The Mind Illuminated - A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science

What we make of our life—the sum total of thoughts, emotions, words, and actions that fill the brief interval between birth and death—is our one great creative masterpiece. The beauty and significance of a life well lived consists not in the works we leave behind, or in what history has to say about us. It comes from the quality of conscious experience that infuses our every waking moment, and from the impact we have on others.

Awakening from our habitual way of perceiving things requires a profound shift in our intuitive understanding of the nature of reality. Awakening is a cognitive event, the culminating Insight in a series of very special Insights called vipassana. This climax of the progress of Insight only occurs when the mind is in a unique mental state called śamatha. 11 Śamatha and vipassana are both generated using stable attention (samādhi) and mindfulness (sati). Although it’s possible to cultivate either śamatha or vipassanā independently of one another, both are necessary for Awakening.

In reality, all we’re “doing” in meditation is forming and holding specific conscious intentions—nothing more. In fact, while it may not be obvious, all our achievements originate from intentions. Consider learning to play catch. As a child, you may have wanted to play catch, but at first your arm and hand just didn’t move in quite the right way. However, by sustaining the intention to catch the ball, after much practice, your arm and hand eventually performed the task whenever you wanted. “You” don’t play catch. Instead, you just intend to catch the ball, and the rest follows. “You” intend, and the body acts.

While useful, the lists of goals, obstacles, skills, and mastery provided above can obscure just how simple the underlying process really is: intentions lead to mental actions, and repeated mental actions become mental habits. This simple formula is at the heart of every Stage.

Getting annoyed with every instance of mind-wandering or sleepiness is like tearing up the garden to get rid of the weeds. Attempting to force attention to remain stable is like trying to make a sapling grow taller by stretching it. Chasing after physical pliancy and meditative joy is like prying open a bud so it will blossom more quickly. Impatience and striving won’t make anything grow faster. Be patient and trust in the process. Care for the mind like a skilled gardener, and everything will flower and fruit in due time.

The way attention and peripheral awareness work together is a lot like the relationship between visual focus and peripheral vision. Try fixing your eyes on an external object. You will notice that, as you focus on the object, your peripheral vision takes in other information elsewhere in your field of vision. You can compare that with your experience of attention and peripheral awareness in daily life, where you pay attention to some things while remaining peripherally aware of others.

It’s important to realize attention and peripheral awareness are two different ways of “knowing” the world. 2 Each has its virtues as well as its shortcomings. Attention singles out some small part of the content of the field of conscious awareness from the rest in order to analyze and interpret it. On the other hand, peripheral awareness is more holistic, open, and inclusive, and provides the overall context for conscious experience. It has more to do with the relationships of objects to one another and to the whole. In this book, whenever the term awareness is used, it refers to peripheral awareness. It never means attention. 3 The distinction between the two is key. The failure to recognize this distinction creates considerable confusion.

Stable attention is the ability to intentionally direct and sustain the focus of attention, as well as to control the scope of attention. Intentionally directing and sustaining attention simply means that we learn to choose which object we’re going to attend to, and keep our attention continuously fixed on it. Controlling the scope of attention means training the mind to adjust how wide or narrow our focus is, and being more selective and intentional about what is included and excluded.

To develop intentionally directed, stable attention, you must first have a clear understanding of its opposite, spontaneous movements of attention. Attention moves spontaneously in three different ways: scanning, getting captured, and alternating.

Repeating simple tasks with a clear intention can reprogram unconscious mental processes. This can completely transform who you are as a person.

This is the very essence of meditation: we reprogram unconscious mental processes by repeating basic tasks over and over with a clear intention.

The condition in which the mind “stands back” to observe its own state and activities is called metacognitive introspective awareness. 13 Attention, on the other hand, can’t observe activities of the mind because its movements and abstracting of information from awareness are activities of the mind. In other words, we can’t attend to attention. When attention is focused on remembering, for example, you can’t also use attention to know you’re remembering. But you can be aware that you’re remembering.

Increasing the power of consciousness isn’t a mysterious process. It’s a lot like weight training. You simply do exercises where you practice sustaining close attention and strong peripheral awareness at the same time. This is the only way to make consciousness more powerful. The more vivid you can make your attention while still sustaining awareness, the more power you will gain.

When you have cultivated mindfulness, life becomes richer, more vivid, more satisfying, and you don’t take everything that happens so personally. Attention plays a more appropriate role within the greater context of a broad and powerful awareness. You’re fully present, happier, and at ease, because you’re not so easily caught up in the stories and melodramas the mind likes to concoct.

The two main objectives of meditation practice are: Developing stable attention Cultivating powerful mindfulness that optimizes the interaction between attention and awareness.

A famous analogy in Zen compares the mind to a pool of water. This is a helpful way to think about the training and goals of meditation. If the water is agitated, churned up by wind and currents, it doesn’t provide a clear reflection nor can we see to the bottom. But as the water calms, the debris that made the pool muddy begins to settle, and the water itself becomes clear. A calm pool also reflects the sky and clouds perfectly.

Whenever we refer to the “breath” as the meditation object, we actually mean the sensations produced by breathing, not some visualization or idea of the breath going in and out. When I direct you to observe the “breath” in the chest or abdomen, I mean the sensations of movement, pressure, and touch occurring there as you breathe in and out. When I say the “breath at the nose,” I mean the sensations of temperature, pressure, and air moving on the skin anywhere around the tip of the nose, the rim, inside the nostrils, or on the upper lip just below the nostrils.

A helpful phrase to remember when dealing with distractions of any kind is, let it come, let it be, let it go. Don’t try to suppress it, just let it come into peripheral awareness. Don’t engage the distraction or focus attention on it, simply disregard it and let it be in the background. Then, let it go away by itself. This is a passive process. There is nothing to “do” but allow these objects to arise and pass away on their own, moment by moment.

Counting your breaths at the start of a sit really helps stabilize your attention. If you’re a novice, you should use this method all the time. Once you have moved through the Four Steps and attention is restricted to the breath at the nose, start silently counting each breath. Your goal will be to follow the sensations continuously for ten consecutive breaths. When your attention slips or you lose track of the count, which will happen frequently at first, just start over again at one.

Interestingly, what you consider the start and end of a breath cycle matters. We automatically tend to regard the beginning as the inhale and the pause after the exhale as the end. However, if you’re thinking about the breath in that way, then that pause becomes the perfect opportunity for your thoughts to wander off, since the mind naturally tends to shift focus when it has completed a task. Instead, try this: consider the beginning of the out-breath as the start of the cycle. That way, the pause occurs in the middle of your cycle, and is less likely to trip you up. This may seem like a small detail, but it often makes a difference. Another approach is to silently say the number during the pause at the end of the out-breath. This “fills the gap” and helps keep the mind on task.

You’ll have to overcome four major obstacles: not enough time, procrastination, reluctance and resistance to practicing, and doubt.

The most effective way to overcome both procrastination and reluctance and resistance to practicing is to just do it. Nothing works as quickly or effectively as diligence. The simple act of consistently sitting down and placing your attention on the meditation object, day after day, is the essential first step from which everything else in the Ten Stages flows.

Diligence helps start you on your way, but the real solution to these obstacles is learning to enjoy your practice. One simple, powerful way to do that is to intentionally savor all feelings of physical comfort and deliberately cultivate the pleasure that can be found in quietness. Take satisfaction in the fact that you have actually sat down to meditate. That is an accomplishment in itself! Too often, people approach meditation as though they were taking medicine—it tastes bad, but they grin and bear it because it’s supposed to be good for them. Instead, make meditation into a pleasurable activity. If you’re at ease and happy, you will be more successful

Begin with shorter meditations. I suggest 15 or 20 minutes each day for the first week or two. Then, increase the length of your sessions in five-minute increments weekly or every few days until you reach 45 minutes. Use a meditation timer rather than looking at a clock, and train yourself not to look at the timer. Just listen for the bell. Some people find it easier to do two shorter meditations of 20 to 30 minutes each day. This is fine at first, but I strongly recommend at least one daily 45-minute sit as a minimum. This will provide a solid basis for your practice.

when they start to notice the results of your practice. Most importantly, remind yourself that meditation time is your time, which you have set aside for yourself—a time free from the demands of the world. Considering how much meditation will improve your relationships with others, you shouldn’t regard it as selfish. This “personal time” will ultimately benefit everyone you come in contact with.

As fellow teacher Stephanie Nash is fond of saying, “A good meditation is one you did—the only bad meditation is one you didn’t do.” Take her wise advice to heart.

You have mastered Stage One when you never miss a daily practice session except when absolutely unavoidable, and when you rarely if ever procrastinate on the cushion by thinking and planning or doing something besides meditating. This Stage is the most difficult to master, but it can be done in a few weeks. By following the basic instructions and cultivating the right attitude, you will develop joyful effort and diligence and establish a regular daily practice. The time and effort put into mastering this Stage will pay off far beyond anything you can imagine.

Just as the mental capacities we develop and use in meditation are completely natural and normal, so too are those activities of mind that can hinder or even defeat our practice. Traditional meditation literature identifies five specific hindrances to overcome before we can make real progress, and understanding them will prove invaluable. In daily life, these so-called hindrances actually serve necessary and useful purposes. Once you’re familiar with them and how they work, it becomes obvious that neither suppression nor self-punishment will help you surmount such established and often helpful conditioning. On the other hand, positive reinforcement of other natural tendencies of the mind that oppose these hindrances works very well. ... We can trace almost every problem in meditation to one or more of five innate and universal psychological predispositions, known as the Five Hindrances: Worldly Desire, Aversion, Laziness and Lethargy, Agitation due to Worry and Remorse, and Doubt. They’re called hindrances because they hinder efforts at meditating, and create all kinds of problems in daily life as well.

Examples of stories rooted in Worldly Desire include: “I need” a beautiful house, and “I want” a successful career so I can be happy.

Examples of stories rooted in Aversion include: “I hate” rude people; “It’s not fair” that they always get what they want; “I don’t want” to be sick today; or “I can’t take” this place anymore.

Examples of stories arising from Laziness and Lethargy include: “I’m too tired” to help you right now, and “It’s too late,” or “a waste of time” to try to finish that project.

There are also self-defeating stories steeped in Doubt, such as: “I can’t” meditate; “I’m too” clumsy to play; and “I’m not” good enough, smart enough, fast enough, and so on.

Laziness is being resistant to doing some particular activity. Laziness is usually thought of as something negative, but it serves a purpose. It keeps us from spending time and energy on unnecessary, unproductive, or unpleasant activities. That time and energy can then be used for activities that contribute to happiness, survival, and reproductive success. Laziness also motivates us to use our skills and intelligence to come up with easier ways of doing things. Laziness arises when the cost of an activity seems to outweigh the benefits.

In any case, since laziness often fades when we begin a task, just doing the task is the antidote. Engaging fully with a task also works against lethargy by re-energizing the mind; but how effective this is depends on how quickly we recognize the onset of lethargy.

As a virtuous person, you’ll enjoy a peace of mind that enables you to reach the highest Stages of meditation. Of course, there are many other benefits to being virtuous, but the practice of virtue is intrinsically rewarding.

Yet, how do you train something that happens unconsciously? Simply take a moment to enjoy and appreciate “waking up” from mind-wandering. Savor the sense of being more fully conscious and present. Cherish your epiphany and encourage yourself to have more of them. Conscious intention and affirmation powerfully influence our unconscious processes. By valuing this moment, you’re training the mind through positive reinforcement to wake you up more quickly in the future.

Also, avoid becoming annoyed or self-critical about mind-wandering. It doesn’t matter that your mind wandered. What’s important is that you realized it. To become annoyed or self-critical in the “aha!” moment will slow down your progress.

Don’t try to limit peripheral awareness. Instead, to cultivate mindfulness, do just the opposite—allow sounds, sensations, thoughts, and feelings to continue in the background. Be careful of the tendency to become so closely focused on the breath that peripheral awareness collapses. If that happens, you’ll forget the breath more easily. But if you maintain peripheral awareness, you’ll eventually learn to notice potential distractions when they arise, and attention is less likely to be captured.

One part of the mind may want to meditate while others want to ponder, plan, or fantasize. These different “minds” share the same goal—personal satisfaction and happiness—but because your expectations have been disappointed, they disagree on how best to achieve that happiness. A mind in conflict and disharmony prevents us from establishing a relaxed, alert, and peaceful meditative state.

Usually we try to resolve the internal conflict in one of two unskillful ways. We give in and do something else, or we try to force the mind to comply. But when one part of the mind tries to force itself on other parts, this only creates a struggle that feels like an exercise of willpower—and willpower can never succeed in overcoming this kind of internal resistance. 1 As one part of the mind tries harder and harder to rule the roost, the struggle only increases, feeding the disharmony-dissatisfaction-impatience cycle.

The best way to avoid or resolve impatience is to enjoy your practice. While this isn’t always easy, a good start is to consistently focus on the positive rather than the negative aspects of your meditation. Notice when the body is relaxed and comfortable, or when the mind is focused and alert. Seek out and acknowledge these rewarding aspects, no matter how unimportant they seem. Savor a fleeting sensation of physical pleasure, the satisfaction of following a whole breath-cycle, or the sense of accomplishment that comes with just sitting down and making the effort to meditate.

A Formula for Success in Meditation Here’s a formula you should commit to memory to make joy and relaxation a natural part of your practice: relax and look for the joy; observe; let it come, let it be, and let it go. Recite it every time you sit, especially when you catch yourself thinking meditation is difficult. Relax means let go of any mental or physical tension as soon as you become aware of it. Look for the joy means notice the pleasant aspects of the practice in every moment. Negative thoughts and feelings are inevitable, but you don’t need to get caught up in them and let them color your practice. Even when you have pain somewhere, there will always be a pleasant feeling elsewhere. Likewise, feelings of peace, satisfaction, and happiness are often present. Hold them in awareness so they become a regular part of your conscious experience. Observe means be aware of what’s happening in the moment without reacting, rejecting, or clinging to anything. Whether attention is stable or scattered, if restlessness arises or dullness sets in, if the mind is clear and calm, or if some distracting thought keeps surfacing: just observe what is, and don’t judge. Let it come, let it be, let it go was described in Stage One (p. 50) and means exactly what it says. No matter what thoughts or feelings arise, don’t suppress or struggle against them or let them take you away from the practice. They’ll disappear in their own in time.

Next, you’ll practice recognizing the individual sensations that make up each in-and out-breath. First, carefully observe the sensations between the beginning and end of the in-breath until you can recognize three or four distinct sensations every time. Continue to observe the rest of the breath cycle just as clearly as before. When you can consistently recognize several sensations with every in-breath, do the same with the out-breath. Your intention will be to follow the breath with vividness and clarity, and to be aware of very fine details. If you miss the mark, don’t worry. You always have the next breath to work with.

Now it’s time to start cultivating introspective awareness as well. With introspective awareness, you’re aware of what’s happening in your mind as you continue to focus attention closely on the breath. You’ll train and strengthen your capacity for introspective awareness through the practices of labeling and checking in.

When checking-in, you can also use labeling. If you check-in and notice that a distracting thought, memory, or emotion was about to take you away, you can give it a simple label and re-engage with the breath until the distraction fades. But remember, you aren’t trying to eliminate distractions entirely from awareness. As long as they stay in the background, let them come, let them be, and let them go.

Therefore, always make yourself as comfortable as possible and adjust your posture to minimize discomfort (see Stage One). When unpleasant sensations arise, ignore them as long as you can. Resist the urge to move for relief. When the discomfort becomes too much to ignore, turn your attention toward the pain and make it the focus of your attention. Remember, when training the mind, you always want to intentionally choose the focus of your attention. So, whenever a distraction grows too strong to ignore, whether it’s pain in the body or the sound of a jackhammer outside the window, you purposely make it into your meditation object.

Observe the unpleasant sensation without moving for as long as you can. If it disappears or decreases enough to be ignored, return to the sensations of the breath. If, instead, the urge to move becomes irresistible, decide in advance when you’ll move (e.g., at the end of the next out-breath), exactly what movement you’ll make (e.g., move your leg or raise your hand to scratch the itch), and then be very observant as you perform that movement.

As you progress, you will discover a profound truth: in life, as in meditation, physical pain is unavoidable, but suffering of every kind is entirely optional.

Here are a few “antidotes,” roughly in order of strength from mild to strongest, for rousing the mind from dullness: Take three or four deep breaths, filling the lungs as much as possible, and hold for a moment. Then, exhale as forcefully and completely as possible through tightly pursed lips. Tense all the muscles in your body until you begin to tremble slightly, then relax. Repeat several times. Meditate while standing up. Do walking meditation. Worst-case scenario, get up, splash cold water on your face, then go back to practicing. These work because they stimulate you, not only physically, but mentally as well by increasing the flow of external stimuli into your mind. In general, always do whatever is necessary to re-energize yourself back to a state of alert awareness. When drowsiness returns quite soon after you’ve roused yourself, it’s called “sinking,” which feels like being caught in mental quicksand. Sinking is a sure sign that you didn’t re-energize the mind enough.

You have mastered Stage Three when forgetting and mind-wandering no longer occur, and the breath stays continually in conscious awareness. This is a whole new pattern of behavior for your mind. The mind still roams, but it’s “tethered” to the meditation object, never getting too far away; the unconscious mental processes that sustain attention never entirely let go of the meditation object.

Of course, it’s much harder to stay mindful when it matters most, in difficult situations. That’s why we need to intentionally practice mindfulness in everyday life, especially when it’s easy, like when you’re driving a car or eating a meal. Then, you’ll build up the skill and the “mental muscle” to stay mindful in the face of greater challenges.

Our gut intuition tells us we’re separate selves in a world of other people and objects, and that our individual suffering and happiness depend on external circumstances. This may seem like common sense, but it’s a misperception that comes from our innate programing, 3 and which is continually reinforced by cultural conditioning. As we practice mindfulness, however, we accumulate more and more evidence that things are very different from what we believed. In particular, the thoughts, feelings, and memories we associate with a sense of self are seen more objectively, revealing themselves to be constantly changing, impersonal, and often contradictory processes occurring in different parts of the mind.

As paradoxical as it may seem, the craving to avoid suffering and pursue pleasure is the actual cause of suffering. But when we let go of our self-centeredness, we automatically act more objectively, for the good of everybody in each situation. Then, we will have discovered the true source of happiness, and the end of suffering. This is how mindfulness overcomes sorrow and grief, and brings release from all suffering. You may be understandably skeptical about what I’m saying. You may even doubt that such a transformation is desirable. That’s all right. Use the illuminating power of mindfulness to explore these very questions. Are “you” your thoughts? Are “you” your feelings? Keep asking these questions. As your meditation improves, you’ll find out for yourself.

Not only will suppressing distractions prove unsuccessful, trying to force exclusive attention on the breath would actually be a big mistake at this Stage. Hyper-focused tunnel vision directed at something “out there”—in this case, the sensations of the breath—is exactly the kind of attention that accompanies the fight-or-flight response. This type of focus is usually accompanied by feelings of tension and anxiety, which would make your meditations agitating, frustrating, and difficult. Also, you may completely lose peripheral awareness, making you even more vulnerable to distractions and dullness. The lesson is, don’t try to strong-arm your mind into a state of calm. Relax. Let it happen on its own.

Continuous introspective awareness alerts you to gross distractions. Use the breath as an anchor while you mindfully “watch the mind while the mind watches the breath.”

S = P x R. The amount of suffering you experience is equal to the actual pain multiplied by the mind’s resistance to that pain.