The Observer and the Taste of Presence · Appendix
Appendix C: The Beginner's Companion, in Eleven Rounds
The Beginner's Companion is this book's own step-by-step path, in eleven rounds. The narrative chapters carry the argument, and the rounds give a reader who wants to practise a way through it, in the order of the chapters. Each round names the chapters it supports.
- Round 1: The observer. Look for the witness behind seeing and hearing. Chapters 1 and 2.
- Round 2: Vividness without a viewer. Notice that experience is vivid without a holder. Chapter 2.
- Round 3: The chariot and the parts. Apply the chariot to the observer and to objects. Chapters 1 and 14.
- Round 4: Dependence and designation. The Dharmakīrti and Candrakīrti exchange, with the rope and snake. Chapters 5 and 6.
- Round 5: The Given and its alternatives. The two-storey picture, the Given, and conceptual all the way down. Chapters 5, 6 and 15.
- Round 6: Energy, potentiality and continuity. Test each candidate for a carrier. Chapters 7, 8 and 9.
- Round 7: Change without a changer. Look for the changer apart from the change. Chapter 11.
- Round 8: The eight extremes. Apply each extreme to a single object. Chapter 12.
- Round 9: Analysis and seeing. Use the dividing mind against itself, then rest in non-dividing seeing. Chapters 14 and 16.
- Round 10: The taste. Notice seen as just seen, heard as just heard. Chapter 21.
- Round 11: The meal. The painted food and painted hunger exercise. Chapter 22.