The Controlled Mind
This space that we are beginning to experience is quiet, peaceful and yet full of energy. We begin to recognize that its in dealing with this contradiction of energy and peacefulness that we succumb to agitation and dullness. We swing from being over-active to being inactive in our minds. The practice then involves not falling to either extreme but operating in the world while being alert and relaxed at the same time.
We are learning to maintain a mind of simultaneous clarity and peace, as well as a body with energy, but relaxation together. Because we are unused to this, when our mind is clear or our body feels energetic, we become agitated. When our mind experiences peace and our body is relaxed, we tend to want to sleep or fall into dullness.
So how do we develop simultaneous clarity and peace, and energy and relaxation. This means that when we experience agitation in meditation, we need to try to relax the body and pacify the mind. When we feel ourselves falling into dullness, we need to energize the body and clarify the mind. This becomes our practice at this stage of shamata meditation.
Our practice becomes like peeling the layers of an onion. We have a certain level of agitation and dullness, in which we swing back and forth from one to the other. Eventually the swinging becomes reduced and our mind reaches a level of calmness. We sit in that level of calmness for a while (sometimes a very long while (weeks, months, or even years) until we begin to feel that there seems to be some type of tension still present.
At this point, we begin to recognize this level of calmness as actually just a border between dullness and a new level of awareness. At this point we break through to another level of awareness and experience agitation and dullness where the swings are not as pronounced and we begin the process again. Each time, our feeling of calmness and well-being intensify, our awareness increases, and our degree of agitation and dullness diminish.
At this point, we move back and forth between levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 as our level of agitation and dullness becomes subtler and subtler. We have a certain level of agitation and dullness, in which we swing back and forth from one to the other. At first it is the gross dullness that is a part of level 4 and the mental wanderings of level 3. Eventually the swinging becomes reduced and our mind reaches a level of calmness.
In stages 1 and 2, the monkey and the rabbit were like mutineers that took over the ship of our minds. The rabbit and the monkey are actually a part of the elephant that separated out, became too active, and then took control. In the first stages, we become experts at recognizing the rabbit and the monkey and in not allowing them to take us away from observing our mind and breath. At this fifth stage, we now have the rabbit and the monkey on a leash.
At this stage, we become experts at agitation and dullness. We begin to recognize them as soon as they arise. With each level of agitation that we experience, we work on developing calmness and relaxation. As we relax, we go too far and fall into dullness. This then requires us to use alertness to bring our attention back. Gradually through this process, we are increasing our calmness, and our alertness more and more.
Because of our increased sense of space, we begin to develop some detachment from our thoughts and feelings. We begin to develop an increased understanding of how our habitual internal conflict between feeling energy and feeling peacefulness, between alertness and calm, between activeness and inactiveness, creates our agitation and dullness. We begin to see more clearly the comings and goings of our mind and how these contribute to alertness and calmness or agitation and dullness.
However, as we progress at this stage, we are less caught up and pulled by these thoughts, emotions, and mind-states or bodily sensations. We become more and more like a submarine, lying in the calmness of the ocean, with our periscope reaching up to the surface to watch the rising and falling of the waves. We become more and more like a scientist observing animals coming and going from a watering hole.
We notice that there may be large animals, or small animals, ancient animals, wild animals or tame ones, calm ones or agressive ones, but they are just animals to us. We note their presence and their qualities, and then we just let them be. We notice their qualities, but we do not condemn or condone them. We make note of when they come, and we note when they leave. Some of these animals, after realizing that they have been noticed, will run away and will not return again. Others may come back again and again, until they have had their fill. Some will come and go at certain times or under certain conditions. We gradually begin to learn just how our minds work.
We begin to recognize the signs of an over-active mind or an inactive mind. We begin to notice how these qualities of agitation and dullness are a part of certain feelings and mind-states that we go through. We begin to separate our feelings from the agitation or dullness which can accompany them.
We notice when we are being too loose, too tight, or just right in our attention. We begin to notice when we are either being sleepy, or being tense and try to change these to just being alert and relaxed.
We begin to notice when we are succumbing to anxiousness or being indifferent or dismissive with things around us. We begin to develop an attitude of calm engagement.
We notice when we become pre-occupied with our feelings which can generate dullness, or when we wander off in our thinking which leads to agitation, and we try to learn to watch more and act more carefully. We are alert for when we are obsessing about something, or ignoring it, instead of just being aware.
We begin to look at other aspects of maintaining the middle ground in our minds. Instead of being depressed or ecstatic, we try to maintain enthusiasm without attachment. Instead of the extremes of being forlorn or excited, we aim for contentment. Instead of the extremes of being uncaring or getting caught up in worrying, we try to maintain concern without panic.
Instead of being either unconscious or distracted, we try to stay focussed. Instead of living in the past or worrying so much about the future, we try to live more in the present. Instead of dwelling on our internal world, or the becoming too pre-occupied with the external world, we try to be mindful of both, without dwelling on either. Instead of abandoning things around us or grasping at them, we learn to work with them and we merely hold onto them only for as long as necessary.
In all of these ways, we keep our mind active, without falling into inactivity and dullness, or getting caught up in over-activity and agitation. This is how we develop a controlled mind.
The 5th Stage - The Controlled Mind
When course agitation and course dullness no longer arise in our meditation, then we have completed this fifth stage and can be considered to have developed a controlled mind.
The main thing that we watch for during this process is the subtle dullness where we think we are meditating, but part of the mind is in neutral. During work on this stage, we become very good at catching gross agitation and gross dullness, but we can still become too relaxed, like someone who is starting to get good at something (like tennis, or driving) and so becomes over confident. The result of this over confidence is that our attention is too slack. So we end up reinforcing slackness of mind.
By increasing our alertness and adding a little more energy into our attention, we can eliminate this subtle dullness. We gradually learn how to be alert and relaxed without dwelling on any part of what we are experiencing.
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