Esoteric Dixie Dharma

Forwarded from MahaYog - Yoga 🔱 and Buddhism ☸️

Ten stages of Shamatha development

1. Directed attention - developing the ability to focus on a chosen object.
2. Prolonged attention - the ability to hold attention to a chosen object for a minute.
3. Restored attention - the ability to instantly restore attention to an object when distraction has occurred.
4. Persistent attention - the object of attention is never completely erased from memory.
5. Mastered attention - the practice of unidirectional concentration, samadhi, begins to be satisfying.
6. Subdued attention - the mind ceases to resist practicing attention.
7. Fully humbled attention - attachment, melancholy, and apathy are eliminated.
8. Unidirectional attention - agitation or lethargy no longer disturbs samadhi (unidirectional concentration).
9. Balanced attention - samadhi(unidirectional concentration) is maintained effortlessly.
10. Shamatha - the ability to effortlessly maintain concentration on a chosen object for at least four hours. The thinking and psychological flexibility of the mind are greatly increased. There are many associated effects (increased physical stamina, physical and mental satisfaction, mental stability, and mental clarity).

a) For the development of stages 1-4, it is most effective to concentrate on breathing, for example, by performing Anapanasati.
b) For the next three stages (5-7), it is recommended to use the practice of bringing the mind to its natural state. In this practice, attention shifts from the breath to mental events. We observe everything that appears in the mind—thoughts, visual images, and emotions—in a completely dispassionate way, completely uninvolved.
c) For stages 8-10, we practice what is called object-free shamatha, or in other words, Awareness of Awareness. Before this stage, we focused our attention on the object. Here, the focus is on Awareness itself. Whereas breathing and mental events are objects of conceptual thinking (in other words, Awareness is focused on an object other than itself), in the practice of objectless shamatha, Awareness simply rests in itself, manifesting qualities such as clarity and understanding.

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Ten stages of Shamatha development

1. Directed attention - developing the ability to focus on a chosen object.
2. Prolonged attention - the ability to hold attention to a chosen object for a minute.
3. Restored attention - the ability to instantly restore attention to an object when distraction has occurred.
4. Persistent attention - the object of attention is never completely erased from memory.
5. Mastered attention - the practice of unidirectional concentration, samadhi, begins to be satisfying.
6. Subdued attention - the mind ceases to resist practicing attention.
7. Fully humbled attention - attachment, melancholy, and apathy are eliminated.
8. Unidirectional attention - agitation or lethargy no longer disturbs samadhi (unidirectional concentration).
9. Balanced attention - samadhi(unidirectional concentration) is maintained effortlessly.
10. Shamatha - the ability to effortlessly maintain concentration on a chosen object for at least four hours. The thinking and psychological flexibility of the mind are greatly increased. There are many associated effects (increased physical stamina, physical and mental satisfaction, mental stability, and mental clarity).

a) For the development of stages 1-4, it is most effective to concentrate on breathing, for example, by performing Anapanasati.
b) For the next three stages (5-7), it is recommended to use the practice of bringing the mind to its natural state. In this practice, attention shifts from the breath to mental events. We observe everything that appears in the mind—thoughts, visual images, and emotions—in a completely dispassionate way, completely uninvolved.
c) For stages 8-10, we practice what is called object-free shamatha, or in other words, Awareness of Awareness. Before this stage, we focused our attention on the object. Here, the focus is on Awareness itself. Whereas breathing and mental events are objects of conceptual thinking (in other words, Awareness is focused on an object other than itself), in the practice of objectless shamatha, Awareness simply rests in itself, manifesting qualities such as clarity and understanding.

BY Esoteric Dixie Dharma