Stages of meditation – stages 7 to 10 help

[John MasseyMember]

Hi,

I was wondering if there was any information available with regards to Culadasa’s descriptions and advice for passing through the last 3 stages? Iv read the meditation in plain English which takes you up to stage 7 but it ends there. Is there any extra information available?

Kind regards

John

[Blaz SimcicMember]

John, I don’t think there is any extra information available, but maybe we could find something in archives containing all of Culadasa’s dharma talks. Did you search also somewhere else (for example Jhana and Insight Group)?

[John MasseyMember]

Hi Blaz,

Thanks for the reply. Yes I did look on Culadasa’s Jhana group but it I didn’t find that much to be honest. Quite a bit regarding different Jhana entry level from stage 6 onwards but nothing I thought I could carry through to stage 8 shamatha. This is the problem with taking up something like this on your own with only written guidance and generic audio content, you can get so far but without some guidance when it matters it feels like you are fumbling around in the dark maybe wasting much precious time.

Maybe look elsewhere to complete your shamatha practice, there are dogzchen practices you can use like settling the mind in its natural state or practicing awareness of awareness and detailed instructions to guide you or continue using the excellent body scan practice Culadasa suggests, either way it would help me (and you) no end if there was a little more guidance from somewhere rather than having to backtrack when you’ve taken a wrong turn. Maybe best to find a teacher for that.

Cheers

[Blake BartonKeymaster]

Hi John,

You are welcome to post questions on stages 7 – 10 to this forum. There are several senior students of Culadasa that are members and some are completing the teacher training class with Culadasa. These members have access to Culadasa’s upcoming book which covers these stages in great detail, and we could also discuss your question with Culadasa in the teacher training sessions if necessary.

Thanks,
Blake – Dharma Treasure Teacher in Training

[Jesse FallonMember]

Plus, some of the teachers in training are at those stages themselves. So they can respond from personal experience as well as from understanding Culadasa’s technique (not saying that i am one of those students at those stages 🙂

Best,
Jesse – Dharma Treasure Teacher in Training

[Anonymous]

I think John Massey is looking for the same document I am seeking: Part IV of Culadasa’s June 6, 2006 text “Progressive Stages of Meditation in Plain English”. This is pages 41-78 of that document. Not the version of the same title that was butchered down to a single document of 20 pages. I shall be deeply grateful to anyone who provides access to the desired document.

[Anonymous]

Never mind my previous post. I have learned that the writing of Part IV was not completed. I have noticed that a great volume of texts have disappeared from website pages I had bookmarked. I suspect that Culadasa purged a lot of earlier website material with the publication of his book, to avoid quibbles over the editing improvements.

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