TIER 1 Mindfulness of Breathing: Part 2

“When dullness is present within them, the meditator knows: 'there is dullness present within me’. When there is no dullness present within them, the meditator knows: 'there is no dullness present within me’.” MN 118 the Buddha

 Meditation:

• Meditation Skill 09: Cultivate Skill in Applying.
• Meditation Skill 10: Cultivate Skill in Acknowledging.
• Meditation Skill 11: Cultivate Skill in Sustaining.
• Meditation Skill 12: Cultivate Skill in Experiencing.
• Meditation Skill 13: Cultivate Skill in Stabilising.

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“Always mindful, they breathe in; mindful they breathe out.” MN10 The Buddha.

Experiential Marker 06 arises as a progression of continuous awareness of the natural flow of breath within your body. As your depth of relaxation deepens, you will start to become more aware of whether the breath is coming in or going out of your body. It is this aspect of knowing what the breath is doing at any given time that is your object of meditation in Marker 06.

I recommend meditating for 35 min 1-2 times daily.

Your Meditation So Far:

• Create your meditation posture.
• Marker 01 is no longer used.
• Marker 02: The Experience of The Room.
• Marker 03: Awareness of Your Body.
• Marker 04: Awareness of Sensations.
• Marker 05: Natural Flow of Breathing.

What You are Learning this Lesson:

• Marker 06: Knowing In & Out Breaths.

• As relaxation deepens you will naturally start to become aware of breathing as it flows through your body. The gentle stretch as the breath draws in, and the natural relax as the breath goes out. Allow the breathing to happen naturally and start to notice how nice this gentle stretch and gentle relax feels.

• As your depth of relaxation deepens, you will start to become more aware of whether the breath is coming in or going out. It is important to note that this is not something that you do, but a natural knowing that occurs as awareness clarifies due to increasing calm.  

• Simply create and keep the intention of knowing whether the breath is coming in or going out, within your mind. 

• It can be helpful as a training aid to use a silent label (word) to direct your attention towards each in and out breath. This can be done by silently saying "in" as the breath comes in, and "out" as the breath goes out. 

MAP: Body Sitting --> Flow of Breath (body) --> In/out Breath (body).

It is important to note that this meditation skill is designed to challenge any deficiency you may have in being able to perceive changes within an experience over time without becoming lost within the mind stream. If a deficiency is present, it may cause your mind to produce defensive reactions as listed below.

Meditative Hindrance: 

(4) Habitual Forgetting, (6) Directed Thinking, (7) Wandering, (8) Doubt.

• Habitual Forgetting = Habitually forgetting your meditation object.
• Directed Thinking = Thinking regarding past and future events.
• Wandering = Random, meaningless thoughts, images and fantasies.
• Doubt = Losing trust in your meditation practice, technique, teacher.

Antidote: Curiosity + combine softening in Meditation Skill 03 with grounding learnt in Meditation Skill 06.  

From a foundation of kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed within your body) + softening you can begin to train attention skills learnt in seated meditation, into your daily life.

Ground --> Observe --> Soften --> Still. 

Meditation Skill 09 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. Know when each breath is coming in, or going out.
5. Feel the subtle pleasure of each letting go that occurs with each natural breath.

You are ready to progress to Meditation Skill 10 when:

• You can stay with the flow of each in and out breath without wandering of attention it for 60% of the time.

“When (insert hindrance) is present within them, the meditator knows: 'there is (insert hindrance) present within me’.” MN 10 The Buddha. (List of 16 hindrances here).

This Meditation Skill contains no Experiential Markers and is used to increase accuracy and precision of attention by clarifying perception by applying intentional labels.

I recommend meditating for 35 min, 1-2 times daily, until you understand how to incorporate labelling into your meditation practice.

A label is a silent, intentional word describing your current experience, that is used both direct your attention and to clarify the experience in order to develop insight. 

Labels are applied during meditation by gently repeating a simple word describing what you are experiencing. 

This label may be aligned with the experience of sitting in meditation as: "sitting", "sitting". 

During mindfulness of breathing as: "in, in" as the breath comes in and "out, out" as the breath goes out. While gently labelling, make sure that the labels are concurrent with the experience to increase the accuracy of attention. 

Labelling is a way of saying: "This is what I am experiencing now".

Explanation

Detailed Instruction PDF

At some time during meditation your attention will be drawn away from your meditation object. 

When this happens intentionally turn your attention towards what is distracting you and clarify this movement of attention by labelling the distraction appropriately in terms of your experience of it by using labels such as: "hearing, hearing", "thinking, thinking", "aching, aching" and so on.

If a thinking pattern arises again and again during your meditation it is, then helpful to clarify the emotional charge that is feeding it. This is done by observing and labelling the type of thinking that is present such as: "planning, planning", "discussing, discussing", "doubting, doubting" etc.

Whatever is driving the thinking process. When you notice the emotional charge within the thinking process, we use the MIDL Softening Into skill to relax your relationship to it. 

When the thought dissolves through the relaxing of our participation we then come back to the experience of your body/breathing again. 

It is important to note that this meditation skill is designed to challenge any deficiency you may have towards over-effort and striving in your meditation. If a deficiency is present, it may cause your mind to produce defensive reactions as listed below.

Meditative Hindrance: Struggle and strain, over-effort. 

Antidote: Curiosity + softening learnt in Meditation Skill 03. 

From a foundation of kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed within your body) + softening you can begin to train attention skills learnt in seated meditation, into your daily life.

Ground --> Observe --> Soften --> Still. 

Meditation Skill 10 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, relax and allow your attention to habitually wander.
4. Playfully use simple labels to identify where your attention has habitually wandered.

You are ready to progress to Meditation Skill 11 when:

• You can stay with the flow of each in and out breath without wandering of attention for 80% of the time.

“Breathing in long, they know: ‘I am breathing in long’; or breathing out long, they know: 'I am breathing out long.’ Or breathing in short, they know: ‘I am breathing in short’; or breathing out short, they know: ‘I am breathing out short’.” MN10 The Buddha

Experiential Marker 07 arises as a natural progression of continuous awareness of breathing due to the development of samadhi and letting go of effort in both the body and mind. Due to increased clarity and calm you will start to be aware of the whole experience of each breath's length, from its beginning to its middle, to its end.

I recommend meditating for 40 min 1-2 times daily.

Your Meditation So Far:

• Create your meditation posture.
• Marker 01 is no longer used.
• Marker 02: The Experience of The Room.
• Marker 03: Awareness of Your Body.
• Marker 04: Awareness of Sensations.
• Marker 05: Natural Flow of Breathing.
• Marker 06: Knowing In & Out Breaths.

What You are Learning this Lesson:

• Marker 07: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.

As relaxation and samadhi deepens you will naturally transition from being aware of each in and out breath, to being aware of the full length of each breath.

Being aware of the full length of each breath means being aware of each in-breath from the moment it begins, to the moment it ends. And then being aware of each out-breath from the moment it begins, to the moment it ends.

It is important not to clarify the beginning or end of each breath, as the perception of impermanence will develop and disturb your mind. When meditating for calm and tranquility (samatha), your task is to gradually develop the perception of permanence, stability and the pleasure of these two.

To do this it is helpful to experience each in and out-breath as one continuous breath, that just changes direction. 

In the same way that you might gently rub your hand up and down a friend's arm, in one continuous flow, to calm them. You allow awareness to gently rub the length of each breath as it draws in and out of your body, in one continuous calming flow, to calm your mind. 

Like a swing transitioning from one direction to the next fed by one flow of energy, you follow each breath in one continuous flow of energy, taking no interest in the gap between.

What this does

Increasing the applications of your attention along the full length of each breath lowers your mind's ability to habitual apply attention towards distractions such as thoughts and sounds.

It is important to note that awareness of the full length of each breath occurs as a result of the development of calm and tranquility through tuning into the subtle pleasure of letting go, not through increasing your effort in attention. 

MAP: Body Sitting --> Flow of Breath (body) --> In/out Breath (body) --> Length of Breath (body).

It is important to note that this meditation skill is designed to challenge any deficiency you may have in attending continuously to one experience continuously without over-calming the ability of your awareness to know an experience. If a deficiency is present, it may cause your mind to produce defensive reactions as listed below.

Meditative Hindrance: 

Doubt (8), Gross Dullness (9), Gross Restlessness (10). 

• Doubt = Losing trust in your meditation practice, technique, teacher.
• Gross Dullness = Complete collapse of clarity of awareness. 
• Gross Restlessness = Restlessness towards your meditation session.

Antidote: When in gross dullness use increased curiosity + detail + labelling in Meditation Skill 10 to increase clarity and accuracy. When gross dullness continues combine softening in Meditation Skill 03 with Meditation Skill 04, following the instructions in Meditation Skill 04, to increase mindfulness, accuracy and clarity. 

From a foundation of kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed within your body) + softening you can begin to train attention skills learnt in seated meditation, into your daily life.

Ground --> Observe --> Soften --> Still. 

Meditation Skill 11 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.

You are ready to progress to Meditation Skill 12 when:

• You can develop stable attention on the full length of each breath without habitual wandering or entering into Gross Dullness, for 80% of the time.

"In this same way the meditator divides experience within their body — regardless of posture or activity — in terms of these four elemental qualities. Within the experience of this body: ‘This is earth element, this is water element, this is fire element, & this is wind element’.” MN 10 The Buddha

Experiential Marker 08 arises as a natural progression of two things: continuous awareness of the length of each breath, and calming of effort within your body, breathing and mind. This correlates with an increased awareness of sensation within the length of each breath at the tip of the nose. 

Note: It is important to note that the increased clarity of breath sensation arises from increasing tranquility due to progressive letting go of desire for sensoury experience and not due to holding attention on sensation.

I recommend meditating for 45 min 1-2 times daily.

Your Meditation So Far:

• Create your meditation posture.
• Marker 01 is no longer used.
• Marker 02: The Experience of The Room.
• Marker 03: Awareness of Your Body.
• Marker 04: Awareness of Sensations.
• Marker 05: Natural Flow of Breathing.
• Marker 06: Knowing In & Out Breaths.
• Marker 07: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.

What You are Learning this Lesson:

• Marker 08: Knowing Sensation Within Each Breath.

• As relaxation transforms into calm, your attention will naturally transition from the flow of each breath within your body, to the sensations within the length of each breath at the tip of your nose. 

• You will become ever more intimate with these sensations at the tip of the nose until you can clearly perceive the sensate difference between each in and out-breath. 

• Your task during this stage is to become so intimate with breath sensations that the very idea of breathing fades into the background. 

This will occur as a natural development of calming three areas:

1. Calming of effort within your body.
2. Calming of effort within your breathing.
3. Calming of effort within your intellectual mind.

This requires developing a heightened sensitivity to the balance of effort. Too much effort and restlessness will arise, too little effort and awareness will sink into dullness.

 MAP: Body Sitting --> Flow of Breath (body) --> In/out Breath (body) --> Length of Breath (body) --> Breath Sensations (nose).

It is important to note that this meditation skill is designed to challenge any deficiency you may have in cultivating calm & tranquility, without also over-calming the knowing function of your awareness. If a deficiency is present, it may cause your mind to produce defensive reactions as listed below.

Meditative Hindrance: 

(9) Gross Dullness, (10) Gross Restlessness.

• Gross Dullness = Complete collapse of clarity of awareness. 
• Gross Restlessness = Restlessness towards your meditation session. 

Antidote: When in gross dullness use increased curiosity + detail + labelling in Meditation Skill 10 to increase clarity and accuracy. When gross dullness continues combine softening in Meditation Skill 03 with Meditation Skill 04, following the instructions in Meditation Skill 04, to increase mindfulness, accuracy and clarity.

From a foundation of kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed within your body) + softening you can begin to train attention skills learnt in seated meditation, into your daily life.

Ground --> Observe --> Soften --> Still. 

Meditation Skill 12 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 at the tip of your nose.
4. Tune into the changing sensations in the whole length of each breath while softening your effort to do so.
5. Feel the subtle pleasure of each letting go that occurs with each natural breath.

You are ready to progress to Meditation Skill 13 when:

• You can stay with the flow of sensations within each the length of each breath free from gross dullness and gross restlessness.

Experiential Marker 09 arises as a natural progression of deepening tranquility of mind due to the pleasure of letting go of control. This correlates with a natural resting of attention on one point of breath sensation at the tip of the nose and a fading into the background of the perception of time.

I recommend meditating for 45 min 1-2 times daily.

Your Meditation So Far:

• Create your meditation posture.
• Marker 01 is no longer used.
• Marker 02: The Experience of The Room.
• Marker 03: Awareness of Your Body.
• Marker 04: Awareness of Sensations.
• Marker 05: Natural Flow of Breathing.
• Marker 06: Knowing In & Out Breaths.
• Marker 07: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.
• Marker 08: Knowing Sensation Within Each Breath.

What You are Learning this Lesson:

• Marker 09: Knowing One Point of Breath Sensation.

• Once your attention is resting on one point of breath sensation (at the tip of your nose) by itself, you need to continuously pay close attention to knowing the flowing sensations found at that one point in order for attention to completely sustain**. 

• This must not be effortful but rather maintained through a relaxed interest and by tuning into the increasing pleasure of seclusion from the senses.

**Sustain means that attention is effortless because the mind now takes over vitakka: applying of attention.

EXPLANATION:

While doing this it is important to maintain some peripheral awareness of other background sensoury experience. This background sensoury experience will at this stage still be slightly pulling on your attention and if not monitored may capture attention. 

Gently relax the effort that underlies any habitual 'going out' of your attention by softening the effort within your frontal lobes. If the pull is strong, strengthen the softening by slightly extending the breath out through the nose and relaxing effort in your eyelids. (Be curious about this, it works). 

At this stage your attention becomes so aligned with the perception of breath sensation, so stable, that all perception of time fades into the background. With the fading of the perception of time, comes the fading of the idea 'this is an in-breath, this is an out-breath'. 

Learn to allow your attention to rest on one point of breath sensation at the tip of your nose. The shift of attention from sensations within the length of each breath, to one point of sensation at the tip of the nose, is due to natural development of tranquility. 

With practice you will experience shifts from effort to maintain your attention, to effortlessness as tranquility (as calming of effort/doing) deepens. This shift is very distinct. 

Your main goal is to learn to move from intentional vitakka (intentional applying of attention) to vicara (your mind now autonomously applies attention to the meditation object). It is this shift to sustained attention (vicara) that gives rise to the experience of effortlessness.

This is replaced by what is experienced as: one steady, continuous, point of sensation with barely any idea of breathing or time, free from gross sensoury distraction.

MAP: Body Sitting --> Flow of Breath (body) --> Length of Breath (body) --> Breath Sensations (nose) --> One Point Breath Sensation (nose).

It is important to note that this meditation skill is designed to challenge any deficiency you may have in being able to sustain attention on one point without become restless or dull in your perception. If a deficiency is present, it may cause your mind to produce defensive reactions as listed below.

Meditative Hindrance: 

(11) Subtle Dullness, (12) Subtle Wandering, (13) Subtle Restlessness.

• Subtle Dullness: Loss of clarity of meditation object (sensations).
• Subtle Wandering: Random, brief background thoughts.
• Subtle Restlessness: Shaking due to effort in applied attention.  

Antidote: Curiosity + detail + combine softening in Meditation Skill 03, with attention to detail of sensations in Meditation Skill 12 and this Meditation Skill. 

From a foundation of kaya-gata sati (mindfulness immersed within your body) + softening you can begin to train attention skills learnt in seated meditation, into your daily life.

Ground --> Observe --> Soften --> Still. 

Meditation Skill 13 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 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.

You are ready to progress to TIER 2 of Mindfulness of Breathing when:

• You can effortlessly rest attention on one point of breath sensation free from subtle dullness, subtle wandering, and subtle restlessness.

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