A disciple once asked his guru, “Why do we pray after completing our meditation?”
“We do it to thank God that it’s over,” the guru quipped.
On days, meditation truly feels like a boring and difficult activity. I remember feeling extremely tired and exhausted from intense meditation lasting 18 hours a day, sometimes 22, and doing it like a madman day in and day out for hundreds of days. But, you need that kind of madness to succeed at anything. It’s that madness that gets you results.
If you remind yourself of the nine instructions on building, directing and harmonizing your attention, your mental state will go through a transformation in nine stages. It’s important to understand that you’ll experience these nine stages in every session of meditation. They are not post-meditative states. Instead, you’ll experience them every time you sit down and meditate. In the beginning, you may never experience the ninth or even the fourth state for any more than a few seconds. If you do, then probably you had dozed off. As you progress on the path, however, you will slip into the ninth stage of your attention within the first ten minutes, if not earlier. The rest of your session will be good meditation. Here are the nine states or stages of attention. For now, I’m giving a brief account on the instructions on attention. In the subsequent sections, you’ll learn how to put these instructions into practice for flawless meditation.
Positioning of Attention
Scriptures call it cittasthaapana. It also means placement of the mind. This is the first stage in the life of a meditator. At this stage, the mind constantly wanders off and doesn’t stay on a thought for any more than a few seconds. Meditation feels more like a battle with the mind at this stage. Basically, a meditator’s attempt to channelize his thoughts only results in more restlessness at this stage. This is the beginning of your meditation. You sit down with an alert mind and position your attention at your object of meditation (which could be breath, sound, form or void, but more on that in later sections). This stage corresponds to the first instruction: stabilizing your mind.
Intermittent Attention
This stage is called samsthaapana and it also means comforting or encouraging attention. The meditator experiences short periods (lasting a few seconds) of good attention during the meditation.
These are the times when the mind is not wandering off. After a mental quietude of a few seconds, thoughts come knocking again, but often the meditator remains unaware for several minutes of the stray thoughts. He ‘forgets’ that he is meditating.
For most part, you’ll discover that your mind wanders off. Every time it does, bring your attention back with the second instruction: settling your mind completely. You had stabilized your mind in the first stage and now you are focused on settling it.
Constant Attention
This stage is called avasthaapana, which, interestingly, also means to expose. What happens when your body is exposed to heat or cold – you feel it more, right? Similarly, when you expose your mind during meditation, you become more aware and alert.
Mindfulness is exposing your mind. The primary difference between this and the earlier stage is the degree of alertness. In this stage, the meditator keeps his vigil on-guard and becomes aware as soon as the mind is distracted.
To strengthen your attention and improve its quality, follow the fourth instruction: settling your mind intensely
Fixed Attention
It’s called upasthaapana. Literally, it means to be ready, and that’s what this stage is all about: getting ready for the real meditation. In this stage, the aspirant is mostly able to hold his attention during the session but is still bothered by periods of restlessness and dullness.
If you follow the first four instructions properly, then by this stage your mind will start to retaliate a bit. It doesn’t want to be restricted. It wants to go its own way. At this stage, if you follow the fifth instruction, you’ll experience fixed attention, and the fifth instruction, as I said earlier is – clearing your mind of obstacles. There are going to be certain obstacles like restlessness, torpor, etc. If you gently draw your attention back to the present moment, you are well on your way to the next stage.
Lucid Attention
The meditator is able to experience deep tranquillity of the mind.
This stage is called damana in Sanskrit, which means tamed or passionless. The attention of the meditator is tamed at this stage. I must mention a common misconception that many meditators have: when you feel peaceful in meditation, it is not the same as taming the mind. Sometimes it’s purely because you’ve lost the lucidity, the sharpness of your attention.
While you are getting your attention ready after stabilizing it, positioning it, settling it and clearing its path, you start to feel a little restless, quite restless actually. You can’t afford to interrupt your session by talking to yourself or holding a communion with your mind. Instead, you must carry on with the sixth instruction that is pacifying your mind. (The later sections of this book will cover in detail how to pacify one’s mind.)
Pacification of the Mind
This stage is called shamana and it means extinguished. By this stage, thoughts extinguish in the mind of this meditator, and, the mind is clear of most mental obstacles. However, this mental exertion sometimes gives birth to subtle feelings of restlessness or excitement. It is predominantly so because at this stage, you’ve done what mind is not used to at all – to be quiet, to be still. Only the sincere and dedicated practitioners reach this stage.
Complete Pacification of the Mind
It’s called vyupashamana. Most interestingly, the term vyupa means the one who eats out of his own hands. This is one of the finest stages of meditation. In this state, the mind is looking at itself sharply. It’s able to recognize dullness, restlessness, thoughts, emotions and all the other distractions. It is completely pacified and is not afraid to remain established in tranquility.
If you have followed the first six instructions correctly, you’ll most definitely experience this state. As your mind remains attentive but pacified up to this point, there’s still a great chance that it may become restless. It’s like a toddler abruptly waking up to a nightmare in the middle of the night. Or a sudden twitch of the body wakes you just when you were about to fall asleep. It’s like how you put a baby to sleep. Even after she’s gone to sleep, you must continue singing the lullaby or patting for a little while longer to completely put her to sleep.
At any sign of loss of attention due to your mind rebelling, focus on the seventh instruction: completely pacify it.
Intense Attention
The mind attains single-pointed concentration at this stage. It’s called ekotikarana. The meditator can carry out an uninterrupted session of lucid meditation lasting nearly two hours in the steadiest posture. There is practically no dullness or restlessness. At this stage, follow the eight instruction: channel the mind into one stream. Your attention will now flow like a gentle
Himalayan stream – beautiful, serene, tranquil.
Profound Absorption
It’s called samaadhaana and it means perfect tranquil equipoise.
The meditator meditates effortlessly and can remain in tranquil equipoise for an average of four hours at a stretch, including maintaining the posture. And let me tell you four hours of tranquillity can keep you calm for days at end without the slightest ripple of mental disturbance. In the context of meditation, however, the ninth state of attention prepares you to slip into an insightful and blissful session of meditation.