Okay, so we've talked about the physical physiology of the body and how that can be influenced by meditation. But let's now return to the line, which is really where it's at, and talk about how we can bring the mind under control. Now, the key takeaway of this whole module, the real central pivot point, which is a real misunderstanding, for most people around meditation, is the following. So listening, the mind needs to be brought under control and put onto one single object and that is the key focus for beginner to intermediate meditators, rather than necessarily calming the mind. Now I've given you meditations to try to calm the mind and V be peaceful and when we learn Meditation we want to be peaceful. But the irony is, in the beginning stages, we actually need to increase the workload on the mind to a point where it actually feels not very comfortable in order to try to keep the mind on the one meditation object.

Because if we relax the mind, and we don't try very hard, we don't think very much. And then the thoughts, there's not much going on in my mind, one of two things will happen, either will start to fall asleep because the mind is slowing down, and we're starting to get drowsy, or the mind will go well, this is pretty boring. I'm going to just choose something else to think about. I'm going to think about all the problems in my life or all the good things that I'm looking forward to either way you either get distracted or you go into dullness. So in order to prevent these two things, from happening, we need to give the mind something interesting to talk about. I talked about it in the module one.

And we're going to go much deeper into this aspect in this particular module. So I'm going to ask you to actually in your technique, meditations, rather than contemplating or open hearted meditations in your technique, meditations, I'm going to ask you to increase the workload on your mind. And this will first of all bring about intensity but also give you something to aim for and to work towards in order to keep your mind on the one meditation object. Now the object we're going to use for this is the breath. Okay? It's an excellent object of meditation.

So why is with you I talked about why it's so good to meditate on and we will keep this object going. Now, what we do is not only can we visualize the colors of the breath But we can. And not only can we think about the three parts of the breath in breath, the retention, and the out breath, but we can actually start dividing even those bits down into smaller bits. So for example, we could think of the in breath as the beginning of the breath, the middle of the in breath, and finish of the in breath. And then in the retention, even though there's no physical sensation, we can still think of the start of the retention, the middle of the retention and the end of the retention, and the start of the out breath, that middle of the out breath and the end of the out breath.

And so these three parts now become nine parts. And of course, if you type in needs a lot more concentration to identify which of these nine parts you are at, in any one breath. Now this extra intensity in the mind, will bring a sharpness and an alertness to the mind and keep us on our meditation ops. Then if we try to combine it with the colors, it starts to get hard. But it gives us a challenge to spy on the meditation object. And that's what it's all about.

So that is the next step in trying to advance your meditation practice is to do all of those things together. And I'd like you to stop the video now and actually practice identifying the different parts of the breath, beginning, middle and end, beginning, middle and end, beginning, middle and end, and then start again, and was visualizing the three colors of the breath. So do that now. And then start the video again, and we'll keep talking about the next step. Good. So I hope you stop the video.

And you practice that. Now to add even further challenge to the mind and to try to give us a yardstick to see how we're going. I want to To introduce counting to the breath. So we want to actually count the breaths. So we do nine parts of the breath, beginning, middle and end, so forth right to the out breath. And then that's one breath.

And then go around the cycle again of the nine parts. And that's two breaths, and see if you can do that. counting all the way up to seven, there are some people lose count at number three or number four. If you lose count, you have to start again, go all the way back to one. So practice that now to stop the video and just practice that quickly. Okay, I hope you've practiced it.

And then we're going to add more complexity by actually trying to make that count on one of those nine parts of the breath. So rather than just counting counter at the end of the breath, try and put the count on the last part of the in breath. For example, So you're visualizing white, and you've got Beginning, middle end of the in breath, and count one, then read beginning, middle and end. out breath, blue, beginning, middle and end. In breath, beginning, middle and end and to the second breath. So you can see that brings even more intensity.

And then see if you can, if you make it up to seven, try to go to 14. And if you make it up to 14, try to go to 21. And just see how long you can do all of this work and stay focused on the breath. Again, I know it sounds like this is the complete opposite to what you thought meditation was. But this is the way to try to increase the intensity and focus of the mind on the meditation object. And believe me in the long run, this will really help you in your meditation.

I didn't actually learn this until many years After I started meditation, and it wasn't until I learned this particular idea or aspect that I excel in my meditation practice. Now, if you want even more complex maths to do, you can count all the way to 21. And then count backwards or you can count in rounds, the first one, you can count one, then one, two, then 123, then 1234. So you have to try to remember not only what number you're up to, but where in the cycle of counting you are. The point is, there's no exact procedure to follow when you get it right. These are just suggestions to increase the workload on your mind to help you stay focused on the meditation object.

Now, it's not all hard work, because when you achieve your objective, let's say you're counting to 21. What I want you to do then is to just drop all the workload on Your mind and have a mini break just for about one minute now that means don't get up. So when I say mini great, I mean keep meditating. But don't think about any particular meditation object, just sit there, relax, breathe, that's about all. Don't worry about the counting the numbers, the the colors, or what have you, and have a break before you start again. Now, what you'll find sometimes in the nice break sessions, because you've been able to keep your mind on the object, let's say for five minutes, then the mind will have got rid of a lot of distraction.

And in the bright, it won't necessarily get distracted and oh, but it will also be fully aware and fully alert so we'll be completely energized but not distractive. And in these bright times, you can find that you have very pleasant feelings and you meditate really, really well. This is kind of what you're after, in the meditation practice. So they're sort of nice parts of this practice. But until you can get up to counting up to 50, or 100, and staying on the meditation object for, you know, at least several minutes, you know, 1015 minutes at a time, then you're not going to have so much success with the other parts of the, for example, the advanced module. So this is where a lot of the work comes in, to practice but this is where this is the difference between beginning meditators and more intermediate advanced meditators is the ability to stay on the meditation object.

Okay, a lot of work, therefore, you go I try practice it, and see if you can improve day by day you'll Of course, you'll have meditation sessions where you go backwards, you'll take three steps forward, and then two steps back. That's the way meditation is, but over A time, your mot your power of mindfulness should gradually increase and with it. You'll have better meditations. Good luck and enjoy the process.