Meditation Markers

There are 12 Meditation Markers (markers of calm) that can be observed to accurately track the development of relaxation and calm during mindfulness of breathing.

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Following the instructions in Meditations Skills 01-12, you will sequentially develop the below Meditation Markers. Can you notice that each description of these Markers creates a progressive map for the development of mindfulness of breathing?

12 Meditation Markers:

01: Body Relaxation.

02: Mind Relaxation.

03: Mindful Presence.

04: Joyful Presence.

05: Natural Breathing.

06: Length of Each Breath.

07: Breath Sensations.

08: One Point of Sensation.

09: Sustained Attention.

10: Whole-Body Breathing.

11: Sustained Awareness.

12: Access Concentration.

Meditative Hindrances & Meditation Markers.

To develop both vipassana-insight and samatha-calm during your meditation, each Meditation Marker has one Meditative Hindrance aligned with it. During your meditation, you will learn to develop insight by recognising each Meditative Hindrance as it arises and calming it to develop the Meditation Marker related to it. 

Progression Map for Mindfulness of Breathing

Meditative Hindrances.                    Meditation Markers.

01: Physical Restlessness      →     01: Body Relaxation.

02: Mental Restlessness         →    02: Mind Relaxation.

03: Sleepiness & Drifting.        →    03: Mindful Presence.

04: Habitual Forgetting.           →    04: Joyful Presence.

05: Habitual Control.                →    05: Natural Breathing.

06: Mind Wandering.                →    06: Length of Each Breath.

07: Gross Dullness.                  →    07: Breath Sensations.

08: Subtle Dullness.                 →    08: One Point of Sensation.

09: Subtle Wandering.             →    09: Sustained Attention.

10: Subtle Distraction.             →   10: Whole-Body Breathing.

11: Anticipation of Pleasure.  →   11: Sustained Awareness.

12: Fear of Letting Go.             →   12: Access Concentration.

How this Progression Map of Hindrances & Markers Works.

We will use an example from daily life to understand how this map works.

Meditating after a busy day may make you feel physically & mentally restless and a bit sleepy. As you can see in the map above, your first step is to calm Meditative Hindrance 01: Physical Restlessness by developing Meditation Marker 01: Body Relaxation. As you feel more comfortable and relaxed in your body, your next step is to calm Meditative Hindrance 02: Mental Restlessness by developing Meditation Marker 02: Mind Relaxation. If you become too relaxed and lose mindfulness, you may experience sleepiness and mind drifting in Hindrance 03, And so on.

Progression Map for Mindfulness of Breathing

Meditative Hindrances.                    Meditation Markers.

                                                             01: Body Relaxation.

                                                             02: Mind Relaxation.

03: Sleepiness & Drifting.         →   03: Mindful Presence.

04: Habitual Forgetting.           →    04: Joyful Presence.

05: Habitual Control.                →    05: Natural Breathing.

06: Mind Wandering.                →    06: Length of Each Breath.

07: Gross Dullness.                  →    07: Breath Sensations.

08: Subtle Dullness.                 →    08: One Point of Sensation.

09: Subtle Wandering.             →    09: Sustained Attention.

10: Subtle Distraction.             →   10: Whole-Body Breathing.

11: Anticipation of Pleasure.  →   11: Sustained Awareness.

12: Fear of Letting Go.             →   12: Access Concentration.

In the map above, the first two hindrances missing in the Meditative Hindrances list represent that you have successfully calmed the Meditative Hindrances of Physical & Mental Restlessness by developing relaxation in your body & mind. 

As you become more skilled in meditation and develop insight into hindrances in this way, the Meditative Hindrances will become weaker. Once a particular hindrance is weak, you no longer need to calm it and can freely develop just the Meditation Markers to establish access concentration and move onto jhana (absorption). If, however, your samadhi (unification of mind) is disturbed during meditation or in your daily life, the earlier hindrances that you have calmed may get stirred up and arise in your mind again. 

For example, if you meditate this morning and your mind is calm, you can reach Marker 07: Breath Sensations fast because there are hardly any hindrances in your mind. If you then have a stressful day and decide to sit in meditation to relax, you find that the earlier Hindrances, physical and mental restlessness, are pretty strong and need to be settled. This disturbance in your ability to develop samadhi during mindfulness of breathing offers you insight into the anicca (impermanent, therefore unreliable) and anatta (autonomous) nature of your mind.  

The unskillful thing would be to try to get to the same place you were this morning. The skillful thing to do would be to develop insight into the relationship between a stressful day and feeling physically and mentally restless. Learning to calm these stress reactions by being kind to your mind and body by developing relaxation in your body and mind following Markers 01 & 02. In this way, you practice vipassana-insight into the hindrances to develop samatha-calm.

You may have noticed that Markers 01-03 are also present within Cultivation 01.

MARKER 01: Body Relaxation.

• Awareness of comfort and ease within your whole body.

Marker 01 is concerned with developing a feeling of comfort and ease within your body, creating the conditions to calm Hindrance 01: Physical Restlessness. Body relaxation has a bonus for calm and insight in that as your body relaxes, awareness will naturally begin to immerse itself within it. The subtle pleasure of relaxing and letting go will naturally deepen awareness of your body.

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MARKER 02: Mind Relaxation.

• Awareness of comfort and ease within your mind.

Marker 02 is concerned with cultivating a feeling of comfort and ease within your body, creating the conditions to calm Hindrance 02: Mental Restlessness and its associated mind wandering. Awareness of comfort and ease within your body in Marker 01, combined with the softening of effort within your mind, will bring about the mental comfort of Marker 02. Mind relaxation has a bonus for calm and insight in that mindfulness will naturally grow within your body's awareness as your mind relaxes. The Buddha called this kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed within your body).

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MARKER 03: Mindful Presence.

• An aware, stable, mindful peripheral awareness is present throughout your body.

Marker 03 is concerned with establishing a posture of mindful presence (sati-parimukham) by bringing mindfulness to the forefront of the mind and immersing it within your body. Mindful Presence is established when the enjoyment of physical and mental comfort and ease matures. It's experienced as a feeling of contentment with an abiding presence throughout your body, free from any interest in the past or future. As Marker 03 establishes, your mind will develop contentment with how nice it feels to rest within the awareness of your body and calm the conditions that support Hindrance 03: Sleepiness & Dullness.

Markers 04-06 are found within Cultivation 02.

MARKER 04: Joyful Presence.

• The joy of letting go within your mind and a natural peripheral awareness resting in your body.

Marker 04 is concerned with cultivating happiness, enjoyment and contentment within your heart and mind to balance effort and energy. Happiness and joy are developed by enjoying the growing mindful presence and increasing contentment. It is experienced as an increased clarity of awareness surrounded by a warm, comforting blanket of safety. As the feeling of happiness, enjoyment and contentment grows, your mind will lose interest in the past and future, creating the conditions to calm Hindrance 04: of Habitual Forgetting.

It is important to note that meditative joy is sensitive attraction & aversion and can only be present when your mind is inclined towards letting go. If there is grasping, trying, and achieving within your mind, your mind will become dry, and meditative joy will be absent and inaccessible.

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MARKER 05: Natural Breathing.

• Awareness of natural breathing flowing within your body free from control.

Marker 05 is concerned with mindfulness of the subtle pleasure of breathing as it naturally flows throughout your body, free from intentional or habitual control. Natural breathing will become clearer as you develop relaxation and clear comprehension. To find pleasure in your breathing, apply joyful presence and smile into the simple flow of breathing within your body—the natural stretch of your body as the breath comes in, the natural relaxation of your body as the breath goes out—tuning into how nice it feels. By learning to tune into how nice this gentle stretch and relaxation feel, the pleasure of your body breathing will become clear. When you access the subtle pleasure within your breathing, aligned with the joy and happiness of letting go, you will become very aware of each in and out-breath, and Marker 05 will establish. Once established, Marker 05 will create the conditions to calm Hindrance 05: Habitual Control.

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MARKER 06: Breathing Presence. 

• Awareness of the whole of each in & out breath, from its beginning, middle, and end.

Marker 06 is concerned with continuously being intimately aware of the whole length of each breath to increase the application of your attention. It is important to note that awareness of the whole length of each breath will become clearer to you as a further development of relaxation with clear comprehension, not through an effort to look. Once awareness of each breathing is developed, free from effort and strain, awareness will establish within the flow of the breath throughout your body as a Breathing Presence. Once established, Marker 06 will create the conditions to calm Hindrance 06: Distracted Mind.

Markers 07-09 are found within Cultivation 03.

MARKER 07: Breath Sensations.

• Awareness of sensations within each breath at the tip of your nose.

Marker 07 is concerned with cultivating exclusive attention to a more refined meditation object: the changing sensation at the tip of the nose as the breath draws in and out. It is important to note that awareness of breath sensations at the tip of the nose occurs naturally as a progression of relaxation with clear comprehension, not through the effort to look. 

As effort within your body and breathing are relaxed and effort in your mind calmed, awareness will naturally gravitate towards the tip of your nose, and sensations within each breath will naturally appear. Tuning into these sensations, plus generating enjoyment of the growing experience of calm and tranquility, will develop exclusive, intimate attention. Once established, Marker 07, accompanied by growing meditative joy and tranquility plus insight into their nature, will create the conditions to calm Hindrance 07: Gross Dullness.

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MARKER 08: One Point of Sensation: 

• Awareness of one point of breath sensation with the fading perception of in & out breaths.

Marker 08 is concerned with cultivating stable attention on one point of breath sensation at the tip of the nose by accessing the subtle pleasure of growing tranquillity. It is important to note that awareness of one point of sensation does not come about by effort but rather by calming the perception of time and tuning into the pleasure of growing tranquility that comes from the absence of the desire 'to do'. Once established, Marker 08, accompanied by maturing tranquility, will create the conditions to calm Hindrance 08: Subtle Dullness.

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MARKER 09: Sustained Attention:

• Awareness of stable, unified attention that no longer wanders or moves.

Marker 09 is concerned with sustaining attention on one point of breath sensation at the tip of the nose while enjoying the joy & tranquility of the seclusion from the intellectual mind. When your attention sustains itself, it will become effortless and stable, with little wandering, and joy and tranquility will develop to maturity. Sustained attention develops through cultivating the pleasure of letting go in your body and mind, not through holding your attention to one point. 

While it is possible to sustain attention through effort and sheer willpower, you will habituate this tendency within your mind. 

The tendency towards effort & control will, therefore, become natural in daily life. This should be avoided. It is more skillful to develop stable attention by inclining your mind towards the pleasure of letting go. You will habituate a tendency within your mind to let go in daily life. The momentum of letting go in calm, insight, and morality is the energy that turns the Wheel of Dhamma in the meditator's mind. Once established, Marker 09, accompanied by stable, unified attention, will create the conditions to calm Hindrance 09: Subtle Wandering.

Markers 10-12 are found within Cultivation 04.

MARKER 10: Whole-Body Breathing:

• Peripheral awareness of the experience of your whole body as it breathes.

Marker 10 is concerned with developing intimacy with the background peripheral experience of your whole body as it breathes. Developed intimacy withdraws peripheral awareness from impinging sensory objects as a gradual closing down of the five sense doors. Even though attention is sustained, peripheral awareness still contains sensory input and has opportunities for habitual distraction. By opening peripheral awareness to the subtle movement of your whole body as it breathes, intimacy develops, and the sense fields calm. With maturity, your body will become one ball of breath-sensation-awareness, with attention sustained in the middle. Once established, Marker 10, accompanied by developed intimacy, will create the conditions to calm Hindrance 10: Sensory Distraction.

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Marker 11: Sustained Awareness:

• Calming of sensory awareness with intimate, stable, unmoving awareness of the pleasure of your whole-body breathing (sensations and body border have ceased).

Marker 11 is concerned with developing exclusive, intimate awareness of the experience of the pleasure of your whole-body breathing. During this stage, your awareness will completely withdraw from your senses as intimacy matures (sound may still be present as very distant). Marker 11 only arises once attention and peripheral awareness are both sustained. As your awareness sustains, sensations within your body will become very subtle due to the calming of sensory awareness. 

Since your body is also a sense organ, your ability to experience bodily sensations from the world will calm, and breath sensation will fade. As awareness is sustained, sensations are replaced by subtle pleasurable feelings (vedana) as the early stages of piti start to arise. With this pleasurable feeling in your body, peripheral awareness will sustain as a solid, stable, unmoving awareness, with strong sukha (joy/happiness) within the mind and piti (pleasurable sensation filling the body). Once established, Marker 11, accompanied by subtle piti in your body and sukha in your mind, creates the conditions to calm Hindrance 11: Anticipation of Pleasure. 

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Marker 12: Access Concentration: 

• Awareness of unified, stable, unmoving attention & awareness, free from hindrances, with pleasurable body sensation, joy, and happiness of mind. 

Marker 12 is concerned with establishing access concentration as a platform to cultivate and enter jhana (absorption). Access concentration only arises once attention and awareness have been sustained and unified. It requires an absence of anticipation of pleasure and fear of giving up control. When one completely surrenders control, this natural process shifts into a flow-like state of piti (as pleasure)-sukha (as joy, happiness). 

At this stage, you have established the conditions for access concentration: unified, stable attention, free from the 12 Meditative Hindrances, accompanied by piti and sukha that arise from this intimate seclusion. Once established, Marker 12 creates the conditions to calm Hindrance 12: Fear of Letting Go.

Giving up control during daily seated meditations is necessary to experience momentum in letting go within your mind. Giving up control does not mean giving up the structure of your meditation but rather giving up your desire to control your experience and experiencing. Giving up control over what happens and what you experience in meditation brings an understanding of the saying: "There is no such thing as a bad meditation, just opportunities to learn and grow."

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How to Structure Your Meditation: 

As a MIDL meditator, your intention when you meditate is always to develop samatha (calm and tranquility) through mindfulness of breathing. Anything that interrupts the development of calm and tranquility is seen not as a hindrance but as an opportunity for insight into your mind's autonomous (anatta) nature. Understanding your mind's autonomous nature means letting it choose whether your meditation period focuses on cultivating calm, insight, or letting go, not you.

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When to meditate for calm: 

Samatha phase.

When you sit in meditation and your mind naturally inclines towards calm, you take advantage of this and practice mindfulness of breathing for calm and tranquility. Your mind will naturally enter a samatha-calm phase when sila: morality has refined in your daily life. Because of this, your mind is inclined towards letting go of control. During a samatha phase, you aim to develop access concentration and jhana to increase the clarity of your awareness and incline your mind towards letting go. You can encourage this process by adapting your GOSS Formula towards accessing the pleasure of relaxation & letting go.

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When to meditate for insight: 

Vipassana phase.

When you sit in meditation and find that your mind inclines towards disturbance, you take advantage of this by grounding awareness in your body. From this foundation, you develop insight into the impermanent (anicca) and autonomous (anatta) nature of your mind & body. 

Your mind will naturally enter a vipassana-insight phase due to a stressful situation in your daily life or increased clarity of anicca (impermanence) and anatta (autonomy) during samatha. During a vipassana phase, meditative pleasure and joy will be inaccessible. You aim to allow your mind to experience the out-of-controll-ness of the 'mind-mess' to develop disenchantment towards its autonomous nature. You can encourage this process by adapting your GOSS Formula towards accessing the pleasure of letting go of any aversion within your mind.

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When to meditate for letting go:

Sila phase.

When you sit in meditation and your mind inclines towards letting go of all objects, you take advantage of this tendency by practicing nirvikalpa samadhi (stillness meditation) and refining morality in your daily life. Your mind will naturally enter a sila-letting go phase due to the maturity of disenchantment during the vipassana phase. During a sila phase, you may not feel like sitting as much and become sensitive to everything you think, say, and do. Take advantage of this tendency to let go by allowing your mind to follow habitual patterns and doing so with a clear comprehension of the process. When the pattern has ended notice how you feel within yourself for following that pattern, the feeling of unpleasantness, unsatisfaction, and lowered trust within yourself. Also, take advantage of this and decondition this pattern by softening into how you feel while experiencing the pleasure of letting go to train your mind to let go.