Stage 3 (TMI) The Mind Illuminated From 2018 Course

TMI Stage 3 guided practice from a course I led in the Finders Course Alumni community in 2018. There may be some other influences from Shinzen and anapansati contained in the practice, but the main thrust is TMI practice.

Transcript

I'll give everybody a few minutes to do their six-step preparation.

First we willboy Rhei clearer some water and water.

You And then we begin our transition to the meditation object.

So I tend to keep my eyes open to allow visual peripheral awareness to be wide open and auditory awareness to be wide open.

And don't even use attention,

Just come to recognize and experience just this wide open zoomed out peripheral awareness.

And count 10 breaths.

And just relax.

In step two,

We transition to the body directing and sustaining attention to all the sensations in the body.

Very lightly,

Don't need to hyper focus.

Again,

Don't let peripheral awareness collapse.

So again,

I keep my eyes open.

You can even look at the body.

Again feel the connectedness to the earth,

The rootedness to the earth.

In step three of the transition,

We limit a intentional focus even more by just bringing attention to the sensations of breathing in the body.

So you could use the dantians if you want.

Or you can follow the breath from the nose down to the navel on the inhalation.

From the navel to the nose and the exhalation.

Just feeling whatever you feel.

And again,

Breathe a little deeper.

Relax a little more.

Count ten breaths.

In step four,

We again narrow our focus of attention.

We direct and sustain our attention at the nose.

If you're really not ready to go into the nose,

You can just sort of direct attention to the head area.

The intention to focus on the nose.

Again,

Feeling whatever you feel.

Count ten breaths.

In step five,

We again narrow our focus of attention.

We direct and sustain our attention at the nose.

If you're really not ready to go into the nose,

You can just sort of direct attention to the head area.

If you're really not ready to go into the nose,

You can just sort of direct attention to the head area.

If you're really not ready to go into the nose,

You can sort of direct attention to the head area.

Again,

Feeling whatever you feel.

If you don't feel that awareness is settling,

You can count another 10 breath lifts if you want.

So Chuladasa recommends to count at the beginning of the exhale.

So right before you exhale,

That's where you count.

So let's count 10 more and see if you can see very clearly the beginnings and endings of the inhalations and exhalations.

Let me take just a moment to go around these expressions here,

So you will be able to add And so now our practice is to see as much as possible,

As clearly as possible,

Beginnings and endings of the inhalations and exhalations and then add a sensation or two in between.

If you're not catching any of the sensations try and elongate the breath,

Give yourself a little more time.

You can maybe start on the inhalation first.

So on an inhalation try and see a sensation in the middle between the beginnings and endings and then just breathe normally on the exhalation.

Once that's clear add the exhalations.

Let's practice like that for a little while.

You you you you you you you you you If the mind wanders into thought,

Just catch yourself.

Aha!

I was thinking.

I woke up.

Pat yourself on the back.

Savor that moment of wakefulness.

It's no problem.

It's a stage two practice.

You have the antidote.

Just engage that antidote.

Continually.

Eventually mind wandering will stop.

Then with a strong intention to want to see the beginnings and endings and sensation between,

Go back to the breath.

Without collapsing peripheral awareness.

It's a stage three practice.

You have the antidote.

Just engage that antidote.

Continually.

Eventually.

Eventually.

Eventually.

Then with a strong intention to want to see the beginnings and endings and sensation between,

Go back to the breath.

Without collapsing peripheral awareness.

Then with a strong intention to want to see the beginnings and endings and sensation between,

Go back to the breath.

Then with a strong intention to want to see the beginnings and endings and sensation between,

Go back to the breath.

Eventually.

Eventually.

Eventually.

Eventually.

Once we've tamed mind wandering.

We can begin to work on stage three practices.

This is labeling and checking in.

So again we use Shenzhen's nomenclature.

So when you take your attention off the breath.

And put your attention on here in.

Wherever it is in experience in the mind.

Where you hear self talk.

Just put your attention on that for a little while.

And label if there was any self talk.

Planning.

Future.

Past.

Simple generic labels.

There was no.

Self talk when you checked in.

You can note here rest.

But right now we're just trying to find that place.

And we're going to go back to the breath.

And we're going to go back to the breath.

And we're going to go back to the breath.

And we're going to go back to the breath.

But right now we're just trying to find that place.

In our experience.

Where are we.

Experience here in.

An introspective awareness.

By bringing introspective attention to it.

Then we do the same for see in.

Was there any imagery.

Where is that in your experience.

Where is that in your experience.

What is that in your experience.

Wherever you see imagery in the mind.

Put your attention there now.

If there's no imagery,

You can note,

See rest.

Otherwise you could have noted.

What the imagery was about.

The past,

The future.

Whatever.

Simple label.

But right now,

Find in your experience where you see in.

And then we can do the same for feel in.

In the body.

Wherever you feel emotion.

In the lower abdomen.

In the chest.

In the jaw.

In the eyes.

Wherever.

There may have been emotion.

When you check in,

You can notice.

And label the emotion.

If there's no emotion,

You can.

Note,

Feel rest.

And then now the mind,

The introspective awareness,

Because we put attention there,

Should be a little brighter.

Similar to the aha moment.

Now we intend to go back to the breath.

Direct and sustain our attention.

To see the beginnings and endings.

In the middle.

Sensation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

56 or so breaths.

Again,

Check in.

Hear in.

What's there?

We note.

We label it.

See in.

What's there?

We note.

We label it.

Or see rest.

Feel in.

What's there?

We label it.

Or feel rest.

Again,

Intend to go into the breath.

Thank you.

Checking in.

What do we hear?

What do we see?

What do we feel?

Go back to the breath.

Thank you.

Checking in.

Is there a distraction?

Hear in.

See in.

Feel in.

Label the distraction.

With intention,

Go back to the breath.

Thank you.

Checking in.

Hear in.

See in.

Feel in.

So now I'll do this again in 12 breaths for a little bit.

You do a check in midway between.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Checking in.

Hear in.

See in.

Feel in.

Note the distraction if there was one and tighten up your focus on the breath.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Checking in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Checking in.

Checking in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Checking in.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Check in.

Now we'll go through the antidotes to drowsiness.

Just to experience them.

So before we do it,

Just get a state of,

A sense of your mind if it is drowsy.

Subtle or gross.

And what we'll do first is take three deep breaths.

As deep as you can.

Then you purse your lips and blow out as hard as you can.

So do that now.

Three times.

And when you're done,

Check in.

And introspective awareness and see if there's an energetic lift.

To the mind.

And then just sense of how much energy that gave you.

And then just sense of how much energy that gave you.

If for some reason that didn't work,

Then we have to go to the next antidote.

The stronger antidote.

So this involves tensing all your muscles.

Your core,

Your jaw,

Everything.

And then relax.

Take a breath.

Do it again.

Squeeze.

Relax.

Take a deep breath.

Do it again.

Squeeze.

Relax.

Take a deep breath.

And check in again.

See if that gave you a little mental lift.

If that didn't work.

Time to stand up.

Let's stand up.

You can focus on the breath.

Focus on the body.

If you want,

Open your eyes.

Try and regain your composure.

And you feel like you're no longer drowsy,

You can sit down.

Once again,

See if the mind state has changed.

There's energy in the mind now.

You're over your drowsiness.

You're over the gross dullness.

And again,

Set the attention to see clearly the beginnings and endings of the inhales and the exhales.

And a few sensations in between.

And every six or so breaths you check in.

Check in.

And again,

Focus on the breath.

Check in.

So I'll give you a few ways to deal with pain.

If there's any pain in the body.

Trulada So I recommend that just ignore it.

If it's beginning to get stronger and demand your attention.

Activate a longer breath,

A calming breath.

So let's say you feel pain in the knee,

Wherever you feel it.

Really try and make the torso calm and at ease with long breathing.

Once your attention is stable on that sense of calmness.

You breathe that calmness towards the knee pain.

Right,

So the knee pain doesn't have to grow and infect the whole body with tension.

We can counteract it with the reverse,

Bring ease to the knee pain.

If someone's feeling pain,

Try it right now with the long breath.

Bring ease and relaxation to the pain.

It's probably sort of intense and you don't want to put your attention on it so maybe 12 inches away.

Is that area in pain?

It probably isn't.

So again,

Breathe,

Ease,

12 inches away into that point.

And then you can feel the ease 12 inches away,

Go another inch closer to the pain.

And breathe ease into it.

When you've neutralized any pain,

Go another inch closer,

Keep doing this.

Going towards the pain,

Bringing ease and calmness to the pain.

And when you feel that it's neutralized enough that it's no longer a distraction,

You go back to the breath at the nose.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Check in.

The other way we can deal with pain is we go right to the source of it.

There's a physical basis for the pain,

A sensation before the liking and disliking that gets labeled as pain,

The dislike of the sensation gets labeled as pain.

It could be pressure or an inch or heat.

So you go right into the middle of it.

Try and find that contact with the body.

What is it?

Is it a sense of solidity,

Too much solidity in the knee?

What's that feel like?

Find it.

Find what's the cause for this unpleasantness.

Find the actual physical sensation before the pain arises.

How solid is it?

Feel it.

Find it.

Where is that solidity that's causing this pain?

And if your mindfulness is strong enough,

You may see the solidity sort of dissolve into awareness and the pain disappear.

If not,

That's okay.

We have the other method we could use or the methods that Chuladasa recommends.

And worst case scenario,

You intend to move,

But on your terms,

Not on the pain's term.

So you say,

You know,

In five breaths,

I'm going to move.

So you wait,

Cultivate patience and tolerance.

And then you move,

Mindfully move.

And then again,

With intention,

We go back to the breath.

Check in.

This is the last time I'll say check in before the bell.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Reviews

Really good guided practice!

When you 'check in' and find no distraction, what is it that you say? I hear 'see-rest'

Thank you, so very helpful right now in my practice .

Really good meditation. Reminder that taking time in the initial stages results in a better quality of awareness.
A great revision of stage 3 TMI and a good way to set a habit of metacognitive awareness.

Very good balance of instruction on penetrating present experience and silent time to apply it.

These guided meditations are a valuable addition to my TMI based practice. Thank you so much!

really enjoyed it, great one it helps if
you - like me - tend to temporarily forget the most important takeaway methods for each stage. especially the checkin commands helped as well as making the checkins more diligent. iwill definitely set up recurring sounds for my silent sessions from now on.
much love!

Fantastic! For me these are perfect guided meditations. Some nice gentle cues and guidance (check in) and lots of quiet pauses to practice. I really liked the end dealing with any pain in the body. Towards the end of longer sits my knees and back start to ache a little. Breathing into that pain, it truly did lessen enough that I did not have to change position at all. So many thanks for these practices. Some of my new favorites and I will revisit again. ☮️💖🙏