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 almost never forget the breath entirely
Stage 4: You have very few gross distractions
Stage 5: Your sense clarity is strong and tends to grow over the course of 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.
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.

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 sensation.
- 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. Each time you restart, change around the regions.
- For example, if you did "front half of left foot" and "rear half of left foot" last time, try "left half of left foot" and "right half of left foot" this time.
- The reason for changing regions is to ensure that you don't miss the opportunity to feel what happens at the seams of any particular division.

Group sit: body scanning

30min group sit, guided. Whole body awareness, followed by a single whole-body scan, followed by whole body awareness. 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).

Body scan variations

A few variations on body scanning you may enjoy playing with:

Determine which body sensations correlate in some way with the breath and pay special attention to those.
Do several body scans. Each pass, increase the size of the regions you use. For example, in the first pass, regions may be of sizes like "front half of left foot". Second pass, "left foot". Then "left foot + lower leg". Eventually, you'll have just two regions: "torso" and "legs". Then "whole body at once". This one takes a lot of time.
Combine the previous two. If you get to the whole body with special attention on breath-related sensations, we call this "whole body breathing". It can be very pleasant.
- If you practice yoga or tai chi, you may wish to compare what you notice when whole-body breathing with the phenomena of prana or qi.
Based on your past body scans, identify a region that typically has no sensation at all. The check is a common example. Instead of body scanning, just pay attention to sensations in this dull region for the entire sit.

Closing around the room

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