The flip side of the resistance coin is that as you have a degree of comfort with the technique, interesting experiences begin to arise, particularly when you first begin to practice, when there's a lot of zeal and a lot of accumulated wholesomeness from your whole life there waiting to speak. And so bliss arises in the body, amazing colours and forms unfold before you on the inner plane, voices may speak -- any of the inner senses may wake up and provide entertainment! And the more interesting and hypnotic and pleasurable these manifestations are, the more likely we are to identify them as the result and purpose of our practice, and seek to have more and more of them.

Both the negative manifestations of resistance and the positive internal experiences have the potential to knock practice off track through, aversion or clinging, unless they are clearly seen as indicators of the depth mind stirring to awaken.

If one keeps focused and keeps practicing, these disturbance quiet somewhat and meditation practice becomes part of your life, becomes part of your routine. You just do it, you do it daily, you may sometimes do it in retreat, but you don't really think about it very much, there's not a whole lot of question happening. If you don't practice for a few days you feel it and you know something's missing, but it's not life-threatening, more like skipping a kind of maintenance prescription, like the medicinal glass of wine before dinner. It stays at the level of something that you do to maintain a particular state and you feel superficially quite satisfied by that. This is a state of sleep-walking.

But for the depth consciousness in union with the universal programming to awaken, this is not enough, it is not satisfying. Depth mind will seek to raise question by shaking things up -- through drawing the being into situations that are challenging or troublesome so that routine practice ceases to be very effective maintenance. When this happens, either the meditator gives up, thinking that meditation isn't "working," trying therapy, or drugs or they come to the realization that it's time to raise question and to bore into the practice with more focus. And thus a fiercer desire to know is born, a compelling need to learn how to love oneself and others more fully, and to experience the spiritual foundation of life for oneself, directly.

When this stage arises something shifts, something turns in consciousness, and a much greater determination and energy comes into the work. There is a reframing of the cognition of reality that arises from direct experience, rather than education and belief. Practitioners begin to study more, to explore more of the principles of Dharma and becoming more deeply involved in practice, perhaps taking on some kind of formal foundation work at this stage, or entering into a deeper and more committed relationship with a teacher. Even those who "did" foundation practices as technique or rote process, find at this later stage that the idea comes up again because the realization or fruit of the exploration is still missing. When this level of commitment shifts, things will start to change much more rapidly. Resistances that have even greater force will be encountered which challenge the determination to continue. As these are seen and worked through, much of the patterning in consciousness that is obvious to you -- for example, "I'm a masochist" -- starts to loosen its grip and eventually to go.

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