TIER 1 Instructions

Mindfulness of Breathing is a method of training attention through observing the sensations that arise through the 'touch' of the breath as it flows within your body.

The sensations that arise as we breathe provide a constant object of meditation that is always available; one that reflects and develops with the changing state of our mind. 

Observing the interaction between your body, breathing and mind will lead to understanding about your relationship towards life.

Mindfulness of Breathing Structure

MIDL is a samatha-vipassana practice founded on mindfulness of breathing.

• Samatha = development of calm, tranquility
• Vipassana = development of insight.

In TIER 1 samatha is developed during mindfulness of breathing as a foundation for vipassana.

When to practice samatha verses vipassana:

• When the conditions are right, and the mind naturally inclines towards calm then our focus is on developing samatha in seated meditation and daily life.
• When the conditions change, and anything within the six sense fields disturbs our meditative samadhi (unification of attention), the MIDL meditator transitions to vipassana by observing the anatta nature of that disturbance (imbalance).

The Four Satipatthana

For vipassana insight the meditator separates what is being experienced into three Satipatthanas:

1. Bodily sensations.
2. Feeling tone.
3. Mind created experiences.

They then observe the fourth Satipatthana by:

1. Recognising the experience.
2. Understanding the conditions for it to arise.
3. Understanding the conditions for it to cease.
4. Applying the conditions for it to cease.

• Read Instruction: Meditation Skills 01-16

Mindfulness of Breathing is divided into 16 Meditation Skills.

• Print PDF: The First 16 Meditation Skills.

Each of the below Meditation Skills train a different aspect of your attention. It is helpful to think of these Meditation Skills as being a gymnasium for your mind. Each skill not only strengthening an aspect of your attention but also providing opportunity for insight. 

When developed, these skills will allow you to comfortably rest your attention on one point of breath sensation during mindfulness of breathing.

SOFTENING SECTION

The softening meditation skills are designed to develop your ability to release the habitual grip of your attention on thoughts, sensations, feelings etc. Softening relaxes the effort that underlies the tendency of attraction, aversion or indifference you may have towards what you are experiencing.

MEDITATION SKILL:

• 01: Grounding Your Attention.
• 02: Softening Into Breathing.
• 03: Skill of Softening Into.

TIER 1 MINDFULNESS OF BREATHING

The TIER 1 meditation skills are designed to address any imbalances you may have in both peripheral awareness and attention. During TIER 1 you will also develop insight into the 16 Meditative Hindrances (listed below on this page) in a way that will significantly weaken them.

MEDITATION SKILL:

• 04: Cultivate Skill in Mindfulness.
• 05: Cultivate Skill in Focusing.
• 06: Cultivate Skill in Grounding.
• 07: Cultivate Skill in Observing.
• 08: Cultivate Skill in Allowing.
• 09: Cultivate Skill in Applying.
• 10: Cultivate Skill in Acknowledging.
• 11: Cultivate Skill in Sustaining.
• 12: Cultivate Skill in Experiencing.
• 13: Cultivate Skill in Stabilising.

TIER 2 MINDFULNESS OF BREATHING

The TIER 2 meditation skills are designed to bring stability to the structure of your attention by intentionally cultivating the first six Enlightenment Factors: mindfulness, curiosity, balanced effort, joy, tranquility and samadhi (unification of attention).

MEDITATION SKILL:

• 14: Cultivate Skill in Joy & Tranquility. 

TIER 3 MINDFULNESS OF BREATHING

The TIER 3 meditation skills are designed to develop meditative skill in sustaining both attention and peripheral awareness. Attention is one focus point within peripheral awareness. 

Peripheral awareness is the background awareness of everything that you are experiencing now. Sustaining means that your attention and/or awareness stay on your meditation object, by themself. 

When attention and peripheral awareness are sustained then the conditions are right for access concentration (stable, unified attention, free from the meditative hindrances).

MEDITATION SKILL:

• 15: Cultivate Skill in Intimate Attention.
• 16: Cultivate Skill in Unification. 

• Print PDF: The First 16 Meditation Skills.
• Read Instruction: The 12 Experiential Markers.

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Meditation Skills 04-16 each introduce a new Experiential Marker to mindfulness of breathing. 

• Print PDF: The 12 Experiential Markers.

Experiential Markers are observable experiences that arise as a direct reflection of the development of samadhi (unification of attention) during mindfulness of breathing. 

These Markers create simple meditation objects to train your attention on, that naturally progresses from gross to subtle, aiding in the development of samadhi. When all 12 Experiential Markers are followed sequentially, they create a complete mindfulness of breathing practice up to access concentration.

THE 12 EXPERIENTIAL MARKERS

MARKER:

• 01: Remember the Touch of Your Thumbs.
• 02: Tuning in to the Experience of the Room.
• 03: Your Body as it Sits in Meditation.
• 04: Awareness Grounded Within the Body.
• 05: Natural Flow of Your Breathing.
• 06: Knowing 'In' and 'Out' Breaths.
• 07: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.
• 08: Knowing Sensation Within Each Breath.
• 09: Knowing One Point of Breath Sensation.
• 10: Knowing Subtle Sensations of Whole-Body Breathing.
• 11: Completely Sustained Attention and Awareness.
• 12: Unified Stable Attention, Free from Hindrances.

Notice that each of the descriptions of these Markers creates a map for mindfulness of breathing. 

• Read Instruction: Purpose of Experiential Markers 01-12.

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Experiential Markers are used to guide mindfulness of breathing. They are like snow poles in a ski field guiding the way, once your mind knows the path they are simply abandoned. But initially they are experiences that can be tracked to keep you on the path and guide your way.  

MARKER 01: Remember the Touch of Your Thumbs.

Marker 01 is concerned with establishing a posture of samadhi on one simple object; touch of the thumbs (parimukham: bring a posture of mindfulness, curiosity, unification (samadhi) to the forefront of the mind). Not only does Marker 1 establish mindfulness but it also deconditions the habitual tendency to forget the meditation object.

MARKER 02: Tuning in to the Experience of the Room.

Marker 02 is concerned with opening awareness to all distraction occurring in the six sense fields and once acknowledged softening participation (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, bodily sensations, mind experiences). This is aligned with indriya samvara in regard to calming the habitual 'going out' of attention. Indrya samvara and the development of nirvikalpa samadhi (objectless unification: aka stillness) is one of the main underlying threads of MIDL.

MARKER 03: Your Body as it Sits in Meditation.

Marker 03 is concerned with establishing a general awareness of our body posture as it sits to create a doorway to kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed within the body). This grounding point for attention arises as awareness naturally relaxes from the sense fields into the body in Marker 2 and is used to develop skill in flexible attention (self-observation).

MARKER 04: Awareness Grounded Within the Body.

Marker 04 arises as awareness softens into the body until the idea of my body dissolves and all that is left is bodily sensation (kaya-gata sati). This immersion of awareness within the body creates the grounding point for attention from which you will be able to observe the habitual 'going out' of attention towards the six sense fields. To develop samadhi (unification) you should observe the effort beneath the 'going out' of your attention and soften/relax this effort. The softening of this effort causes awareness to return home and establish within the body sense.

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MARKER 05: Natural Flow of Your Breathing.

Marker 05 arises as kaya-gata sati establishes and the natural flow of breathing within your body is experienced. This simple flow of breathing can be felt within your body as a natural expansion or stretch as the breath comes in, and a natural deflation or relax, as the breath goes out. Being attention to this has two purposes: to bring awareness to a meditation object that changes as a direct reflection of the mind experiencing it, and to reveal and decondition any habitual tendency towards controlling that may be present within your mind.

MARKER 06: Knowing 'In' and 'Out' Breaths.

Marker 06 arises as a natural increase of mindfulness in regard to the flow of breathing within your body. As mindfulness increases a knowing will arise within your mind in regard to what the breath is doing. Is the breath coming in, or is it going out? Keeping this knowing in regard to what your breathing is doing, now, is the beginning of the development of samadhi.

MARKER 07: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.

Marker 07 arises as mindfulness strengthens and samadhi develops. As this pair develops you will naturally transition from noticing one in-breath and one-out-breath to knowing the full length of each breath. The full length of each breath means being aware of the complete breath, from the beginning to the middle, to the end. This increases your noticing from one per breath, to multiple noticing along the length of each breath, increasing samadhi and decreasing gaps for habitual wandering.

MARKER 08: Knowing Sensation Within Each Breath.

Marker 08 only arises with the calming of effort within your body, breathing and mind. As these three areas are softened and calmed, in-line with noticing the full length of each breath, sensations within each breath will naturally appear to you. With this comes a natural transition from the breath moving through the body, to awareness of breath at the tip of the nose. Tuning into these sensations at this point develops exclusive, intimate attention and calms the tendency of the mind to view experience through layers of perception. More simply you transition from see in and out-breathing to just changing sensations.

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MARKER 09: Knowing One Point of Breath Sensation.

Marker 09 only arises when samadhi becomes strong and all 'doing' has been calmed within the mind. The effort 'to do' the meditation at this stage is very subtle, this is because attention is almost sustained. When exclusive attention is given to breath sensation eventually attention will rest on one point of breath sensation, usually at the tip of the nose. This point of breath sensation is unmoving, unchanging in regard to time, it is however moving and changing in regard to sensation quality. With the calming of all doing, free from dullness, attention will sustain on this one point of breath sensation. This means that you no longer need to apply attention to your meditation object, it happens by itself.

MARKER 10: Knowing Subtle Sensations of Whole-Body Breathing.

Marker 10 is concerned with developing intimacy with the sensate quality of your whole body as it breathes, in order to sustain peripheral awareness. Even though attention is sustained, peripheral awareness still contains sensoury input, and therefore opportunities for habitual distraction. By opening peripheral awareness to the subtle movement of your whole body as it breathes, and tuning into these sensations throughout your body, intimacy of awareness is developed and awareness of the six sense fields is calmed.

MARKER 11: Completely Sustained Attention and Awareness.

Marker 11 only arises once attention and peripheral awareness are both sustained. In the process of awareness sustaining bodily sensation become very subtle. This is due to the calming of sensoury input into awareness. Since the body is also a sense organ, your ability to experience bodily sensations from the touch of the world will calm, and breaths sensation will fade. As awareness sustains this is replaced by subtle pleasurable feeling (vedana) and early stages of piti start to arise. With this pleasurable feeling of the body peripheral awareness sustains and intimacy is complete. this is experienced as a solid, stable unmoving attention, with strong sukha (joy/happiness) within the mind and piti (pleasurable sensation filling the body).

MARKER 12: Unified Stable Attention, Free from Hindrances.

Marker 12 only arises once attention and awareness have sustained and unified with each other. this requires a complete giving up of all anticipation of what is to come, and the fear of giving up control to something that is more powerful than you. With complete giving up of control, this natural process will shift into a flow like state, a flow of piti-sukha. It is at this stage as the marker says, that you have established the conditions for access concentration: unified, stable attention, free from the 16 meditative hindrances, accompanied by piti and sukha that arises from this intimate seclusion.

• Print PDF: The 12 Experiential Markers.
• Read Instruction: 16 Meditative Hindrances.

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While training your attention on the 12 Experiential Markers during mindfulness of breathing, you may be visited by any of the 16 Meditative Hindrances. Hindrances are simply signs of an imbalance in either your effort or the structure of your attention. Below is a list so that you can recognise them:

• PDF Download: The 16 Meditative Hindrances

Hindrances are simply signs of an imbalance in either your effort or the structure of your attention.

THE 16 MEDITATIVE HINDRANCES

HINDRANCES:

• 01: Stress Reactions.
• 02: Physical Restlessness.
• 03: Mental Restlessness.
• 04: Habitual Forgetting.
• 05: Gross Wandering.
• 06: Directed Thinking.
• 07: Wandering.
• 08: Doubt.
• 09: Gross Dullness.
• 10: Gross Restlessness.
• 11: Subtle Dullness.
• 12: Subtle Wandering.
• 13: Subtle Restlessness.
• 14: Subtle Instability.
• 15: Anticipation of Pleasure.
• 16: Fear of Giving up Control.

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Learning to recognise and adjust imbalances within your effort or attention structure is the skill that you are developing in TIER 1 Mindfulness of Breathing.

MEANINGS:

• 01: Stress Reactions: Habituated stress/anxiety reactions of the mind.
• 02: Physical Restlessness: Unable to experience physical comfort.
• 03: Mental Restlessness: Unable to experience mental comfort.
• 04: Habitual Forgetting: Habitually forgetting your meditation object.
• 05: Gross Wandering: Attention habitually scanning the six senses.
• 06: Directed Thinking: Thinking regarding past and future events.
• 07: Wandering: Random, meaningless thoughts, images and fantasies.
• 08: Doubt: Losing trust in your meditation practice, technique, teacher.
• 09: Gross Dullness: Complete collapse of clarity of awareness.
• 10: Gross Restlessness: Restlessness towards your meditation session.
• 11: Subtle Dullness: Loss of clarity of meditation object (sensations).
• 12: Subtle Wandering: Random, brief background thoughts.
• 13: Subtle Restlessness: Shaking due to effort in applied attention.
• 14: Subtle Instability: Shaking due to desire to control.
• 15: Anticipation: Desire for pleasurable states.
• 16: Fear: Fear of giving up all control.

The 16 Meditative Hindrances may hinder the development of samadhi, but they are not hindrances to the development of insight - they are the content of insight.

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Treat each meditative hindrance that arises as an opportunity to develop insight by using this simple formula:

FORMULA FOR INSIGHT

1. Learn to recognise each individual hindrance.
2. Understand the conditions it needs to arise.
3. Understand the conditions that cause it to cease.
4. Apply the conditions that cause the hindrance to cease.

NOTHING PERSONAL HERE

Hindrances are not personal; they are simply two things:

1. A sign of an imbalance in energy/effort.
2. A sign of an imbalance in the structure of your attention.

TIP: Clarify their anatta (not-self) nature by watching them come and go autonomously.

As an insight meditator it is your path to understand and deconstruct the conditions for the arising of these hindrances. 

Hindrances are opportunities to freedom, not barriers.

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• Print PDF: The 16 Meditative Hindrances.
• Read Instruction: How Meditation Skills, Markers & Hindrances Function.

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Below is a table of the interaction between Meditation Skills, Experiential Markers, Meditative Hindrances and their antidotes during MIDL Mindfulness of Breathing. This table can be used to direct your progression in mindfulness of breathing.

• Print PDF: TABLE: Meditation Skills, Markers & Hindrances

TABLE EXPLANATION

Meditation Skills 

• There are 16 main Meditation Skills in mindfulness of breathing. 
• Each Meditation Skill is a specific mental training that will expose any weaknesses within the balance of your attention and strengthen any deficiencies.

Experiential Markers 

• There are 12 Experiential Markers in mindfulness of breathing.
• Experiential Markers are natural experiences that can be observed during mindfulness of breathing as a reflection of the development samadhi (unification of attention). 
• Experiential Markers are also reference points that are used during mindfulness of breathing to give structure, direction, and track how unified your attention is. 

Meditative Hindrances

• There are 16 Meditative Hindrances that can arise during mindfulness of breathing that block the development of samadhi.
• The presence of any of the Meditative Hindrances, is a natural reflection of an imbalance in either your effort or the structure of your attention.
• Meditative Hindrances are useful as they are both the content for developing insight and an accurate way of tracking both the strength of samadhi and depth of wisdom. 

Antidotes

• Antidotes are how to work skillfully with Meditative Hindrances that arise due to imbalances in your effort or structure of attention during mindfulness of breathing.

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MEDITATION SKILL 01: Grounding Your Attention.

• Purpose: Grounding is the meditative skill of immersing awareness in your body to create a foundation from which to observe habitual patterns within your mind.
• Meditative Hindrance: Restlessness + sleepiness due to (1) stress or anxiety. When you begin meditation, you bring any stress that has built up in day-to-day life with you. It may make you feel restless or sleepy leading to frustration.
• Antidote: Curiosity in regard to what it means to relax + retraining your breathing patterns using the Meditation Skill below will lower your stress levels.

MEDITATION SKILL: Retrain Your Breathing Patterns.

• Purpose: When we are stressed or anxious, the way that our body breathes changes. Over time stress breathing in the upper chest can become natural for us. Retraining diaphragmatic breathing increases health and lowers stress, anxiety and hypervigilance.

MEDITATION SKILL 02: Softening Into Breathing.

• Purpose: Softening is the meditative skill of using slow, gentle breaths to deeply relax any effort/resistance held within your body.
• Meditative Hindrance: (2) Physical Restlessness. 
• Antidote: Curiosity + apply techniques in learnt in Meditation Skill 02.

MEDITATION SKILL 03: Skill of Softening Into.

•  Purpose: Softening Into is the meditative skill of relaxing the effort that underlies the habitual tendency within the mind towards attraction, aversion, or indifference.
• Meditative Hindrance: (3) Mental Restlessness.
• Antidote: Curiosity + apply the softening into technique learnt in Meditation Skill 03.

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MEDITATION SKILL 04: Cultivate Skill in Mindfulness.

• Purpose: Develop continuity of mindfulness by keeping the experience of the touch of your thumbs within your mind to decondition habitual forgetting.
• Experiential Marker 1: Touch of the Thumbs.
• Meditative Hindrance: (4) Habitual Forgetting, (5) Gross Wandering.
• Antidote: Curiosity + combine the softening of attraction, aversion and indifference learnt in Meditation Skill 03 with the grounding of your attention on the touch of your thumbs in Meditation Skill 04.

MEDITATION SKILL 05: Cultivate Skill in Focusing.

• Purpose: Develop flexibility in your ability to focus awareness from narrow, to middle to wide focus. Precursor to the ability to observe attention and awareness separately.
• Experiential Marker 2: Tuning Into the Experience of the Room. 
• Experiential Marker 3: Your Body as it Sits in Meditation. 
• Meditative Hindrance: (3) Mental Restlessness, (4) Forgetting, (8) Doubt.
• Antidote: Curiosity + combine the softening of attraction, aversion and indifference learnt in Meditation Skill 03 with the grounding of your attention on the touch of your thumbs in Meditation Skill 04.

MEDITATION SKILL 06: Cultivate Skill in Grounding.

• Purpose: Develop the meditative skill of flexible attention and the ability to self-observe by grounding awareness within your body and observing your attention wander.
• Experiential Marker 4: Awareness Grounded in Body.
• Meditative Hindrance: (4) Forgetting, (5) Gross Wandering, (6) Directed Thinking.
• Antidote: Curiosity + combine the softening of attraction, aversion and indifference learnt in Meditation Skill 03 with the flexible attention skill in Meditation Skill 06.

MEDITATION SKILL 07: Cultivate Skill in Observing.

• Purpose: Develop the meditative skill of observing natural breathing, free from control.
• Experiential Marker 5: Natural Flow of Your Breathing. 
• Meditative Hindrance: Habitual control, (6) Directed Thinking, (7) Wandering.
• Antidote: Curiosity + combine the softening of attraction, aversion and indifference learnt in Meditation Skill 03 with the flexible attention skill in Meditation Skill 06.

MEDITATION SKILL 08: Cultivate Skill in Allowing.

• Purpose: Decondition any tendency within your mind towards habitual control by resetting autonomous breathing. This is done simply by letting a slow breath out through your nose, relaxing, and allowing the breath to draw back in by itself.

MEDITATION SKILL 09: Cultivate Skill in Applying.

• Purpose: Cultivate some stability in attention by remembering in & out-breaths.
• Experiential Marker 6: Knowing In & Out-breaths. 
• Meditative Hindrance: (4) Forgetting, (6) Thinking, (7) Wandering, (8) Doubt.
• Antidote: Curiosity + combine the softening of attraction, aversion and indifference learnt in Meditation Skill 03 with the flexible attention skill in Meditation Skill 06.

MEDITATION SKILL 10: Cultivate Skill in Acknowledging.

• Purpose: Develop the meditative skill of labelling to train attention and develop insight by using intentional words to direct attention towards specific experience.
• Meditative Hindrance: Struggle and strain, over-effort.
• Antidote: Curiosity + softening of attraction, aversion and indifference learnt in Meditation Skill 03.

MEDITATION SKILL 11: Cultivate Skill in Sustaining.

• Purpose: To increase the application of attention towards each breath, as a precursor to the process of calming the habitual, going out of attention, towards the senses.
• Experiential Marker 7: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.
• Meditative Hindrance: (8) Doubt, (9) Gross Dullness, (10) Gross Restlessness.
• Antidote: Curiosity + by combining the grounding of your attention on the touch of your thumbs in Meditation Skill 04, the softening of attraction, aversion, indifference learnt in Meditation Skill 03 + detail by using labels as learnt in Meditation Skill 10.

MEDITATION SKILL 12: Cultivate Skill in Experiencing.

• Purpose: To increase accuracy and precision of attention on breath sensations as a precursor to developing sustained attention on one point of breath sensation.
• Experiential Marker 8: Knowing Sensations Within Each Breath.
• Meditative Hindrance: (9) Gross Dullness, (10) Gross Restlessness.
• Antidote before Gross Dullness arises: Curiosity + pay attention to fine detail of sensations within your body and breathing from the very beginning of your meditation. Balance this effort with gentle softening learnt in Meditation Skill 03.
• Antidote once Gross Dullness is present: Curiosity + stop observing breathing and bring your attention on the touch of your thumbs as in Meditation Skill 04 with the intention of increasing mindfulness. Softening any aversion or indifference in Meditation Skill 03.

MEDITATION SKILL 13: Cultivate Skill in Stabilising.

• Purpose: To completely sustain attention on one point of breath sensation as a precursor to  tranquillity and sustaining of peripheral awareness.
• Experiential Marker 9: Knowing One Point of Breath Sensation.
• Meditative Hindrance: Subtle: (11) Dullness, (12) Wandering, (13) Restlessness.
• Antidote: Curiosity + attention to detail + calming divided into three stages: soften/relax any held extra effort in your body, soften any effort in your breathing, allowing it to become calm and subtle, and soften all desire to-do the meditation, within your mind.

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MEDITATION SKILL 14: Cultivate Skill in Joy & Tranquility.

• Purpose: To cultivate and establish the first five Enlightenment Factors and to develop skill in monitoring and balancing attention.
• Experiential Marker: Replace Experiential Markers 1-3 and 5-6 with softening. • Meditative Hindrance: Weak perception of meditative joy.
• Antidote: Curiosity + tune into and train the perception of the subtle pleasure of abandoning effort, letting go, releasing all doing, until your mind inclines towards it.

MEDITATION SKILL: Transitioning from Doing to Knowing.

• Purpose: This is a skill for learning to transition from powering attention, to powering awareness as a foundation for access concentration and jhana.
• Meditative Hindrance: Habitual weakness in the focus of awareness.
• Antidote: Curiosity + instructions found in Meditation Skill 05 to strengthen any weakness you may have in the ability to narrow or expand awareness.

MEDITATION SKILL 14: Cultivate Skill in Intimate Attention.

• Purpose: To completely sustain awareness on the subtle sensations of your body as it responds to breathing so that both attention and awareness are sustained.
• Experiential Marker 10: Subtle Sensations of Whole-Body Breathing.
• Meditative Hindrance: (11) Subtle Dullness.
• Antidote: Curiosity + developing intimate, exclusive attention on the subtle sensation of the whole body as it breathes.

MEDITATION SKILL 15: Cultivate Skill in Unification.

• Purpose: To establish access concentration in preparation for jhana and insight.
• Experiential Marker 11: Completely Sustained Attention & Awareness.
• Meditative Hindrance: (14) Subtle Instability (due to desire to control).
• Antidote: Curiosity + developing intimate, exclusive attention on the subtle sensation of the whole body as it breathes.

• Experiential Marker 12: Unified, Stable Attention, free from Hindrances.
• Meditative Hindrance: (15) Anticipation (pleasure), (16) Fear (giving up control). 
• Antidote: Saddha (verified faith) + the above Meditation Skill: Transitioning from Doing to Knowing to learn how to transition from powering attention, to powering awareness.

• Print PDF: TABLE: Meditation Skills, Markers & Hindrances.
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