Steps 10-12,
Liberating Heart-and-Mind

Exploring the next three steps

As we sit experiencing the heart-and-mind in Step 9, we may find our hearts and minds begin to change. The next three steps spell out some of the ways in which that may happen.

Step 10. One trains oneself, "Gladdening heart-and-mind I'll breathe in;"
one trains oneself, "Gladdening heart-and-mind I'll breathe out."

Step 11. One trains oneself, "Composing heart-and-mind I'll breathe in;"
one trains oneself, "Composing heart-and-mind I'll breathe out."

Step 12. One trains oneself, "Liberating heart-and-mind I'll breathe in;"
one trains oneself, "Liberating heart-and-mind I'll breathe out."

How these steps work

As we read these three steps, it seems that the person meditating, the one training themselves, is responsible for gladdening, composing and liberating their own minds. We may well wonder how we might do any of these actions.

By now though you may have realised how this series of sixteen steps works. We take each step by working through all the previous steps in the series, and by taking particular care to actually sense the largely physical feelings associated with those steps that ask us to experience something.

Examples of the process

For example, knowing each breath and experiencing the whole body in Steps 1 to 3 is what leads to the calming or stilling of the body in Step 4. When stress or tension is leading to an unstill body, the slow regular rhythm of our breathing, and our total awareness of the body and whatever sensations we may detect, are what lead to the calming. Steps 1 to 3 create the stillness of Step 4. We train to still the body by practising Steps 1 to 3.

As we move on through the steps, each one depends on all the previous steps. The body-awareness of Step 3 and the stillness of Step 4 lead to the enhanced body-sensitivity of Step 5. If we lose either the awareness or the stillness, we lose the enhanced sensitivity. The ease and well-being of Step 6 depends on the enhanced sensitivity of Step 5.

How we train in Steps 10, 11 and 12

In the same way Step 9 depends on Steps 1 to 8. In fact it involves no more than continuing to sit in the mental silence of Step 8, but that step depended on the combination of Steps 6 and 7. And now, Steps 10, 11 and 12 depend on Step 9. We train ourselves in these new steps by generating the stillness of Step 8, and continuing to sit in it, in the practice of Just Sitting.

What follows from Step 9

Step 9 is the last time the Anapana steps ask us to experience something. We would now expect Step 10 to follow as a consequence of what we experience in Step 9. Once our mental and emotional reactivity has ceased or been brought to stillness, we may expect this to have an effect on our state of mind.

Step 9 has three effects

In fact, it seems the quiet experience of Step 9 has three effects. It is followed by the gladdening, the composing and the liberating of Steps 10, 11 and 12. How will we know that? We'll know it as we continue to sense (or 'experience') heart and mind. We'll feel more joyful or glad.

We'll have mind more collected or composed, and be able to bring all their faculties to bear upon whatever issues may arise in life. That may include clear and more logical thought. But it may also include a more imaginative approach to difficulties, or to potential disagreements.

And we may discover a new liberation. We no longer have to satisfy the demands of our egos. We don't have to be self-centred or selfish. Yes, we still have our own needs, but we can also share what we have with others. We don't have to come first, we can step back when that would lead to a better outcome of something.

Three separate effects, or three aspects of our progress?

Steps 10, 11 and 12 don't actually represent separate or different developments within the progress of our hearts or minds, of our mood or state of mind. Our language may distinguish these three aspects of our progress and give them different names, but all three may well come about in conjunction with each other. Our awareness of them too may come in any order, or simultaneously. And our language may well be able to name other aspects of this growth and progress.

Other aspects of our progress

We may discern a growing honesty with other people, and a growing self-honesty with ourselves. We may discern a growing compassion toward others, and a growing self-care for ourselves. We may discern a growing appreciation of our natural environment, a growing desire to protect and care for that environment, a growing willingness to tread lightly on the earth and its resources.

There are any number of challenges that may face us in life. Healing our reactivity is likely to be just the first step in a life of true value. Nirvana, it turns out, is not an end-point in our experience, but what enables us to make a new beginning.

Practising the next three steps

Just Sitting

There is no new exercise at this point. The exercise for developing these three steps, and other aspects of the liberated mind is Exercise 9. For the most part this is a quiet and still exercise. We are still in the 3rd stage of Jhāna meditation, and our practice is still illustrated by the lotus or lily plants, standing still and silently growing in the pool of deep water.

Can we always get as far as Steps 9 and 10?

At this point it may be helpful to mention a couple of practical points about how we may work with Steps 9 to 12. Most of us will probably not have the time available to get this far through the Anapana process every time we sit to do our practice. At present I try to sit most days, but only once a week do I have the opportunity to reach Step 9. The house where I live is empty (apart from me) for about two to three hours on a Sunday morning. So once a week I try to work unhurriedly through the first eight steps.

I don't always reach Step 9. Some days it may take me longer than normal to quieten and still the body. Then the body-scan will always take some time, but if my mind is distracted, it may take longer yet. Sometimes I'm tired or my energy is low. I'll always do what I can, and it will always be helpful, but it's important not to make any of these steps a goal.

But I have found that the longer I've been doing this practice, the easier it becomes, and the less time is usually needed to work through it. As time has gone by I've also found that when I get to Step 7, more often than not there is no reactivity arising to be experienced, and I can move straight on to Steps 8 and 9.

Take a break to refresh body and mind

It's also important not to stay in a motionless sitting posture for too long. The body needs to move, and when we invigorate the body, we also refresh and invigorate the mind. If we don't, we'll become sleepy. I've heard that Zen monks in Korea may spend several hours a day practising Zazen ("Just Sitting"), but they sit for fifty minutes at a time and then walk briskly round the room for ten minutes in each hour. At one retreat house that I've visited a number of times the practice is to alternate forty-five minute periods of sitting and of walking meditation.

I never time my own practice, but I do take a note of the time when I start. I nearly always find that after I've stopped, ready for a break, roughly an hour has passed. Often I go out to the kitchen at that point to make a drink, and by the time I've quietly drunk it I'm ready to sit for another hour. When I re-start I'll briefly go back over the Steps I covered in the first hour, and then move on. Even the body scan I find I can recap quite quickly and so return to the full-body enhanced sensitivity and well-being. It's certainly worth having a break and starting again refreshed before beginning Step 9.

Can we still think?

Certainly. Although the mind is generally quiet in Exercise 9, the third stage of Jhāna is not an absorption. We can hear, know each breath, and continue to experience body as well as heart-and-mind. Some thoughts are necessary to keep track of the stages in our meditation, and to assess what we find in each one. We practise these steps as we continue to breathe in and breathe out. And notice in particular that the Four stages of Jhāna text says that mindfulness, a form of awareness, is present in the third stage of Jhāna.

Also, as we saw when meeting Exercise 9, issues in our lives, whether past or present, may arise. If they do we may find we have new thoughts and insights about that issue. We now meet it with a changed mind, an enlarged mind, and we may notice how some aspects of the mind's development are taking shape. Is there a quiet contentment or gladness now, a greater composure, a liberation from former biases and self-interest?

And returning to silence

So if an issue does come up in mind, you may like to ponder it for a time. But then, return to the silence again. Quietly sitting, just experiencing the heart and the mind will continue the healing process and lead to a transformation. Do make sure you include as much quiet sitting in your practice as you can.