Experiencing well-being, Step 6

We arrive at Step 6 when we are able to maintain the enhanced sensitivity of Step 5 throughout the whole body. At that point we can cease the scanning of Exercise 5, but for as long as we maintain the whole-body awareness and stillness of Steps 3 and 4 the enhanced sensitivity will continue to arise.

Experiencing the enhanced sensitivity at Step 6

After the busy and energetic practice of Exercise 5, the next step in the Anapana process brings a welcome sense of peace and quietness. When we bring the body-scan to completion we'll be experiencing the enhanced sensitivity in every part of the body. The whole body will feel fully alive and almost tingling with energy.

The strength of the pīti may still be variable. Some days it may be fairly weak, and some days much stronger, but it will be pervasive, it will fill all parts of the body. If it is weak, you may find that working through the body-scan more slowly another time will help to give a stronger sense of the pīti.

The enhanced sensitivity becomes self-sustaining

Once the pīti is pervasive we can stop doing the body scan. We may want to do one or two brief recaps, just to ensure the experience of the pīti really is arising throughout the body, but then we may cease scanning altogether. What we'll find though is that the sensations of pīti will continue to arise. So long as we maintain the whole-body awareness and stillness of Steps 3 and 4 our experience of the enhanced sensitivity becomes self-sustaining.

Remember the illustration of the second stage of Jhāna practice. The pool of cold water was fed entirely by an underground spring. No surface water or rain was added to the pool. The pool was self-sustaining, fed by the hidden spring welling up. We now cease forming the intentions and bringing a growing attention to the body, we cease "kneading the bathing ball" of the first illustration. Now we can relax, though still aware of the whole body as in Step 3. And now, like the cool spring water found in every part of that pool, what we find is that the enhanced sensitivity can be found in every part of the body.

Experiencing well-being at Step 6

A state of ease, well-being and contentment

Once we are free from the need to keep building up and developing the experience of pīti, we can just sit back and enjoy it. But when pīti arises it involves something else too. Pīti is only one part of a combined experience called pīti-sukha in the "Four Stages of Jhāna" Text. In the section on Step 5 we saw that sukha is an experience of ease and well-being, of contentment and joy. Pīti-sukha is the experience of sukha brought about by pīti. So when we sit back and enjoy the pīti we're enjoying much more than just tingly sensations. Our mood may change. We become relaxed and contented. We feel ease and well-being. It may bring a smile to your face.

Step 6. One trains oneself, "Experiencing well-being I'll breathe in;"
one trains oneself, "Experiencing well-being I'll breathe out."

Some days the experience of well-being will be less obvious. If you are already in a relaxed state, and your body is comfortable, you are in fact experiencing well-being even before you come to this exercise. You may notice some enhancement of it, but it will be more subtle. If your body is in pain, or your stress has not been resolved by Step 4, then when the well-being comes it will be more noticeable.

The second stage of Jhāna meditation

Step 6 of Anapana practice is to experience this well-being. It is equivalent to the second stage of Jhāna practice, which is pīti-sukha "born of … an inner tranquility of mind, a state of integration" and without the "intention and attention" practice of the first stage. How do we practise Step 6? Well, there's really nothing more we need to do other than to relax and enjoy it. It may be helpful to smile to the enhanced sensitivity. Smiling helps to release more endorphins, which will enhance the good mood.

Everything from the previous steps of our practice will remain. If sounds arise, we'll hear them. As we breathe we'll still know each in-breath and out-breath. If one breath is deeper than the others, we'll know that. We'll still experience the whole body, an experience greatly enriched now by the sensations of pīti throughout the body. The body will continue to be very still. We can move if we need to, but then we return to the deep stillness.

Distractions and wandering thoughts may continue to arise but these are likely to be much less distracting now. It takes much more to drag us away from this pleasant state than at earlier steps in our practice. If distractions do occur we may find it easier to set them aside and return to the pleasantness of this step. Soon we'll start to face whatever gives rise to those distractions head on, but that's the next step, and for now what's important is to tap into the well-being of this one.

Well-being and the body

This well-being can affect purely physical pains. One day I was in hospital recovering after an operation. During the afternoon the anaesthetic began to wear off and I could feel a deep-seated pain at the site of the operation on my upper jaw. I asked the ward staff for some painkillers, but there was a problem. The only nurse who could administer them (it seemed) had just started her medications round of all the other patients, and she wasn't going to interrupt it. Even when she had completed that task, she had to go and find a doctor to sign the prescription for me.

An hour passed from the onset of the pain until the relief arrived. I passed that hour by practising the body-scan exercise on my bed. Becoming fully aware of my whole body meant that my attention wasn't constantly drawn to the pain. The well-being it led to was so effective that I had to come out of my meditation occasionally just to check whether I still needed the painkillers.

A friend lives with Parkinson's disease. For her the most distressing aspect of it is the tremor which causes one hand to shake and tremble uncontrollably. Yet when she enters a deep state of meditation the tremor stops and her hand comes to rest. We discovered this one day when sharing Exercise 5 as a stand-alone guided meditation.

Exercise 6, Experiencing well-being, summary

• Work unhurriedly through Exercises 1 to 4. With practice you may be able to attain the stillness of Step 4 in only a few minutes, but if today it takes longer to get there don't be discouraged. Take however long you need.
• When some of the pīti, the enhanced sensitivity, begins to appear, work through the body scan of Exercise 5. If it fails to appear, make a start on Exercise 5 anyway, and the pīti will come.
• When distracting or wandering thoughts arise, set them gently to one side and return to whatever point you had arrived at in your scan.
• When you complete Exercise 5 remain aware of how the enhanced sensitivity is showing itself throughout your body. If you need to, one or two brief recaps may help to establish the pīti as a body-wide experience.
• Relax and allow this experience to dominate your awareness, even as you remain aware of your breathing, of sounds and of your stillness. You may like to smile. Enjoy the experience and maintain it for as long as you wish. It will be doing you good. It will begin to transform heart-and-mind in ways we'll explore through Steps 7 to 12.
• If you are aware of any aches, pains or distress, whether physical, mental or emotional, keep experiencing the sensitivity and well-being, as if you were bathing the whole body, along with heart-and-mind, in this sense of well-being.
• Be in no hurry, but when you sense that "enough is enough" gently open your eyes, stretch if you need to, and sit quietly for a few minutes. Then slowly stand up and move on to whatever awaits you next.