Aleksandr

Nathan promised to release a fourth volume, but he still hasn't. I thought he might announce it in 2025, but all he's had on social media this whole year is an announcement about his retreat and that's it. Has anyone heard if he'll release a fourth book or not?

I still wouldn’t mix up procrastination with stopping the inner dialogue. In the classical works found across many traditions—Buddhism, Daoism, and others—stopping the inner dialogue has been considered a core practice. In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras it’s expressed as “yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ,” usually translated as “yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations/wandering of the mind.” Accordingly, the state of samadhi there has been described as roughly 30 minutes. Three to four hours without moving and with the inner dialogue stopped is, in my view, just a daily baseline—not some ultimate goal. But in my experience it’s far harder than, say, not eating for a couple of months or something like that. You have to sit without leaning on a wall, not on a chair, without shifting, without repositioning your legs, and so on—until attention naturally turns inward. I don’t think many people could manage that baseline. So there’s no need to fear that everyone will become siddhas. For most people, family life and worldly развлечения will still remain the higher priority.

In fact, since the checkpoints for all lineages are often the same, the inner core of all practices is often identical. At a basic level, it's possible to empty the mind for 3-4 hours. Same with Wang Liping, vipassana, or Mo Pai. The only difference is in some external movements and rituals. And most of those gurus who advocate not mixing different lineages are actually concerned with monetizing spirituality and their bank accounts.