"Method, Attitude, Skill"

I want to write down a few notes about the 1 day meditation retreat with GuoGu Pusa. Although I consider this to be a kind of retreat reflection, I can't say that it recorded verbatim everything that was taught. I intend this mainly as a way of helping me learn (and potentially embody) what I heard today, as well as spread it to anyone who might benefit from it.
   GuoGu taught three main principles of meditation: namely, method, attitude and skill. By "method", GuoGu was referring to a clear understanding of one's own method and how it's used from moment to moment. Unless a person has a specific meditation practice that they have been given clear instructions about, their sitting will mostly be informed by habit tendencies, particularly 'like' and 'dislike', craving and aversion. "Attitude" refers to how we orient to our method. This one really stuck out for me, because I hardly have given much thought to what kind of attitude I should take toward huatou practice. While there have been times when I take a kind of tense, almost confrontational approach to 'wanting to know the answer' to huatou, GuoGu was really encouraging us to look at the method with a kind of gentle love and compassion: not expecting any result from the method, and not being too tense or tight about it. However, to qualify this statement, GuoGu referred to our love of the method not in terms of a desire, but in terms of contentment. What I understand from this is: regardless of what a method 'does' or 'does not do' for me, I am happy with the way it is, and I cultivate not wanting more or less from it. In the case of huatou method, this might involve being more open to the mystery of the huatou, knowing that there is no tangible answer to it, but that it's a kind of existential position (or lack thereof) that needs to be felt entirely. I sometimes fall into the trap of wanting to make a 'deal' with the method: I will stick to you, as long as I have the experience I am looking for. But as GuoGu reminded us today, this is just another form of attachment or greed, and this is the kind of thinking one needs to leave behind on the retreat.
    The last part that GuoGu mentioned, skill, is interesting in that it relates to how to use the method at certain specific times in one's life. If I am not skilful enough in my practice and method, I might end up practicing too tensely or not relaxing enough, while at other times I can use more focus.
   As for relaxation: well, I do have a lot to learn from that. GuoGu mentioned a practitioner who arches eyebrows and rolls his eyes upward, showing that his eyes are completely tense--and I have to say, that describes me perfectly, because I do that a lot in meditation. After GuoGu mentioned it (to my chagrin), I noticed it more and stopped doing it in the subsequent sittings, or at least did it less. I have to say that I haven't yet completely relaxed in meditation, and for the most part it's due to anatomical issues related to my low back in particular. What helps to mitigate these behaviors is that I focus less on the body as an obstacle, and more on the body as part of an unfolding mystery that can't be labelled.  A lot of this also has to do with letting go of the fear of bodily pain, without labeling it as pain.