Meditation Skill 08

Your meditation is the same as Meditation Skill 07, except you now develop mindfulness of one point of breath sensation at the tip of your nose by calming the perception time to develop tranquility.

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• Meditation Length: 45 min. Due to the increased time it takes to settle the mind.
• Attention and Awareness: Allow your attention to rest in the foreground on one point of breath sensation while keeping a background, peripheral awareness of your whole-body breathing.
• Progression: When you can remove Subtle Dullness of the breath sensations when it is present, mindfulness of the elemental qualities is both clear and effortless. 

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Simple Instructions:

1. Prepare: Sit for meditation, one thumb resting on the other, reflect gratefully > 
2. Breathing Presence: Establish mindfulness of breathing as in Skills 01-06 >
3. Sensation: Become aware of sensation at the tip of your nose in Skill 07 >
4. One point: Allow awareness to rest on one point of breath sensation >
5. Tranquility: Calm the perception of time and develop tranquility.
6. Insight: Develop insight into subtle dullness by taking an interest in recognising and developing clarity of the experience of breath sensation at one point.

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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 mindfulness of natural breathing as in Skills 01-06.

• Establish mindfulness of natural breathing as it flows within your body.

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Step 3: Develop mindfulness of sensations in breathing as in Skill 07.

• Establish mindfulness on the sensations at the tip of your nose. Allow attention to rest there until the perception of the length of each breath begins to fade. Notice how the mind naturally becomes aware of the elemental qualities of these sensations.

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Meditation 08 Additions:

Step 4: Develop awareness of one point of breath sensation (or touch of thumbs).

• When awareness rests at the tip of your nose, tune into the flow of sensations as air enters and leaves your nose and divide those sensations into elemental qualities such as coolness as the breath comes in and warmth as the breath goes out.
• Once these elemental qualities are clear to you, monitor and calm any tendency you notice in your mind to look forward or look back. Your aim is to calm the memory-over-time part of your mind so that the perception of breathing experience as happening over time, fades.

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Step 5: Develop calm & tranquility by finding pleasure in the growing seclusion.

• As the perception of time fades, your attention will rest on one point of breath sensation by itself. As the seclusion of your mind increases due to low sensory stimulation, the experience of calm will grow into tranquility as an experience of open, unmoving stillness.
• Gently smile into your eyes and bring that smile the pleasure of growing tranquility and seclusion, allowing it to fill your mind, while maintaining awareness of the changing sensation at the tip of your nose.
• Allow your attention to rest in the foreground on one point of breath sensation while keeping a background, peripheral awareness of your whole-body breathing.

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Step 6: Develop insight into increasing the clarity of your meditation objects.  

• Develop insight into subtle dullness by taking an interest in recognising and developing clarity of the experience of breath sensation at one point.
• The perception of breath sensation can be increased by taking your time to clearly comprehend and experience the elemental qualities within each Experiential Marker as you progress through them during mindfulness of 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 eighth step in meditation is to develop Marker 08: One Point of Sensation (right column) to calm Hindrance 08: Subtle Dullness (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: Length of Each Breath.

                                                               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 Subtle Dullness 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 the sensation within the length of each breath at the tip of your nose, the experience of calm and tranquility of your mind will grow. Due to growing calm and tranquility, your mind's perception of time will begin to fade, and so will your perception of the length of each breath. 

This is experienced as attention becomes steady and firm on the one point of breath sensation. Due to increasing tranquility, it is easy for curiosity to become too low, causing mindfulness to weaken. This can be observed as an increased clarity of mind yet a loss of clarity of the sensations at the tip of the nose.

Once you understand how to calm mental activity while increasing mental energy the clarity of breath sensations will increase, and continuity of attention will become steady yet effortless.

When this develops you are ready to develop Marker 09: Sustained Attention.

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: 

Subtle Dullness (08).

Loss of clarity of sensation in your meditation object.

Subtle dullness refers to the experience of the disappearance of your ability to perceive sensations within your breathing (or meditation object). While Gross Dullness is defined as dullness in both your meditation object and mind, Subtle Dullness is defined as dullness in your meditation object and clarity of your awareness. While experiencing subtle dullness, your mind will be clear, lucid, and tranquil. Because of this, it is easy to be deluded into thinking that you have entered an absorption state. If not addressed, this experience will repeat, and you will not reach more refined levels of samadhi, and grosser hindrances will start to arise again causing your samadhi (unification) to weaken.

Antidote: Curiosity + detail to sensations with the breath + arousing joy by smiling with your eyes into the growing pleasure of seclusion and resulting tranquility. Experience the pleasure of letting go by taking your time and feeling the pleasure available in each of the Experiential Markers. As you progress, the experience of joy and tranquility will mature and remove subtle dullness.

You are ready to progress to Meditation Skill 09: Sustained Attention when:

• As a natural progression of letting go, you become aware of your attention resting on one point of breath sensation. Awareness of those sensations is clear to you, and there is a distinct experience of unmoving tranquility in the background awareness.

Note: Due to the immaturity of meditative joy and tranquility, there will still be some subtle wandering and restlessness within your attention. These two hindrances will calm in Meditation Skill 09: Sustained Attention by increasing the pleasure of joy & tranquility.

• 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 08 in Daily Life:

1. Gently soften awareness into your body until it feels grounded, present, now. 
2. Relax your effort to be aware of your body, allow it to shift to the background.
3. During quiet time, learn to tune into the flow of breathing at the tip of your nose.
4. Tune into the changing sensations in one point of contact while softening your effort.
5. Feel the subtle pleasure of each letting go that occurs with each natural breath.

Question: On MIDL8 - sustaining when attention is on the breath at the nose, where does my attention go in between breaths? 

Stephen: When attention naturally begins to sustain on the sensations at one point, there is no gap between breaths, the idea of in and out-breaths has ceased and there is just a changing sensation. Actually, the gap between each in-breath and out-breath fades into the background in Meditation 06 when we are aware of the whole length of each breath.

To cultivate this, I recommend being aware of the whole length of each in and out-breath, as being perceived as one continuous breath that just changes direction. This means intentionally not paying attention to the moment each breath begins, and the moment it ends so that you can develop the perception of permanence for samatha. 

Once you are able to do this then move onto breath sensation through calming your body and minds effort rather than by 'doing' your attention. Again, not paying attention towards the gap between breaths as this will transition you from samatha to vipassana. By continuing to calm, let go and tuning into the feeling of meditative joy and growing tranquility, your meditation object will naturally progress into one point of breath sensation with no idea of in or out-breath, and a dropping away of the feeling of time.

Question: My mind rests on a sensation of pressure at the back of the nose, around which the breath sensations move - is this ok? 

Stephen: Wherever the sensation appears for you is fine, the sensation isn't important, the calming of effort within the mind, growing tranquility and growing stability of attention is.

Question: I experience periods of effortlessness, sometimes minutes at a time. They’ll inevitably end and I’ll go back to softening body, breath and mind until it reoccurs. How long should these effortless periods be before progressing? 

Stephen:  Wonderful, well done, it sounds like you have had glimpses of Meditation 09.
At Meditation 08 these periods will be shorter, at meditation 09 when your focus is on meditative joy and tranquility these will become long and unmoving as the focus of your attention will sustain on that one breath point.

Question: You mention a sense of timelessness. I’m not sure what this means - is this poetic or a bit more literal? Even during moments of effortlessness, where the breath feels very close and vivid, the world is still ticking along in my peripheral awareness, which provides a sense of time

Stephen:  This is because your attention is divided between your peripheral awareness and the focus point on your meditation object. When your attention is fully sustained peripheral awareness and the object within it will fade into the distant and not be of any interest to your mind. 

Question: What is unification experienced as?

Stephen: Unification in MIDL is the gathering/bringing together/combining in incision wholesome qualities of heart and mind.

Although there are others, the main qualities that we are cultivating when developing the conditions for MIDL are the Seven Factors of Enlightenment.

When combined together these factors become stronger, they both support and enhance each other. It is the bringing together, unifying of these factors within attention, that creates the conditions for both calm & insight to unfold.

The minimum to be considered a meditative unification is the presence and persisting of the first three Enlightenment factors: mindfulness, curiosity, and effort towards letting go. Without these three factors in our attention, it cannot be seen as being meditative attention, in terms of developing insight.

The optimum factors for meditating in daily life, is the first four Enlightenment Factors: mindfulness, curiosity, effort towards letting go and meditative joy.

With meditative joy present we now have the ability to practice the three groups of the Noble

Eightfold Path: Panna: wisdom, Sila: morality & Samadhi: unification, calm/tranquility, because of the intimate relationship between meditative joy, and sila.

Question: How does it differ from non-unification in terms of cognition, memory, emotions, efficiency at work, enjoyment of life?

Stephen: Efficiency at work and enjoyment in life is based on perception and therefore individual cannot be defined through a first person, meditative discussion. As a meditator I only speak in terms of what I experience.

Question: How does it differ from non-unification in terms of cognition, memory, emotions

Stephen: It is important to note that unification naturally occurs throughout the day and is not unique to meditation. What makes them different is the types of unification that the mind develops during the day usually contains delusion and the five hindrances and is therefore is based on grasping, clinging onto.

An example of this would be anger or desire which both contain unified focusses of attention, but also contain delusion and hindrances as factors of that unification. Maturity of meditative attention contains no delusion, no hindrances and an inherent tendency towards letting go, not grasping.

Question: How would you describe the non-unified state versus the unified state of mind?

Stephen: 

• Delusion verses non-delusion.
• Hindrances verses free from hindrances.
• Grasping verses letting go.
• Disturbed verses tranquil.
• Addictive verses non-addictive.
• Unsatisfying verses satisfying.

Question: Is unification 100% a good thing or are there downsides?

Stephen: Unification of hindrances is not 100% a good thing leads to addiction within the mind and further embeds delusion.

Meditative unification is beneficial in all ways and each degree of meditative unification has its own benefits.

The only downside is that certain types of mediative unification shut down the functioning of the mind and the six sense fields, so while they are beneficial to calm and tranquility, they can hinder insight which requires the six sense fields to be observed function habitually.

Question: What specifically can be done to cultivate this enlightenment factor?

Stephen: Develop the habitual tendency within your mind towards the previous five Enlightenment Factors sequentially until your mind includes them as factors within your attention itself.

The best way to do this is to do intentional mental training each day in seated meditation with the intention of accessing and strengthening whatever factors are weak within your mind.

Question: How does curiosity factor into this?

Stephen: Without curiosity mindfulness can remember present experience but no understand will develop and the mind will continue to follow old patterns.

Mindfulness is the headlights on the car and curiosity is the driver, all meditators that develop deep insight have the quality of curiosity strong within their minds. Absence of curiosity can also be clearly observed in meditators whose practice is stuck and just circling in habitual patterns.

Question: Is very stable attention a pre-requisite?

Stephen: No, stability of attention is a result of tranquility, and is not a prerequisite for insight. It does however enhance it.

Continuity of meditative attention to the various degrees, as discussed above, is a prerequisite, with a minimum of the first three Enlightenment Factors: mindfulness, curiosity and effort towards letting go.

Question: Is there a "brick built upon brick" effect necessary for the enlightenment factors, e.g. you need the first 5 to get the 6th?

Stephen: In terms of meditative samadhi containing the Enlightenment Factors: yes.

It is important to note that it is possible to bypass the factors of joy and tranquility and develop a type of unification, by cultivating attention through effort rather than through letting go.

Question: Is this factor relatively stable once you have become skilled at cultivating it; e.g. is it stable and reliable after months of momentum of bringing it up, or does it come and go rapidly?

Stephen: It is important to clarify that when we are talking about the unification of meditative samadhi we are not just talking about one type but rather the unification of samatha: calm/tranquility, the unification of vipassana: insight/wisdom, and the unification of sila: harmony/letting go.

The mind naturally cycles through these as part of the path.

So, while the meditative factors of unification become stable and firm in various degrees (how many factors are present within attention) along the meditative path, the structure of that meditative attention naturally changes form as it cycles between the Noble Eightfold Path groups of panna, sila and samadhi.

EG; the meditator is not walking around in samatha-based absorption throughout the day, either vipassana or sila based is necessary: khanika (momentary) or nirvikalpa (objectless: letting go).

Question: At Skill 08, should I let the focus of attention become this narrow, or should I deliberately make it wider to encompass the sensations of breathing across the whole nose? If I deliberately widen it, the breath sensations then become clear again, yet it feels like my concentration decreases a bit.

Stephen: The purpose of separating your attention from the background peripheral awareness and stabilising it on one point of breath sensation is to calm any habitual tendency of your mind to wander and focus your attention in-on sensory experiences and distractions.

This does not require that the focus of your attention is narrow but rather that your mind finds the experience of those breath sensations more interesting and enjoyable than any other experience that is presented to it.

From what you have mentioned above, you have instinctively used your curiosity to play with the focus of your attention and already answered this part of the question for yourself. Think of the times you have had to take a picture of something small with your phone and have had to play with the focus to make the picture clearer. If you focus too closely, beyond the range your samadhi is ready for, it will go out of focus like on your phone.

Question: As I reach Skill 08, the focus of attention becomes very narrow, almost at one point, however when this happens, the breath sensations become much less clear and at some point completely imperceptible. This remains even if I methodically include every part of my body breathing in peripheral awareness. 

Stephen: I suspect you are actually at Skill 09: Subtle Wandering --> Sustained Attention. Does your attention rest on your breath sensation, or the one point where breath sensation was, with little distraction. This means that even if some thoughts or sounds are present in the background, your attention doesn't move from your breath to engage with them? If so your samadhi has developed to Marker 09: Sustained Attention.

Question: Before this narrowing occurs, the breath sensations are crisp and clear, a distinct coolness on the in-breath, a distinct warmth on the out-breath, felt pressure increasing on the in-breath, decrease in pressure on the out-breath, finer sensations on the in-breath, coarser/grainier sensations on the out-breath.....If I deliberately widen it, the breath sensations then become clear again, yet it feels like my concentration decreases a bit.

Stephen: A note from MIDL Meditation Skill 09:

https://midlmeditation.com/meditation-skill-09

Note: For some meditators, as samadhi develops, the clarity of experience of sensations in their breathing may start to fade and even disappear. This is not due to subtle dullness as in Meditation Skill 08 but rather because of the increased unification of samadhi. If your attention is no longer wandering and your breath sensation disappears, just keep your attention resting on that one point. 

As you do your breathing pattern will shift into effortlessness, and the breath sensation will reappear. If it doesn't and your attention is no longer wandering, opening your awareness to your whole-body breathing, as in Meditation Skill 10, will reestablish the experience of breath sensation throughout your body. As long as your attention is freed from habitual wandering, you have achieved the purpose of Meditation Skill 09.