Questions about the gradual four step transition

[dcurtisMember]

Greetings,

I’ve been working with “The Mind Illuminated” since late March, after getting serious about meditation in the winter of 2014/2015. It would appear I’m stuck though. I’ve been practicing the four step transition as described in the book since April, and it generally is all that happens for the hour I sit in the morning, and again in the evening. The last week or so it has become even worse, as I only get through the first two steps and the timer sounds. How long should I give this in order to see the amount of time it takes to get through the four (or two) steps decrease? Another question – in the book Culadasa states that we wait for the mind to settle before moving from one step to the next. Does he mean for the mind to stop wandering from the imposed boundary of each step? If so, then it seems something is wrong here. We’re told that forgetting and mind wandering don’t stop until later stages, so how can we expect the mind to not forget and wander during the four step transition? I’m sure I’ve misunderstood something in all of this. What constitutes the mind settling that is needed before moving on to the next step?

Anyway, my concern with all of this is that I’m no longer able to spend time in meditation doing the other things I could be practicing as described in the chapter for stage two. I’d like to be able to spend at least part of my time sitting working on appreciating the ‘aha’ moment and then holding the attention on engaging the breath, as well as cultivating positive feelings in the meditation.

Thank you,

Darrell

[dcurtisMember]

I apologize if I’m being impatient –

Is there someone here who can give me an answer to my questions?

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Darrell,

Relax. You are doing fine.

“Wait for the mind to settle” means to thoroughly experience the boundaries you are working with, before moving to the next set of boundaries. The four phases are distinctly different experiences, like being in different rooms of a house. Get to know each in a familiar way before making the decision to move to the next, so next time you meditate you go “Oh Yes. I have been HERE before.” The familiarity develops an attractive quality for the next time that you sit so it is easy to find your way back to there, and each ‘room’ gets more exquisitely interesting the more times you go there. INTERESTING!

In Step One, you can improve your sense of presence by thinking in detail of your body sitting among all the various objects in the room, the building, etc. You are directing your attention to these numerous objects without thinking ABOUT them. Overwhelm your habit of natural thoughts.

You will FEEL a natural logic to the sequence of phases. The idea in Step Two is to overwhelm your attention to thoughts, by flooding your attention WITH NUMEROUS body sensations SIMULTANEOUSLY. At first these are obviously Physical sensations, but eventually you will realize that some of these sensations are incidentally mentally created by your imagination. Do not worry about which is which.

If you like an independent exercise to appreciate body sensations, you need a SIMPLE body scan method. you can Google
Leigh Brasington: Guided Meditation: Body Sweep

You know its working when you have very few thoughts because you are so interested in these body sensations. So your body is sitting very still. But the one thing that is moving anyway you cannot help but notice is your breathing. That is Step Three.

When you work diligently at large boundaries, like the entire room, your attention bails out to the easier task of just the smaller boundaries of your body. You work that and it wants to bail out again to just the sensations in your body, because the boundaries are smaller. Then to just the sensations in the part of your body that is moving, your breathing. Then just to sensations in your nose.

The four step thing is supremely important. There will be times in your practice of later stages that you get confused and uncertain, and you can go back to the four step as a grounding technique. Do not go into trance of ‘concentration’ with the four-step, by allowing the attention to narrow as far as it likes. Always you know you are in your body and you hear the environment. Meditation is not concentration, but to EXERCISE A PREFERENCE with your attention.

So run with that.

[Malte MalmMember]

To add another perspective, while speaking from my own experience, I can relate to your frustration about not being able to practice Stage 2 practices. I had an extremely hard time as well, staying focused. Culadasas techniques helped me very well, getting up to Stage 4 in 2 months. My recommendation would be to divert time as to spend maybe 10 or 15 on the 4 steps and then move on to breathing focus on the nostril even if you have not completed them. Eventually you will be able to do the whole 4 step transition. Ans you would get good concentration practice while reinforcing “aha”, as well. Maybe others here has different opinions but that is how I would do it in your situation.

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Darrell,

When performing the Gradual Four-Step Transition, you do not need to stop mind wandering before moving on to the next step. As you stated, mind wandering will stop considerably later in the practice.

Culadasa states “Once you have become fully present with every kind of sensory stimulus, limit your attention to bodily sensations”, or move on to step 2. In other words, after you spend some time letting attention move freely through present moment sensory input, then move on.

I see where you can get stuck in Steps 1 and 2, because it says “Repeat this process of backing off and starting over as often as needed until the mind can rest easily with your attention focused only on body sensations.” It goes on to say “If you never get past Step 2 during the entire meditation session that’s perfectly fine. However, sometimes focusing in more can help you settle down, so don’t hesitate to to try moving to the next step”

In this step you are not trying for exclusive attention to body sensations. You will not work on this until Stage 6. I would recommend once you have a reasonable amount of stability with body sensations that you move to Step 3.

I don’t agree with the following advice from Wiley. “The idea in Step Two is to overwhelm your attention to thoughts, by flooding your attention WITH NUMEROUS body sensations SIMULTANEOUSLY.” This is not mentioned in the description of Step two nor have I ever heard Culadasa mention it. What Wiley describes is a stage 6 practice.

In summary, I recommend experimenting with spending various amounts to time on the four preliminary steps to see what works best for you. However, please remember that you are developing fundamental meditation skills, and an understanding of attention and peripheral awareness while practicing the 4 steps. You could also practice the aha moment when you mind wanders, and you are supposed to cultivate and appreciate positive feelings. So, it is not a waste of time.

Blake – Dharma Treasure Teacher in Training

[dcurtisMember]

Gentlemen, Thank you all for your responses, they have been very helpful. Great suggestions from both of you Wiley and Malte.

Blake, I’m wondering about two things. First, I’ve understood becoming fully present with the sensations in each stage as my mind not resisting the self imposed limits of those stages. Although my mind will still wander, there’s not the mental resistance to those limits either softens or goes away entirely, and there’s a sense of relaxation with boundaries of a given stage. Does that sound right, or is being present with the sensations of each stage something else. That is to say, am I making it something it’s not?

Also, do I continue on with the four stages indefinitely, even after I’ve become able to move through them quickly, or are they eventually dropped?

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi Darrell,

Becoming fully present with sensations is keeping attention on the sensations as much as you are able at this point in your practice. Being fully present will probably evolve as you develop the mental skills of attention and peripheral awareness. As you develop more mental power, you will probably notice more sensations with more clarity. A greater number of you mind moments will notice what you intend to notice.

In the early stages of practicing step 1, if you are regularly noticing things in the present moment (sounds, body sensations, smells), then you are fully present. Your attention will move to thoughts and forget the present, and this is perfectly fine. When this happens just gently redirect your attention back to the present moment.

It would be nice if you have no resistance to the limits of the steps, but this may not happen early on, and it is not necessarily required. We are generally addicted to thinking, and our attention generally prefers that to other forms of sensations. Having the intention to notice pleasant sensations in each step can lessen the resistance, because our minds also like things that are pleasant.

It can also help to cultivate a sense of relaxation. Having a sense of exploration instead of forcing attention to stay put can really help. For example, examine the present moment like a child would.

Culadasa has the following to say about the steps. “Use it each time you sit down to meditate, especially if you are a beginner”. There may be a point when you want to let it go, but this would probably be when you get to Stage 7 or 8.

Hope this helps,

Blake – DT Teacher in Training

[dcurtisMember]

Blake,

That helps a great deal. Thank you for all of your help.

[Bob MMember]

one technique I have recently been using is this:

At the end of a sit, where in the final 10-20 minutes I usually have achieved some fairly stable degree of focused attention on the breath at the nose or upper lip, and after my timer signals the end of a session, I then tag on a few minutes of stepping backwards and forwards through the four stages, with perhaps 30-60 seconds in each stage.

It generally feels much easier to navigate the transitions when between stages when recapitulated at the end of a sit. Though each stage may not be “perfectly” realised in these brief passages through each stage, it really seems to build familiarity with what each stage “feels like”.

For me, this seems to help when following a more gradual and careful stepping through the four stages in the first part of the following meditation session.

wonder if people here think this could be a useful thing to do. feels helpful to me for now.

[Michael DunnMember]

Hello Bob,

Sure, this is a very good thing to do. The gradual process of bringing attention to the sensations of the breath, over 4 steps (not stages), is a very effective way to start the meditation.

And vice-versa, reversing it is a great way to come out of meditation, back to the room etc. And it may help the meditator with the distinctions between awareness and attention, especially as at the end of the session the mind may be more still.

Thanks for sharing this practice.

Michael

[Bob MMember]

@michael – you are correct, I was referring to the four “Steps” in my post, above, not Stages. sorry, new to all the terminology this discipline.

I would add that another day or two of doing this is continues to reap rapid benefits. Although I have been meditating for 6-7 years, I am quite new to culadasa’s techniques, and so have been using the four-step method of getting into narrowly focused attention for only a short while. In general, I am finding the four steps a really effective technique to help ease into concentration at the start of a sit.

Also the exercise of cycling up and down two or three times relatively quickly through the four steps again at the end of a sit (and as a finish, backing out to step one, wide focus on the present) is really helping me.

I have been keeping eyes open in step one (even though my usual meditation place is fairly dimly lit) and closing eyes when I move to step two, so that the room and wider environment drop away more easily and attention swings into the body alone, reversing this of course when stepping back out.

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