A Balanced Mind:
In the sixth level, we needed to become comfortable with our increased sense of well-being. In the seventh level, we expanded that sense of well-being through emptying out the clutter of our minds, erasing un-needed commentaries, and learning to let go and detach from dwelling on the past, fretting about the future, and clinging to the present. In the eighth level we started to increase our sense of space and peace. In the eighth level, because of the unity of well-being and peace, our body & mind became tranquil and so our focus increased.
In the eighth level, our pride in our accomplishment and attachment to our abilities to be peaceful and concentrate became a hindrance and lead to laziness. Working through this problem leads us to the next level in our Shamata practice.
We have worked from the grossest levels where we had little mental control with the monkey, rabbit, and elephant running the show. From there we went to dealing with agitation and dullness, at first suffering from mental wandering and then becoming too relaxed and falling into dullness. Then we worked on maintaining mind-states that represented a middle path, neither too active or too inactive, but alert and relaxed.
At that point, we worked through treating body/mind events as waves on the ocean, and emptying and erasing our grasping and clinging and learning to be more present. Here we went through watching the process of body/mind events from their very beginnings.
At this stage, we are working on the balance in our body & mind between awareness, energy, and space - between Concentration and the feeling of Well-being or Joy, and Peace or tranquility. The pride that we feel is a part of our being still caught up with our own energy and excited by the feeling of well-being and control, now that our mind is more within our command.
From the very beginning, we have been working through our tendencies to be caught up in the energy around us and within us, working through our tendencies to resist or fear our experience of space, and working through our tendencies to avoid or ignore any increase in our awareness.
At this point in our practice, we more readily recognize the value of maintaining a sense of balance between our energy, our sense of space, and our awareness and focus. We begin to work with our energy with a detachment that comes from remaining aware of both energy and space, and returning to a balance of awareness, energy, and space once our action is completed. Our sense of well-being, tranquility, and awareness expand all together. The result of this balance is that our focus on our immediate present becomes stronger and more stable.
This all comes about because of the familiarity we are developing in experiencing well-being, peace, and awareness simultaneously. It is not the case where we will always have the same degree of Awareness, Energy, and Peacefulness. Sometimes there may be a high degree of activity, or a loss or heightened awareness and sometimes there may be moments that contain a great deal of peacefulness.
The main difference once we have reached this level is that we will recognize that, even though we may be experiencing a time of increased activity, Peacefulness, and Awareness are also present. We will find that we will continually return to a state of Balance once we have the opportunity. We will also find that we are comfortable being quiet and peaceful and experiencing our energy and awareness at the same time. We will learn to be comfortable with whatever level of these 3 things we experience. The result of this lack of struggle merely increases our ability to have energy, peacefulness, and awareness.
In the eighth stage, we were impressed with our focus and awareness, but it didn't last (our being impressed makes our focus a past event which then diminishes its force). By persevering past our tendency to be lazy by dismissing further effort, the stability of our focus becomes firmer.
The equanimity of the ninth level results from the fact that we are no longer overly impressed by our ability to focus, nor are we dismissive of the need to maintain focus. In order for us to thoroughly integrate the meditative experience in our lives, this sense of energy, space, and awareness needs to become ordinary and normal.
Again, this is similar to the difference between a new car driver and an experienced one. The experienced driver takes all these new skills as ordinary and automatic. They use these skills appropriately but are not impressed by them or pre-occupied by them. The result is a stronger and stronger sense of balance and mental and physical strength and well-being. This sense of balance leads to greater tranquility of body and mind, which allows us to have a stronger and more total focus.
The 9th Stage - Placement with Equanimity
Only a minute amount of effort is required at this level. Attention becomes automatic through the process of complete acquaintance. The increasing familiarity helps to reduce our arrogance and leads to feelings of ordinariness. This feeling of ordinariness can lead to a slackness which is the type of laziness that must be watched out for at this stage. When the object of concentration can instantly be obtained or focussed on with full attention then this stage has been completed.
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