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December 11, 2015 - April 16, 2017
Level Three: Reprogramming Deep Conditioning
Then they can be purified by the illuminating power of mindfulness.
Mindfulness in meditation can accomplish more than the piecemeal process of confronting conditioning in daily life. Conditioning that emerges in meditation drives a wide range of reactive behaviors.
To really understand and appreciate this deep purification of mind, it helps to consider how past experiences shape and condition our lives in the present.
Level Four: Mindfulness, Insight, and the End of Suffering
As we practice mindfulness, however, we accumulate more and more evidence that things are very different from what we believed. In particular, the thoughts, feelings, and memories we associate with a sense of self are seen more objectively, revealing themselves to be constantly changing, impersonal, and often contradictory processes occurring in different parts of the mind.
The most valuable effect of mindfulness is that it allows Insight experiences to sink in, radically reprogramming our intuitive view of reality, and of who and what we think we are.
These are Insight experiences. When mindfulness allows them to sink in on an experiential level, it profoundly reprograms our intuitive view of reality, transforming a person in a wonderful way.
As paradoxical as it may seem, the craving to avoid suffering and pursue pleasure is the actual cause of suffering. But when we let go of our self-centeredness, we automatically act more objectively, for the good of everybody in each situation.
A Metaphor for the Levels of Mindfulness
metaphor
When you’re mindful enough in daily life, and for long enough and often enough, then consciousness can communicate the actual context and consequences of your conditioned reactions to their unconscious sources.
Only the fourth level of mindfulness—the Insight of Awakening—will finally destroy the root, meaning the thorn bush never grows back.
Continuous Attention and Overcoming Gross Distraction and Strong Dullness
The goal for Stage Four is to overcome gross distraction and strong dullness. Set and hold the intention to be vigilant so that introspective awareness becomes continuous, and notice and immediately correct for strong dullness and gross distraction. Eventually, noticing and correcting become completely automatic.
Practice Goals for Stage Four
The primary goal at this Stage is to overcome the scattering of attention caused by gross distraction and strong dullness
While you want to completely overcome the coarser forms of distraction and dullness, you will learn to tolerate and even make use of subtle distractions and subtle dullness
learning to identify and sustain a balance between an over-energized, easily distracted mind and a dull, lethargic mind.
As your mind grows calmer and more stable in this Stage, you will experience a deep purification. Stored unconscious residues from the past well up to the surface and are released.
Learning to Overcome Gross Distraction
Stilling the mind does not mean getting rid of thoughts and blocking out all distractions. It means reducing the constant movement of attention.
Let then come, let them be, let them go.
Cultivating Continuous Introspective Awareness
In Stage Three, you intentionally used introspective attention by checking in to look for gross distraction and take corrective action before forgetting happened.
In Stage Four, you will develop continuous introspective awareness to observe and evaluate all distractions.
emphasizing the introspective part of peripheral awareness.
Continuous introspective awareness alerts you to gross distractions. Use the breath as an anchor while you mindfully “watch the mind while the mind watches the breath.”
This is metacognitive introspective awareness, and will come to full fruition by Stage Eight.
Learning to sustain introspective awareness is extremely important for accomplishing the overall goals of meditation.
Directing and Redirecting Attention
A happy mind is a more focused mind. Annoyance and self-judgment are something you have to let go of. By affirming your successes, you make quicker progress.
should learn to recognize them. First
The second type of distraction doesn’t exert the same kind of pull.
Persistent Distractions: Pain, Insights, and Emotions
there are three kinds of subtle distractions that often become persistent gross distractions: pain and physical discomfort; interesting, attractive, and seemingly important insights; and emotionally charged memories, thoughts, and “visionary” experiences.
At this Stage, The arising of strong and persistent distractions is actually a sign of progress!
Pain and Discomfort as a Distraction
Pain is a dynamic sensation with many subtle qualities. Investigate them. Notice if it is sharp, piercing, burning, aching, dull, etc. Notice if the sensation feels solid and unchanging, or if it fluctuates in intensity, area, or location. Investigate whether your pain is one sensation, or a composite of several. Search within the sensation for the source of the unpleasantness. How much of the “pain” you’re experiencing is inherent in the sensation, and how much is your mind’s reaction to the sensation? This kind of in-depth exploration will help you become as objective as possible when
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S = P x R. The amount of suffering you experience is equal to the actual pain multiplied by the mind’s resistance to that pain.
there are certain advantages to using pain. Because it draws your attention so intensely, you’re less likely to experience dullness and distraction. Also, because pain generates many thoughts and emotions, it is easier to maintain strong introspective awareness. In other words, pain is quite useful for developing stable attention and powerful mindfulness. Make good use of it.
The Problem of Discursive Brilliance
As attention grows more stable and mindfulness more powerful, your ability to think improves. The mind becomes more creative, and ideas are linked together in novel ways.
Yet discursive brilliance can quickly become a trap, drawing you away from the practice. If you have meaningful insights, set them aside for another time.
As the mind grows calm, and everyday distractions fall away, significant material from the deep unconscious wells up into consciousness.
understand and rejoice in the fact that, when this material comes to the surface, it’s an act of purification and a critical step towards developing śamatha. In the stillness of meditation, the magic of mindfulness integrates this difficult content buried in the unconscious in a healthy and healing way.
“It’s not what we are feeling that’s important, but how we relate to it that matters.” Let
In summary, when the mind is quieted through meditation, charged emotions, thoughts, and visions well up from the unconscious into consciousness.
Purification of the Mind
The emotional purification in this Stage can be the equivalent of years of therapy. You can purify your mind of afflictions you’ve accumulated throughout your entire life.
