Intro to meditation: Class 4 notes

"Progress" is not linear

For the most part, I encourage you not to think about meditation in terms of progress. But you probably will at least some of the time, so it's worth noting that this "progress" will typically not be linear.

The stages described in TMI are a good example. The book's criteria for graduating from the first five stages are, roughly:

• Stage 1: You have a regular meditation practice
• Stage 2: Monkey-mind and long periods of forgetting the breath are rare, but you may still forget the breath sometimes
• Stage 3: You nearly never forget the breath entirely
• Stage 4: You have very few gross distractions
• Stage 5: Your sense clarity is strong and tends to grow during a sit

If you follow TMI, you should not expect to graduate Stage 4 one day and then never return to it again. In a single sit, you may move through several stages. You can move through them fluidly. Whenever I practice TMI over a period of time, I usually find that there will be three or so stages I move between (in both directions) over the days, weeks, or months.

If you expect your sit to conform to the experience of the stage you think you've "achieved", you will be disappointed. The advice is the same as always: perceive and accept what is happening in the present moment.

Body scanning instructions

Recall the three skills: concentration, sense clarity, and equanimity. This week's technique will increase sense clarity. This one takes awhile to get through, especially when you're new to it, so try to carve out 30+ minutes if you can. An hour is great.

• Briefly settle into your practice however you like.
  • For this practice, I suggest the four-stage transition we've done in the past but stopping at the third stage (all breath-related sensations).
• Pick a small region of your body and narrow your attention to it. Perceive as many sensations as you can.
  • You can pick the exact shape however you want. I suggest starting with something like "front half of left foot": about that size, with a simple anatomical description.
  • Keep the rhythm of the breath in your peripheral awareness. How do the sensations change with the breath cycle?
  • It's ok if you don't feel anything. Just perceive what is actually happening. Don't try to create sensations by looking too hard—just perceive.
• After spending some time in that region, move to the next region.
  • Have patience! Ideally, don't move to the next region until you've felt some increase in how much you're feeling.
  • There's no need to linger forever if nothing is changing for too long. But you should expect this practice to take awhile, especially when you're new to it.
  • You will cover the entire surface of the body in your scan.
• Once you've covered the whole body, start again. After one or two full-body passes, start increasing the region size. You could combine regions (two halves of foot → whole foot), or you can just enlarge them (larger swathes of your back).
• Eventually, you'll encompass the entire body at once. If you're keeping the breath in your peripheral awareness while you do this and you pay attention to how the sensations change with the breath, this is called whole-body breathing. It can be very pleasant.

If you're into yoga or tai chi, you may wish to compare what you notice when whole-body breathing with the phenomena of prana or qi.

Group sit: body scanning

30min group sit, guided. Whole body breathing, followed by a single whole-body scan, followed by more whole body breathing. Do you notice more sensations the second time around?

Followed by around the room discussion of meditation experiences in the past week (including this class's group sit).

Closing around the room

What is one thing you will focus on in your practice this coming week?