Meditation Skill 06

Your meditation is the same as Meditation Skill 05, except you now develop mindfulness of the whole length of each breath as it flows within your body as one continuous breath awareness.

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• Meditation Length: 40 min. Due to the increased time it takes to settle the mind, increase your meditation time by 10 minutes.
• Attention & Awareness: Allow your attention to rest in the foreground on how nice the experience of each in & out-breath feels, while keeping a background, peripheral awareness of the sensate experience of the flow of each breath as your body breathes.
• Progression: When you find enjoyment in being aware of the whole length of each breath in & out-breath, without effort and without habitually forgetting your meditation object (the breath) and feel confident in your ability to settle any mind wandering by applying GOSS when it occurs.

Simple Instructions:

Develop the foundation of Meditation Skills 01-05 in Steps 1 to 3:

1. Prepare: Sit for meditation, one thumb resting on the other, reflect gratefully >
2. Joyful Presence: Establish a Joyful Presence as in Skill 05 >
3. Natural Breathing: Be mindful of the (stretch) and contraction (relax) of each in & out-breath as your body breathes >
4. Breath Length: Be mindful of the whole length of each in & out-breaths >
5. Enjoyment: Increase your enjoyment in the subtle pleasure of the whole length of each breath >
6. Insight: Apply the GOSS Formula whenever your mind is distracted.

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Detailed Explanation:

Step 1: Prepare your body & mind for meditation.

• Sit for meditation, gently close your eyes, and place one hand in the other, resting in your lap, one thumb resting on the other as a grounding point for attention.
• Always begin your meditation by sweetening your mind by reflecting on simple things in your life for which you can be grateful, including this opportunity to meditate.

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Step 2:  Develop Joyful Presence in Skills 01-04 by enjoying each Marker.

• Establish Marker 04 as a content, enjoyment of the presence of your body.

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Step 3:  Enjoy the natural stretch & relax of each in & out-breath in Skill 05.

• Develop enjoyment in the natural stretch & relax of body of each in & out-breath as your body breathes.

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Meditation Skill 06 Additions:

Step 4: Increase your mindfulness, by being aware of the whole length of each breath. 

• As relaxation and samadhi deepen, you will transition from being aware of one in and one out-breath, to becoming aware of the whole length of each breath from its beginning to its middle to its end. It is important that this transition is not forced but rather a natural transition of increased enjoyment and mindful curiosity.
• To aid with this, I have found that it is helpful to picture each in and out-breath as one continuous breath that changes direction. This continuous breath helps to calm interest in past and future thinking and develops the perception of permanence to deepen samatha calm for Marker 07: Breath Sensation.

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Step 5: Increase enjoyment in the subtle pleasure of the whole length of each breath.

• Allow the subtle pleasure of the (stretch) and contraction (relax) of the whole length of each breath to rest in the foreground of your awareness, while keeping a background awareness of the stretch and relax of the whole length of each breath as your body breathes.
• Tip: As your samadhi grows, it is important to be careful of becoming too mentally calm and your awareness becoming dull and unclear. Smiling with your eyes and bringing that smile to the subtle pleasure of the breath, really enjoying it, will keep Hindrance 07: Gross Dullness away.

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Step 6: For insight, apply GOSS whenever your mind is distracted.  

• Mind Wandering: Take advantage of any wandering of your attention away from this grounding point to cultivate your perception of the autonomous, 'by itself' nature of wandering (anatta). Apply the GOSS Formula below to train your mind to find more enjoyment in your meditation, than in wandering to thoughts or fantasies.
• Dullness: Also be attentive to any feelings of dullness growing in the background of your awareness as your mind becomes more intimate with the experience of the whole length of each breath. At this stage of the development of samadhi, it is easy to over-calm the ability of our mind to clearly comprehend an experience. Gross Dullness will be addressed in the next Meditation Skill, but it is important to be vigilant at this stage.

Adjust Your GOSS Formula

At this stage of meditation, make a simple adjustment to your GOSS Formula to weaken distraction.

GOSS Formula: Ground --> Observe --> Soften --> Smile.

1. Ground: Be aware of the experience of the whole length of each breath.
2. Observe: Notice whenever you become distracted from it.
3. Soften: With gentle breaths, relax and become aware of the whole of each breath.
4. Smile: Smile with your eyes, noticing how nice it feels to be present again to reward your mind for returning to the presence of your breathing.

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 and calming the conditions supporting the associated Meditative Hindrance.

Your sixth step in meditation is to develop Marker 06: Length of Each Breath (right column) to calm Hindrance 06: Mind Wandering (left column).

Progression Map for Mindfulness of Breathing

Meditative Hindrances.                       Meditation Markers.

                                                               01: Body Relaxation.

                                                               02: Mind Relaxation.

                                                               03: Mindful Presence.

                                                               04: Joyful Presence.

                                                               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.

Other Hindrances: It is important to note that although your focus is on settling the Hindrance of Mind Wandering 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. 

As you develop intimacy with each in- and out-breath, your mind will begin to enjoy your breathing, just as it did with Mindful Presence. As enjoyment with breath experience grows, your mind will become increasingly interested in the whole of each breath, from its beginning to the middle to the end. It is important at this stage of meditation to find enjoyment in the experience of your breathing. 

If you are not enjoying being mindful of each breath, your mind will replace it with something enjoyable, like thinking or fantasising. If this continues to go unnoticed, your mind will then slip back to Hindrance 04: Habitual Forgetting, causing your samadhi (unification of mind) that you have developed so far to collapse.

Progression: Once you have weakened Mind Wandering and find pleasure in each breath, you are ready to develop Marker 07: Breath Sensations. Reaching this next stage requires a final calming of all effort in your body, breathing and mind, as well as increased clarity of comprehension to avoid slipping into Hindrance 07: Gross Dullness.

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: Subtle Distraction.

11: Anticipation of Pleasure.

12: Fear of Letting Go.

Meditative Hindrance: 

Mind Wandering (06).

Your mind finds distraction more enjoyable than your meditation object.

Mind Wandering refers to your mind seeking something more entertaining than your meditation object. When this happens, your mind shifts a thought, memory, or fantasy to the foreground of your attention, and your meditation object, in this case, the breath, rests in the background, peripheral awareness. If you do not pick this up, your mind will get distracted and drop your meditation object from awareness, slipping back down to Hindrance 04: Habitual Forgetting.

Antidote: 

In dealing with the wandering of your mind, sometimes you will find that your mind wanders to thoughts, memories, or fantasies that are very sticky in nature. This means that your mind has difficulty letting them go. These are opportunities for deeper insight. Sticky thoughts, memories and fantasises weaken by observing responses within your body, such as tensing or emotions, until you can experience the underlying pleasantness or unpleasantness. 

Applying the GOSS Formula by softening and relaxing the effort held within your mind and body toward these distractions while finding pleasure in letting them go re-grounds awareness within your body and rewards your mind for letting them go. 

Support Article: 12 Meditative Hindrances.

Congratulations, you have finished Cultivation 02. 

You are ready to progress to Meditation Skill 07: Breath Sensations when:

• When you find enjoyment in being aware of the whole length of each breath in & out-breath, without effort and without habitually forgetting your meditation object (the breath) and feel confident in your ability to settle any mind wandering by applying GOSS when it occurs.

• SoundCloud: Guided Meditation.
• Insight Timer: Guided Meditation.

From your foundation of GOSS, you can begin to train attention skills learnt in seated meditation, into your daily life.

Meditation Skill 06 in Daily Life:

1. Gently soften awareness into your body until it feels grounded, present, now. 
2. Relax your effort to aware of your body, allow it to shift to the background.
3. During quiet time, learn to tune into the flow of breathing within your body.
4. Become aware of the whole length of each breath as it passes one point within your body.
5. Feel the subtle pleasure of each letting go that occurs with each natural breath.

Question: Is it also ok to observe the length of the breath directly at the tip of the nose? 

I'm asking because during the natural transition from Meditation Skill 05 (Natural Breathing) to Meditation Skill 06 (Whole of Each Breath), I am naturally drawn towards the nose. 

I'm not forcing it, but I have a natural inclination to focus on the tip of the nose (I’m having a TMI background).

Stephen: Because of your training in TMI your mind is naturally inclining towards the top your nose.

There is no problem moving from the natural breath in your body to the tip of your nose if the transition:

1. Happens naturally without effort.
2. You continue to find the pleasure within breathing.
3. You maintain the joy of letting go.
4. You keep 20% + peripheral awareness of your body in the background.

Question: I would appreciate a brief explanation of why I should continue to observe the breath within the body during Meditation Skill 06.

Stephen: The main purpose of this training is to teach the mind to habitually maintain a peripheral awareness of your body in the background (grounded), not just during mindfulness of breathing but also in daily life.

This habituation of a peripheral background awareness as the abiding place or home for awareness (kaya-gata sati) is the foundation for transferring insight meditation into daily life and creating a grounding point for observing the anatta nature of the mind (GOSS).

If we practice 'attention heavy' during mindfulness of breathing, peripheral awareness will become weak, this transference will not occur.

This being said, if you maintain the 20% background peripheral awareness the natural transference of your attention to the tip of your nose at this stage will not affect this.

Question: I’m working on MIDL6 at the moment. I’ve noticed that I tend to spend the vast majority of my sessions doing GOSS - on recurring anxious tension in my throat or on distracting thoughts - rather than on following the breath. 

Each GOSS round takes between 5-20seconds. I’ll go back to the breath, but within a couple of inhales and exhales I’m back to GOSS again. Is this ok? 

Stephen: Distraction only refers to when your attention is completely drawn away from your body / breathing and you forget it as your object of meditation. 

In this case you should use GOSS to observe the anatta, autonomous nature of this distraction and to reward your mind for returning to mindfulness by tuning into the pleasure of letting go.

If tension in your throat or thinking is present but you remain aware of your body / breathing then there is no need to give them any attention. 

Simply acknowledge that they are there in the background and return to finding the pleasure of letting go in your body and breathing, allowing these other experiences to be in the background like being aware of a child playing with toys in another part of the room.

Question: For reference, my experience of GOSS: I feel a distracting tension or thought. Notice that “I” didn’t create it or put it there. I let go of it (like a physical and mental muscle relaxing), which sometimes can happen quickly or can take a few seconds or attempts. 

I smile into the enjoyable sensations of release. Sometimes I follow these sensations for a little while. I return to the breath.

Stephen: Perfect.