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

by Culadasa (John Yates)

you also have to learn how to sustain attention5. This means you want to stop all spontaneous movements of attention.

consciously held intentions.

Just by intending to observe an object and to come back whenever we get distracted, we’re training that unconscious process to help us stay focused more continuously.

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Any information held in consciousness is communicated to the unconscious.

Formulating the conscious intention to focus on the meditation object provides a new piece of information for unconscious processes to take into account. Holding this intention, together with returning our attention to the breath over and over whenever we get distracted, informs the unconscious weighing process that keeping the focus on the breath is important.

Exclusive attention7 to one object, also called single-pointedness, is very different from alternating attention. Exclusive attention doesn’t move back and forth between distractions and our intended focus.

Repeating simple tasks with a clear intention can reprogram unconscious mental processes. This can completely transform who you are as a person.

This is the very essence of meditation: we reprogram unconscious mental processes by repeating basic tasks over and over with a clear intention.

Once you can direct and sustain your attention, you will then work on controlling the scope of attention: how wide or narrow you want your focus to be.

The Second Objective of Meditation: Mindfulness

Mindfulness allows us to recognize options, choose responses, and take control of our lives. It gives us the power to become the person we want to be. It also leads to Insight, Wisdom, and Awakening.

“powerfully effective conscious awareness,”

“fully conscious

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the optimal interaction between attention and per...

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Mindfulness is the optimal interaction between attention and peripheral awareness.

Peripheral awareness is only minimally conceptual. It is open and inclusive, as well as holistic.

Attention analyzes experience, and peripheral awareness provides the context. When one or the other doesn’t do its job, we misinterpret, overreact, and make poor decisions.

Attention analyzes our experience, and peripheral awareness provides the context. When one or the other doesn’t do its job, or when there isn’t enough interaction between the two, then we respond to situations less effectively. We may overreact, make poor decisions, or misinterpret what’s going on.

attention and peripheral awareness can be either extrospective or introspective. Extrospective means that attention or awareness is directed towards objects that come from outside your mind, such as sights, smells, or bodily sensations. Introspective means the objects in consciousness are internal—thoughts, feelings, states, and activities of mind. Even though attention and awareness can be either extrospective or introspective, only peripheral awareness can observe the overall state of mind (e.g., whether it is happy, peaceful, or agitated), as well as the activities of the mind (e.g., whether attention is moving or not, and whether attention is occupied with thinking,

The condition in which the mind “stands back” to observe its own state and activities is called metacognitive introspective

The quality of these moment-to-moment decisions depends on the quality of the information made available by both attention and awareness.

Mindfulness is the optimum interaction between the two, so cultivating mindfulness can change everything we think, feel, say, and do for the better. It can completely transform who we are.

In meditation, where other distractions are minimized, we can learn to use peripheral awareness effectively, and become skilled at using attention and awareness together. However, skill at using attention and awareness is only one part of mindfulness training.

There are many ways you can lose mindfulness, but they all come down to not enough conscious power for an optimal interaction between attention and awareness.

Attention and awareness draw from the same limited capacity for consciousness. The goal is to increase the total power of consciousness available for both.

The goal, therefore, is to increase the total power of consciousness available for both attention and awareness.

The result is peripheral awareness that is clearer, and attention that gets used more appropriately: purposefully, in the present moment, and without becoming bogged down in judgment and projection.

Like strengthening a muscle, developing powerful mindfulness involves enhancing a natural capacity that we all have.

In this practice, you move steadily away from dullness toward enhanced states of consciousness that support increased mindfulness.

Throughout the Stages of meditation, you systematically train your attention and peripheral awareness in order to develop mindfulness. This is a matter of both skill development, and increasing the total power of consciousness.

With mindfulness, life becomes richer and more satisfying. You don’t take things personally. Attention plays an appropriate role within the context of a broad and powerful awareness.

You’re fully present, happier, and at ease, because you’re not so easily caught up in the stories and melodramas the mind likes to concoct.

You become more objective and clear-headed, and develop an enhanced awareness of the whole. When all these factors are ripe, you’re ready for profound Insight into the true nature of reality. These are the extraordinary benefits of mindfulness. Summary

Developing stable attention Cultivating powerful mindfulness that optimizes the interaction between attention and awareness.

The goal isn’t just getting to a calm, quiet pool, but learning about the makeup of the water itself as it goes from choppy to still, from cloudy to crystal clear.

to establish a consistent daily practice where you meditate to the best of your ability throughout every session.

They are: motivation, goals, expectations, diligence, distractions, and posture.

Perhaps it’s to have a little more peace of mind and improve your mental skills, or it could be to achieve Awakening

Ask yourself what you hope to accomplish in this particular session.

Resolve to hold the goals you’ve set very lightly, to find enjoyment in every meditation no matter what happens, and to savor any achievement.

Diligence means engaging wholeheartedly in the practice rather than spending your time on the cushion planning or daydreaming.

(It will help to review the Five Hindrances described in the Second Interlude.)

the breath is used as the basis for the practice of Tranquility and Insight (śamatha-vipassanā), dry Insight practices (sukkha-vipassanā), and meditative absorptions (jhāna).

When we refer to the “breath” as the meditation object, we mean the sensations produced by breathing.