Originally Posted by
soberlicious 
Buddhists say that trying to push undesirable emotions or thoughts or desires away...actively fighting them, that creates a connection with them. When you disengage, there is no connection. "Fighting" the beast by either trying to reason with the AV or force it to go away, creates the engagement and connection that the Beast wants. It gets you involved in a match that it may eventually win, since It has successfully gotten You there on the court with It. If you never even set foot on the court, it cannot beat You.
Yes, you've nailed it. In the past this has absolutely been my mistake. I
have engaged with the AV, and fallen into reasoning with it - and then I have quickly been lost to it.
It has been a big breakthrough for me to see the process of AVRT as, essentially, a mindfulness technique. I didn't really get that before. I think I saw it, mistakenly, as a more combative approach (I will pit my will against the Beast's).
I see also that my AV has played very much upon the simplicity of AVRT as a way to sew doubts in my mind: "Nothing could be that simple, otherwise everyone would be doing it", etc