STEP 4: Develop Skill in TIER 2 Mindfulness of Breathing

---

"The Seven Factors of Enlightenment, when developed & pursued, bring clear knowing & release to their culmination." MN118 the Buddha 

In STEP 4 your focus is on bringing unity to the structure of your attention by refining your skill in abandoning control and cultivating the first Six Enlightenment Factors. This is done by monitoring and adjusting the Enlightenment Factors while developing stable attention on your meditation object. During TIER 2 Mindfulness of Breathing the structure, quality and balance of your attention is more important than your meditation object. This means that while the centre of your attention rests on your meditation object, your peripheral awareness observes and adjusts the structure of attention itself. 

HOW TO DO THIS MEDITATION

• Refer to TIER 2 Instructions (previous page)

THIS IS YOUR MEDITATIVE TRAINING

• Guided Meditation: TIER 2 Mindfulness of Breathing
• Addition 1: Establish a Posture of Mindfulness & Curiosity
• Addition 2: Bring the Joy of Abandoning Into Your Mind
• Addition 3: Access the Pleasure of Abandoning in Breathing
• Addition 4: Access Meditative Joy by Calming Effort
• Addition 5: Establish Joy & Tranquility in Attention
• Addition 6: Marker 10: Subtle Movement of Body Breathing
• Addition 7: Markers 11-12: Establish Access Concentration

THIS MENU TELLS YOU WHAT TO DO NEXT

• PROGRESSIVE MENU for PATH 1 & 2

RETURN TO PATH 1

RETURN TO PATH 2

1. Become familiar with the Meditation Summary (this section).
2. Read the meditation instructions below.
3. Practice daily mindfulness of breathing following Experiential Markers 1-9.
4. Read instructions for 'Addition 1' and add it to your daily mindfulness of breathing in place of Experiential Markers 1-3.
5. Learn to meditate without guidance to help you develop skill and insight.

This guided meditation is also available on Insight Timer meditation app.

• READ: Meditation Instructions
• JOIN A CLASS: Online Meditation Classes
• POST A QUESTION: MIDL Community Subreddit
• PERSONAL GUIDANCE: Private Guidance Available

The purpose of Addition 1 to your mindfulness of breathing is twofold:

1. To develop skill in establishing mindfulness and curiosity by softening and abandoning effort within your body.
2. To train your ability to be able to perceive the subtle pleasure of that abandoning.

POSTURE OF ATTENTION

1. Mindfulness as a stream on remembering.
2. Curiosity as desire to understand.
3. Effort as balance in energy and structure of attention.
4. Softening as an inclination towards abandoning.

• Create your meditation posture
• (Markers 1-3 replaced by Addition 1).

• Addition 1: Establish a Posture of Mindfulness & Curiosity.

• MARKER 4: Awareness Grounded Within Body.
• MARKER 5: Natural Flow of your Breathing.
• MARKER 6: Knowing In & Out Breaths.
• MARKER 7: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.
• MARKER 8: Knowing Sensation Within Each Breath.
• MARKER 9: Knowing One Point of Breath Sensation.

Read the meditation instructions below, they have been laid out in a simple step by step process. Once familiar, begin your meditation the following below instructions.

• Read Instructions: MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS: Addition 1

BACK TO MENU

Begin your meditation by sitting comfortably on a chair or the floor. Palms resting one on the other in your lap, thumbs lightly touching in the middle as a grounding point for attention. Allowing your eyelids to gently close as this sends a signal to the mind that it is time to relax; it is time to develop calm. Once your eyelids are relaxed spend a few moments reflecting on small things you’re grateful for to sweeten your mind; smile when you are doing this. Then bring to mind the purpose for this meditation.

(5 minutes)

INSERT ADDITION 1 HERE

1. Begin meditation with your eyes open.
2. Engage with sight then gently soften/relax the effort to see.
3. Allow your eyelids to droop and the relaxation to flow into your cheeks and jaw.
4. Feel the subtle pleasure of it.
5. Allow this relaxation to come to your face.
6. Feel the subtle pleasure of it.
7. Allow your shoulders to drop slightly.
8. Feel the subtle pleasure of it.
9. Allow it to enter your chest and back.
10. Feel the subtle pleasure of it.
11. Allow it to enter your arms and belly.
12. Feel the subtle pleasure of it.
13. Allow it to enter your legs and feet.
14. Feel the subtle pleasure of it.
15. Completely abandon within your body.
16. Feel the subtle pleasure of it.
17. Notice how softening awareness into your body establishes mindfulness, curiosity and the subtle pleasure of the joy of abandoning.

(5 minutes)

Marker 4

Begin to soften/relax awareness into your body until awareness and the presence of your body become one. As you soften into your body, the natural flow of breathing will appear to you as a subtle movement in your body, establish a stream of remembering on it. 

(5 minutes)

Marker 6

Notice that you can know if your breath is drawing into your body, or if it is going out again. Establish a continuous stream of remembering in regards to knowing each breath.

(5 minutes)

Marker 7

Notice the moment each breath draws in, and the moment each breath goes out. Become aware of the full length of each in-breath, and the full length of each out-breath.

(10 minutes)

Marker 8

Once you have become clearer in regards to the beginning and length of each breath, start to notice the difference in sensations between each in-breath and out-breath.

(10 minutes)

Marker 9

Gradually soften and relax your desire 'to do' the meditation. You task here is to gently calm the intellectual function of your mind while increasing the knowing function of awareness. If the intellectual 'doing' is too high then subtle restlessness will be present and attention will not stabilise on one point of breath preventing tranquility from arising. 

     As you calm the intellectual functions of your mind, the perception of time will also weaken. This is experienced as a disappearance of the concept 'I am breathing in, I am breathing out' or any idea that there is such a thing as the length of the breath. For sensations along the length of the breath to be perceived, there must also be a concept of time. When this concept of observing over time is abandoned, you will be left with one point of breath sensation within your awareness. It is on this one point that you allow your attention to rest so that it may stabilise on it. 

Now that you are familiar with the meditation instructions it is time to begin your daily meditation in order to start training your skill in cultivating meditative joy.

1. It is important meditate daily and to commit to your set time.
2. Remember  there is no such thing as a bad meditation, just an opportunity to learn and develop insight. When your mind is all over the place and your attention has collapsed, take this as an opportunity to observe anatta: the autonomous nature of your attention.
3. Keep meditating daily until you fulfill the below progression criteria.

You are ready to progress to Addition 2 when you can establish mindfulness, curiosity and the joy as the subtle pleasure of abandoning as a posture of meditative attention by softening awareness into your body.

BACK TO MENU

1. Become familiar with the Meditation Summary (this section).
2. Read the meditation instructions below.
3. Practice daily mindfulness of breathing following Experiential Markers 1-9.
4. Read instructions for the below Addition and add it to your daily mindfulness of breathing between Experiential Marker 4 and Experiential Marker 5.
5. Learn to meditate without guidance to help you develop skill and insight.

• READ: Meditation Instructions
• JOIN A CLASS: Online Meditation Classes
• POST A QUESTION: MIDL Community Subreddit
• PERSONAL GUIDANCE: Private Guidance Available

The purpose of Addition 2 to your mindfulness of breathing is to establish the Enlightenment Factor of meditative joy as a quality of your posture of attention.

POSTURE OF ATTENTION

1. Mindfulness as a stream on remembering.
2. Curiosity as desire to understand.
3. Effort as balance in energy and structure of attention.
4. Softening as an inclination towards abandoning.
5. Joy as the subtle pleasure of abandoning.

• Create your meditation posture.
• *Addition 1.
• MARKER 4: Awareness Grounded Within Body.

• Addition 2: Bring the Joy of Abandoning Into Your Mind.

• MARKER 5: Natural Flow of your Breathing.
• MARKER 6: Knowing In & Out Breaths.
• MARKER 7: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.
• MARKER 8: Knowing Sensation Within Each Breath.
• MARKER 9: Knowing One Point of Breath Sensation.

Read the meditation instructions below, they have been laid out in a simple step by step process. Once familiar, begin your meditation the following below instructions.

• Read Instructions: MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS: Addition 2

BACK TO MENU

Begin your meditation by sitting comfortably on a chair or the floor. Palms resting one on the other in your lap, thumbs lightly touching in the middle as a grounding point for attention. Allowing your eyelids to gently close as this sends a signal to the mind that it is time to relax; it is time to develop calm. Once your eyelids are relaxed spend a few moments reflecting on small things you’re grateful for to sweeten your mind; smile when you are doing this. Then bring to mind the purpose for this meditation.

(5 minutes)

Addition 1

Begin your meditation with eyes open and allow your eyes to engage with the room around you, then soften that seeing. Allow your eyelids to relax, to become heavy, feeling the pleasure of it. Allow this relaxation to flow down through your face, your chest, arms and legs. Tune into the subtle pleasure of this relaxation, of abandoning effort within your body. How nice it feels.

(5 minutes)

Marker 4 

Begin to soften/relax awareness into your body until awareness and the presence of your body become one. As you soften into your body, the natural flow of breathing will appear to you as a subtle movement in your body, establish a stream of remembering on it. 

(5 minutes)

INSERT ADDITION 2 HERE

Maintain present moment awareness of your body sensations in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi. As the subtle pleasure builds within your body, gently smile into that subtle pleasure with your eyes. The smile is gentle and relaxed, like your smiling with your eyes at a loved one, showing them how much you care. Allow the subtle pleasure to enter your mind as the joy of abandoning, the contentment of release. When doing it notice how this meditative joy within the mind naturally balances energy and stabilises attention. 

(5 minutes)

Marker 6

Notice that you can know if your breath is drawing into your body, or if it is going out again. Establish a continuous stream of remembering in regards to knowing each breath.

(5 minutes)

Marker 7

Notice the moment each breath draws in, and the moment each breath goes out. Become aware of the full length of each in-breath, and the full length of each out-breath.

(10 minutes)

Marker 8

Once you have become clearer in regards to the beginning and length of each breath, start to notice the difference in sensations between each in-breath and out-breath.

(10 minutes)

Marker 9

Gradually soften and relax your desire 'to do' the meditation. You task here is to gently calm the intellectual function of your mind while increasing the knowing function of awareness. If the intellectual 'doing' is too high then subtle restlessness will be present and attention will not stabilise on one point of breath preventing tranquility from arising. 

     As you calm the intellectual functions of your mind, the perception of time will also weaken. This is experienced as a disappearance of the concept 'I am breathing in, I am breathing out' or any idea that there is such a thing as the length of the breath. For sensations along the length of the breath to be perceived, there must also be a concept of time. When this concept of observing over time is abandoned, you will be left with one point of breath sensation within your awareness. It is on this one point that you allow your attention to rest so that it may stabilise on it. 

Now that you are familiar with the meditation instructions it is time to begin your daily meditation in order to start training your skill in attention.

1. It is important meditate daily and to commit to your set time.
2. Remember  there is no such thing as a bad meditation, just an opportunity to learn and develop insight. When your mind is all over the place and your attention has collapsed, take this as an opportunity to observe anatta: the autonomous nature of your attention.
3. Keep meditating daily until you fulfill the below progression criteria.

You are ready to progress to Addition 3 when you can bring the subtle pleasure of abandoning within your body into your mind as the pleasure of the joy of abandoning.

BACK TO MENU

1. Become familiar with the Meditation Summary (this section).
2. Read the meditation instructions below.
3. Practice daily mindfulness of breathing following Experiential Markers 1-9.
4. Read instructions for the below Addition and add it to your daily mindfulness of breathing in place of Experiential Markers 5-6.
5. Learn to meditate without guidance to help you develop skill and insight.

• READ: Meditation Instructions
• JOIN A CLASS: Online Meditation Classes
• POST A QUESTION: MIDL Community Subreddit
• PERSONAL GUIDANCE: Private Guidance Available

The purpose of Addition 3 to your mindfulness of breathing is to develop the perception of the subtle pleasure of abandoning within the natural flow of your breathing.

POSTURE OF ATTENTION

1. Mindfulness as a stream on remembering.
2. Curiosity as desire to understand.
3. Effort as balance in energy and structure of attention.
4. Softening as an inclination towards abandoning.
5. Joy as the subtle pleasure of abandoning.

• Create your meditation posture
• *Addition 1
• MARKER 4: Awareness Grounded Within Body.
• *Addition 2
• (Markers 5-6 replaced by Addition 3).

• Addition 3: Access the Pleasure of Abandoning in Breathing.

• MARKER 7: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.
• MARKER 8: Knowing Sensation Within Each Breath.
• MARKER 9: Knowing One Point of Breath Sensation.

Read the meditation instructions below, they have been laid out in a simple step by step process. Once familiar, begin your meditation the following below instructions.

• Read Instructions: MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS: Addition 3

BACK TO MENU

Begin your meditation by sitting comfortably on a chair or the floor. Palms resting one on the other in your lap, thumbs lightly touching in the middle as a grounding point for attention. Allowing your eyelids to gently close as this sends a signal to the mind that it is time to relax; it is time to develop calm. Once your eyelids are relaxed spend a few moments reflecting on small things you’re grateful for to sweeten your mind; smile when you are doing this. Then bring to mind the purpose for this meditation.

(5 minutes)

Addition 1

Begin your meditation with eyes open and allow your eyes to engage with the room around you, then soften that seeing. Allow your eyelids to relax, to become heavy, feeling the pleasure of it. Allow this relaxation to flow down through your face, your chest, arms and legs. Tune into the subtle pleasure of this relaxation, of abandoning effort within your body. How nice it feels.

(5 minutes)

Marker 4 

Begin to soften/relax awareness into your body until awareness and the presence of your body become one. As you soften into your body, the natural flow of breathing will appear to you as a subtle movement in your body, establish a stream of remembering on it. 

(5 minutes)

Addition 2

Maintain present moment awareness of your body sensations in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi. As the subtle pleasure builds within your body, gently smile into that subtle pleasure with your eyes. The smile is gentle and relaxed, like your smiling with your eyes at a loved one, showing them how much you care. Allow the subtle pleasure to enter your mind as the joy of abandoning, the contentment of release. When doing it notice how this meditative joy within the mind naturally balances energy and stabilises attention. 

(5 minutes)

INSERT ADDITION 3 HERE

Once meditative joy is established with your posture of attention, bring your awareness to inside your lungs. 

1. Allow breathing to occur naturally free from control.
2. Notice as the breath comes in your chest it expands out-wards; like a yoga stretch. 
3. Notice how nice this natural stretch with each in breath feels. 
4. As each breath goes out and your body deflates, notice the subtle pleasure of abandoning that naturally occurs with each out-breath. 
5. From inside your breathing be aware of its pleasure: breath comes in: gentle stretch, breath goes out; pleasure of abandoning, stretch, abandon.
6. Tuning into how nice it feels, allowing the whole breath to fill with this pleasure, this sense of ease.
7. Maintain present moment awareness of the natural flow of breathing within your body in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi.

NOTE: (Markers 5-6 replaced by Addition 3).

(5 minutes)

Marker 7

Notice the moment each breath draws in, and the moment each breath goes out. Become aware of the full length of each in-breath, and the full length of each out-breath.

(10 minutes)

Marker 8

Once you have become clearer in regards to the beginning and length of each breath, start to notice the difference in sensations between each in-breath and out-breath.

(10 minutes)

Marker 9

Gradually soften and relax your desire 'to do' the meditation. You task here is to gently calm the intellectual function of your mind while increasing the knowing function of awareness. If the intellectual 'doing' is too high then subtle restlessness will be present and attention will not stabilise on one point of breath preventing tranquility from arising. 

     As you calm the intellectual functions of your mind, the perception of time will also weaken. This is experienced as a disappearance of the concept 'I am breathing in, I am breathing out' or any idea that there is such a thing as the length of the breath. For sensations along the length of the breath to be perceived, there must also be a concept of time. When this concept of observing over time is abandoned, you will be left with one point of breath sensation within your awareness. It is on this one point that you allow your attention to rest so that it may stabilise on it. 

Now that you are familiar with the meditation instructions it is time to begin your daily meditation in order to start training your skill in attention.

1. It is important meditate daily and to commit to your set time.
2. Remember  there is no such thing as a bad meditation, just an opportunity to learn and develop insight. When your mind is all over the place and your attention has collapsed, take this as an opportunity to observe anatta: the autonomous nature of your attention.
3. Keep meditating daily until you fulfill the below progression criteria.

You are ready to progress to Addition 4 when you can perceive the subtle pleasure of abandoning within your breathing as it occurs autonomously within your body.

BACK TO MENU

1. Become familiar with the Meditation Summary (this section).
2. Read the meditation instructions below.
3. Practice daily mindfulness of breathing following Experiential Markers 1-9.
4. Read instructions for the below Addition and add it to your daily mindfulness of breathing between Experiential Markers 7 & 8.
5. Learn to meditate without guidance to help you develop skill and insight.

• READ: Meditation Instructions
• JOIN A CLASS: Online Meditation Classes
• POST A QUESTION: MIDL Community Subreddit
• PERSONAL GUIDANCE: Private Guidance Available

The purpose of Addition 4 to your mindfulness of breathing is to develop the perception of the subtle pleasure of abandoning to prevent dullness while calming the functions of the body and intellectual functions of the mind.

POSTURE OF ATTENTION

1. Mindfulness as a stream on remembering.
2. Curiosity as desire to understand.
3. Effort as balance in energy and structure of attention.
4. Softening as an inclination towards abandoning.
5. Joy as the subtle pleasure of abandoning.

• Create your meditation posture
• *Addition 1
• MARKER 4: Awareness Grounded Within Body
• *Addition 2
• *Addition 3
• MARKER 7: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.

• Addition 4: Access Meditative Joy by Calming Effort 'to do'

• MARKER 8: Knowing Sensation Within Each Breath.
• MARKER 9: Knowing One Point of Breath Sensation.

Read the meditation instructions below, they have been laid out in a simple step by step process. Once familiar, begin your meditation the following below instructions.

• Read Instructions: MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS: Addition 4

BACK TO MENU

Begin your meditation by sitting comfortably on a chair or the floor. Palms resting one on the other in your lap, thumbs lightly touching in the middle as a grounding point for attention. Allowing your eyelids to gently close as this sends a signal to the mind that it is time to relax; it is time to develop calm. Once your eyelids are relaxed spend a few moments reflecting on small things you’re grateful for to sweeten your mind; smile when you are doing this. Then bring to mind the purpose for this meditation.

(5 minutes)

Addition 1

Begin your meditation with eyes open and allow your eyes to engage with the room around you, then soften that seeing. Allow your eyelids to relax, to become heavy, feeling the pleasure of it. Allow this relaxation to flow down through your face, your chest, arms and legs. Tune into the subtle pleasure of this relaxation, of abandoning effort within your body. How nice it feels.

(5 minutes)

Marker 4 

Begin to soften/relax awareness into your body until awareness and the presence of your body become one. As you soften into your body, the natural flow of breathing will appear to you as a subtle movement in your body, establish a stream of remembering on it. 

(5 minutes)

Addition 2

Maintain present moment awareness of your body sensations in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi. As the subtle pleasure builds within your body, gently smile into that subtle pleasure with your eyes. The smile is gentle and relaxed, like your smiling with your eyes at a loved one, showing them how much you care. Allow the subtle pleasure to enter your mind as the joy of abandoning, the contentment of release. When doing it notice how this meditative joy within the mind naturally balances energy and stabilises attention. 

(5 minutes)

Addition 3

Once meditative joy is established with your posture of attention, bring your awareness to inside your lungs. Allow breathing to occur naturally free from control, noticing as the breath comes in your chest it expands out-wards; like a yoga stretch. Notice how nice this natural stretch with each in breath feels. As each breath goes out and your body deflates, notice the subtle pleasure of abandoning that naturally occurs with each out-breath. From inside your breathing be aware of its pleasure: breath comes in: gentle stretch, breath goes out; pleasure of abandoning, stretch, abandon. Tuning into how nice it feels, allowing the whole breath to fill with this pleasure, this sense of ease. Maintain present moment awareness of the natural flow of breathing within your body in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi.

(5 minutes)

Marker 7

Notice the moment each breath draws in, and the moment each breath goes out. Become aware of the full length of each in-breath, and the full length of each out-breath.

(5 minutes)

INSERT ADDITION 4 HERE

Once your attention is stable on the length of each breath begin to calm the effort to do the meditation with the intention of gradually calming the intellectual functions of your mind while increasing the knowing function of awareness.

1. Once attention settles of the length of each breath begin a process of calming.
2. Notice and systematically relax any held tension in your body from the top down.
3. Tune into the subtle pleasure of each relaxing, each abandoning.
4. Once your body feels pleasurable relaxed, begin this process in your mind.
5. Observe and gently soften any desire 'to do' the meditation.
6. Tune into the subtle pleasure of each relaxing, each abandoning.
7. This will bring your mind and body closer to tranquility and samadhi develops sensations within each breath will appear to you for Marker 8.
8. The pleasure of the meditative joy will counter the tendency towards dullness.
9. Maintain present moment awareness of the natural flow of sensations within your breathing in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi.

(10 minutes)

Marker 8

Once you have become clearer in regards to the beginning and length of each breath, start to notice the difference in sensations between each in-breath and out-breath.

(10 minutes)

Marker 9

Gradually soften and relax your desire 'to do' the meditation. You task here is to gently calm the intellectual function of your mind while increasing the knowing function of awareness. If the intellectual 'doing' is too high then subtle restlessness will be present and attention will not stabilise on one point of breath preventing tranquility from arising. 

     As you calm the intellectual functions of your mind, the perception of time will also weaken. This is experienced as a disappearance of the concept 'I am breathing in, I am breathing out' or any idea that there is such a thing as the length of the breath. For sensations along the length of the breath to be perceived, there must also be a concept of time. When this concept of observing over time is abandoned, you will be left with one point of breath sensation within your awareness. It is on this one point that you allow your attention to rest so that it may stabilise on it. 

Now that you are familiar with the meditation instructions it is time to begin your daily meditation in order to start training your skill in attention.

1. It is important meditate daily and to commit to your set time.
2. Remember  there is no such thing as a bad meditation, just an opportunity to learn and develop insight. When your mind is all over the place and your attention has collapsed, take this as an opportunity to observe anatta: the autonomous nature of your attention.
3. Keep meditating daily until you fulfill the below progression criteria.

You are ready to progress to Addition 5 when you can perceive the subtle pleasure of abandoning the physical and mental effort 'to do' and the flow of sensation within each breath is clear to you. 

BACK TO MENU

1. Become familiar with the Meditation Summary (this section).
2. Read the meditation instructions below.
3. Practice daily mindfulness of breathing following Experiential Markers 1-9.
4. Read instructions for the below Addition and add it to your daily mindfulness of breathing after Experiential Marker 9.
5. Learn to meditate without guidance to help you develop skill and insight.

• READ: Meditation Instructions
• JOIN A CLASS: Online Meditation Classes
• POST A QUESTION: MIDL Community Subreddit
• PERSONAL GUIDANCE: Private Guidance Available

The purpose of Addition 5 is to give rise to the conditions for the Enlightenment Factor of tranquility, then to infuse it with meditative joy and establish it as a quality of your posture of attention. 

POSTURE OF ATTENTION

1. Mindfulness as a stream on remembering.
2. Curiosity as desire to understand.
3. Effort as balance in energy and structure of attention.
4. Softening as an inclination towards abandoning.
5. Joy as the subtle pleasure of abandoning.
6. Tranquility as the calming of physical and mental activity.

• Create your meditation posture
• *Addition 1
• MARKER 4: Awareness Grounded Within Body
• *Addition 2
• *Addition 3
• MARKER 5: Natural Flow of Your Breathing.
• MARKER 6: Knowing In & Out Breaths.
• MARKER 7: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.
• *Addition 4
• MARKER 8: Knowing Sensation Within Each Breath.
• MARKER 9: Knowing One Point of Breath Sensation.

• Addition 5: Establish Joy & Tranquility as Factors of Attention.

Read the meditation instructions below, they have been laid out in a simple step by step process. Once familiar, begin your meditation the following below instructions.

• Read Instructions: MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS: Addition 5

BACK TO MENU

Begin your meditation by sitting comfortably on a chair or the floor. Palms resting one on the other in your lap, thumbs lightly touching in the middle as a grounding point for attention. Allowing your eyelids to gently close as this sends a signal to the mind that it is time to relax; it is time to develop calm. Once your eyelids are relaxed spend a few moments reflecting on small things you’re grateful for to sweeten your mind; smile when you are doing this. Then bring to mind the purpose for this meditation.

(5 minutes)

Addition 1

Begin your meditation with eyes open and allow your eyes to engage with the room around you, then soften that seeing. Allow your eyelids to relax, to become heavy, feeling the pleasure of it. Allow this relaxation to flow down through your face, your chest, arms and legs. Tune into the subtle pleasure of this relaxation, of abandoning effort within your body. How nice it feels.

(5 minutes)

Marker 4 

Begin to soften/relax awareness into your body until awareness and the presence of your body become one. As you soften into your body, the natural flow of breathing will appear to you as a subtle movement in your body, establish a stream of remembering on it. 

(5 minutes)

Addition 2

Maintain present moment awareness of your body sensations in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi. As the subtle pleasure builds within your body, gently smile into that subtle pleasure with your eyes. The smile is gentle and relaxed, like your smiling with your eyes at a loved one, showing them how much you care. Allow the subtle pleasure to enter your mind as the joy of abandoning, the contentment of release. When doing it notice how this meditative joy within the mind naturally balances energy and stabilises attention. 

(5 minutes)

Addition 3

Once meditative joy is established with your posture of attention, bring your awareness to inside your lungs. Allow breathing to occur naturally free from control, noticing as the breath comes in your chest it expands out-wards; like a yoga stretch. Notice how nice this natural stretch with each in breath feels. As each breath goes out and your body deflates, notice the subtle pleasure of abandoning that naturally occurs with each out-breath. From inside your breathing be aware of its pleasure: breath comes in: gentle stretch, breath goes out; pleasure of abandoning, stretch, abandon. Tuning into how nice it feels, allowing the whole breath to fill with this pleasure, this sense of ease. Maintain present moment awareness of the natural flow of breathing within your body in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi.

(5 minutes)

Marker 7

Notice the moment each breath draws in, and the moment each breath goes out. Become aware of the full length of each in-breath, and the full length of each out-breath.

(5 minutes)

Addition 4

Once your attention is stable on the length of each breath begin to calm the effort to do the meditation with the intention of gradually calming the intellectual functions of your mind while increasing the knowing function of awareness.

(10 minutes)

Marker 8

Once you have become clearer in regards to the beginning and length of each breath, start to notice the difference in sensations between each in-breath and out-breath.

(10 minutes)

Marker 9

Gradually soften and relax your desire 'to do' the meditation. As you calm the intellectual functions of your mind, the perception of time will also weaken. When this concept of observing over time is abandoned, you will be left with one point of breath sensation within your awareness. It is on this one point that you allow your attention to rest so that it may stabilise on it. 

INSERT ADDITION 5 HERE

Stablise your attention on one point of breath sensation while maintaining meditative joy within your mind. Developed sustained attention on one point of breath sensation for a long period of time until tranquility, as an absent of movement with continuous knowing, arises and stabilises within your attention. Allow the experience of meditative joy and tranquility to merge as a posture of stable attention.

1. Learn to allow your attention to rest on one point of breath sensation.
2. Gently smile with your eyes to maintain meditative joy within your mind.
3. As attention sustains you will experience shifts from effort to effortlessness, this shift is very distinct.
4. Your main goal is to learn to move from intentional vitakka (intentional applying of attention) to autonomous vitakka (your mind now autonomously applies attention to the meditation object). It is this shift that gives rise to the experience of effortlessness.
5. Maintain silent, stable attention for a period of time on that point of breath sensation, abandoning all doing within your mind and continuing to experience the pleasure of that abandoning.
6. When all 'doing' is abandoned and the intellectual functions of the mind completely calmed tranquility will begin to arise.
7. Breath sensation will become very subtle and may even disappear, keep attention on that one point and perceive the beauty, pleasure in the building calm. If breathing appears to stop calm any fear associated with this. trust that breathing is still occurring but your awareness is so subtle that the grossness of breath sensation has now been abandoned.
8. Allow the experience of meditative joy and tranquility to merge as a posture of stable attention and for attention to rest on this beauty and joy.
9. Maintain present moment awareness of the natural flow of sensations within your breathing in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi. Be careful of subtle dullness at this stage as breath sensation becomes very subtle.

Now that you are familiar with the meditation instructions it is time to begin your daily meditation in order to start training your skill in attention.

1. It is important meditate daily and to commit to your set time.
2. Remember  there is no such thing as a bad meditation, just an opportunity to learn and develop insight. When your mind is all over the place and your attention has collapsed, take this as an opportunity to observe anatta: the autonomous nature of your attention.
3. Keep meditating daily until you fulfill the below progression criteria.

You are ready to progress to Addition 6 when you can effortlessly rest attention on one point of breath sensation free from subtle dullness, wandering, and restlessness and the Enlightenment Factor of tranquility becomes a stable part of your posture of attention.

BACK TO MENU

“They train them self: ‘I will breathe in sensitive to the entire  body.’ They train them self: ‘I will breathe out sensitive to the entire body’.” MN10 The Buddha 

1. Become familiar with the Meditation Summary (this section).
2. Read the meditation instructions below.
3. Practice daily mindfulness of breathing following Experiential Markers 1-9.
4. Read instructions for the below Experiential Marker and add it to your daily mindfulness of breathing after Addition 5.
5. Learn to meditate without guidance to help you develop skill and insight.

• READ: Meditation Instructions
• JOIN A CLASS: Online Meditation Classes
• POST A QUESTION: MIDL Community Subreddit
• PERSONAL GUIDANCE: Private Guidance Available

The purpose of Addition 6 is to maintain the stability of the development of your samadhi. As your mind calms on one point of breath sensation, the ability to perceive each breath can also become feint. The inability to perceive the breath at this stage will cause mindfulness to become weak, and if the knowing function of awareness is not strong then samadhi (unification of attention) will begin to collapse.

POSTURE OF ATTENTION

1. Mindfulness as a stream on remembering.
2. Curiosity as desire to understand.
3. Effort as balance in energy and structure of attention.
4. Softening as an inclination towards abandoning.
5. Joy as the subtle pleasure of abandoning.
6. Tranquility as the calming of physical and mental activity.

• Create your meditation posture
• *Addition 1
• MARKER 4: Awareness Grounded Within Body
• *Addition 2
• *Addition 3
• MARKER 5: Natural Flow of Your Breathing. 
• MARKER 6: Knowing In & Out Breaths.
• MARKER 7: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.
• Addition 4:
• MARKER 8: Knowing Sensation Within Each Breath.
• MARKER 9: Knowing One Point of Breath Sensation.
• *Addition 5

• MARKER 10: Knowing Subtle Movement of Body Breathing

Read the meditation instructions below, they have been laid out in a simple step by step process. Once familiar, begin your meditation the following below instructions.

• Read Instructions: MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS: Addition 6

BACK TO MENU

Begin your meditation by sitting comfortably on a chair or the floor. Palms resting one on the other in your lap, thumbs lightly touching in the middle as a grounding point for attention. Allowing your eyelids to gently close as this sends a signal to the mind that it is time to relax; it is time to develop calm. Once your eyelids are relaxed spend a few moments reflecting on small things you’re grateful for to sweeten your mind; smile when you are doing this. Then bring to mind the purpose for this meditation.

(5 minutes)

Addition 1

Begin your meditation with eyes open and allow your eyes to engage with the room around you, then soften that seeing. Allow your eyelids to relax, to become heavy, feeling the pleasure of it. Allow this relaxation to flow down through your face, your chest, arms and legs. Tune into the subtle pleasure of this relaxation, of abandoning effort within your body. How nice it feels.

(5 minutes)

Marker 4 

Begin to soften/relax awareness into your body until awareness and the presence of your body become one. As you soften into your body, the natural flow of breathing will appear to you as a subtle movement in your body, establish a stream of remembering on it. 

(5 minutes)

Addition 2

Maintain present moment awareness of your body sensations in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi. As the subtle pleasure builds within your body, gently smile into that subtle pleasure with your eyes. The smile is gentle and relaxed, like your smiling with your eyes at a loved one, showing them how much you care. Allow the subtle pleasure to enter your mind as the joy of abandoning, the contentment of release. When doing it notice how this meditative joy within the mind naturally balances energy and stabilises attention. 

(5 minutes)

Addition 3

Once meditative joy is established with your posture of attention, bring your awareness to inside your lungs. Allow breathing to occur naturally free from control, noticing as the breath comes in your chest it expands out-wards; like a yoga stretch. Notice how nice this natural stretch with each in breath feels. As each breath goes out and your body deflates, notice the subtle pleasure of abandoning that naturally occurs with each out-breath. From inside your breathing be aware of its pleasure: breath comes in: gentle stretch, breath goes out; pleasure of abandoning, stretch, abandon. Tuning into how nice it feels, allowing the whole breath to fill with this pleasure, this sense of ease. Maintain present moment awareness of the natural flow of breathing within your body in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi.

(5 minutes)

Marker 7

Notice the moment each breath draws in, and the moment each breath goes out. Become aware of the full length of each in-breath, and the full length of each out-breath.

(5 minutes)

Addition 4

Once your attention is stable on the length of each breath begin to calm the effort to do the meditation with the intention of gradually calming the intellectual functions of your mind while increasing the knowing function of awareness.

(10 minutes)

Marker 8

Once you have become clearer in regards to the beginning and length of each breath, start to notice the difference in sensations between each in-breath and out-breath.

(10 minutes)

Marker 9

Gradually soften and relax your desire 'to do' the meditation. As you calm the intellectual functions of your mind, the perception of time will also weaken. When this concept of observing over time is abandoned, you will be left with one point of breath sensation within your awareness. It is on this one point that you allow your attention to rest so that it may stabilise on it. 

Addition 5

Stablise your attention on one point of breath sensation while maintaining meditative joy within your mind. Developed sustained attention on one point of breath sensation for a long period of time until tranquility, as an absent of movement with continuous knowing, arises and stabilises within your attention. Allow the experience of meditative joy and tranquility to merge as a posture of stable attention.

INSERT ADDITION 6 HERE

As your mind calms on one point of breath sensation, the ability to perceive each breath can also become feint. The inability to perceive the breath at this stage will cause mindfulness to become weak and if knowing is not strong samadhi will begin to collapse.

1. Once your attention is stable on one point of breath sensation and tranquility has established you can add Marker 10. 
2. Slightly widen your peripheral awareness to the subtle movements of your whole body as it breathes.
3. As each breath draws in, you will notice a subtle movement as your body expands outwards.
4. As each breaths goes out, you will notice a subtle movement as your body deflates inward.
5. While aware of your body breathing, maintain a clear a perception of one point of breath sensation within the centre of your attention.
6. Feel the gentle stretch of your body as it expands with each in-breath; tune into its subtle pleasantness, how good it feels.
7. Feel the relaxing of your body as it deflates with each out-breath; tune into its subtle pleasantness, how good it feels.
8. Gradually pump up the clarity of your knowing and meditative joy while maintaining effortless attention on one point of breath sensation.
9. Perceive the subtle sensations of the breath in one stable point of breath sensation and the clarity of knowing, infused with the joy of abandoning becomes a stable part of your attention.
10. This will be corelated at this stage with a shutting down of the six sense fields though sound may still be known as a distant experience.
11. Maintain present moment awareness of one point of breath sensation within the centre of your attention while maintaining peripheral awareness of the subtle movement of your whole body as it breathes until clarity of that one point of breath sensation clarifies.

Now that you are familiar with the meditation instructions it is time to begin your daily meditation in order to start training your skill in attention.

1. It is important meditate daily and to commit to your set time.
2. Remember  there is no such thing as a bad meditation, just an opportunity to learn and develop insight. When your mind is all over the place and your attention has collapsed, take this as an opportunity to observe anatta: the autonomous nature of your attention.
3. Keep meditating daily until you fulfill the below progression criteria.

You are ready to progress to Addition 7 when you can perceive the subtle sensations of the breath in one stable point of breath sensation and the clarity of knowing, infused with the joy of abandoning becomes a stable part of your attention. This will be corelated at this stage with a shutting down of the six sense fields though sound may still be known as a distant experience.

BACK TO MENU

“They train them self: ‘I will breathe in calming formations.’ They train them self: ‘I will breathe out calming formations’.” MN10 The Buddha 

1. Become familiar with the Meditation Summary (this section).
2. Read the meditation instructions below.
3. Practice daily mindfulness of breathing following Experiential Markers 1-10.
4. Read instructions for the below Experiential Markers and add them to your daily mindfulness of breathing after Experiential Marker 10.
5. Learn to meditate without guidance to help you develop skill and insight.

• READ: Meditation Instructions
• JOIN A CLASS: Online Meditation Classes
• POST A QUESTION: MIDL Community Subreddit
• PERSONAL GUIDANCE: Private Guidance Available

The purpose of Addition 7 is to develop unified stable attention free from meditative hindrances in preparation for the conditions for access concentration to arise.

POSTURE OF ATTENTION

1. Mindfulness as a stream on remembering.
2. Curiosity as desire to understand.
3. Effort as balance in energy and structure of attention.
4. Softening as an inclination towards abandoning.
5. Joy as the subtle pleasure of abandoning.
6. Tranquility as the calming of physical and mental activity.
7. Unification as collection of the above attention factors.

TIER 2 Mindfulness of Breathing

The structure of your daily mindfulness of breathing is the same except that you add one more additional skill. Insert these Meditation Skills for training establishment of the first six Factors of Enlightenment and the conditions for the arising of access concentration.

YOUR MEDITATION SO FAR

• Create your meditation posture
• *Addition 1
• MARKER 4: Awareness Grounded Within Body
• *Addition 2
• *Addition 3
• MARKER 5: Natural Flow of Your Breathing. 
• MARKER 6: Knowing In & Out Breaths.
• MARKER 7: Knowing the Length of Each Breath.
• Addition 4:
• MARKER 8: Knowing Sensation Within Each Breath.
• MARKER 9: Knowing One Point of Breath Sensation.
• *Addition 5
• MARKER 10: Knowing Subtle Movement of Body Breathing.

• MARKER 11: Stable Attention on One Point of Sensation.
• MARKER 12: Unified Stable Attention, Free from Hindrances. 

Read the meditation instructions below, they have been laid out in a simple step by step process. Once familiar, begin your meditation the following below instructions.

• Read Instructions: MEDITATION INSTRUCTIONS: Addition 7

BACK TO MENU

Begin your meditation by sitting comfortably on a chair or the floor. Palms resting one on the other in your lap, thumbs lightly touching in the middle as a grounding point for attention. Allowing your eyelids to gently close as this sends a signal to the mind that it is time to relax; it is time to develop calm. Once your eyelids are relaxed spend a few moments reflecting on small things you’re grateful for to sweeten your mind; smile when you are doing this. Then bring to mind the purpose for this meditation.

(5 minutes)

Addition 1

Begin your meditation with eyes open and allow your eyes to engage with the room around you, then soften that seeing. Allow your eyelids to relax, to become heavy, feeling the pleasure of it. Allow this relaxation to flow down through your face, your chest, arms and legs. Tune into the subtle pleasure of this relaxation, of abandoning effort within your body. How nice it feels.

(5 minutes)

Marker 4 

Begin to soften/relax awareness into your body until awareness and the presence of your body become one. As you soften into your body, the natural flow of breathing will appear to you as a subtle movement in your body, establish a stream of remembering on it. 

(5 minutes)

Addition 2

Maintain present moment awareness of your body sensations in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi. As the subtle pleasure builds within your body, gently smile into that subtle pleasure with your eyes. The smile is gentle and relaxed, like your smiling with your eyes at a loved one, showing them how much you care. Allow the subtle pleasure to enter your mind as the joy of abandoning, the contentment of release. When doing it notice how this meditative joy within the mind naturally balances energy and stabilises attention. 

(5 minutes)

Addition 3

Once meditative joy is established with your posture of attention, bring your awareness to inside your lungs. Allow breathing to occur naturally free from control, noticing as the breath comes in your chest it expands out-wards; like a yoga stretch. Notice how nice this natural stretch with each in breath feels. As each breath goes out and your body deflates, notice the subtle pleasure of abandoning that naturally occurs with each out-breath. From inside your breathing be aware of its pleasure: breath comes in: gentle stretch, breath goes out; pleasure of abandoning, stretch, abandon. Tuning into how nice it feels, allowing the whole breath to fill with this pleasure, this sense of ease. Maintain present moment awareness of the natural flow of breathing within your body in order to develop the precision and clarity within your attention necessary to cultivate samadhi.

(5 minutes)

Marker 7

Notice the moment each breath draws in, and the moment each breath goes out. Become aware of the full length of each in-breath, and the full length of each out-breath.

(5 minutes)

Addition 4

Once your attention is stable on the length of each breath begin to calm the effort to do the meditation with the intention of gradually calming the intellectual functions of your mind while increasing the knowing function of awareness.

(10 minutes)

Marker 8

Once you have become clearer in regards to the beginning and length of each breath, start to notice the difference in sensations between each in-breath and out-breath.

(10 minutes)

Marker 9

Gradually soften and relax your desire 'to do' the meditation. As you calm the intellectual functions of your mind, the perception of time will also weaken. When this concept of observing over time is abandoned, you will be left with one point of breath sensation within your awareness. It is on this one point that you allow your attention to rest so that it may stabilise on it. 

Addition 5

Stablise your attention on one point of breath sensation while maintaining meditative joy within your mind. Developed sustained attention on one point of breath sensation for a long period of time until tranquility, as an absent of movement with continuous knowing, arises and stabilises within your attention. Allow the experience of meditative joy and tranquility to merge as a posture of stable attention.

Addition 6

Slightly widen your peripheral awareness to the subtle movements of your whole body as it breathes. As each breath draws in, you will notice a subtle movement as your body expands outwards. As each breaths goes out, you will notice a subtle movement as your body deflates inward. Gradually pump up the clarity of your knowing and meditative joy while maintaining effortless attention on one point of breath sensation. Perceive the subtle sensations of the breath in one stable point of breath sensation and the clarity of knowing, infused with the joy of abandoning becomes a stable part of your attention.

INSERT ADDITION 7 HERE

Markers 11 & 12 are the signs of meditative attention that is at the doorway to access concentration. While Marker 11 is concerned with calming the 'doer', Marker 12 is concerned with the arising of access concentration. Access concentration is experienced as stable, unified attention free from the meditative hindrances.

INSTRUCTIONS MARKER 11

1. At this stage breath sensation can lose its clarity or become very subtle. Increase the continuity of mindfulness by maintaining the centre of attention on one point of breath sensation, while opening your peripheral awareness to the subtle movement of your whole body as it breaths. With this clear perception mindfulness will increase and attention will become more stable.
2. Check that all five factors are still present within your mind, particularly joy.
3. Abandon all doing and allow attention to rest on one point of breath sensation. Allow joy to start to transfer from joy of relaxation to joy of seclusion. Smile/relax into that one point, while monitoring the five factors, encourage the joy of seclusion to grow.
4. Soften any final effort within the mind by borrowing the deflation of each out-breath and the relaxation inherent within it. Get out of the way and allow the sixth factor samadhi unify the other five factors.

CALMING THE FINAL HINDRANCES

Anticipation: Desire for pleasurable states.

Fear: Fear of giving up all control.

1. Your focus should be on calming all doing and focus your final abandoning towards softening the 'doer'. The doer will arise as a feeling of wanting access concentration to develop in order to experience the pleasure or achievement of it. The doer will also arise when the experience of breathing ceases and you experience a feeling of sinking or dropping into your attention point as samadhi completely unifies your posture of attention. 
2. It is the recognising and calming of anticipation and fear that are the main barriers at this stage. it can be helpful to recognise the effort within your attention as a 'going out' or 'going forward' and slightly relaxing/backing off that effort. knowing the experience but not doing the experience.
3.  Smile/relax into that one point, while monitoring the five factors, encourage the joy of seclusion to grow.

OBSERVE CALM ABANDON IN THIS ORDER

Access Concentration is also established by observing, calming and abandoning.

1. Anticipation: desire for pleasurable states.
2. Fear: fear of giving up all control.
3. Desire for sensory pleasure: in regards to the six sense fields.
4. Vitakka (as applied attention): until the application of attention is autonomous.

Once you can stabilise your attention on breath sensation, without any effort or distraction, free from all Meditative Hindrances, you are said to have reached access concentration. It is access concentration because it creates an access doorway to jhana.

Now that you are familiar with the meditation instructions it is time to begin your daily meditation in order to start training your skill in attention.

1. It is important meditate daily and to commit to your set time.
2. Remember  there is no such thing as a bad meditation, just an opportunity to learn and develop insight. When your mind is all over the place and your attention has collapsed, take this as an opportunity to observe anatta: the autonomous nature of your attention.
3. Keep meditating daily until you fulfill the below progression criteria.

You are ready to progress to TIER 3 Mindfulness of Breathing to develop skill in establishing access concentration when you can stabilise your attention on breath sensation, without any effort or distraction, free from all Meditative Hindrance.

• View the Progressive Menu to see your next step

BACK TO MENU

STEP 1: COMPLETED: You have chosen PATH 1 

STEP 2: COMPLETED: You have completed Softening

STEP 3: COMPLETED: You have completed TIER 1

STEP 4: COMPLETED: You have completed TIER 2

YOUR NEXT STEP

STEP 5: Skill in TIER 3: Access Concentration

STEP 1: COMPLETED: You have chosen PATH 2 

STEP 2: COMPLETED: You have completed Softening

STEP 3: COMPLETED: You have completed TIER 1

STEP 4: COMPLETED: You have completed TIER 2

YOUR NEXT STEP

STEP 5: Skill in TIER 3: Access Concentration

BACK TO MENU