Your Goal: A feeling of Content Happiness and weakening of habitual forgetting.
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"Monks, whoever develops & pursues mindfulness immersed in the body encompasses whatever skillful qualities are on the side of clear knowing." the Buddha MN 119
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Back: Meditation Skill 03: Mindful Presence.
Next: Meditation Skill 05: Natural Breathing.
As a growing feeling of contentment with Mindful Presence develops, you will begin to feel the contentment within your heart's centre. In Skill 04 you gently smile into the pleasant feeling of contentment to allow it to be absorbed into your mind, creating a feedback loop of Content Happiness.
Your meditation is the same as Meditation Skill 03, except you now enjoy the pleasant feeling of contentment with the Mindful Presence of your body, to uplift your mind with the experience of contentment and happiness.
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Meditation Instructions:
In Step 01 your meditation remains the same, Steps 2-3 are two new additions to your meditation.
Your meditation is the same as Meditation Skill 03, except you now enjoy the pleasant feeling of contentment with the Mindful Presence of your body, to uplift your mind with the experience of contentment and happiness.
Step 1: Meditation Skills 01-03.
Your meditation remains the same as in Meditation Skills 01-03, except you now add Steps 2-3 as new additions to your meditation.
Your Meditation So Far:
Sit in meditation (thumbs touching).
Reflect gratefully.
Listen to sounds.
Clothing on your body.
Marker 01: Body Relaxation.
Marker 02: Mind Relaxation.
Marker 03: Mindful Presence.
Additions for developing Content Happiness in Skill 04:
Step 2: Enjoy Contentment.
Step 3: Smile With Your Eyes.
Step 4: GOSS Formula.
GOSS Formula: How to Let Go.
Ground = Be mindful of the touch of your thumbs.
Observe = Be happy when you notice you have been lost in mind stories.
Soften = Return awareness to your body by softening/relaxing your body and mind.
Smile = Smile with your eyes into the subtle pleasantness of letting go to reward your mind.
Progression in mindfulness of breathing can be accurately tracked by observing your ability to access the 12 Meditation Markers. This can be done by developing insight into their associated Meditative Hindrance and changing the conditions that support them.
Your fourth step in meditation is to develop Marker 04: Content Happiness (right column) to weaken Hindrance 04: Habitual Forgetting (left column).
Progression Map for Mindfulness of Breathing
Meditative Hindrances. Meditation Markers.
01: Body Relaxation.
02: Mind Relaxation.
03: Mindful Presence.
04: Habitual Forgetting. → 04: Content Happiness.
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: Sensory Stimulation. 10: Whole-Body Breathing.
11: Anticipation of Pleasure. 11: Sustained Awareness.
12: Fear of Letting Go. 12: Access Concentration.
Other Hindrances: It is important to note that although your focus is on weakening the Hindrance of Habitual Forgetting at this stage of meditation, all the other Hindrances listed above may also be present. It is essential to settle each Hindrance in the order presented in the above Map for Mindfulness of Breathing, as each Marker is the antidote for its associated Hindrance.
Progression: Once you weaken the habit of habitually forgetting your meditation object and experience a content-enjoyment of the presence in your body as you meditate, with the experience of breathing throughout your body becoming more apparent, you are ready to develop Marker 05: Natural Breathing.
Meditative Hindrances are signs of an imbalance in either your effort or the structure of your attention. It is skillful to view them as an opportunity for insight into your mind rather than something to overcome.
Meditative Hindrances
01: Physical Restlessness.
02: Mental Restlessness.
03: Sleepiness & Drifting.
04: Habitual Forgetting.
05: Habitual Control.
06: Mind Wandering.
07: Gross Dullness.
08: Subtle Dullness.
09: Subtle Wandering.
10: Sensory Stimulation.
11: Anticipation of Pleasure.
12: Fear of Letting Go.
Meditative Hindrance:
Habitual Forgetting (04).
You completely forget your meditation object and that you are meditating.
Habitual Forgetting refers to when your mindfulness grows weak, and your mind forgets your meditation object and even that you are meditating. This lapse into forgetting during meditation is a survival mechanism of your mind designed to save energy by following repeated patterns, like a screen saver on a computer. You may first notice that your mind has forgotten your meditation object after you realise that you have been off thinking or fantasising about something for some time.
Sleepiness & Drifting, Habitual Forgetting and Mind Wandering are connected.
The process of the mind is this:
The important part in working with this is to first remove Hindrance 03: Sleepiness & Drifting, by increasing your mindfulness and the clarity of your mind's comprehension of the experience of your meditation. This will gradually shorten the length of time that your mind habitually forgets your meditation and make it easier to weaken Mind Wandering. As Habitual Forgetting weakens the thoughts and fantasies associated with Mind Wandering will become background, random thoughts that no longer disturb your meditation.
Antidote: If you do not weaken habitual forgetting, your mind will slip back into Hindrance 03: Sleepiness & Drifting. You aim to shorten the length-of-time that your mind forgets your mindful presence and gets lost in thoughts, memories and fantasies. This is done by taking an interest in noticing when you have become lost within thoughts, memories or fantasies and rewarding your mind by softening & smiling (GOSS) to return mindfulness to your body. The effect of this can be increased by enjoying it to reward your mind for returning to mindfulness.
How to weaken the mental habit of habitually forgetting.
Support Meditation: Technique for weakening Habitual Forgetting.
You are ready to progress to Meditation Skill 05: Natural Breathing when:
Your understanding of softening can now be brought into your daily life (mindfulness of breathing soon), as a way of softening/relaxing the effort that underlies any distractions or reactions.
From the foundation of the feeling of Content Happiness you learned in Meditation Skill 04, you can observe how your body experiences change throughout your day. One of the insights you will begin to develop is the understanding that much of how your body feels during the day is directly related to your present state of mind.
For example, if you feel mentally happy, you will also feel happiness in your body as a feeling of lightness, comfort and calm energy. If you feel mentally averse and angry, you will also feel anger in your body as a feeling of hotness, tightness, tension, and upward-moving energy. By mindfully observing the relationship between these changes in your mind and body, you will understand that your body, directly and truthfully, reflects your state of mind in the same way a lake reflects, without judgment, the mountain, clouds and sky.
What is meant by 'direct reflection of your mind' is that your current state of mind can be observed by your body's reaction to it in terms of its elemental qualities: warmth, coolness, heaviness, lightness, hardness, softness, etc., and the feeling of pleasantness or unpleasantness that surrounds it. Checking in and observing these helpful reflections in your body during your day will help you to clearly-see how you are relating to what is happening in your life at this time, allowing you to soften, relax and let it go if it is based on desire or resistance.
Tip 1: Use simple reminders.
Use a simple reminder, like walking through a doorway, washing your hands, or having a cup of tea, to check-in on how you feel.
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Tip 2: If you feel stressed.
If you are resisting something, you will notice experiences within your body such as tension and tightness in your throat, chest, or belly. This will also have a feeling of unpleasantness or unease in the background. Taking slow, softening breaths in your belly to relax, as you learned in Meditation Skills 01 & 02, will lower your experience of this stressed feeling.
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Tip 3: If you feel anxious.
When you feel anxious, ground your awareness by feeling your feet touching the ground. You can also ground by gently squeezing one hand in the other to make you more present. Next, place your palms below your belly button and use slow, softening breaths in your lower abdomen, like in the previous meditation, to re-engage your diaphragm. Re-engaging your diaphragm with slow belly breaths will lower the anxious feeling.
From your foundation of mindfulness of your body, developed in Meditation Skills 01-04, you can begin to train your mind to let go of habits and be more mindfully-present in your body, in your daily life.
Meditation Skill 04 in Daily Life:
Practised in this way, following the GOSS Formula, your mind will gradually develop a positive habit of being mindful of your body during the day. At first, the periods of background mindful presence of your body will be short, but gradually, the periods of mindful presence will increase, and habitual patterns of desire and aversion will weaken.
Questions can be submitted at: MIDL Community Reddit Forums.
Question: Once I get that 'smile' or 'joy' how do I maintain it rather than see it fade after 20 seconds?
Stephen: Think of smile and joy as smiling and enjoying yourself. It is about having a good time resting in meditation. You are enjoying having a break from life, nothing to do, nowhere to go, enjoying it. The feeling lasting 20 seconds is good, this is a sign that you mind is able to access this feeling. It is also a sign that it does not come natural to your mind, and it wants to return to not enjoying the meditation.
This is a simple matter of seeing this as a habit that you can develop. You are weakening one habit, not enjoying yourself, and creating another habit, enjoying yourself. Returning again and again to enjoying yourself without looking for anything else. Being content with just this experience now, will gradually increase your minds ability to the pleasant feeling of enjoyment. It is important to also notice in daily life how often your mind is not enjoying what's happening now to and to intentionally engage with and enjoy what you are doing. Being grateful in simple things in your life is definitely a doorway.
Question: I've also been noticing that as I move up from MIDL 03, my body starts to naturally become aware of the breath interfering with any attempts of achieving Marker 04.
Stephen: How can breathing interfere with anything? Your body is breathing 24hours a day already so what is going on here? Your minds preoccupation with the breath is a sign you are not relaxed enough yet. Picture yourself in a hypnotist's chair and being led into deep relaxation. When you are deeply relaxed you won't be interested in anything and won't react to anything.
Take your time developing Marker 01: Body Relaxation and Marker 02: Mind Relaxation. They are so enjoyable just in themselves. When you are physically and mentally relaxed you will feel so comfortable that you don't want to move. So relaxed and content just to sit in meditation. You do not have to try to get to Marker 03: Mindful Presence and Marker 04: Joyful Presence because they will just naturally occur by enjoying the growing comfort and ease of your body and mind as you relax.
Question: Do you also have anything you'd recommend generally to work with MIDL 04? I don't see any progress despite consistent effort.
Stephen: I admire your consistent effort, but goal orientated effort does not develop the meditative state. The meditative state develops by allowing your body and mind to relax, letting them be as they are. the settling process happens by itself. Instead of consistent effort you are better off applying consistent curiosity and interest in what it means to relax so deeply in your body that you feel so comfortable that you no longer want to get up. This will take you in the right direction.
Question: I ’m not sure if I’m doing the observing of part anatta right, could you please explain how to observe it?
Stephen:
To observe anatta simply notice how something happens by itself. If I have a reference (grounding point) to my present experience such as mindfulness of my body, then when my mind wanders, or I find myself thinking about something, I can clearly notice that the mind wandering or thinking happened by itself.
Is it enough to just notice being distracted , grounding, returning to being present, softening and smiling?
A short reflection when your mindfulness returns, and you notice that you were distracted is helpful. This reflection can be as simple as noticing that there was a period of time in which you have no idea what was going on: "well that is interesting". You can use a simple word called a label to clarify this: "distracted" or quickly reflect on what it felt like to be distracted, and what it feels like to be present in your body again (soften, smile).
While to type this takes a while, noticing anatta is very quick to do. Think making a cake and at some stage you quickly reflect back to recall what you have done so far. When you reflect back you can see the steps quickly, and then you continue to focus on what you are doing now in the baking process. In the same way, it doesn't take a lot of 'thinking about things' during meditation to clearly see that your attention wandered from your meditation object to a distraction, by itself.
It just takes clear seeing and a deevloped intimacy with the experience of your meditation object, in this case how nice it feels to be mindfully present in your body. This familiarity with mindfulness of your body will allow you to more easily notice when you become distracted from it.
This looking clearly again and again or clear seeing, will gradually make your mind more sensitive to the 'by itself nature' of experiences that occur during meditation and in daily life. Thought it does take a clear intention and curiosity to try to notice that things happen 'by themselves'. Once you start to notice this it is endlessly interesting.
Or should I tell myself something like ‘hey that distraction was autonomous’, add a label or something else.
You can do that. Some meditators say anatta, or hey that was interesting. I find being curious about catching the points of change between attention, inattention, and returning of attention enough. If I watch a cat walk across a room by itself a number of times, any feeling that I am the cat fades away. The cat does cat things by itself; therefore, I am not the cat and allow the cat to just be a cat.
If I watch experiences of my mind and body, I will clearly see that they are doing things by themselves. If I am aware of these experiences again and again, like the cat, and notice that they are occurring by themselves, without my help, the feeling I am my body, I am my mind, will naturally also start to fade. It is all in the clear looking with curiosity about noticing things happening by themself, that is the key.
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