Stages
As you progress on the meditative path, you encounter distinct phases.
Each one is marked by unique developments that provide insights into the nature of the mind and its capabilities. With every step, you experience a deeper harmonization between mind, body, and breath. In this section, we explore these stages, from the initial shifts in attention to the deep tranquility and profound mindfulness that characterize advanced practice. Next, we will examine how specific meditation durations correlate with each stage, clarifying the amount of time necessary to achieve each level of practice.
1. Subsiding of forgetting
1. Subsiding of forgetting
The mind’s natural tendency to jump continuously from one theme to another and to lose awareness of the breath as attention wanders gradually diminishes and ceases. This allows the breath to maintain a constant presence in consciousness, cohabitating with distractions, whether prominent in the foreground or subtle in the background.
2. Subsiding of distraction
2. Subsiding of distraction
As mindfulness, the capacity of mental introspection, becomes increasingly continuous, the mind recognizes earlier the objects that share space with the breath, allowing them to pass before they completely overshadow it. Eventually, the enhanced power of attention and mindfulness prevents other objects from arising in attention entirely.
3. Effortless stability of attention and clarity of mindfulness
3. Effortless stability of attention and clarity of mindfulness
At this stage, attention aligns effortlessly with intentions and can engage any object exclusively without wavering. The focus remains predominantly on the breath, although it becomes possible to engage in other practices. Concurrently, mindfulness achieves a fully metacognitive state, providing a clear and ongoing picture of the mind’s own activities, movements, and the current state of attention.
4. Arising and persistence of tranquility and equanimity
4. Arising and persistence of tranquility and equanimity
Throughout this process, relaxation deepens, and the mind’s average emotional state gradually becomes positive and pleasant. At this stage, the mind is unified enough that the emotional parts of the mind mostly project feelings of tranquility and equanimity, a state of emotional non-reactivity and acceptance to what arises in experience.
5. Arising and maturation of absorption
5. Arising and maturation of absorption
At this advanced stage, the mind can access profound states of absorption known as the four jhānas. These represent peak forms of mental flow and are the deepest states of unification achievable by the mind. Such states intensify mindfulness to its utmost and significantly deepen equanimity. Characterized by immense joy, bliss, and tranquility, these states allow the mind to intensely focus on the meditation object and on itself, fostering feelings of pleasure and ease that sustain effortlessly. The duration of these states is dictated by the initial meditative intention, during which the mind and body experience significant healing.