(Note: this post should eventually be merged with others)
A non-dual view or perspective in meditation is a perceptual position where the usual "subject-object split" has been replaced by a unified field of awareness: "awareness showing awareness through itself by itself to itself" (in Daniel P Brown´s formulation).
Teaching metaphors and specific visualisations are an important training device to shift into such a view.
I notice that I return to a few meditations again and again:
The "Ocean and Wave" meditation, in particular in the rendering and languaging of the deceased Daniel P Brown. This is a metaphor based instruction.
A visual/breath meditation: Breathing in the visual scene, breathing out the Self into the world. This is a Sam Harris meditation. It is visualisation that uses the breath as an imagined "carrier medium".
Ocean and Wave (unification of consciousness and its content)
The meditator imaginatively becomes the ocean (awareness / consciousness / mind) watching its own waves (mental events such as sensations, emotions, thoughts). Detail here.
I find this teaching metaphor quite interesting for a few reasons:
Upon first encountering it in a Daniel P Brown Level 1 Retreat, it contributed to trigger a semi-psychedelic state
It takes some mental effort to "get there"
It connects with the tradition, as this metaphor is used in most old texts
I love the ocean also in music and other art, and I love all kinds of water-music
Breathing in the world, breathing out the Self (mixing inner and outer)
the meditator imagines to breathe in the visual field, and to breathe out the Self. More detail here.
I like this meditation for the following reasons:
"it works" for me in partially reconstructing the non-dual "view" I suddenly became in an Ayahuasca ceremony.
It is a sophisticated extension of the traditional mixing instruction which lies at the root of Mahamudra: mixing space and awareness, inner and outer. It goes back to Tilopa.
It uses as well the visual sense and the kinesthetic sense of breathing, and requires constant switching between these two.
Resources
Gebel, T. (2021g, May 24). Dr Daniel P Brown´s Level 1 Mahamudra Retreat. Till Gebel. https://www.till-gebel.com/post/daniel-p-brown-level-1-mahamudra-dzogchen-retreat
An attempt to reconstruct why the retreat was so effective
Gebel, T. (2022d, May 29). Becoming ocean 1: meditation and contemplative neuroscience. till-gebel.de. https://www.till-gebel.com/post/becoming-ocean-1-meditation-neuroscience
Gebel, T. (2021b, March 26). Becoming ocean 2 - in music, film and poetry. Till Gebel. https://www.till-gebel.com/post/becoming-ocean-2-art
Gebel, T. (2022ac, November 12). Breathing and Mixing - Sam Harris Daily Meditation 2022.09.20. Till Gebel. https://www.till-gebel.com/post/sam-harris-daily-meditation-2022-09-20-breath-mixing-vision-self