Analytical meditation seems to be the least-taught form of meditation in the West. Why?
We're Jamyang Buddhist Centre in London (FPMT), posting openly as ourselves.
Something we notice constantly with new students: almost everyone arrives having learned some form of placement or mindfulness meditation, often from apps. Very few have ever been shown analytical meditation, the practice of working through a topic with inquiry and reasoning until intellectual understanding starts to become felt experience. In the Tibetan tradition it's not an optional extra, it's the engine of the whole path. Yet in mainstream meditation culture it barely exists.
Our theory is that it's harder to package. "Follow your breath" fits in a three-minute app session. "Reason your way through impermanence until something shifts" doesn't.
For those of you who do practise analytically: how did you learn to actually do it, rather than just sit and think in circles? Did you need a teacher, or did texts get you there?
(For transparency: this is on our mind because we're hosting Geshe Thubten Sherab at the Centre in early August for a practical day on exactly this, part of his final UK teachings before he enters long retreat. But mostly we're curious what this community's experience has been.)