UP, Zazen, Dhjana, Yoga, etc. is not really an "attempt" at anything. "Attempt" suggests a positive action. But there is no knowledge of attempting anything and no counting on anything.

 The best place for the monks without a monastery to be found by UP, Dhjana, Yoga, etc. is to let everything go and be completely silent and still without any effort at all, not being occupied by anything at all, not trying anything, without any expectation, not for a goal, not on any purpose.

If someone asked me today what is "UP", "Zen", "God", "Dhjana", "Yoga"etc. i could say "a yoke for an ass" :) And it might be the best answer, I don't know :)

But it's a good answer only for the "monks without a monastery"..

 UP cannot be SUSTAINED (on purpose).

It's bc any purpose is thought/ hypnosis/ trance.. Therefore UP can only happen by Itself, completely spontanously (and K said that ofc), when the purpose, all effort, knowledge, EVERYTHING drops (ALL BY ITSELF).

That is the Second Awakening that sometimes happens, like 20% of the time maybe, a few time on a walk, when one is busy, cause life is damn busy one has to functionally work for money.

Remember our last conversation in the forest about UP? We were wrong, no? You see there is no distraction. You said "it's hard to be in it, it gets lost very fast". It is so. But it's not because one is not TRYING UP hard enough!!! :) I would say it's because one is just busy with various thought stuff (which is hypnosis). This hypnosis can be working (purpose, focus, direction, effort), "trying UP" :), planning, worrying (hypnosis/trance), all of the BS that the brain is clogged with is just C.

B is the Second Awakening that sometimes happens all by itself. It CANNOT be sustained, as seemingly Ruben intended in the main definition, it might have been his slip up or he didn't intended it, only I and I guess many many folks understand it this way, cause thought means direction, effort (only positive). Thought cannot be negative.

But it can read read all the BS, study, study, "try UP" like a sheep :) UNTIL all the burden drops by itself because it's understood that it's all a yoke for an ass :) This is the revolution that K and M. Eckhart were teaching. First lose all the BS (happens all by itself, (thought dies by thought" as K and Stachura put it) and that at the same time = the Second Awakening, it happens ALL by itself. Thought has NOTHING to do with it :) Thought can only think think think (about anything). 

It's hard to explain only bc its very very simple, and thought is complication. That's why thought cannot get it, ever.

 "Thought ending thought". Thought dying by thought". I've never could understand that part. How can thought die by thought? :)

Now I do.

One has to read the books, all the books, until the goo is overflowing :) And it disappears in an instant, cause it's all just thought, not the essence.

Thought dies by thought! Phew! :)

If you don't know anything about anything, what are "you" actually "trying"?

If you don't know, then simply just be honest with yourself and see that you DON'T really KNOW anything about anything!

To know completely nothing, it's the greatest thing that can happen to you.

A camel cannot go through the eye of a needle.