Janna · Sep 1, 2026
THE PHASE OF APPLYING THREE TYPES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
(The consciousness of the whole body, the breath, and thoughts from arising to passing away)
When we get ourselves to recognize the whole body, our thoughts tell us that they also have this recognition. When we reflect the body's impermanence, we, of course, have to use these thoughts. When we keep track of the breath or adjust our breathing to the rule 1-3-5, many ideas flash across our minds.
At first, we're grateful to those thoughts because they help us a lot in our practice - now they're on our side. When we're careless a bit, it will make a U-turn immediately and become an evil to make our minds wander. You see, we cannot rely on even our most reliable friend long.
When we're patient to go on with our practice, we start to have fewer thoughts, and our Awareness begins to form, and then we less depends on our thinking.
Now, we still have to keep our consciousness of the whole body accurately. Now that our reflection of the body's impermanence is in-depth, we don't have to do it frequently but occasionally to remind ourselves and that's enough. We, also, start to feel our breath very clearly.
Again, when we recognize the whole body precisely, we start to feel our breathing obviously. However, we should cleverly be aware of both the entire body and the breath and breathe as per the 1-3-4 rule. Remember to breathe slightly but not as much as you can.
In short, now we care mainly about the recognition of the exact body and the breath. When our Awareness appears, don't pay much attention to it because its initial value is to help us consider our thoughts as external objects. When we haven't had Awareness yet, we and our thoughts are just one, that is, our thoughts are the masters of our minds. And when we start to have Awareness state, we regard our thoughts as a harmful parasite or a thief. So, at this stage, we focus on the consciousness of our entire body, breath, and thoughts from start to end.
Sometimes we're too interested in recognition of our thoughts, and our minds leave our bodies. After a time, our brains will be damaged, which will result in our disease. Please keep our awareness of the entire body and the breath, and then we will naturally be aware of our thoughts. Since our Awareness is automatic, we don't have to notice it.
I have said that the initial use of our Awareness is to help us recognize our thoughts arising and passing away. So, try to keep our consciousness of our entire body and thoughts, and when our Awareness strengthens, our Hindrances start to be killed gradually. Greed hindrance will be the first, which makes us not care about assets, fame, and social positions, etc.
Then Anger hindrance, which makes us not worry about our adversity in life. When these two hindrances go away, our morality is quite acceptable.
When our Drowsiness hindrance is discarded, we can stay awake to sit in meditation forever, even we become exhausted and then die. But it doesn't mean we suffer from insomnia, our sleep is still normal. At that time, our brains are stronger than before.
When our Doubt hindrance is eliminated, we will have self-confidence so strong that we may think we will never lose our Awareness and Mindfulness even we are put on fire. Our confidence can go to extremes that we'll be extraordinarily proud of ourselves, and all is because our Awareness is now the master of our minds.
When our Restlessness is eradicated, our bodies are still even from inside, but they are always relaxed and entirely motionless. It is the condition for attaining the first stage of meditation.
If we have great merit from the worship of the Saints, the contemplation of the body's impermanence and Selflessness before, then when we have destroyed all our Hindrances, we easily reach some stage of Sainthood, too. Have both achievements of meditation and Sainthood, and our morality will be high enough to be the refuge of sentient beings in this impure life.
Written by:
Janna
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