” We cultivate the choice to disentangle from mental activity and enter a witnessing awareness by creating spaces and circumstances that allow for mental space and less busyness. We construct a lifestyle that supports stillness, allowing time for reflection and contemplation.

This shift is supported by neuroplasticity, the brain’s capacity to rewire itself. If a temporary state is experienced with increasing frequency, neural pathways supporting that state can strengthen, making it more automatic, a trait rather than a temporary state. We train our mind, our brain follows, and a new stabile “habit” is gained.

The top-down approach begins emphasizes the state of presence and awareness. We first quiet the mind with a mindfulness technique – mantra, breath, body scan, guided practice — and then shift directly into open presence. The goal is to rest in clear awareness itself, allowing all thoughts and perceptions to arise and dissolve without grasping. Mental activity arises, abides, and falls without our interest, grasping, or in any way struggling with it. We remain in awareness. There is a Zen proverb that highlights this approach to mental activity – allow mental activity to enter the front door of you mind and leave through the back door without serving it tea! 

We call this resting in the nature of mind. This approach may feel unfamiliar at first, but it is often simpler and more direct. At first, these moments may be unstable. We learn to, when needed, use mindfulness techniques to calm the drifting mind before. When calm, we once again drop into simple presence. At first you might need some guidance, but it will not be long until you can drop right in. 

Th methods and techniques we utilize of the bottom-up practice of mindfulness are called meditation with support. Th support may be a sound like a mantra, following the breath, the instructions of a guided meditation, or any other object. The support anchors the mind to a fixed experience that we return to whenever the mind drifts or attaches. This allows a method-based calming of the mind. The bottom-down approach, meditation without support, does not utilize a method or technique. It is a simple, effortless resting in the ground nature of mind. Here, when the mind drifts, we simply bring it back to presence or utilize meditation with support until the mind regains its calm.

In both approaches the final stage, which cannot be forced, is becoming awareness/presence itself. Here there is no further disconnection from our Self. We are awareness. We are the Oneness. Our natural condition, always present, is revealed to us as stable and unchanging.