10 Stages Of Meditation.

[Shan]

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/

 

 

 

 

Edited July 2, 2017 by Shan
Made it more readable

[Max_V]

Thank you, beautiful illustration

[Nahm]

@Shan greatest post ever

[Shan]

Thanks, @Max_V  and @Nahm I have once gone to level 4 and it was very special. Leo Gura, gives the metaphor of finding a "gold nugget" when we start meditation and says eventually we will find a "gold mine". On that particular day, I reached the 4th level, I could see what he meant and wondered where he and others are on this scale are? 

If anyone been to level 8, how much practice did you put in? I ask about time as I suspect unless we go for more than 60 minutes a day we may not progress beyond level 4 which helps me to be reals.

[AleksM]

Great post!

I am enlightened, being at stage 10 most of the time. I really don't see a difference between sitting meditation and the rest of the waking hours, it's the same, so I see every second as a meditation practice. I don't know how much practice I have put in hours but I have started meditating almost 4 years ago. I had meditated between 20 - 60 minutes a day.  That was the starting point, but the biggest gains were not gained trough that sitting period but by practicing being in awarness all of the time. Once you master being in this awarness it becomes automatic and you have to force yourself to think (to hear mental noise) if you want to. You think when you want to think otherwise you're just abiding in this eternal presence. If you want to be at stage 8 - 10, the best advice I could tell you is to be aware of your breath every second, don't even make a distinction between sitting meditation and the rest. Meditate for 40 minutes in the morning and after you finish the sitting, maintain the meditative state trough the day as long as possible by not even making a distinction between that sitting meditation and the rest of the day.

[WaterfallMachine]

@Shan

Wow, Shan. Thanks! love meditation and I love descriptions about stages in something that has to do with personal development. (Okay, maybe stages in general. Haha.). And now these two are combined. .

My concentration on reading this article was stable. And I feel a stable bliss — with a certain texture to it. It's like how emotional ache feels similar to an actual physical ache. Bliss feels like silk — amazingly smooth, light and spacious. Often being cold is associated with being cruel but strangely, bliss feels cold. It's like a refreshing cold breeze in my head. 

I think I'm in level 6 right now. As I look closely with subtle distractions I could hear the faint sound of a family member watching TV in a nearby room. And some birds chirping outside. And that's right now — where there are some parts of the day where I'm not as focused. I can't seem to concretely remember a moment of what subtle dullness in stage 5 is — but it might be like how I practiced focusing on a book not just lightly but really trying to focus and understand in depth. Even drop to level 4 at times — hello, embarrassing memories.

The funny thing about level 6 is that I can focus on things too deeply. When I switch to another object to focus on — it takes my mind a bit of time because it feels like I'm moving away from paradise that I've gotten from sustained attention. Might be why I type long posts — I concentrate deeply and I'm not that good at turning it off at times. I almost got late to class because I gotten so absorbed in a book or even tell people to wait a bit as my mind loads to talk to them. Eheh.

I'm not sure I get this stage but metacognitve is another word for thinking about thinking. And I'm taking a guess that it means that I should be more aware at what my mind is focusing on rather than focusing without awareness. Difference between focusing deeply the wheel and the road in front of you and also knowing that you're driving to somewhere for the right reasons. Also stage 7 says they gained the ability to focus to focus as broadly or deeply as they want. Which I don't right now. 

Guess thanks to this I know what to try to do. Haha.

Shan, I haven't reached stage 8 but I did seem to surpass stage 4. 5 years meditation since age 11. Sometimes 40 minutes a day. Sometimes 20 minutes. Sometimes an hour. Occasionally more than 2 hours. As well as mindfulness in daily life. Like in eating. During lectures. Reading. Taking a bath. Internet browsing even etc.

 

Edited July 3, 2017 by WaterfallMachine

[Shan]

@WaterfallMachine

I am inspired to know you are at level 7 ! And am I correct in understanding you are 16 years old ? WOW !

I see lot of youngsters on actualized and think the internet and channels like these are making more young prodigies than ever in history ! 

Good luck and let us know if you every hit level 8 or 9. 

 

[WaterfallMachine]

22 hours ago, Shan said:

@WaterfallMachine

I am inspired to know you are at level 7 ! And am I correct in understanding you are 16 years old ? WOW !

I see lot of youngsters on actualized and think the internet and channels like these are making more young prodigies than ever in history ! 

Good luck and let us know if you every hit level 8 or 9. 

 

 

Haha, thanks. 

Well, I'm actually at stage 6 from my understanding. Stage 7 is the one I'm trying to figure out how to get to. Though, now that I think about it, right now for the last few minutes I didn't get distracted at all — even subtle distractions. Not sure if this will last since it's new. All I know is that the last hour felt like years has passed — longer than I lived.

I get the sense that I'm not going through the same emotional stress teenagers are known for. None of that "I don't know who I am or what I want to do in life. I'm afraid of what might happen in the future." I'm pretty good with all that. Though, still a bit self conscious at times when I drop to lower stages.

Heh. Maybe I will let you guys know when I reach upper levels. Good luck to you too, bud. Happy that I inspired you. .

Edited July 4, 2017 by WaterfallMachine

[Dodo]

In order to know in which stage of meditation I am, I first need to find myself. Be right back.

[jon hinkle]

this is from 'mind illuminated' yates...I think it is excellent/ however I always wonder if what u believe and  pursue becomes yoru reality... 'as a man believes..'   seems mostly true for secular and religion.?

[S33K3R]

I love this thread  

I would like to send this out there to you all who have commented and anyone who is interested in putting in their contribution. This article is great, but it focuses on the meditation path. What about people who are more primitive thinking and have a more difficult time understanding their position on this scale? What if we created a similar scale to show additional information such as:

A. Description of the stage/personality characteristics 
B. Traps that the described person can fall into/What not to do/what to watch out for
C. How to proceed through the stage as fast/painless as possible
D. How to help someone through this stage without triggering the ego (for those who are not interested in "self help" and have someone interested in self help trying to help them)

I believe personally if we break these things down then we can create an awesome document that can literally be a road map for those out there trying to understand their path in a more objective and less emotional way.

 

Anyone interested?

@Dodo @WaterfallMachine @Shan @AleksM @Nahm @Max_V

[Nahm]

@S33K3R That's a glimpse of genius right there. I'm in. I could learn a lot doing that. 

 

 

I often wish that the material I read when I first started had articulated practices would only be done in a unique mode / state of mind. Suggesting that some initial growth only comes from thinking, some only from doing, and some only from nonthinking / being.   Also, Aligning the diet could be addressed quite seriously at a specific place on the 'scale ' of 'progress'. As in, one can not feasibly proceed beyond this stage without letting go of the ego's grip in food choices. The diet can make meditation so much easier, or so much harder unbeknownst to a beginning meditator. 

Edited July 5, 2017 by Nahm

[Max_V]

@S33K3R That's a real good plan, I'm in too. Hope I can be of help

[S33K3R]

@Max_V @Nahm

Okay cool!! Lets all think about one stage and really break it down. Get into the mindset of what we were like in that stage and come up with a very detailed description. Do you guys want to take on one stage on your own? Or would you be happier doing one stage at a time together? 

I was thinking we can use this thread to break things down, bounce ideas, discuss the characteristics and come to conclusions and when all is said and done we could post the final result in a neat and simple thread so its an easy read.

I am down for however anyone wants to do it. I was trying to find a way to do this myself, but I was thinking it would only be from my perspective and we need to really have a group effort of a community to make it well rounded and speak to as many people as possible  

Not only will this help those who are starting on the path or whatever, it will also help those of us who are a bit further along to remember what the path is like and help us emotionally separate negative behaviors (ego) from the individual who is sacred and might be really aggravating to deal with

I see a lot of shaming on this forum for behaviors that are just the ego pulling tricks. This is a great solution haha 

[Nahm]

@S33K3R you. Are. In. The. Zone. 

Yes. 

I think individual stages. I'd like to do the first one. 

 

[S33K3R]

@Nahm @Max_V

So I already have a rough draft of this because I have been working on it for a while. Its a total coincidence that @Shan happened to post something with ten stages too haha here it is. This is a rough draft and in no way have I reviewed it and tweaked things to my perfection. I am throwing this out so you all can add/change/play with the ideas. IM SO EXCITED  so the A. is supposed to be the A. Description of the stage/personality characteristics that was mentioned. I didnt get to the others yet either. 

 

1.    A. Extremely negative angry person. No ability to comprehend suffering in others. Self destructive reactions to any perceived attack. Willing to lash out and harm others. Depression and anxiety are high and not acknowledged at all by this person. Depression/Anxiety are actually feared and the person is ashamed of the feelings which is why lashing out is so easy. Emotional chaos is often chosen over self-reflection. Power is craved and the person may do anything to get their fix. Communication is almost impossible at this stage.

2.    A. Angry person who blames others for events happening in persons life. Understands what empathy is and rarely feels it. Animals are more likely to be empathized with rather than humans. Secluded and distant from anyone that doesn't support their paradigm. This person experiences severe depression/anxiety and may not be aware of it. Enjoys harming others emotionally and imagines harming others physically. Communication is extremely limited at this point.

3.    A. Depressed angry person. This person has overcome anger and is more so depressed. Though anger is easy to trigger in dysfunctional relationships. These people are very angry at the self and though they may project anger at others, often times in their mind they blame everything on themselves. This is why they lash out, the shame/depression/anxiety is all too much to bear, add in an important person in their lives being disappointed triggers high defenses. Communication is extremely limited at this point.

4.    A. Depressed person considering spiritual options. This person is depressed and no longer lashes out for the most part. They have begun the conscious effort for the possibility spiritual solutions to their spiritual pain. This person may be open to help, though they will often hide their struggle out of shame for their condition. This person will still lash out if provoked and toxic relationships can cause this person to regress multiple times before realizing the spiritual cycle of how others influence them. Communication is limited to occasional at this point.

5.     A. Spiritual depressed person. This person has realized the toxic patterns/cycles of negativity and they are aware of changes that need to be made in their life. Toxic relationships are recognized though nothing is done to cut them out of their life at this point. This person knows it is bad to lash out at others in frustration though they catch themselves doing it occasionally. Most mistakes are learning points for this person as the bigger the scuffle between the self and others, the more the person learns about themselves. Communication is occasional at this point. Know-it-al-ism is frequent because knowledge binging is common.

6.    A Spiritual person who is sometimes depressed. This person has done some meditation to get to this level. Depression comes and goes. The depression is felt differently, it doesn’t cause this person to be afraid and panicky. This person knows how to defeat all emotions with awareness, though they choose to not do it most of the time and struggle anyways. This usually doesn’t lose control significantly due to the boost of awareness. This person most likely has had energetic releases and experiences that help them confirm that what they are learning about is bigger than the self, and working. This person may actually sometimes enjoy the up’s and downs of depression. Sometimes when not depressed they may miss the deep depression because of the intense emotions it triggered in them in the past. Know-it-al-ism is frequent because knowledge binging is common.

7.    A. Spiritual person who has depression but is not depressed. This person does have depression within their being. But their natural reaction to these emotions has changed. The relationship to the depression has changed. The self has become so aware that depression appears as a different person within. This person is not constantly self-aware. They use self-awareness as a tool when in times of need. This person may never progress beyond this point because many are on this spiritual path because of a need to discover the causes of pain within the self. This is the point where a person feels they have control. This person still has weaknesses due to their limited awareness and may feel insecure around certain triggers. Those triggers can be anything addictions, toxic relationships, phobias, self-limiting beliefs that have not been changed. This person has progressed a significant amount though they have these weak points which if sensitive enough may force this person to progress further.  Know-it-al-ism is guaranteed because knowledge binging has been happening for a while and this person wants to shove it in the worlds face what they have accomplished. Good job J

8.    A. Spiritual person who has gone beyond depression. This person uses self-awareness frequently. They are regular meditators as they are starting to enjoy the adventure of this alternate reality they are gaining access to. Seriousness is fading away as debating has gotten exhausting and this person realizes that it just takes a lot of time and it usually ends in the person loosing awareness and regressing back into the primitive mind. It takes a crafty person to make this person debate this person has opened up their child like mind again. They see the world with wonder in their eyes occasionally and sitting in the quiet with nothing going on can actually be seen as fun and exhilarating. This person has understood the concept of not giving a fuck. Their awareness allows them the ability to select and choose what is given time and what is not. Communication beyond this point is usually pretty good unless the person attempting to communicate suffers from Know-it-al-ism haha the forceful mind can be difficult to hear at times.

9.     A. This person is extremely self-aware. They meditate regularly and have many spiritual experiences. This person considers their spirituality to be more important than almost anything in their life. They are striving for the stars and they feel the ticking time within their aging body and occasionally are concerned about attaining. Many thoughts are half thoughts, the thought of “will I attain” is cut off before it can be more than a passing breeze. This is how sharp the awareness has become. This person is striving so much that seriousness can creep back in as well. Being this high on the mountain can be very dizzying and there are few that can relate, so it can be very lonely too.

10.    A. Enlightened. This person has no pause between reality and the self. Awareness of every moment is full on direct experience. There are no regrets of what was left behind. There are no judgments of others on their path. Words are spoken slowly to ensure awareness is always present in every thought. 

 

 

[S33K3R]

@Nahm @Max_V

 

Okay I will take the second stage  ANNNDD BREAK  haha im such a nerd.

[WaterfallMachine]

@S33K3R

Interesting idea! Maybe I'll try to compile some of what I've gone through in my experiences though it wouldn't be as good as basing it from many people's experiences. Though, these stages remind me of Riso and Russ Hudson's mental health stages for different types of people, where people have 3 main manifestations in how they deal with fear, shame and anger. In their book Personaliy Types. Really changed how I think about growth for myself.

Here's some of my own experiences and how I dealt with each stage based on the 10 stages of meditation above. Note that my experiences can be different from others.

You guys might wanna see this. @Nahm @Shan @Max_V@AleksM@Dodo@jon hinkle

Stage one : 

I often questioned how useful meditation was. Really? Sitting doing nothing? How could that help? I was a pretty easily distracted person and at this time, meditation was painfully boring.

How to solve it : Start small. Because if you start with something too long — you'll probably be demotivated soon. Think 5-10 minutes. Then 15. Then 20. Or more if you like, steadily increasing it when you're ready for the next.. It's best to do this at the same time and place each day as habits formed in the brain tend to be more easily imprinted this way. You can read the benefits of meditation and visualize how it would affect each area of your life in detail. Or even learn about a meditation master's life to be inspired — feelings are more easily made if you can imagine a concrete example of what the benefits are rather than abstract descriptions. 

See the blog James Clear for more motivation, habits and procrastination tips. Best blog I found for the area of discipline.

Stage two : I remember meditating in a car getting distracted by all kinds of thoughts. I could daydream endlessly throughout the meditation and I could even spent the entire session distracted I was so pissed — how can I do this?

How to solve it : People are better off using a guided meditation as without one, they're likely to get too distracted. Try to be gentle when you notice your thoughts drifting off — like placing a feather on your thoughts and placing your attention back to the breath. Its best to left the thoughts drift away like watching clouds than forcing it. Forcing it just makes more thoughts about how annoyed you are. Don't overcomplicate going back to the breath — that just creates more thoughts. Just do it.

Stage 3 : I often had trouble getting sleepy with meditation here. I always did it in the morning and add to that my lack of sleep the day before — I was tired. I'd tell myself to open my eyes during the meditation but I was often tempted to drift off to sleep. Later I'd tell myself to meditate in the afternoon instead but I was impatient enough to not do it often.

How to solve it: Sit up straight while allowing your shoulders to relax. Sit with "dignity". If you're still falling asleep, you can have the option of opening your eyes or having meditation on a time of the day when you're less tired. Ground yourself in the surface under your butt and your feet. 

Stage 4 : I remember being focused on my breath but like a daze. That I had to make lots of effort to keep it that way and it felt like I could get distracted any moment. It felt like trying to hold an umbrella still in a really windy day.

How to solve it : Focus on the sensation of dullness. See how it changes with each moment. How it rises and falls. How it moves around. And focus on the breath with more specifics — how fast it moves with each changing moment. Its intensity. Where it is in your body — it can be from your nose, your chest or your belly. And even subdividing your focus in even smaller areas of that area.

It's also helpful to remember your motivation before or as you mediate to avoid distraction. Not only motivations for yourself but how your meditation practice can change you in a way that benefits others. Greater awareness brings better control. Greater motivation allows more sharpness in focus.

I also found it helpful to deal with strong emotions here in a certain way. Often by asking what the texture, the color, the shape, the movement or any other sensory description to your emotions. No need to overthink it. Just say the first thing in your head. This counterintuitive technique allows a deepening of awareness in emotions. 

Stage 5 : This is where I felt a greater peacefulness as I meditate. This is likely the time where I really enjoyed getting back to meditation. In my practice as I looked closer, I noticed the breath. But I didn't really focus with sharpness. Think of it like the difference good enough definition of a movie and a high definition of a movie.

How to solve it : I was lacking knowledge so I googled it. I find this article especially helpful. http://dharmatreasure.org/on-mindful-awareness-vs-dullness/. What I remember the most is practicing meditating in louder environments.

Stage 6 : A greater sense of peacefulness enters my daily life. It feels like I'm meditating even as the day passes. A regular bliss begins to form and it's more happiness than I ever thought possible.

I focus with ease but still can get a bit distracted by things. Birds chirping. People talking outside. Sounds of airplanes passing through the sky. I was the type of person who was sensitive to noise and crowds — but as my focus deepened, I found I'd stopped even noticing the existence of busy environments around me.

How to solve it : Now that I think about it, this stage was triggered by my attempts to focus longer in my everyday life. I've  been steadily focusing on more in depth content but at a time, I thought I'd really try this. I read books more. I stopped watching 10 minute videos or similar and watched a tv series or documentaries longer than an hour instead. I stopped going to short content sites like Reddit and found longer articles in Quora. Finding videos in playlists more and trying to learn from more in depth online content like courses from universities like the sites Edx, khanacademy or Coursera. I even moved my meditation time from 40 minutes to an hour because I liked it so much. Everything I did — I made sure I didn't just glaze over it — but concentrate deeply in my understanding of it. 

This was also strongly triggered when I tried Self-inquiry for some time. Especially with Peter Ralston's book, The Book Of Not Knowing. As well as deepening my thinking about thinking. I make sure I'm aware of what exactly I'm focusing on — rather than just focusing without awareness. As I said earlier, it's the difference between focusing on the road and wheel in front of you and also knowing what and why you're heading somewhere.

Stage 7 : I feel an even deeper peacefulness in this stage but it still hasn't pearmeated throughout my whole life. In daily life, there's often stresses yet the thing people know less about is the subtle stresses. Small amounts of impatience, slight sadness or more. And in this stage, I find a deeper awareness of every feeling that passes through me — down to the tiniest details. And those feelings are often different types of bliss. I find that I learn more quickly things I never dreamed of understanding.  Time goes so fast 10 minutes can feel like 20 years has passed. 

But the problem is that my mind feels like it has to force this experience out. Like having to carry heavy bags as you walk up a mountain with a majestic natural view.  You're still someone pretty strong — but after some time, it gets burdening. Then I'd drop to lower stages. It feels wonderful, but it's also straining. 

How to solve it : Continue practicing concentration. It's a good idea to focus on continuous focus and trying to lengthen it over time. When it's time to lessen the effort of focus, think of it like this. Remember someone you admire. Notice that you're not forcing the thought to come out. You're simply recalling it and it even has a certain ease to it. You can practice moving with this ease of focus in a meditation as you move your awareness from the top of your body to the bottom as many times as you like. Allowing all that focus with the softness of placing a feather on your focus object. It's also helpful to practice being aware of how much force or ease you're supposed to do to concentrate on the moment. 

Stage 8 :

The few times I've been here I felt a peace. Time didn't just go faster, the concept of time disappears entirely. Bliss seems unnoticeable, because it has become a natural part of functioning. During these times, self control becomes outstanding. I don't have the same urges to procrastinate or eat junk food. Deep focus and discipline feels as light as carrying around a coin. 

But during this, I can feel some bizzare sensations. Like a hyperawareness of itchy feelings and even an erupting joy cascading through my body. Recently today I focused so well it seemed that the visible environment was subtly warping around me — as if the furniture around me was breathing. With all these extraordinary sensations, I couldn't help but focus on them and get momentarily distracted. 

How to solve this : I don't know for sure as I haven't passed this stage. But if I had to make an educated guess, the answer might lie in determination sitting. It's a meditation where you don't move so makes the meditator have to learn how to deal with this uncomfortable body sensations.

Any critique of this? Or any additional information to place? Maybe I'll have to edit this later on.

Edit : Upon reflection, I learned that I had a few experiences of stage 8 to add. I remember a technique from the Headspace app that taught me about effortless focus. 

Edited July 7, 2017 by WaterfallMachine

[gleb]

This seems to be taken right out of The Mind Illuminated. Can't recommend that book enough- especially for newbies. You can autodidact your way to the highest stages with it. 

[Tightrope Walker]

At the time of writting this, I only read until stage 2. I feel agitated and I want to cry. I think that's where I am right now. It describes it so perfectly it aliviates my anxiety about not making enough progress. Thank you so much. Reading on...