I recently bought the Claude Opus 3 after seeing it on Leo's blog and found something really creative that you can do find your life purpose and ideas for task/projects to get you there. I generated a PDF from OneNote with all my notes from the Life Purpose course, uploaded it to Claude, and asked it questions to help get me on track. Some of the best questions I asked were:
-Given what you know about me, what are some different ways I could formulate my Life Purpose statement to make it sound more authentic? 
-Give me a vision of what my life could look like if I was living my Life Purpose, be specific
-Give me a list of tasks and projects that I can do in order to get on track with my Life Purpose
-Brainstorm a list of people who have a life purpose similar to mine and a brief summary of how they did it
It's not a substitute for doing the real inner work but I think that it is a great tool to use especially if you took the Life Purpose course and want help brainstorming an working on your Life Purpose

I too,  grew confused about the relationship between Life Purpose and Enlightenment work, but here's a nice summary of what I've realized.
To begin, lets look at three propositions:
Enlightenment work represents development of one's inner life (INNER development), not observable by anyone other than one on the inside -- its working on how you feel about the work and how you look at the world. Life purpose work represents development of one's outer life (OUTER development), observable by anyone 'on the outside' (Yes, I get that 'there is no outside,' but bear with me here. I use this term in the regular everyday sense - the way that you can't see my experience of the color red but you can see me practicing kickboxing). Anyway life purpose work is about the tangible stuff I take from the world and the tangible stuff I give to the world (art, science, words, videos, volunteering, etc.) Both Enlightenment Work (INNER development) and Life Purpose Work (OUTER development) have elements of Purification (Taking Away stuff) and Increasing Complexity/Power (Adding stuff). No part of is completely detached from any other part. Life is about all of these aspects of development. You cannot have one without the other, although they are separate focuses or views. It is like talking about North, South, East and West. I cannot have North without South or East without West. But looking Eastward gives me not much information about West and looking northward doesn't give me information about south.
Then again, at the highest levels, all four views come together when you go to the highest levels, the way that if i went east all the way, it would connect with west on a globe and if i went far enough north, i would begin to go south. So if I wanted to have the greatest levels of Outer development, I would have to have had the greatest levels of inner development. If I want to give more to the world, i have to stop taking away so much from the world. If I'm the type of person with true awakening then I am the time person who doesn't take in the things that I know I don't want. 
So, what we have is a grid of four quadrants of getting your shit together. 
Waking Up - Inner Enlightenment work by taking away attachment to untruth Growing Up - Inner Enlightenment work by adding mental complexity/the ability to take on multiple perspectives Cleaning Up - Outer Life Purpose work by taking away attachment to addictions Showing Up - Outer Life Purpose work by adding techniques of mastery so that we express our highest values
Each of these quadrants has its own line of development through transcending and including previous levels.
These quadrants are all connected, yet they develop independently. 
Which is to say the following:
A highly developed human would go as far as possible in all four quadrants of personal development. they would feel awakened, look awakened, act awakened, and talk awakened But just because you're good at one level of development, doesn't 100% mean you're good at all of them. for evidence, look at anyone in Tim Ferris's Podcast  There is increasing levels correlation between all four quadrants as one develops to the highest level in any one quadrant that is, to really show up in life like a Leonardo Da Vinci or Bruce lee, you have to have gotten your shit together  We often might only pay attention to people who are really good at any one level, thinking that that is the way to live, but often it is only a focus on one quadrant Again, The problem is that people only spend time focused on one quadrant and one quadrant only, thinking that that is the be-all end all. This is why so much of self-help might conflict. 
More over, our society only looks at the quadrant of Showing Up as a form of success. As mentioned before, since it does correlate at higher levels, Showing success is a small form of evidence of overall development, but its not the whole picture.
Do not create a duality between life purpose and enlightenment. They are one, not two, as are all things - hence non-duality.
Also,
Do not create a duality between purifying your life through non-action and adding more to your life through action.
Moreover, I cannot tell you, no one can tell you @Dan94  what life might look like when all four quadrants are developed to their highest level FOR YOU. This is part of why the tao that can be spoken is not the true tao. Leonardo Da Vinci is nothing like Bruce Lee is nothing like Joe Rogan is nothing Like Peter Ralston other than that they all hang out in Being Cognition (and technically they are all the same awareness!). It is in this sense that we all follow our own path. 
Furthermore, all of this is mental justification for chilling the fuck out and hanging out in Being Cognition while observing stuff.
Being cognition is the sense that the world is perfect as is and that everything is seen as an end-itself or a subject for-itself instead of an object for an end goal. The common repose of being cognition is that you could die in that moment and that it would be the perfect ending to your movie. We have all felt this way at some point in our lives, and it always feels like everything in our lives lead to that moment at that moment. 
When you feel like you have woken up, grown up, cleaned up, and showed up sufficiently you will allow yourself to hang out in being cognition. Other wise, you will probably trick yourself into going back to deficiency cognition, where the world is basically a rat-race hell.
So it is that:
Enlightenment work is life purpose work viewed form the outside. Taking away subtle addictions is the other side of adding mental/physical power. And that all of this is just so that you can allow yourself to step into Being Cognition - but from the very beginning you could simply hang out in being cognition and that is itself all that's necessary to do all four. 
The systemic strategy, then is to allow yourself to go into Being Cognition (by developing curiosity after dropping Knowing) and through your own curiosity develop yourself on any of the quadrants as your intuition pulls you from a sense of wanting to know and wanting to get better (PLAYing) not needing to know and not needing to get better (SEEKing). This is Not Knowing In Action. 
If you're wondering what it looks like to allow yourself to access being cognition and develop yourself in all four quadrants look no further than Bruce Lee, Leonardo Da Vinci, Plato, Wim Hof, Peter Ralston, and Joe Rogan. Those guys have their inner life developed and their outer life developed as well, all while allowing themselves to hang out in Being Cognition all the time.
Simply Work Diligently, Patiently, Persistently, and Playfully to Realize the Truth - that there's nothing more than simply working Diligently, Patiently, Persistently, and Playfully to Realize the Truth - that there's nothing more than.... 
Love,
TJ 
P.S. people wonder what Spiral Dynamics Coral Level looks like, it is everything I described above. Coral = all four quadrants of getting your shit together combine and you allow yourself to hang out in being cognition 24/7 (although being cognition is available from the get go) @Leo Gura let me know what you think of this proposition.

Here is my last insight:
 
Being developed in the spiral is NOT about how high (you think) you are.
Is about where your LOWER BOTTLE-NECK is.
 
You are going to be limited by the lowest stage that you don’t have integrated.
You can be fully enlightened, God realized, billionaire, deep understandings of complex systems bla bla bla… but if you have back pain, a gut problems, migraines, sleep deficiency, or you don’t control your sexual/sugar/online cravings, or don’t have a tribe/family or deep meaningful rituals, you are going to be miserable.
 
Is not about reaching turquoise as fast as you can.
Is about integrating the lower stages as deep as possible. 
Not trying to scape them.
Understand it. Enjoy it, fully embrace it. Live it. Savour it.
If not, everything else will be an overcompensation.
 
*The lower the stage, the more important it is to develop and integrate it.*
And you will realize that the spiral maybe is not that linear, and purple and turquoise may be closer than we initially believe)
 
 
Im building from this ‘classic’ thread by Reeves:
 
-Im aware that this could be a bastardization of SD, but is practical knowledge)
Is a simple way to structure stuff, so it’s easier to implement).
-When I talk about this, it doesn’t mean I integrated it all. I still work to do.
If I write this is because Im working on it. Im not above anyone).
 
So. Lets take a look a these lower stages:
 
 
BEIGE.

- Healthy eating. No sugar cravings. Basically not being fat.
- Try keto for at least 2 weeks.
- Try a 24h fast.
 
This is not even stage blue discipline.  Is prior to that.
-How are you going to go for a (purple) hike or a camping if you are 20kg overweight? Or if you have sugar cravings? Or if you have some bodily pain? Or if you are zero energy or zero cardio?
-How are you are going to be intimidating when you need (red) if you are too fat or to skinny?
 
- Proper sleep. Be well rested.
Have energy to get through the day.
 
- Correct your posture.    HUGE 
 
-Learn how to sit properly (Avoiding back & neck pain). This shit can ruin your life.
 
-Sit less on chairs, and more on the ground even if its uncomfortable at first.

-Learn about ankle, hip, shoulder mobility; psoas stretching if needed and check for imbalances.

 
- Body movement. . HUGE
Here you have some great examples (notice the guy on the left is 60 years old):
 
People will say the first one is green, but that is not even yoga.
Is just basically becoming a baby or a mammal again. 
Just moving. No goal. You can’t start a serious green-yoga practice if you are stiff like a rock.
Get in touch with being a baby again.
Move. Crawl. Be stupid. Think less. Be less civilized. You will enjoy purple more
Spend more time on the ground. 
 
- Breathe properly. Again, like a baby (through the nose. Diaphragmatic breathing)
 
 
 

This post is intended for serious people who want to become professional musicians and maybe make a living, this is not for dabblers. This process will take you 5 years depending on your skill level. 
 
 
1. First step is to pick an instrument to play, I am assuming most people in music here have already done that but its an obvious first step, you can't be a musician without having a skill, wether it be a DAW, a guitar, singing or rapping.
 
2. Decide if you want to start a band or be a solo artist
Going solo will make this process lot easier because its easier to deal with one ego than four egos that clash. If you want to start a band, ask some friend or place an Ad online to find someone to play with. 
 
3. Pick a genre to play, experiment alot here, create a few songs. The pressure is not high here, have fun and learn alot.
 
4. Pick a name
This is not too important but you want to sound professional, dont pick a name that makes you sound silly unless thats the style of music you're going for. Try to pick a name that somewhat fits your genre, don't call yourself Skull Smashers if you want to create bubble-gum pop. 
 
5. After you have been playing a few months then narrow down your genre more, are you Rock, okay, then what sub-genre? Indie-rock, Hard-rock, Jazz-rock?
I highly suggest listening to atleast 100 albums from artists within your broad genre, this might take you 4-5 months but it teaches you to make fine distinctions and your intuition slowly guides you towards who YOU are and what YOU truly like.
STEAL alot here, steal other artists sounds! Its okay! You can rip people off in the beginning, you will anyway, it will become a melting pot later that will become your real sound. 
 
6. Pick 10 albums that represent your taste, this will be albums that have touched you deeply and that you really love. This gives you a deep hint to where you are going. 
 
7. Narrow down your unique genre in 2-3 words, for example "Quirky uplifting electro-pop"
 
8. Narrow down your moods, vibes and attitude, your sound basically. Try to pick 10 adjectives. Allmusic.com/moods will help you alot here.
 
9. Narrow down your themes, if you have created a few songs already, there should have been some themes cropping up that you seem to be drawn to. Figure out what those themes are. They might be something like "Nature, crime, the inner city, heartbreak, isolation" If you write lyrics this part is easier.
 
10. Find out your One Thing.
What are your strengths? Focus on that. Are you great singer? Good, let that shine through and work hard on that! Dont be too picky with the drums if they dont make up a big part of your sound.
 
11. Find out what makes you a Purple Cow. This requires alot of contemplation. 
 
12. Find out where you fit in your genre, what is your niche? Requires alot of contemplation too and research. Ikigai is very useful here.
 
13. Narrow down your target audience, their age, location, other artists/genres they like, their interests and values. If you want to make it easier you can create an avatar, for example "John is a 30 year old man from Wisconsin who likes..."
 
14. Decide on what Visual Themes you want to use for your Albums, EP, Social Media and Marketing Ads. Research what styles are used in your specific genre so you dont confuse new listeners, you want them to click on your songs and know somewhat theyre going to get before they do. Example: Country/Americana music often uses grainy/dusty nature photography while Death Metal uses dark and violent cartoonish imagery. But its up to you to be creative. New things are discovered when boundaries are crossed.
 
15. Decide a font for your name and create a logo, logo is not always necessary but it certainly sticks out more than a font. 
 
16. Decide your story, you have a story, what makes it special, can it be incorporated into your biography? How? This part can be hard and its easier to hire someone to write it for you but its important because it creates a connection with your fans.
 
17. Narrow down your fashion sense. Youre an artist now, look the part. Throw out any clothes that dont jive with your identity. Dont be afraid to go crazy here, or maybe youre more down to earth, thats fine too! 
 
18. Create a simple Vision Board with 5 pictures that show where you will be in 5-10 years, to keep you inspired! Look at it once in a while to keep your hopes up! 
 
 
This is long term process, for me this has been going on since 2014 and I am still somewhat working on certain components, be patient, there is no hurry, you are creating a giant engine, you want to know every part in and out! Most important is to be honest with yourself. THIS IS NOT ABOUT CREATING A FALSE IDENTITY, this is about chiseling out th authentic artist inside you, you might have to kill some darlings for that. A litmus test is: If it feels tense and fake it is. Keep looking. Your authentic artistic self is relaxed and joyful.
 
Congratulations! That was step 1. Now its time to learn business and marketing! Good luck!
 

Sounds like you may have pushed yourself too hard and your body/mind mounted a fierce resistance.
This happened because of lack of balance and self-acceptance. You cannot just bull your way through to success, as George Leonard says.
You need a more self-compassionate approach to prevent backlash. You need to make sure that you're integrating all the different parts of you, including the part of you that says, "But I just want to be lazy and watch cartoons!" << That is a legitimate part of you! You can't just ignore it's needs. You have to integrate it. Try asking that part of you, "How are you trying to look out for me? How are you trying to help me? How are you protecting me from harm?" Then listen to what is really has to say.
Negotiate better between all the different forces inside you.
Also try looking into Shadow Work. It will help you a lot here.
Reframe this whole issue as: When I figure this out and get myself sorted, I will be in a better position than ever to be an awesome, congruent coach.

The most recent list of Summaries & Episodes is here ? Leo's Blog: Table of Contents ? ▶️ Blog Videos, Summaries & Interviews ▶️ ? Actualized.org on Psychedelics ?  (has all resources on psychedelics)  
Leo’s "20 Dream Killers" article. There’s an Actualized.org Textbook.  It was assembled by @Cepzeu and others.  Summaries in the Textbook (v2) will say: (book pg XXX). You can also check out Leo’s Personal Development Blueprint.  It covers over 100 concepts in personal development.  
     Actualized.org Youtube Episodes:
The first 200 episodes have transcripts in the video section of Actualized.org If you want to contribute to this thread, select one of the episodes that still needs a summary and post it here      Episodes:      1 - 249
     Episodes:   250 - 506

Here's the solution:
1) A Tier 2 person needs to channel her care and love in constructive creative ways. Your LP is not debating fools. This is a waste of your consciousness and love. Rather you must help mankind ON YOUR TERMS. So rather than debating ignorant people, go create a course or a school or something else that can truly help people. Debating people is one of the least constructive uses of your intelligence. If your LP is to teach, then fucking TEACH! Do it seriously, not arguing with fools. Make yourself a serious teacher. A seriosmus teacher doesn't argue, she is too busy teaching.
Be careful to not let people distract you from your true LP with petty human bullshit and games. Stop playing games with them.
You're angry because you're not actually doing your LP.
2) After years of experiencing it, you will learn to cope with ignorance and not let it faze you.
As you become ridiculously conscious, you will become able to not let ignorance affect you. You are not conscious enough for that yet.

Happy Xmas to everyone!
I wish happiness, love and wisdom to all the beings in this forum. May grace be with you  Today, I want to give you guys a christmas present! It's a gift from my heart that arose after months of applying one of the most profound techniques I have ever learned - Letting Go - applied to the body!
 
1. Introduction
It's a perfect tool for healing and spiritual growth. It's so simple but so easily overlooked. You can do it everywhere, anywhere, all the time. Big news, it will happen by itself spontaneously when you invest some time in it. It's so effective that you'll have no chance but to do it. Everything's going to get better from the moment you start applying. I know, I know, one of more of those... Skepticism is healthy. But don't let the mind prevent you from just trying it.
 
If this guidance is aligned with your destiny, you're in for some good surprise! Read it slowly and let it be understood experientially. Stick to it and watch what happens. I will try to keep it as short as possible.
 
2. Theory
Your Ego is made out of resistance. Resistance to what is. Resistance to Reality. Since you were a toddler, you have been resisting Reality. Because of this, you have developed some deep layered contractions and tensions that are still with you today. These tensions are right there in your body and keep you from enjoying your full potential in life. The Ego is made up of these contractions which create a mediocre sense of self. The more contractions there are, the more the Ego feels real and solid. It's hard for an ordinary person to sit still because there's so much contraction that it's painful. These tensions corrupt your energy system and give rise to all the negative thoughts. These contractions are basically suppressed energies in motion - emotions.
Energy in Motion => Resistance (Contraction) => Thoughts
As this energy is released, the thoughts that originate from the corresponding emotion disappear altogether, the Ego is dissolved, slowly and gradually. The goal is to dissolve every bit of contraction till full liberation.
While applying the technique for months and years, you'll experience higher and higher emotions, higher consciousness and all the benefits from dissolution of the Ego. The benefits are fast and easy.
 
3. Technique
Stop moving for a second. Be aware of the entirety of your body sensations all at once, specially the torso. Do that for 15 seconds. Now, think something from your life that makes you uncomfortable (the most uncomfortable thoughts make best for this example). Notice that there's an immediate response in the physical body. There's some contraction in the chest, abdomen, solar plexus or other place. The uncomfortable feel is that contraction. Now focus on it like a laser without trying to remove it or change it. Just be still and focus on it. Watch it dissolve magically. What's left is a lighter emotion, less thoughts and higher awareness. DON'T LISTEN TO THE THOUGHTS. They are just mind rationalisations for the discomfort, no matter how true and reasonable they might seem.
Discomfort => Body awareness => Contraction detected => Focus and release
You have been denying and contracting for all your life so it might (just might ) take a bit of time till you 1) are aware of your body contractions 2) can free up the tensions fast. Usually it takes days to dissolve these contractions once you are aware of them. As time goes on, you'll find yourself releasing them in a matter of minutes. There are literally dozens of thousands of these contractions which are stored in a layer of feelings. The more you apply the technique the more you dive deep in this layer.
 
4. Applications
You always have contractions on your body. There's always some tension underlying your current experience, even if you're not aware of it. Spend some time being aware of your body (body awareness is key here) and let go of the contractions that you can perceive. Remember, let go is just to focus and release the energy. Do this all the time, ALL THE FUCKING TIME. Specially when you feel triggered and uncomfortable. You'll see, in a matter of days, that this is (the?) most powerful technique and you'll be doing it all the time. Then there comes a point where there's always great awareness of the body and the technique just works by itself without "you" doing anything.
Even if you don't feel triggered, you can always be aware of the contractions present right now. Just turn your attention to the body. Be still. Tip: usually it's on the torso area that these blocks manifest, but not always.
 
Dissolving problems
So, this is the most important technique for all of your problems... I see people debating on the forum on many topics: dating problems, self-help problems, insecurity problems, anxiety problems, etc. Know that all of those are just internal blocks which are creating all the thoughts and "problems" on your life. Apply this technique and watch those disappear. Then, you won't need to fix your problems, because they will magically dissolve when the energy is not blocked. See what contraction is causing your current suffering/problem.
 
5. Key messages
Be aware of your body.
Be aware of the contractions right now.
Don't listen to the thoughts.
Be still.
And let gooooooooooo.
 
6. Final bells
This technique is amazing, you'll benefit a lot! I'll bet it will become your favourite practice. As time goes on, it will not be seen as a practice but just as surrender. This teaching is heavily discussed in David Hawkins' book Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender. But here, I strongly point that the blocks are in the body, not in an imaginary land.
Lots of love and I would love to read your ideas and experiences! I wish you well 

@alankrillin All energy comes from somewhere. It isn't free.
If you have a problem paying for spiritual teachings, you don't understand how money works and you've got your priorities backwards.
If spirituality is the most important and difficult thing in life you should be willing to pay the most money for it.
$1 million per enlightenment would be a fair rate to charge.

Anyone wanting to reach the peaks through meditation here is a beautiful illustration. Every little detail in the picture has its importance. 
What level are you on this scale ? If you have seen this before and have additional input, please share.
 

Diagram of The Ten Stages of Meditation. 
The monk is the meditator. The rope he holds represents vigilant, alert mindfulness. The goad in his other hand represents strong intention and firm resolve. The elephant represents the mind. The black color of the elephant represents the Five Hindrances and the Seven Problems they give rise to. The monkey represents scattering of attention, and the black color represents subtle and gross distraction, forgetting, and mind-wandering. The rabbit represents subtle dullness. The flames represent vigilance and effort, and when effort is no longer required, the flames disappear. The length of the road between successive Stages indicates the relative time required to progress from one Stage to the next. The Stages come closer together until Stage Seven, then they begin to stretch out again. Because the road folds back, it is possible to jump up to higher Stages or fall back to lower ones.  
The Novice—Stages One through Three
Stage One: Establishing a Practice
This Stage of meditation is about developing a consistent and diligent meditation practice. Being consistent means setting a clear daily schedule for when you’re going to meditate, and sticking to it except when there are circumstances beyond your control. Diligence means engaging whole-heartedly in the practice rather than spending your time on the cushion planning or daydreaming.
Goals: Develop a regular meditation practice.
Obstacles: Resistance, procrastination, fatigue, impatience, boredom, lack of motivation.
Skills: Creating practice routines, setting specific practice goals, generating strong motivation, cultivating discipline and diligence.
Mastery: Never missing a daily practice session.
Stage Two: Interrupted Attention and Overcoming Mind-Wandering
Stage Two of meditation involves the simple practice of keeping your attention on the breath. This is easier said than done. You will discover that attention is easily captured by a distraction, making you forget that you’re supposed to be paying attention to the breath. Forgetting quickly leads to mind-wandering, which can last a few seconds, several minutes, or the entire meditation session. This sequence is so important it’s worth committing to memory—the untrained mind produces distractions that lead to forgetting, which results in mind-wandering. In Stage Two, you only work with the last event—mind-wandering.
Goals: Shorten the periods of mind-wandering and extend the periods of sustained attention to the meditation object.
Obstacles: Mind-wandering, monkey-mind, and impatience.
Skills: Reinforcing spontaneous introspective awareness and learning to sustain attention on the meditation object. Spontaneous introspective awareness is the “aha” moment when you suddenly realize there’s a disconnect between what you wanted to do (watch the breath) and what you’re actually doing (thinking about something else). Appreciating this moment causes it to happen faster and faster, so the periods of mind-wandering get shorter and shorter.
Mastery: You can sustain attention on the meditation object for minutes, while most periods of mind-wandering last only a few seconds.
Stage Three: Extended Attention and Overcoming Forgetting
Stages Two and Three are similar, but mind-wandering gets shorter and shorter until it stops altogether. The biggest challenge during this Stage of meditation is forgetting, but sleepiness often becomes a problem as well.
Goals: Overcome forgetting and falling asleep.
Obstacles: Distractions, forgetting, mind-wandering, and sleepiness.
Skills: Use the techniques of following the breath and connecting to extend the periods of uninterrupted attention, and become familiar with how forgetting happens. Cultivate introspective awareness through the practices of labeling and checking in. These techniques allow you to catch distractions before they lead to forgetting.
Mastery: Rarely forgetting the breath or falling asleep.
Milestone One: Continuous Attention to the Meditation Object
The first Milestone is continuous attention to the meditation object, which you achieve at the end of Stage Three. Before this, you’re a beginner—a person who meditates, rather than a skilled meditator. When you reach this Milestone, you’re no longer a novice, prone to forgetting, mind-wandering, or dozing off. By mastering Stages One through Three, you have acquired the basic, first level skills on the way to stable attention. You can now do something that no ordinary, untrained person can. You will build on this initial skillset over the course of the next three Stages of meditation to become a truly skilled meditator.
The Skilled Meditator—Stages Four through Six
Stage Four: Continuous Attention and Overcoming Gross Distraction and Strong Dullness
You can stay focused on the breath more or less continuously, but attention still shifts rapidly back and forth between the breath and various distractions. Whenever a distraction becomes the primary focus of your attention, it pushes the meditation object into the background. This is called gross distraction. But when the mind grows calm, there tends to be another problem, strong dullness. To deal with both of these challenges, you develop continuous introspective awareness to alert you to their presence.
Goal: Overcome gross distraction and strong dullness.
Obstacles: Distractions, pain and discomfort, intellectual insights, emotionally charged visions and memories.
Skills: Developing continuous introspective awareness allows you to make corrections before subtle distractions become gross distractions, and before subtle dullness becomes strong dullness. Learning to work with pain. Purifying the mind of past trauma and unwholesome conditioning.
Mastery: Gross distractions no longer push the breath into the background, and breath sensations don’t fade or become distorted due to strong dullness.
Stage Five: Overcoming Subtle Dullness and Increasing Mindfulness
You have overcome gross distractions and strong dullness, but there is a tendency to slip into stable subtle dullness. This makes the breath sensations less vivid and causes peripheral awareness to fade. Unrecognized, subtle dullness can lead you to overestimate your abilities and move on to the next Stage of meditation prematurely, which leads to concentration with dullness. You will experience only a shallow facsimile of the later Stages, and your practice will come to a dead end. To overcome subtle dullness, you must sharpen your faculties of attention and awareness.
Goal: To overcome subtle dullness and increase the power of mindfulness.
Obstacles: Subtle dullness is difficult to recognize, creates an illusion of stable attention, and is seductively pleasant.
Skills: Cultivating even stronger and more continuous introspective awareness to detect and correct for subtle dullness. Learning a new body scanning technique to help you increase the power of your mindfulness.
Mastery: You can sustain or even increase the power of your mindfulness during each meditation session.
Stage Six: Subduing Subtle Distraction
Attention is fairly stable but still alternates between the meditation object and subtle distractions in the background. You’re now ready to bring your faculty of attention to a whole new level where subtle distractions fall away completely. You will achieve exclusive attention to the meditation object, also called single-pointed attention.
Goal: To subdue subtle distractions and develop metacognitive introspective awareness.
Obstacles: The tendency for attention to alternate to the continuous stream of distracting thoughts and other mental objects in peripheral awareness.
Skills: Defining your scope of attention more precisely than before, and ignoring everything outside that scope until subtle distractions fade away. Developing a much more refined and selective awareness of the mind itself, called metacognitive introspective awareness. You will also use a method called “experiencing the whole body with the breath” to further subdue potential distractions.
Mastery: Subtle distractions have almost entirely disappeared, and you have unwavering exclusive attention together with vivid mindfulness.
Milestone Two: Sustained Exclusive Focus of Attention
With mastery of Stages of meditation Four through Six, your attention no longer alternates back and forth from the breath to distractions in the background. You can focus on the meditation object to the exclusion of everything else, and your scope of attention is also stable. Dullness has completely disappeared, and mindfulness takes the form of a powerful metacognitive introspective awareness. That is, you’re now aware of your state of mind in every moment, even as you focus on the breath. You have accomplished the two major objectives of meditative training: stable attention and powerful mindfulness. With these abilities you’re now a skilled meditator, and have achieved the second Milestone.
The Transition—Stage Seven
Stage Seven: Exclusive Attention and Unifying the Mind
You can now investigate any object with however broad or narrow a focus you choose. But you have to stay vigilant and make a continuous effort to keep subtle distractions and subtle dullness at bay.
Goal: Effortlessly sustained exclusive attention and powerful mindfulness.
Obstacles: Distractions and dullness will return if you stop exerting effort. You must keep sustaining effort until exclusive attention and mindfulness become automatic, then effort will no longer be necessary. Boredom, restlessness, and doubt tend to arise during this time. Also, bizarre sensations and involuntary body movements can distract you from your practice. Knowing when to drop all effort is the next obstacle. But making effort has become a habit, so it’s hard to stop.
Methods: Practicing patiently and diligently will bring you to the threshold of effortlessness. It will get you past all the boredom and doubt, as well as the bizarre sensations and movements. Purposely relaxing your effort from time to time will let you know when effort and vigilance are no longer necessary. Then you can work on letting go of the need to be in control. Various Insight and jhāna practices add variety at this Stage of meditation.
Mastery: You can drop all effort, and the mind still maintains an unprecedented degree of stability and clarity.
Milestone Three: Effortless Stability of Attention
The third Milestone is marked by effortlessly sustained exclusive attention together with powerful mindfulness. This state is called mental pliancy, and occurs because of the complete pacification of the discriminating mind, meaning mental chatter and discursive analysis have stopped. Different parts of the mind are no longer so resistant or preoccupied with other things, and diverse mental processes begin to coalesce around a single purpose. This unification of mind means that, rather than struggling against itself, the mind functions more as a coherent, harmonious whole. You have completed the transition from being a skilled meditator to an adept meditator at this point in your journey through the stages of meditation.
The Adept Meditator—Stages Eight through Ten
Stage Eight: Mental Pliancy and Pacifying the Senses
With mental pliancy, you can effortlessly sustain exclusive attention and mindfulness, but physical pain and discomfort still limit how long you can sit. The bizarre sensations and involuntary movements that began in Stage Seven not only continue, but may intensify. With continuing unification of mind and complete pacification of the senses, physical pliancy arises, and these problems disappear. Pacifying the senses doesn’t imply going into some trance. It just means that the five physical senses, as well as the mind sense, temporarily grow quiet while you meditate.
Goal: Complete pacification of the senses and the full arising of meditative joy.
Obstacles: The primary challenge is not to be distracted or distressed by the variety of extraordinary experiences during this Stage of meditation: unusual, and often unpleasant, sensations, involuntary movements, feelings of strong energy currents in the body, and intense joy. Simply let them be.
Method: Practicing effortless attention and introspective awareness will naturally lead to continued unification, pacification of the senses, and the arising of meditative joy. Jhāna and other Insight practices are very productive as part of this process.
Mastery: When the eyes perceive only an inner light, the ears perceive only an inner sound, the body is suffused with a sense of pleasure and comfort, and your mental state is one of intense joy. With this mental and physical pliancy, you can sit for hours without dullness, distraction, or physical discomfort.
Stage Nine: Mental and Physical Pliancy and Calming the Intensity of Meditative Joy
With mental and physical pliancy comes meditative joy, a unique state of mind that brings great happiness and physical pleasure.
Goal: The maturation of meditative joy, producing tranquility and equanimity.
Obstacles: The intensity of meditative joy can perturb the mind, becoming a distraction and disrupting your practice.
Method: Becoming familiar with meditative joy through continued practice until the excitement fades, replaced by tranquility and equanimity.
Mastery: Consistently evoking mental and physical pliancy, accompanied by profound tranquility and equanimity.
Stage Ten: Tranquility and Equanimity
You enter Stage Ten with all the qualities of samatha: effortlessly stable attention, mindfulness, joy, tranquility, and equanimity. At first these qualities immediately fade after the meditation has ended. But as you continue to practice, they persist longer and longer between meditation sessions. Eventually they become the normal condition of the mind. Because the characteristics of samatha never disappear entirely, whenever you sit on the cushion, you quickly regain a fully developed meditative state. You have mastered this Stage of meditation when the qualities of samatha persist for many hours after you rise from the cushion. Once Stage Ten is mastered, the mind is described as unsurpassable.
Milestone Four: Persistence of the Mental Qualities of an Adept
When you have mastered the final Stage of meditation, the many positive mental qualities you experience during meditation are strongly present even between meditation sessions, so your daily life is imbued with effortlessly stable attention, mindfulness, joy, tranquility, and equanimity. This is the fourth and final Milestone and marks the culmination of an adept meditator’s training.
Cultivating The Right Attitude and Setting Clear Intentions
We naturally tend to think of ourselves as the agent responsible for producing results through will and effort. Certain words we can’t avoid using when we talk about meditation, such as “achieve” and “master,” only reinforce this idea. We often believe we should be in control, the masters of our own minds. But that belief only creates problems for your practice. It will lead you to try to willfully force the mind into submission. When that inevitably fails, you will tend to get discouraged and blame yourself. This can turn into a habit unless you realize there is no “self” in charge of the mind, and therefore nobody to blame. As you continue to move through the stages of meditation, this fact of “no-Self” becomes increasingly clear, but you can’t afford to wait for that Insight. For the sake of making progress, it’s best to drop this notion, at least at an intellectual level, as soon as possible.
In reality, all we’re “doing” in meditation is forming and holding specific conscious intentions—nothing more. In fact, while it may not be obvious, all our achievements originate from intentions. Consider learning to play catch. As a child, you may have wanted to play catch, but at first your arm and hand just didn’t move in quite the right way. However, by sustaining the intention to catch the ball, after much practice, your arm and hand eventually performed the task whenever you wanted. “You” don’t play catch. Instead, you just intend to catch the ball, and the rest follows. “You” intend, and the body acts.
In exactly the same way, we can use intention to profoundly transform how the mind behaves. Intention, provided it is correctly formulated and sustained, is what creates the causes and conditions for stable attention and mindfulness. Intentions repeatedly sustained over the course of many meditation sessions give rise to frequently repeated mental acts, which eventually become habits of the mind.
At every Stage of meditation, all “you” really do is patiently and persistently hold intentions to respond in specific ways to whatever happens during your meditation. Setting and holding the right intentions is what’s essential. If your intention is strong, the appropriate responses will occur, and the practice will unfold in a very natural and predictable way. Once again, repeatedly sustained intentions lead to repeated mental actions, which become mental habits—the habits of mind that lead to joy, equanimity, and Insight. The exquisite simplicity of this process isn’t so obvious in the early Stages of meditation. However, by the time you reach Stage Eight and your meditations become completely effortless, it will be clear.
While useful, the lists of goals, obstacles, skills, and mastery provided above can obscure just how simple the underlying process really is: intentions lead to mental actions, and repeated mental actions become mental habits. This simple formula is at the heart of every Stage. Therefore, here’s a brief recap of the Ten Stages of meditation, presented in a completely different way that puts the emphasis entirely on how intention works in each Stage. Refer to the earlier outline when you need to orient yourself within the context of the Stages as a whole, but look at the outline below whenever working through the individual Stages begins to feel like a struggle.
Stage One
Put all your effort into forming and holding a conscious intention to sit down and meditate for a set period every day, and to practice diligently for the duration of the sit. When your intentions are clear and strong, the appropriate actions naturally follow, and you’ll find yourself regularly sitting down to meditate. If this doesn’t happen, instead of chastising yourself and trying to force yourself to practice, work on strengthening your motivation and intentions.
“When your intentions are clear and strong, the appropriate actions naturally follow, and you’ll find yourself regularly sitting down to meditate.”
Stage Two
Willpower can’t prevent the mind from forgetting the breath. Nor can you force yourself to become aware that the mind is wandering. Instead, just hold the intention to appreciate the “aha” moment that recognizes mind-wandering, while gently but firmly redirecting attention back to the breath. Then, intend to engage with the breath as fully as possible without losing peripheral awareness. In time, the simple actions flowing from these three intentions will become mental habits. Periods of mind-wandering will become shorter, periods of attention to the breath will grow longer, and you’ll have achieved your goal.
Stage Three
Set your intention to invoke introspective attention frequently, before you’ve forgotten the breath or fallen asleep, and make corrections as soon as you notice distractions or dullness. Also, intend to sustain peripheral awareness while engaging with the breath as fully as possible. These three intentions and the actions they produce are simply elaborations of those from the previous Stage of medtiation. Once they become habits, you’ll rarely forget the breath.
Stages Four through Six
Set and hold the intention to be vigilant so that introspective awareness becomes continuous, and notice and immediately correct for dullness and distraction. These intentions will mature into the highly developed skills of stable attention and mindfulness as you move through later stages of meditation. You overcome every type of dullness and distraction, achieving both exclusive, single-pointed attention and metacognitive introspective awareness.
Stage Seven
Everything becomes even simpler at this stage of meditation. With the conscious intention to continuously guard against dullness and distraction, the mind becomes completely accustomed to effortlessly sustaining attention and mindfulness.
Stages Eight through Ten
Your intention is simply to keep practicing, using skills that are now completely effortless. In Stage Eight, effortlessly sustained exclusive attention produces mental and physical pliancy, pleasure, and joy. In Stage Nine, simply abiding in the state of meditative joy causes profound tranquility and equanimity to arise. In Stage Ten, just by continuing to practice regularly, the profound joy and happiness, tranquility, and equanimity you experience in meditation persists between meditation sessions, infusing your daily life as well.
As with planting seeds, at each Stage of meditation you sow the appropriate intentions in the soil of the mind. Water these intentions with the diligence of regular practice, and protect them from the destructive pests of procrastination, doubt, desire, aversion, and agitation. These intentions will naturally flower into a specific series of mental events that mature to produce the fruits of our practice. Will a seed sprout more quickly if you keep digging it up and replanting it? No. Therefore, don’t let impatience or frustration stop you from practicing or convince you that you need to seek out a “better” or “easier” practice. Getting annoyed with every instance of mind-wandering or sleepiness is like tearing up the garden to get rid of the weeds. Attempting to force attention to remain stable is like trying to make a sapling grow taller by stretching it. Chasing after physical pliancy and meditative joy is like prying open a bud so it will blossom more quickly. Impatience and striving won’t make anything grow faster. Be patient and trust in the process. Care for the mind like a skilled gardener, and everything will flower and fruit in due time.
Credit , Reference, Additional details  :
http://www.consciouslifestylemag.com/ten-stages-of-meditation-complete-guide/