Stage 4 - Part 2 (TMI) The Mind Illuminated From 2018 Course

This is Part 2 for Stage 4 on The Mind Illuminated from a course I led in the Finders Course Alumni community for people who did not land onto the continuum. I hope you enjoy this track and as always I invite you to feel free and ask any questions.

Transcript

So we begin our meditation with the six-step preparation and we start with our motivation.

Why are we meditating?

It may be to awaken,

To land in a location.

Whatever your motivation is,

Acknowledge your motivation,

Support your motivation.

Then we move to goals.

What is the goal for this sit?

Maybe it's to see the exhale or the inhale more clearly.

Maybe it's to overcome gross distraction.

Whatever your specific goals are for this sit,

Establish them clearly.

Then we move to expectations,

Recognizing that having strong expectations doesn't serve us.

So we ease up on that,

Not expecting anything but to investigate,

To see clearly what it is that's happening.

And then we move to diligence,

Sustained repeated intentions,

Not efforting but a resolution to arise the appropriate intention at the appropriate moment.

And then we move to distractions.

Whatever it is that we know assails us,

Thoughts of the past,

Thoughts of the future,

Family,

Work,

Whatever it is that we know that can distract us or has distracted us.

Just put those down intentionally.

Now I'm going to sit and I'm going to put you down for a little while.

And lastly we come to our posture,

Sitting erect,

Relaxed.

We sort of weed out any major areas of tension enough to where they don't distract us as we prepare for the four-step transition to the meditation object,

To the breath.

And so in step one of the transition,

Open up all the senses to what's happening,

Resist senselessly,

Completely open.

Let vision,

If you're sitting in a room,

Take in all the sides and ceiling and floor of whatever's before you.

Not using attentional focus really at all,

But just a zoomed out,

Open peripheral awareness as vision.

No effort,

Just a simple acknowledgement of what is.

The same with hearing,

Just allow all the sounds to be as they are,

Wherever they are.

Add sensations of the body,

Again without focus,

Just whatever's there.

Naturally,

At ease.

When that's established,

Just rest for a while or if you like you can count five or ten breaths.

Really get a sense of this wide open zoomed out awareness.

And this is where we're going to try and look from as we begin to direct and sustain our focus.

And so even at this stage if there's wandering,

You just enact the appropriate antidote.

And so we move on to step two.

With the wide open established peripheral awareness we just direct and sustain attention on the body gently.

Whatever we feel,

We're not looking for anything,

But whatever we feel,

Whatever's sensed.

Keep your eyes open to help maintain the peripheral awareness.

Stay open as you see that directing and sustaining attention does not necessarily have to come at the expense of a collapse of peripheral awareness.

In step three we move on to the sensations of breathing that is direct and sustained attention.

And the complete path of the breath from the nose to the navel,

From the navel to the nose.

Again,

We're not looking to feel any particular way,

We just feel whatever's there.

Acknowledge it.

Notice it.

And try and see that it doesn't have to come at the expense of peripheral awareness.

Yes,

Some energy is taken from peripheral awareness it seems like.

But the peripheral awareness doesn't have to collapse just because there is a tension of focus.

And again,

Keep your eyes open.

And hopefully you see it takes very little effort.

It's just an intention.

It's just the intention to keep peripheral awareness open and the intention to direct and sustain focus.

Yes.

Next we move on to step four of the transition.

Directing and sustaining attention at the tip of the nose.

So again,

Whatever we feel at the tip of the nose,

We're not expecting to feel one way or the other.

Just a simple intention,

Wanting to see,

Wanting to sense what is at the tip of the nose in relation to the sensations of the breath.

And again,

Keep the eyes open.

And if attentional focus narrows and stages,

That is maybe you go from sort of the upper torso and the head,

Whatever sensations are there as you try and go to the breath.

And you let the torso go to the background,

To the peripheral and attend to maybe the sensations of the head only.

And maybe naturally to the face itself.

Eventually one of the inhalations or exhalations should start to become more clear.

And again,

In a non-striving,

Just intentional way of wanting to see the beginning,

The middle and end of whichever phase is most clear.

The eyes are open.

Peripheral awareness is established.

Just these simple intentions without effort.

Once one phase of the breath is clearly seen and tend to see the other phase,

And maybe even the pauses between.

Our ancients used a classification scheme for experience.

They used fire,

Earth,

Air and water,

Space and consciousness.

For some of us when we go to the breath,

We go from the earth element towards the breath from a sense of solidity.

Instead of solidity,

Try and come to the breath from a sense of space or even awareness.

Let go of the sense of solidity and from a more fine element,

That of space or that of awareness,

Come to the breath,

Which is less fine.

It's subtle,

Yes,

But it's more substantial than space or awareness.

See if you can do that.

Maybe from outside of the face or outside of the nose or from the space within the nostrils.

See if you can sense the breath.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Maybe your eyes have closed already and that's totally okay.

It's natural settling into meditation.

If the breath sensations are clear and peripheral awareness is strong,

You can see that there's no competition between the two.

They work together.

We just nourish and sustain our attention whenever we see that the clarity of the breath is starting to wane.

Just a simple attention.

Wanting to see the beginning,

The middle,

And the end more clearly.

Each phase with equal clarity.

In an open,

Relaxed,

And non-striving way.

Just the simple intentions.

We drop them into the ocean of awareness.

We let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

If the mind wanders or is forgotten,

Recognize that.

But then forget that you forgot.

And rejoice in this mini awakening.

Coming back to awareness.

How wonderful it feels to be present,

To be aware,

To be clear.

And then again,

Just a simple intention to engage more fully with the breath.

A simple intention to see the beginnings and middles and ends as clear as possible.

While maintaining peripheral awareness.

Just these simple intentions.

Waking up.

Making the intention.

And following through.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

Let go of the sense of solidity.

There's a gross distraction that is if some other object has taken center stage and the breath has receded to the background but it's still there.

We react in a similar way.

Seeing that,

Ah,

Look at that.

Recognizing that sense of clarity.

Savor that little sense of,

Ah,

I saw that.

I can correct for this.

And again,

Just simple intention.

Tightening up the breath.

Tightening up the directed and sustained attention on the sensations of the breath.

And following through.

If peripheral awareness is strong,

You can see these sensations competing for attention with the breath.

But again,

You just let them be in the background and peripheral awareness.

While there's a motivational,

Intentional focus to see clearly the beginnings,

Middles and ends.

Maybe you can see that you can use the distractions to help focus.

It is to add energy to the peripheral of awareness as the breath sensations become a sort of anchor.

There's a holding of intention but everything else is perfectly okay to arise,

Be for a little while and pass away in peripheral awareness.

And so we start to become aware of how the mind moves.

How attention moves.

How the meditation object becomes more clear or less clear.

And how intention supports the clarity.

And so we start to monitor the mind's activity from introspective peripheral awareness.

In the same way that sounds and sights effortlessly appear in extrospective peripheral awareness.

Thoughts,

Emotional states,

The state of the mind,

The state of attention.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

We bring an interest to acknowledge those but from peripheral awareness without a sacrifice of the meditation object.

If any energetic emotion arises and it demands attention,

That is,

It's competing too strongly with the breath,

We simply acknowledge that this energetic emotion has arisen,

So we turn our attention to the emotion.

If there's any memories associated with the emotion,

We ignore them.

Just focus on the energy in the body and feel in wherever you feel the emotion.

And you allow this energetic emotion to be.

You can say something like,

I'm perfectly safe right now sitting here,

And so I can allow this memory and energy to express itself in the body.

And so just direct and sustain attention on the energetic aspect of the emotion objectively as much as you can.

We come to accept this emotion that is appearing as energy.

Yes,

A past event happened.

This energetic feeling has a right to express,

But the event happened in the past,

And so I don't have to feel this way any longer.

This acceptance.

And then again focusing on the energy of the emotion.

Breathe long into the energetic feeling.

Allow the breath to move the energy to wherever it needs to move.

Breathe with the emotion.

Let the breath,

Like the winds of a storm,

Dissipate the energy.

When the energy of the emotion subsides,

This may take minutes or seconds.

Just again go back to the intention of focusing on the breath.

The emotion may appear again,

But we enact a similar strategy or the same strategy of acknowledgement,

Allowing and accepting.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Breathe.

The fullness can start to set in when we focus too long or too intently at this stage on the sensations of the breath.

So we want to stand back a little bit from the breath.

We stand back enough to include other objects in the periphery of awareness.

And most importantly,

The objects of the mind.

So when we focus too intently on the breath,

At the exclusion of the periphery,

Those objects in the periphery of awareness add energy to the meditation.

And so when that stops happening,

We tend to go a little dull,

Even though the breath is clear,

Can we notice that the sensations of the breath become less clear?

And so if dullness hasn't progressed to progressive subtle dullness,

And a sort of sinking into drowsiness,

We have the antidotes for that,

Right?

We can breathe more strongly,

Purse our lips together and push the exhale out strongly,

Squeeze our muscles.

And if we can catch dullness soon enough,

We can enact certain strategies to use peripheral awareness to counteract the dullness.

And so you can expand the peripheral awareness first.

We can remember stage one of the transition of opening the periphery to everything.

So you can do it now with eyes closed,

Just allow more into the periphery.

That expansion can counteract the dullness if the subtle dullness is caught soon enough and isn't progressive subtle dullness.

You can expand attention from the sensations of the nose to the whole body.

So similar to step two of the transition,

Just become aware of all the sensations in the body.

That increase of the scope of attentional focus can help counteract the effects of dullness.

And lastly,

You can open your eyes and expand the periphery.

That can also can help counteract the progression of dullness.

And once you get a sense that the dullness has subsided or that you caught it soon enough,

You can go back to attending to the breath and see if the clarity has come back.

Again,

It's beginning,

Middles and ends of the inhalation and exhalation.

My.

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Reviews

Thanks for this recording, Eric... I have returned to it over time and it’s often been helpful for my practice, wherever it’s at. The intentional approach really works for me. Sooooo thanks again 😊

Very helpful guided meditation. Lots of spaces but enough to keep an intention to develop stage 4 skills.
Thankyou
PS came back to this after a lull in practice and found it very helpful to regain rusty skills.

One of the best methods
to get thru this stage making you aware of your goals

An excellent accompaniment to my TMI practice. I had lots of decent focus during this session with several periods of Piti. It seems something kind of snapped into place. Thanks very much!

Great meditation, thank you.

Fantastic meditation Eric! Really helps in advancing your TMI practice. I like how you emphasize keeping awareness open. It’s so easy to get too concentrated on the breath and get distracted/dull.

Another outstanding meditation. I probably said that the last time but this TMI method really works for me. Lightly guided with reminders just when you need them. So grateful that I found your meditations. Many thanks! ☮️💖🙏