Stilling reactivity of heart-and-mind, Step 8

This is probably the most important skill we can learn from Anapana practice. Perhaps it's no accident that Step 8 is central in the Sixteen steps.

Exploring Step 8

We arrive at Step 8 as the culmination of the second phase of the practice, after working though Steps 5, 6 and 7. So we arrive here having developed the enhanced body-sensitivity (the pīti) and the ease and well-being, and also once we are experiencing whatever reactivity may be manifesting at this time. Step 8 consists of holding all these things together, until the reactivity gives way to the well-being.

Step 8. One trains oneself, "Stilling reactivity of heart-and-mind, I'll breathe in;"
One trains oneself, "Stilling reactivity of heart-and-mind, I'll breathe out."

What these words mean

The word used in the Pāli text for what we're doing here ^{Footnote 1} can be translated as "calming down" or "becoming still", and as "being allayed" or "annulled" according to the Dictionary of Pāli (DOP). So now our emotional feelings and the bodily sensations we've been experiencing are calmed, and the thoughts that have been troubling our minds are stilled. They are brought to an end. We continue to breathe in and out (of course!) and as we do so we experience this stilling.

Images of this process

We have been conditioned not only by what has given rise to our reactivity, but also by the earlier steps in our meditation. At Step 8 we hold all of this together and allow them to interact. I have a number of images that I find helpful at this point in my meditation.

One image is of a warm, healing bath. When you've been working hard and your body is full of aches and pains, it's wonderful to relax in a warm bath and soak all those pains away. So too, when painful issues arise, we can bathe them in the warm, healing waters of our pīti and sukha, and wash away the pain and discomfort associated with that thought, that feeling or that memory.

Or, to change the image, when thoughts or hurts arise and we embrace them with our well-being, it's like shining a bright light onto them. As we see them for what they are the dark shadows in those fears or memories disappear, like the darkness in a room when you switch on the light. It won't be quite so instant, but holding together the well-being that comes from our enhanced physical sensitivity, and the pain that has arisen, washes out the pain, chases away the darkness, and heals the hurts.

Or we could use the image of a parent embracing an upset, crying child. The strength and warmth, and especially the love in that embrace, comforts and strengthens the child and enables them to come to terms with whatever has upset them.

What changes

The memories will still exist. Whatever was said or done in the past will remain unchanged. We cannot change the past, nor do we simply forget it, but the pain associated with it will pass. The memories will be healed. The fears will be neutralised.

The situations we face in life won't change, but our approach to them will be transformed. Once the anger, the fear or other emotions have gone, then we can face any situation.

It's we who are changed, healed and made strong. The well-being of Step 6 can wash over not our bodies only, but over our hearts and minds, and everything that arises in our lives.

Being healed

As the healing proceeds we find we can sit there, with all that our lives hold, with all that may arise in heart-and-mind, but without the reactivity.

When that happens a great stillness settles upon us. Step 4, stilling the body, can be a profound experience, but Step 8, stilling heart-and-mind, takes us to an even deeper place. It also takes us not only to a place of great peace, but to one of great strength. Now at last we're ready to meet the challenges of our lives. What we might call a warrior spirit (though this a true and non-violent warrior spirit) will emerge. We find we are strong and able to face anything that happens in life.

Healing is a process. Some issues may be completely healed in a single practice session, but if it is a major issue in life, something that has affected us deeply, we may need to return to the issue on several occasions. We can expect some healing each time, as we sit with the issue and enfold it with our sense of well-being. It may be diminished, it may condition us less, but it may take time before we can be fully reconciled to what has happened and it produces no more painful reactions. Allow that time to pass, and be gentle with yourself as you work through the process.

This stillness does not mean that we have no more thoughts, or no more emotions. Not all thinking is stilled; not all emotions are calmed. What are stilled, according to our text, are the reactive movements of heart-and-mind. When we move into the third phase of Anapana practice we will still be working with heart-and-mind. There will still be thoughts, but our thinking will have changed. There will still be emotions, but our emotions will be different. There will be gladness or contentment (Step 10). There will be a new composure of heart-and-mind (Step 11). And there will be a new-found freedom (Step 12).

Another image

Another image for this process of stilling our reactive movements might be wrapping a warm, soft duvet around you. When the sensitivity and well-being have become self-sustaining, simply stay with them and enjoy the experience. Like a warm duvet can comfort the body, the well-being will comfort heart-and-mind. Hold onto it, wrap it around you, let the mind relax into it and whatever is causing your reactivity will fade away. Give yourself a mental "duvet day". Gradually your reactivity will weaken, until it dies away beneath the strong sense of enhanced sensitivity and well-being you have generated through Steps 5 and 6.

When you get there, continue in this state for as long as you wish, until you sense enough is enough. Let the healing bath thoroughly cleanse and refresh you. It will do you much good. Then when you're ready, return quietly to whatever tasks or duties await you next.

Exercise 8, Experiencing non-reactivity, summary

Steps 1 to 6

• Work unhurriedly through Exercises 1 to 6. The slower you go at this stage, the better you're prepared for Exercises 7 and 8.
• Continue to sit and enjoy the awareness, stillness, body-sensitivity and sense of well-being that have arisen. Be aware of the body breathing, and of sounds and other sensations.

Exercise 7

• If any thoughts or feelings arise, allow them to come but keep experiencing the enhanced sensitivity and well-being
• If any reactivity arises, feel the emotion. Feel any bodily sensations. If thoughts multiply about something, how does that feel?

Exercise 8

• "Bathe" what you feel in the well-being. See it in the light of your well-being. Wrap what you feel in the "warm duvet" of your well-being.
• As issues that arise become immersed into your sense of well-being, notice the pauses that happen. The gaps between your thoughts may grow longer and quieter, just like the gaps between your breaths once did.
• Sometimes you may find you're moving back and forth between Steps 7 and 8. If something arises that causes you to react, bathe it in the well-being. If something arises that causes no reactivity, smile at it. Allow it to be present when it comes; allow it to depart again when it goes.

Continuing and closing the meditation

• Continue to sit in the stillness of a non-reactive heart and mind (a dispassionate heart and mind) for as long as feels right. Just being in this place will start to transform the way your mind works and the emotions you will feel.
• When you sense "enough is enough" return quietly to whatever life may hold for you next.

Footnotes

1. passambhati: calms down, becomes still; is allayed; is annulled (DOP)