A particularly common confusion, found all along the axis of the number of years of meditation practice, consists of considering techniques as ends, while losing sight of, or not yet having access to, their role as means.
These techniques are merely fluidifying agents, aimed at inviting the initiatory interiority of the Encounter.
(On another level, this is what we see with hata yoga, perceived as an end in itself, while its aim, through the discipline of asanas, is to prepare for meditation.)
Thus, breathing techniques, do-ins, visualizations… are all rails guiding the practitioner through the rocks, beyond the canyons.
Towards the heart of the sitting, techniques are not the destination. This confusion is only virtuous as a lure allowing the disciple to discover, behind these practical tools, the landscapes to which they provide access.
Finally, rather than attachment or concentration around these techniques, the pitfall against which we should more appropriately warn is that of the proliferation of these techniques, leading, under the guise of a supposed expansion of knowledge, to an unproductive scattering.
Notes & Silence 