The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science

by Culadasa (John Yates)

Conscious Intention Conscious intention is the key to developing exclusive attention.

Simply hold the intention to observe all the fine details of the meditation object. At the same time, hold the intention to ignore everything else.

Conscious intention is the key to developing exclusive attention. Simply hold the intention to observe all the fine details of the meditation object, and to ignore everything else. That’s it!

These spontaneous movements of attention occur because unconscious sub-minds keep projecting different objects into consciousness, each with an intention to become an object of attention.

any action arising from conscious intention results from an agreement among several sub-minds, rather than the intention of just one, so it’s always stronger and more effective.

the more fully conscious our intentions, the more completely the conflict will be resolved in favor of focusing on the breath.

The more fully conscious your intentions, the more completely any conflict with other intentions will be resolved in favor of focusing on the breath.

The method itself builds on the body-scanning practice you learned in Stage Five. Just as with the body scan, you first direct your attention to the breath at the abdomen. Then, making sure that peripheral awareness of the breath at the abdomen doesn’t fade, you shift your attention to a particular body part, such as your hand. Define your scope of attention to include that area only. Then further refine your scope to include only the breath sensations in the hand. Ignore all other sensations by excluding them completely from attention, but let them remain in peripheral awareness. Next, move to another body part, perhaps the forearm, and do the same thing. Each moment of attention should include a very strong intention to focus clearly on breath-related sensations and to exclude everything else.

First, you define your scope of attention much more precisely.

Second, you focus exclusively on breath-related sensations. You used to tolerate the presence of subtle distractions, letting them come, letting them be, and letting them go. In fact, you were warned not to try to keep attention from alternating with these objects. Now, it’s just the opposite. You aim to ignore thoughts and non-breath-related sensations so completely that attention never alternates with them. They remain only in peripheral awareness.

Experiencing the whole body while breathing in, he trains himself. Experiencing the whole body while breathing out, he trains himself. Ānāpānasati Sutta

Such stable attention characterizes the concentration of an adept meditator

You create exclusive attention, not by “shrinking” your attention down to a small point, but by expanding it so there’s no room for distracting thoughts and other mental objects.

this practice helps develop exclusive attention because it takes advantage of the way bodily sensations compete with mental objects for attention. When we expand our scope of attention to include the entire body, that’s a huge amount of somatosensory information to take in.4 With all those bodily sensations filling consciousness, there’s simply no attention left over for distracting mental objects. In other words, you create exclusive, “single-pointed” attention not by “shrinking” your attention down to a small point, but by expanding it so there’s no room for distracting thoughts and other mental objects.

First, intentionally ignoring mental objects trains the mind-system as a whole to ignore them automatically whenever they appear in consciousness. Second, when they’ve been consistently ignored and for long enough, the thinking/emotional mind no longer presents these potential distractions as continuously or vigorously. Thought processes do continue at an unconscious level, but when they consistently fail to become objects of attention, even as subtle distractions, they eventually stop appearing in consciousness altogether. The thinking/emotional mind simply stops projecting its content into consciousness.

What is true of the breath is also true throughout our lives: our everyday experience isn’t one of sensations so much as of mental constructs built on top of those sensations. The simplest mental constructs are the sense-percepts themselves. These in turn are used to build increasingly complex conceptual formations. This process has been unfolding since you were born. Your mind has accumulated a huge mass of increasingly elaborate conceptual formations in an attempt to organize and simplify the enormous variety of sensory experiences you’ve been exposed to.

As you start pacifying the thinking/emotional mind, you can experience the breath for the first time purely as a sensory phenomenon, relatively free of conceptualizations.

initial appearance5 of the meditation object.

the acquired appearance6

is acquired through diligent practice.

The breath seems way off to the side, or above or below where it should be. Normally, breath sensations and our overall awareness of the body are fused together in binding moments of consciousness. Now, breath and body are perceived separately—breath sensations in attention, and body shape and position in peripheral awareness. To recombine them, you would just need to momentarily shift your attention to the shape and position of your body.

By pacifying the mind, through exclusive focus, you achieve the acquired appearance and non-conceptual perception. This gives you the kind of direct experience of your own mind these models are based on.

Your first goal is to bring attention to a whole new level by subduing subtle distractions while maintaining introspective awareness. The second is to refine this awareness until it becomes metacognitive introspective awareness. We call it “meta”-cognitive because that implies a broader view from a higher perspective. It’s like taking in a panorama from a hilltop, versus being lower down and seeing only the few things immediately surrounding you. From this higher perspective, the object of consciousness is the mind itself

Specifically, metacognitive introspective awareness means being aware of the ongoing activities and current state of the mind. This is different than just being aware of mental objects, such as particular thoughts and memories, which are merely the contents of the mind.

First, we can be aware of what attention is doing. This includes where attention’s being directed, the sensory category of the particular object, how attention moves, and its vividness and

Second, you can be aware of moment-by-moment changes in the objects of peripheral awareness.

Once metacognitive awareness becomes finely attuned to these mental activities, your practice will become much more effective.

The second aspect of metacognitive awareness is being cognizant of the state of your mind. This refers to its clarity and alertness, the predominant emotion, hedonic feelings, and the intentions driving your mental activity.

You cultivate metacognitive introspective awareness by intending to objectively observe the activities and state of the mind.

You cultivate metacognitive introspective awareness by intending to know, moment-by-moment, the movements of attention, the quality of perception and whether your scope is stable or expanding.

Metacognitive Awareness and the Narrating Mind According to the Mind-System model, metacognitive awareness results from the activities of the narrating mind. The narrating mind takes in, combines, and integrates information projected into consciousness by other sub-minds, then projects that back as a binding moment of consciousness.

Binding moments that integrate the content of moments of introspective awareness constitute metacognitive awareness of the mind’s ongoing state and activities.

Cultivating metacognitive introspective awareness means increasing the proportion of moments of metacognitive awareness among other moments of attention and awareness.

Cultivating metacognitive introspective awareness means increasing the proportion of these moments of metacognitive awareness scattered among other moments of attention and awareness. Holding a strong intention to be an objective observer of your own mind causes the narrating mind to increase its information binding activity, thus producing more moments of metacognitive awareness.

Using Meditative Absorption to Enhance Your Meditation Skills Meditative absorption is a powerful method that can greatly speed up your progress through the Ten Stages.

discursive thoughts,

flow is: …a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to complete absorption in an activity. Everyone experiences flow from time to time and will recognize its characteristics: People typically feel strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of their abilities. Both the sense of time and emotional problems seem to disappear, and there is an exhilarating feeling of transcendence.

The Seven Conditions for Achieving Flow According to Csikszentmihalyi, for an activity to potentially lead to a state of flow, it must meet the following conditions: The activity is performed as an end in itself, not for any other purpose. The goals of the activity are clear, and the feedback you get from it is immediate. The most important thing about that feedback is the symbolic message it contains: I have succeeded in my goal.* The activity is neither taxingly difficult, nor too easy. The challenge of the task is perfectly balanced with the person’s abilities. The activity requires complete focus of attention, allowing only a very select range of information into awareness, and leaving no room in the mind for anything else. All troubling or irrelevant thoughts are kept entirely at bay. Then, for that activity to actually transform into a flow state, these further conditions must arise: The activity becomes spontaneous, almost automatic, and there is no sense of a self apart from the activity. A feeling of effortlessness arises, even though continuous skilled performance is required. Everything happens seamlessly, as if by magic. There is a sense of successfully exercising control—which is not the same as feeling like “you” are in control. * Intention is followed by action, the outcome gets a positive evaluation, and feelings of pleasure and satisfaction reinforce the continued repetition of intention and action. This process creates a sense of order in conscious experi...

Meditative absorptions are flow states that occur in meditation, and are traditionally referred to as jhāna.

Meditative absorptions are flow states that occur in meditation, and are traditionally referred to as jhāna. Tradition also defines the specific factors required for entering jhāna. They are: directed and sustained attention (vitakka-vicāra); exclusive focus and unification of mind (cittas’ ekagata, ekodibhāva); and joy and pleasure (pīti-sukha). If all these conditions are present, you will be in a state called access concentration (upacāra-samādhi).

state of concentration that immediately precedes and provides access to jhāna requires exclusive focus of attention, joy, and pleasure.

the acquired appearance of the breath is a far more suitable object for entering meditative absorption than the initial appearance.

The jhānas you can enter at this Stage are “very light,” which means that some amount of thinking, investigation, or evaluation will intrude, making the jhāna unstable.

access concentration

Before attempting jhāna the first time, thoroughly familiarize yourself with the Seven Conditions for Achieving Flow in the preceding text box.

The whole body jhāna is the first meditative absorption you will practice. Prepare for it by intentionally cultivating a state of joy. Begin by purposely noticing and holding in awareness any feelings of stillness, alertness, and pleasure.

The main difference is that, instead of returning to the breath at the nose, when trying for jhāna you stay with the breath sensations in the whole body as your meditation object.

These periods of stable, exclusive focus, combined with the metacognitive awareness of pleasure, will allow you to access jhāna.

When everything is just right, your mind will seem to “slip into a groove” and begin to “flow” for a little while. This shift in mental state is jhāna.

Follow the sensations of the breath in the whole body as smoothly and seamlessly as possible. Each moment of doing your best is a success. Let all else fall away. Notice how pleasant the breath sensations are. They may take on a distinct vibrating quality. When everything is just right, your mind will seem to “slip into a groove” and begin to “flow” for a little while. The shift will be noticeable.