Nine Levels of Concentration

Developing concentration, or བསམ་གཏན། sam-ten, Is different than doing an analytical meditation. Concentration is a mind that is single-pointedly locked on a mental object while the mind moves around as it analyzes and thinks about the object during analytical meditation.

Sam-ten This is the word for meditation used in the name of the fifth perfection. It also refers to four levels of deep meditation which result in a rebirth in the four form realms, and so these realms themselves are sometimes given this name. Your mind's concentration must be in the first level of the form-realm concentration in order to see emptiness. The Tibetan for this word has the connotation of "a stable state of mind."

Repeated concentration practice on the same object over time (try not to keep changing objects from session to session) will bring about three qualities:

གནས་ཆ། ne-cha, fixation—

like holding a coffee mug

གསལ་ཆ། sel-cha, fixation with clarity—

loosely holding the coffee mug

ངར་ཆ། ngar-cha, with clarity and intensity—

holding it firmly

This kind of concentration should be focused on an inner mental object in order for it to truly develop the mental powers that come with concentration. Each of the following levels and their descriptions refer to a mind placed on an inner object—not the sensory information surrounding you like the tweeting birds, the smell of the incense burning nearby, or even the feeling of your backside on your cushion. That kind of awareness and mindfulness is a different mental function and has been confused to equally pertain to these mine levels—they do not.

Example of the cup: You can hold a cup firmly or loosely. Holding the cup is having fixation. Holding it loosely is fixation and clarity; holding it tightly is fixation, clarity and intensity. Clarity refers to the subject (the meditator), not to the object of meditation. It doesn’t refer to how clear the picture is, but to how clear your mind is, how alert, bright, and fresh it is. Increasing clarity brings the mind back to an alert state. It doesn’t mean trying to see the Buddha’s fingers more clearly or with more detail. Intensity refers to the degree of clarity. Having intensity means having a greater degree of clarity.

The Nine Levels of Concentration

a) སེམས་འཇོག་པ། sem-jok-pa, placing the mind on the object. You receive instructions from your teacher about what object to meditate upon, and can keep your mind on it for only very brief periods of time. Learning the object from your lama and putting your mind on it is the first step. You have very little ability to hold the object except for a brief moment now and then. (You’ll think your mind is worse than it was before you meditated because of lack of focus. You’re just seeing the mind clearly for the first time.)

b) རྒྱུན་དུ་འཇོག་པ། gyun-du jok-pa placing the mind on the object with some continuity. You are able to keep your mind on the object briefly, for the length of time it might take to do a single round of short mantras on a rosary. You have constant agitation and dullness during these first two stages. You can keep the mind on the object for a short while (like the amount of time needed to say a rosary of OM MANI PADME HUM). At this stage you keep the mind on the object a minute or two, and then it seems the distractions surge back to the mind in great force. The periods of distraction are longer than the periods of concentration. Dullness and agitation are predominant at this stage.

During these two levels, one is developing

གནས་ཆ། ne-cha—stability— for holding the mind on the object.

c) གླན་ཏེ་འཇོག་པ། len-te jok-pa, placing the mind on the object and patching the gaps. You are able to keep your mind on the object for a fairly long time, regaining continuity and “patching the gap” quickly whenever your focus breaks off. You are patching your continuity. You have a stream of concentration, and it breaks, so you patch the break in concentration to continue the stream of concentration. Characterized by shorter breaks in concentration at this stage. You have gained pretty powerful dren-pa (recall, recollection) at this stage – a strong ability to go back to the object readily.

d) ཉེ་བར་འཇོག་པ། nye-war jok-pa, placing the mind on the object closely. You are able to keep your mind on the object without losing it, but still have agitation and dullness. Recollection is so strong that your mind can’t lose the object completely. Can lose clarity or intensity, but not fixation. Still lots of coarse dullness and agitation. You no longer struggle to keep the object, but struggle with the quality of meditation. Your ability to recall at this point is completely matured and complete. The tendency at this stage is to bring the mind in too forcefully, and subtle dullness results.

A concentration that has reached these two levels has developed གསལ་ཆ། sel-cha, fixation with clarity.

e) དུལ་བར་བྱེད་པ། dul-war je-pa, controlling the mind. Watchfulness is developed to a high degree, Detecting subtle dullness when the mind has been withdrawn inside too deeply. Obvious dullness can no longer occur. You need very strong watchfulness to catch the subtle dullness. Watchfulness is powerful at this level. This level is different, be cause you have fixation and clarity, but not intensity.

f) ཞི་བར་བྱེད་པ། zhi-war je-pa, Pacifying the mind. Watchfulness by this point is powerful, detecting subtle agitation which may occur as a result of uplifting the mind as a correction in the previous stage. There is no longer any great danger of subtle dullness. Make the mind calm by correcting subtle agitation which results from overcorrecting subtle dullness in step five. When correcting dullness, you may get too up, and need to bring yourself down. There isn’t much subtle dullness at this level. You need very strong watchfulness to get to levels five and six. Watchfulness is complete at this stage.

At this point, the practitioner has reached the quality of ngar-cha, a concentration that is stable, clear, and intense.

g) རྣམ་པར་ཞི་བར་བྱེད་པ། nam-par zhi-war je-pa, Pacifying the mind totally. Recollection and watchfulness are total, and there is no great danger of either subtle agitation or subtle dullness. Because watchfulness and recollection are totally complete Because it is difficult for dullness and agitation to occur. You must still make an effort to focus the mind, however. You don’t have to be very concerned about subtle dullness and agitation occurring, but still it requires effort to wipe them out. They are no longer attacking you. You are attacking them.

h) རྩེ་གཅིག་ཏུ་བྱེད་པ། tse-chik-tu je-pa, Making the mind single-pointed. Neither subtle agitation nor subtle dullness still occur at all; some effort is still needed at the beginning of the session to make minor corrections to the meditation. At the beginning of the session, you make a small effort to place the mind on the object, and then it remains there effortlessly.

i) མཉམ་པར་འཇོག་པ། nyam-par jok-pa Achieving equilibrium (deep meditation). Your mind goes into deep meditation automatically, without any conscious effort. There is effortless entering and abiding in deep meditation. Practicing meditation over and over again leads to this level. You can’t perceive emptiness directly without this level of concentration.