The goal of Stage Five is to overcome subtle dullness and increase the power of mindfulness. Set and hold the intention to notice and immediately correct for subtle dullness. Powerful mindfulness will become a habit of the mind.
Stage Five: The meditator has started to gain some control over the elephant, and now leads it and uses the goad. The monkey continues to interfere, but now follows behind, tugging at the elephant’s tail.
• The elephant is half white. The hindrance of Laziness and Lethargy has been overcome, so strong dullness has disappeared; the hindrances of Sense Desire, Aversion, and Doubt are weakening as well.
• The monkey is also half white. Gross distraction has been completely overcome.
• The front half of the rabbit is white as well, because progressive subtle dullness has been overcome. The back half that is still black indicates the presence of non-progressive subtle dullness, which will be overcome at this Stage.
• The flame is becoming smaller, indicating less effort is now required.
At the start of Stage Five, attention is much more stable. You’re free from gross distraction, but still experience subtle distraction. You’ve also overcome strong dullness and progressive subtle dullness, but remain in a state of stable subtle dullness.
Your goals for this Stage are to completely overcome the tendency to slip more deeply into stable subtle dullness, and to heighten the power and clarity of consciousness. In other words, you want to develop more powerful mindfulness that includes vivid attention and strong peripheral awareness. To achieve this, you’ll learn to recognize when subtle dullness starts to deepen. Then you’ll learn to correct it and restore your mind to its previous alertness. Finally, having recognized and corrected for subtle dullness, you’ll increase the power of your mindfulness even more.
You’ve mastered Stage Five when you’ve completely overcome stable subtle dullness and the intensity of mindfulness actually increases as your session progresses.
This new level of stable attention is precisely what makes us more vulnerable to slipping into a deeper state of sustained subtle dullness. That’s because the mental agitation that stimulated the mind and helped keep us awake in the earlier Stages has subsided. As subtle dullness deepens, it causes both peripheral awareness and subtle distractions to fade. If we don’t recognize this as a sign of subtle dullness, it can easily be mistaken for the strong, exclusive focus of Stage Six. The pleasant feelings that accompany subtle dullness can also be misinterpreted as first signs of the meditative joy of advanced Stages. Without guidance, meditators often confuse a deeper state of subtle dullness with having achieved the more lofty states of later Stages.
Without guidance, you might confuse a deeper state of subtle dullness with having achieved a Stage Six or Seven level of practice.
We can sustain this type of subtle dullness for very long periods. It’s often described in these kinds of terms: “My concentration was so deep, an hour seemed like only minutes.” Or, “I don’t know where I went, but I was just gone, and felt so peaceful and happy.” When the pleasure of dullness is particularly strong and our peripheral awareness of thoughts and sensations fades completely, our meditation can even seem to fit the description of a meditative absorption (jhāna). We can quickly get attached to such experiences, prizing them as proof of our meditative skills. Yet, relative to the practice goals in this book, they are complete dead ends. It’s crucial we learn to recognize and overcome subtle dullness to progress in your practice. Therefore, do not skip this Stage!
Subtle dullness has three characteristics: (1) the vividness and clarity of the meditation object decline; (2) both extrospective and introspective peripheral awareness fade; (3) there is a comfortable, relaxed, and pleasant feeling. These occur together, though only one or two may be obvious at a time. We need to learn to identify these characteristics in order to know when subtle dullness is growing deeper.
As subtle dullness deepens, the sensations of the breath are no longer as vivid, and your perception of the fine details aren’t as sharp and clear as before. Once you learn to look for this change in perception, it’s quite noticeable.
As subtle dullness deepens, the sensations of the breath are no longer as vivid, and your perception of the details isn’t as sharp and clear as before.
An increase in the number of subtle distractions also causes a loss of vividness and clarity. This is because distractions are competing with the breath for available moments of attention. It’s a simple correlation. If there’s an increase in subtle distractions, there will be a decrease in the vividness and clarity of the meditation object. And if there’s a decrease in subtle distractions, the meditation object will be more discernible. You may have already noticed this, but if not, make a point of observing what happens to the meditation object when subtle distractions increase and decrease. With the normal ebb and flow of subtle distractions at this Stage, you can easily observe these moment-by-moment changes in vividness and clarity. Becoming familiar with how subtle distractions affect the appearance of the breath will help you recognize when dullness is doing the same thing.
Although dullness and distractions produce similar changes in perception, when dullness is the cause, vividness and clarity decline more gradually, without as much fluctuation—and, of course, there’s no increase in the number of subtle distractions. Vividness and clarity decline because non-perceiving mind moments gradually replace perceiving ones. You must become skilled at recognizing this decline. Just like with strong dullness in Stage Four, we rely on introspective awareness to alert us to the loss of vividness and clarity so we can increase the intensity of our perception again. Yet, this isn’t so easy because it’s precisely when subtle dullness deepens that introspective awareness starts to fade.
Initially, your perception of the breath is clear and vivid, and you remain mindfully aware of physical sensations and mental objects in the periphery. But when subtle dullness deepens, your field of conscious awareness shrinks. Sounds and bodily sensations fade from awareness, sometimes becoming imperceptible. Thoughts are fewer and don’t occur as often. At the same time, feelings of relaxation and contentment grow, eventually dominating introspective awareness. You will be introspectively aware of a sense of comfort and ease, rather than of dullness. This is a tricky situation. Introspective awareness, the very thing you need in order to catch deepening subtle dullness, has itself been affected by subtle dullness!
When subtle dullness deepens, the field of conscious awareness shrinks, sounds and bodily sensations fade from awareness, and thoughts are fewer.
This problem is similar to the one in Stage Three. There, you needed introspective awareness to detect gross distractions and drowsiness, but it wasn’t developed enough yet to do the job. So instead, you used attention to “check in,” looking into the mind for distraction and dullness. In this Stage, you will also periodically check in with attention to look for the presence of subtle dullness.
Having dealt with pain and discomfort in the preceding Stage, it’s now easier to sit comfortably for longer periods. Also, because you have more stable attention and feel satisfied with your progress, your meditations are often pleasant. You have to learn to distinguish this more wholesome kind of pleasure from the pleasurable feelings of subtle dullness. Pleasantness by itself isn’t a reliable sign of subtle dullness.
Dullness of any kind is always pleasant, except when we actively resist. Consider things like alcohol, drugs, and forms of mindless entertainment. These all provide a much-sought-after kind of pleasurable dullness. We become relaxed and pleasantly numb. Our awareness is hazy at best, and our attention is free-floating. Although this is quite different from dullness in meditation, it clearly shows why the pleasure of dullness is so seductive. Subtle dullness in meditation is actually more like the relaxed state you might experience sitting in a lounge chair, eyes closed, under a beach umbrella on a warm day. Or consider the comfortable state of resting on the couch after a big holiday feast. You’re not asleep, or even sleepy. You’re still somewhat aware of what’s happening around you. It may even seem like you have a clear mind, but you’re actually not very alert.
Dullness of any kind is always pleasant, except when you actively resist. You’ll be aware of a sense of comfort and ease, rather than of dullness.
This is exactly the kind of deeper, but still stable, subtle dullness that can arise in meditation and be intentionally cultivated if we don’t understand what’s happening. We can train ourselves to remain in this state for extended periods. As mentioned, such dullness can make us think we’ve achieved the exclusive focus and blissful states of the later Stages. When our practice is this enjoyable, there’s a strong temptation to see ourselves as adept meditators.
Once again, pleasurable subtle dullness is a trap and a dead end. You must recognize and avoid that trap. At first, it may be difficult to distinguish between the wholesome pleasure of stable attention and the pleasure of subtle dullness, but in time, you will recognize the warm, soft, quiet pleasure of subtle dullness as something quite different from the bright, alert enjoyment of being in the flow of mindfulness.
Pleasurable subtle dullness is a trap and a dead end. You must recognize and avoid that trap.
The signs that dullness is growing deeper include decreasing vividness and clarity, fading peripheral awareness, and seductive pleasure. However, detecting these signs is harder because dullness causes introspective awareness to fade. So, how can we recognize them when we’re already being affected? One thing that helps is certain kinds of involuntary responses, such as the startle reaction. If some disturbance—an unexpected sound, someone coughing, or a door slamming—causes you to jerk or feel inwardly startled, then dullness was probably present. Other examples are when you’re surprised to find yourself taking a deep breath, or when you suddenly find yourself correcting for a slumping posture. If you were really mindful, you would have been aware of needing to do these things before they happened automatically. As a general rule, the more mindful you are in the moment, the more difficult it is to be either startled or surprised. Once you have been startled into a state of greater awareness, reflect on and examine the quality of your meditation just before you were startled. This will help you recognize the characteristic signs of subtle dullness.
Still, you don’t have to wait until you’re startled to recognize the deepening of subtle dullness. You should intentionally check in from time to time as well. Compare your present awareness and attention with previous meditation sessions when you felt particularly sharp and alert. You can also compare your awareness and attention with earlier times in the same sitting. It’s even helpful to examine your meditation session after it’s ended, searching for any signs that subtle dullness may have been present. This will teach you to recognize dullness more easily next time. Finally, another sign that you were sitting in subtle dullness is when you feel sluggish or spacey after practicing. When this happens, recall as best you can what you were experiencing during your meditation, which will also help you recognize dullness in the future.
The best way to detect subtle dullness is by making introspective awareness stronger. The key to doing that is intention. In Stages Two and Three, you intentionally emphasized continuous extrospective awareness. Now, you must strengthen your introspective awareness. Hold the intention to remain continuously aware of what’s happening in the mind, moment by moment. Be aware of which subtle distractions are present, and how frequently attention shifts back and forth between them and the breath. Be aware not only of the contents of your mind—thoughts, feelings, underlying intentions, and so forth—but also of the activities of your mind. At the same time, keep cultivating the intention to observe the meditation object continuously with as much intensity and clarity as possible. That means you also need to hold the intention to know how well you’re fulfilling this intention—which, of course, requires still more introspective awareness—and if vividness is declining, you want to know why. Is it because subtle dullness is creeping in? Or is it due to agitation? In short, stay continuously vigilant about changes in the degree of dullness or alertness of your mind over time. Again, this vigilance is the result of firmly held intentions involving introspective awareness.
The best way to detect subtle dullness is by making introspective awareness stronger. The key to doing that is intention.
Intentionally cultivating vigilant introspective awareness doesn’t just help you detect subtle dullness. It’s an antidote as well. Remember, dullness arises when perceiving moments of consciousness become non-perceiving mind moments. A strong intention to perceive actually reverses this process by producing more perceiving moments of consciousness. By just setting the intention to observe the breath clearly and vividly while sustaining introspective awareness, you directly influence the root cause of dullness.
Sharpen up your observation of the meditation object when you notice a decrease in the quality of awareness and attention. Use the techniques of following and connecting. Follow the sensations of the breath while intending to perceive the details as clearly and vividly as possible. It’s especially important to connect changes in the breath with the degree of alertness or dullness of the mind. When you’re more alert, does the breath tend to be deeper or shallower, longer or shorter, and how do the pauses change? What about when you’re dull?
Another way to counter subtle dullness is by expanding the scope of your attention to include the sensations of the body. This works to energize the mind because we automatically use more conscious power to observe sensations in a larger area. You will even find that your scope of attention tends to spontaneously expand at this Stage. For instance, you might find yourself observing the sensations of the breath in both the chest and abdomen when you were intending to focus only on the nose.
Be forewarned: When the scope of attention spontaneously expands, it can also disguise an increase in dullness. There are two ways this happens. First, if you don’t have enough conscious power, an expanded scope of attention will only lead to a “fuzzier” perception of many objects at once. As a result, you may easily overlook the fuzziness of dullness as it creeps in. When this happens, you’re actually in a state of “double fuzziness”—the fuzziness caused by expanded awareness, and the fuzziness caused by dullness.
The second way spontaneously expanded attention disguises dullness is that a wider scope includes many objects that can easily be mistaken for extrospective awareness. With this wider scope of attention, you may feel like you have a good balance between attention and awareness, but in reality awareness is fading and dullness grows deeper. So, whenever you find your scope expanding on its own, be wary. Look inward to see if there’s subtle dullness. Also, never rely on the subjective “feeling” of alertness and clarity. Examine the actual quality of both awareness and attention.
To summarize: You want to detect any deepening of subtle dullness as soon as possible. Then apply the appropriate antidote. The meditation object should return to being vivid and clear, and your introspective and extrospective awareness should return to how they were before the dullness. Your next task is to increase the energy level of your mind even further.
You want to detect any deepening of subtle dullness as soon as possible. Then apply the appropriate antidote.
The second major goal of this Stage is to increase mindfulness. We could develop the skills of mindfulness without increasing the overall power of the mind, but that wouldn’t do the job. We’d be left with a less effective mindfulness that’s easily lost.
You’re already using one method that increases the power of mindfulness: holding the intention to maintain bright peripheral awareness while observing the meditation object as clearly and vividly as you did in your best meditations. The body-scanning method in the description that follows provides an even more powerful tool for increasing mindfulness.1 Here is the method, step by step.
1. Shift your attention from the tip of the nose to the surface of your abdomen. Observe the sensations associated with the in-breath and the out-breath. Without losing awareness of the breath as a familiar, repeated, cyclical event, focus as much as you can on just the sensations themselves, rather than on the concepts of “expansion,” “contraction,” “skin,” “breath,” “air,” and “movement.” Notice in particular the changing qualities of these sensations as the abdomen rises and falls. Continue until your attention is stable and you can clearly recognize the changing sensations.
2. When the perception of the breath at the abdomen is well established, choose an isolated area of the body far from the abdomen, one where you wouldn’t expect to feel sensations related to breathing. Shift your attention to this area while at the same time keeping the sensations of the breath at the abdomen in your peripheral awareness. Consider the foot as an example. Shift the attention to the front half of one foot. Thoroughly examine all the sensations in that part of the foot without losing awareness of the breath. Investigate the foot sensations to see if any of them change with the in- or the out-breath. (When you first start, you will probably not notice any changes.) Repeat this with the back half of the same foot. Then, move to the calf and lower leg, again examining all the sensations while looking for any specifically connected to the breath. Repeat this for the other foot and leg.
There is no special significance to suggesting the foot as the starting point. You could just as easily choose the top of one ear and then progress over the scalp and face. Where you start and the order you go in doesn’t matter. Just start wherever suits you best. Eventually, you want to closely examine the sensations in every single part of the body, first in small, highly focused areas, then in larger ones. Always maintain peripheral awareness of the breath at the abdomen as you search for any breath-related sensations in other parts of the body.
You can also apply the traditional and powerful Buddhist meditation on the elements to your observation of bodily sensations. These elements are: earth (solidity and resistance), water (cohesion and fluidity), fire (heat and cold), wind (movement and change), and space. For example, when you focus your attention on the sensations of touch and pressure in your foot, you’ll notice a combination of the earth and water elements. In terms of the “earth” element, your foot feels firm, and you can sense its resistance to the pressure from the weight of your leg above and the floor below. The foot has inherent solidity and volume, and a specific shape all its own. At the same time, it’s yielding and malleable, yet doesn’t come apart despite being bent or twisted due to how you’re sitting. This is the “water” element of cohesion and fluidity. Likewise, you’ll notice different temperature sensations—“fire”—present everywhere in varying degrees. Your sense of the shape, position, and location of your foot are all manifestations of the “space” element.2 Finally, as you observe these sensations over time, you’ll notice they constantly change, growing more or less intense, moving, even vibrating. This is the “wind” element of movement and change. It’s the practice of observing the wind element that will help you discover the breath-related sensations in other parts of the body. In fact, in the Indo-Tibetan tradition, these breath-related sensations are called the “inner winds.” Remember, the elements practice is simply to help you investigate sensations with greater clarity. If you find it helpful, use it. If not, you can skip it.
3. Now, examine the sensations in one whole foot. Remain aware of the breath at the abdomen and keep searching for any foot sensations that change with the breath. Then closely examine the sensations in both feet at once, staying alert for those that change with the breath. Do the same for both legs. Continue to explore your entire body in the same way, first closely examining the sensations in isolated areas, then in increasingly large areas, and even in whole body regions.
Working your way through the body, you’ll eventually reach areas where you can readily observe changes in sensations that clearly correspond to the breath cycle. These will almost certainly include the upper back, chest, and abdomen, and possibly the lower back, shoulders, and upper arms as well. These breath-related sensations are comparatively gross, produced by changes in pressure and body parts moving against clothing or each other. Eventually, however, you’ll be able to detect very subtle changes related to the breath in every part of the body. As your sensitivity to these subtle changes increases, you’ll have direct experience of and be able to understand the meaning of traditional terms like “the flow of prāṇa,” “the movement of the inner winds,” and “the circulation of qi.” Wherever you find any changing sensations related to the breath, linger and explore them thoroughly.