10 stages of meditation in Theravada School:
Rupa Jhana 1: The absence of desire.
Rupa Jhana 2: The subtraction of attention.
Rupa Jhana 3: The subtraction of rapture.
Rupa Jhana 4: The subtraction of happiness.
Arupa Jhana 1: The subtraction of object (the base of infinite space).
Arupa Jhana 2: The base of infinite consciousness on space.
Arupa Jhana 3: The base of nothingness.
Arupa Jhana 4: The base of infinite consciousness on nothingness (neither perception nor non-perception).
Lokuttara Jhana 1: The area of no perception/feelings (Sannavedayitanirodha).
Lokuttara Jhana 2: The area of no intention (Nibbana).
To master samadhi as the gate to meditation, you need to master vedananupassana.
To master material meditations, you need to master first part of Anapanasati.
To master nonmaterial meditations, you need to master emptiness.
To master holy meditations, you need to master last part of Anapanasati.
Mastering Samadhi:
1. Discerning painful or pleasant feeling so you can return it to neutral.
2. Discerning bodily painful or pleasant feeling so you can return it to neutral.
3. Discerning neutral feeling so you can return it to no emotion.
4. Discerning bodily neutral feeling so you can return it to no emotion.
Neutral feeling is when the mind moves for needs (human needs to have a proper home, aside of his feelings toward it).
No emotion is when the mind moves for the way of nature (like the earth will destroyed, wether human needs it or not).
Mastering Rupa Jhanas:
5. Breathing in and out, be aware that the breath is long.
Breathe, and watch the sensations at the tip of the nose. There is no need to be obsessed with how long a long breath is. If you watch the breath in a relaxed way, it will lengthen naturally.
6. Breathing in and out, be aware that the breath is short.
This may not occur naturally and does not affect progress to the next step. It is recommended that you experiment with forcing the breath to be short to understand how it feels in comparison to the long breath.
7. Breathing in and out, be aware of all bodies.
Entry to this stage is often accompanied by an easing of the effort required to meditate - it becomes very enjoyable and easier to sit. While breathing naturally, the breath will lengthen and an experience will arise of how the breath is affecting, or conditioning, the physical body. It is sometimes suggested that concentration be extended to include feelings within the body in tandem with the sensations of breathing at the tip of the nose.
8. Breathing in and out, calm the breath.
While breathing, the breath will become finer and more refined naturally. An image may appear in the mind, positioned at the tip of the nose where you are concentrating. The focus of concentration can then be shifted from the breath to the image. This can lead to a stage known as the first jhana where strong pleasant feelings arise.
9. Breathing in and out, be aware of the flavour of piti.
Piti is a Pali term for the strong pleasant feelings that have now arisen. This is a similar principle to stage 1, though with a different meditation object. In time, the rather coarse feeling of piti subsides into a more subtle feeling.
10. Breathing in and out, be aware of the flavour of sukha.
Sukha being the term for the more subtle feeling. Take this as the new object of meditation.
11. Breathing in and out, be aware of the mind conditioner.
Just as the breath conditions the body, so piti and sukha condition the mind. Alow the experience how they do this to arise.
12. Breathing in and out, calm the mind conditioners.
Using the newly experienced understanding of the feelings, calm them.
Mastering Arupa Jhanas:
13. Begin with contemplation of village - this is a simple mindfulness exercise. Be aware of your surroundings, as they actually are, the room, the furnishings, any other people. Don't analyze or judge or compare. Just hold the surroundings in mindful awareness. When this is established, extend your imagination beyond the visible surroundings to take in the immediate area, the street etc., extending only as wide as is comfortable for you. ("village" is used in the Pali as a word for the quotidian human environment)
14. Next, move on to contemplation of forest. Simply remove all human constructions from the previous mind-field and focus only on the natural world, the plants and trees especially. Remember, selective non-attention. You don't add anything, you subtract. The "forest" was a part of the first contemplation, now you make it the foreground by non-attention to "village." Allow the field of your imaginative awareness to extend to take in the locality where you live, beyond your range of vision. If you live in a city, there are still lawns and parks to focus on.("forest" is used in the Pali as a word for the natural environment)
15. Next, by selective non-attention to the living world you move on to contemplation of earth. By non-attention to the living growth, become aware of the wide earth-element underlying things. Be aware in the imagination of the hills and valleys, bowls for any nearby lakes, etc. Allow your field of imaginative awareness to gradually expand until you are holding the whole globe of this planet in awareness. Focus on the solidity of the earth-element.
16. Next, by non-attention to earth one should become aware of boundless space. At first, this will be the space occupied by the earth. Removing the earth from awareness, space becomes the foreground. (Again note it was present all along - we subtract and do not add) Space by it's nature has no boundaries, so the idea of an earth-sized area should quickly dissolve into boundlessness. Hold the awareness of boundless space.
17. Your consciousness is now filling boundless space. Okay, stop noticing space and only pay attention to the boundless consciousness. Mind without limit.
18. In the next contemplation, we stop paying attention to boundless mind and let your awareness rest on the nothingness that remains.
19. If you're able to take it this far, eventually even nothingness starts to seem "busy". In the next step we remove the concept of nothingness from our field of awareness and rest in the field called "neither-perception-nor-nonperception."
It is not perception, because there is no perceiver and no perceived, but it is also not non-perception because it is not a blank annihilation. But don't try to figure it out. The name is not important, it's essentially meaningless, it's best to simply think of it as what's left when you remove nothingness.
Mastering Lokuttara Jhanas:
20. Breathing in and out, contemplate the character of the mind.
Is the mind free from anger, aversion or greed? Is the mind distracted or not? Is the mind in a superior state or not?
21. Breathing in and out, delight the mind.
Using the understandings of the feelings, generate delight in the mind. This frees the mind from anger, aversion and greed.
22. Breathing in and out, concentrate the mind.
A mind free from anger, aversion and greed will achieve higher levels of concentration.
23. Breathing in and out, liberate the mind.
By contemplating the penalties of attachment and the value of non-attachment, allow the mind to cease grasping.
24. Breathing in and out, contemplate impermanence.
Returning to step 1, progress through all steps remaining aware of the impermanence of every stage.
25. Breathing in and out, contemplate fading away.
Being aware of any remaining attachments, allow them to dissolve.
25. Breathing in and out, contemplate the cessation of attachment.
Be aware of the process of the quenching of attachments.
26. Breathing in and out, contemplate 'throwing back'.
In the cessation of attachment, be aware that there nothing that was attached to was 'ours' in any way, and allow it all to be returned to nature.
27. Emptiness doesnt mean devoid of content, it means devoid of self. Emptiness also not the highest attainment, we have to subtract that too from bodhi (intelligence). In Alagaddupama Sutta Buddha said to remove Consciousness, the monks then replied, "no Lord, it is already without self", but Buddha said, "remove that too, it will speed up the liberation." So, emptiness that devoid of self, like pure consciousness, should also be removed. Leaving us only no mind or Nibbana, the blowing out of all ideas.
"Good Knowing Advisors! Do not become attached to emptiness after listening to my explanation of emptiness. The first and most important thing to remember is not being attached to emptiness. If you claim that everything is empty, that your mind and body are empty, that the world is empty, and with that, sit in silent meditation, you will end up in the state of undifferentiated emptiness. If you do, you will sit like a dead person. In cultivation of the Way, there is wonderful existence beside emptiness." - Dharma Jewel platform sutra from zen. What is existence between emptiness and forms? Bodhi.
Those are 27 steps to prepare a correct meditation to suit you before you do real meditation using an object.
Meditation in Theravada School:
Rupa Jhana 1: The absence of desire.
Rupa Jhana 2: The subtraction of attention.
Rupa Jhana 3: The subtraction of rapture.
Rupa Jhana 4: The subtraction of happiness.
Arupa Jhana 1: The subtraction of object (the base of infinite space).
Arupa Jhana 2: The base of infinite consciousness on space.
Arupa Jhana 3: The base of nothingness.
Arupa Jhana 4: The base of infinite consciousness on nothingness (neither perception nor non-perception).
Lokuttara Jhana 1: The area of no perception/feelings (Sannavedayitanirodha).
Lokuttara Jhana 2: The area of no intention (Nibbana).
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