Audio (TCP7, Day 03): Nine Stages, Stage Two, Continuous Placing (Saṃsthāpayati)

A short talk on the second of the nine stages of śamatha (calm abiding), saṃsthāpayati (continuous placing) — building continuity of attention on the breath — followed by a full guided meditation. Includes posture instruction (the seven-point posture of Vairocana).

Sakya tradition · IBA Kathmandu · The Complete Path (TCP) 2026 · English · Talk + guided sit

For the full Sanskrit/Pali/Tibetan glossary and nine-stages reference table, see the Glossary and Summary for Morning Meditations.

Transcript

Okay, very good. So good morning, once again, dear friends. Welcome back to our morning meditation sessions here at the IBA Kathmandu, part of the Complete Path Course 2026.

We have the intention in these sessions to explore, hopefully reviewing basic practices of śamatha vipaśyanā, especially related to mindfulness of breathing and the establishments of mindfulness, but recognizing that we have just a short time each morning and we want to have time really for cultivation, for bhāvanā itself, for practice as a way to prepare the mind for receiving the teachings from His Holiness.

We are drawing on practices from the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, especially the Śrāvakabhūmi and meditation manuals such as the Bhāvanākrama of Kamalaśīla and also linking back to the sutras in the early canon, the teachings of the Buddha Himself, that describe in some detail the process of calming the mind, a prerequisite for the arising of insight, of clear seeing, the basis of wisdom.

So far we have reviewed the posture, the stable foundation, common to all yoga traditions. We base that on the seven point posture of Vairocana also from Bhāvanākrama.

We have heard from His Holiness how this same system for understanding the posture has an uncommon explanation related to the subtle winds, but we can also feel reassured that even at the beginning, before we are working directly with subtle winds, this type of stable posture in which stillness in the body is available to us is also critically important simply for this process of calming the mind.

And we have met the first stage of the nine stages system which we may be recognised from the elephant chasing, tanka paintings or murals that we see in Gompas very often or maybe from the ox herding, ink paintings in the Chan or Zen tradition simply placing the mind, sthāpayati, nirru.

We have also met the type of attention that is likely to be engaged at this stage, a force form type of attention. In the Sanskrit, balavāhana-manasikāra, bala power. Avahana, this implication of transporting, conveying.

And manasikara, very interesting term, one of the universal mental formations, for those who are familiar with Abhidharmakośa, present in every mind moment, actually the process through which the object is made in the mind, literally.

In the beginning, in our cultivation, the process through which we bring the breath into our mind is one that maybe you have already noticed in your practice has a kind of a pressure behind it.

This is why when we begin, perhaps, I mean apart from the physical yoga of sitting, perhaps in a posture that is a little unfamiliar to the body, we reach the end of even a relatively brief sit with a kind of a mental fatigue, maybe. Rather than the hoped for relaxation, we feel like we’ve been doing some hard work.

And this is because the type of attention we are using is this forceful attention, this balavāhana-manasikāra, forceful making of the object in the mind. But it’s also necessary, if we don’t make this effort, then there is no antidote present to the tendency of the mind to wander away. In the beginning, we actually need to restrain the mind from destruction with some energy.

And this energy, I think we can say, is one of the antidotes to laziness, to sloth, to torpor, to drowsiness and dullness, one of the first faults in our meditation practice. So even though it’s something that we later work to soften, to let go of, in the beginning, this kind of forceful attention is our friend, it’s a necessary stage.

But it’s something to be aware of, to notice that this is how we are bringing the mind to the object. In this stage, we are also very much relying on the first type of wisdom. We mentioned this already, the śrutamayī-prajñā, the knowledge that comes from listening, from study, from reading, instructions.

And if we are able to remember the instructions, remember what it is that we are cultivating, we are already bringing into our practice none other than mindfulness, sati, smṛti. And this is indeed the antidote for the second major fault that we can have, which is simply forgetting what it is that we are supposed to be doing.

You may have had that experience of leaving your house and getting into the car maybe and starting it up and once you’re part way down the driveway, realizing you don’t actually remember what it is that you are supposed to be doing. Or you arrive at your destination, at the shop, or wherever it is. And the purpose has escaped.

So often we are caught in thinking about the past or the future, we are kind of on autopilot. And it’s mindfulness that helps us to maintain an awareness not only of what’s going on in this moment, but also the context, the purpose, our intention.

But it’s also true that our unconscious, in some ways related to the concept of store consciousness in the Yogācāra system, is not an aspect of mind that is very easy to work with in a directive way, in a kind of control and command, like through direct instruction. We work with the unconscious through intention.

In the same way when we forget someone’s name, we feel like it’s on the tip of our tongue. And if we let go of trying for a while, sometimes a few minutes, a few hours later when we’re doing something completely different, that memory will return the same as if we misplace our keys or something like that. Remembering in that way is not something we can control directly with the conscious mind.

It requires us to set the intention to recollection and to allow the unconscious to do its work in the background.

In the same way when we are cultivating mindfulness of breathing, directing awareness to the breath and the mind wanders into distraction, perhaps into narrative, thoughts of past or future, it is this intention that can eventually bring us back to what it is that we are supposed to be doing, this intention to stay with the breath. At some level it’s not conscious.

Our conscious mind is in distraction. But the unconscious mind remembers, this is a meditation session, allowing us to return our mind to the object. So this is the reason we set the clear intention at the beginning of our sit. I’m cultivating mindfulness of the breath. My intended object here is sensations of the breath in the body.

And it is this familiarity that we start to develop, familiarity with the sensation of the breath, that allows us to develop more clarity, more sensitivity to the sensations of the breath. And if the object is clear, then the mind can stay with that object for a longer duration without becoming distracted. And this is the content of the next, of the nine stages.

So in our guidance already we have had the practice of identifying the breath in the body, a practice that you’re welcome to use yourself at the beginning of a sit. We have had the instruction to find that place in the body where the breath is very clear. And then we are tracking, anupasana, we are tracking the breath through its whole duration.

So not just the beginning of the breath, the inhalation, but also the middle and the end, staying with sensations of the breath throughout the whole duration. In this practice also, especially as it appears in the Shravakabhumi, we are invited to maintain that continuity even during the pauses between in-breath and out-breath, and between out-breath and in-breath.

This is not an instruction that you commonly find in the traditions that rely on the Pali Canon, the Pa Auk system, for example, in which I have also had good fortune to study. There is not emphasis placed on the in-between breaths, kumbhaka in the yoga traditions, the image of a vase retaining the breath, or the retention of the breath.

This will be familiar to those who are already practicing the vase retention in their sādhana practice, related to practices of prāṇāyāma, of changing, training the breath. But here we are not working to forcefully retain the in-breath or the out-breath, the empty breath.

We are just recognizing that in-between every inhalation and exhalation, there is a moment when the tide needs to turn, and in-between every exhalation and inhalation, there is another moment when the tide must turn.

A moment of stillness can be short, or it can be long, and it can change within one session, and as our practice deepens, the breath becoming more subtle, we can have the experience of these pauses becoming quite long. But here in Ānāpānasati, in mindfulness of breathing, we are not working to change the breath.

And in fact, if we do mistakenly practice kumbhaka in this way, retention, forcefully retaining the breath, we can actually create some difficulties for ourselves in the practice. Really, it becomes a prāṇāyāma. We can generate heat in the body and all kinds of obstacles that are unhelpful in the cultivation of śamatha at this stage.

So the invitation is really not to modify the breath, just to allow it to flow, but to be aware that it has a gross aspect, the rising of the belly, expansion of the ribcage, lifting of the shoulders, and a subtle aspect. This very subtle breath where we may have the experience that our awareness shifts into the whole body even. The diaphragm is momentarily still.

The lungs are either full or empty depending on the stage. There is a pause, a moment, this turning of the tide of the breath. And if we can maintain our awareness, our attention, even as the breath becomes subtle in these moments, then we are slowly succeeding in this saṃsthāpayati, placing our attention with longer duration. The mind does not wander as soon as the object becomes subtle.

It stays with these sensations of the breath in the body. So I feel that that is more than enough information for one session. And I want us to have time to practice, so I’m going to invite us to find a comfortable sitting position.

Once again, establishing that stable base, but also pliant space for in-breath and out-breath, length in the spine, recognizing our motivation for this practice, not for our own well-being alone, recognizing our intention, the how, mindfulness of breathing. And perhaps in this case, saṃsthāpayati, placing for longer duration.

And now we’ll invite three sounds off the bell and we will begin with a guided meditation this morning, alternating as we do between silent and guided breathing in of in-breath, meeting the breath in the body, finding that place where sensation is clear, perhaps initially in the rise and fall of the belly, the gross movements of the breath, perhaps eventually finding connection with the breath at

the touching place in the nostrils and upper lip and breathing out, aware of sensations of out-breath, tracking sensations in this place where we find them to be clear, vivid, acting the whole body as we do so, inviting tensions to melt away, allowing distractions to arise and pass, bringing breath into the foreground, allowing other sensations, sounds, feelings in the body not related to the

breath, thoughts of past and future to fade into the background, not requiring them to disappear at this stage, content for them to be in the background relative to feelings of the breath, to the feelings of the breath, for the whole length of the in-breath, beginning, middle and aware of out-breath, tracking sensations of the breath for the whole length of the out-breath, beginning, middle and

just as we find it, long or short, deep or shallow, no need to change the breath in any way, the whole body releasing tensions, letting go of distractions as they arise, allowing them to fade into the background once again, tracking sensations of in-breath for the whole duration, beginning, middle and continuity of attention, even as the gross movements of breath subside in the natural pause

between in-breath and out-breath, just as it is, long or short, no need to change the breath in any way, simply resting in that awareness as the tide of the breath turns gently and breathing out, out-breath, tracking the feelings of the breath in the chosen place in the body where they are clear, continuity beginning, middle and exploring possibility to maintain that attention also in the

natural pause between out-breath and the following in-breath, just as it is, using the breath in any way, relaxing the whole body, prioritizing these sensations of breath in body, allowing them to fulfill the mind and for distractions to arise and pass, fading into the background, continuity of attention beginning, middle and maintaining awareness in the natural pause, no need to change the

breath in any way, breathing out, aware of out-breath, continuity beginning, middle, the breath as it is, maintaining awareness in the natural pause, long or short, deep or shallow, loosely tracking sensations of breath, gross and subtle, inviting ease and relaxation into every part of the body, inviting distractions to fade into the background as they arise and pass, arise and pass, arise,

anchoring attention with in-breath and out-breath, this safe harbor for the mind, calm, tranquility, continuity and distraction inevitably arises whether in the form of sounds, distant or close by, pleasant sounds or unpleasant sounds or in the form of sensations in the body unrelated to in-breath and out-breath, pleasant or unpleasant or in the form of thoughts, images, anxieties about the

future, thoughts of the past, rejoice at this recognition of distraction, rejoice at the arising of mindfulness, recollection of our intention to maintain awareness of the breath in the body, in the foreground, and we can let go of that distraction and return gratefully to that safe harbor, that anchorage in sensations of the breath, that silver thread that links us to tranquility even as the ripples and waves of the mind continue, placing attention on the breath with continuity, saṃsthāpayati, relaxing the whole body, letting go.

So as we conclude, we can give ourselves a gentle massage, adjusting our posture if it has become uncomfortable and making a habit of a brief review, reflection of our sitting, taking a note of distractions or disturbances that have been present, perhaps hindrances or faults that have arisen, also perhaps the antidotes that have been helpful, in this case perhaps drowsiness or forgetting or perhaps a mindfulness and clarity arising.

Not missing the opportunity to learn from every sit, the only bad meditation being the one that we skip, as they say. So dear friends, thank you very much for your attention. We are slowly coming to the end of our allotted time but we do have a few moments if there are questions about the practice so far, observations from your own experience or something that would benefit from clarification.

And if you do have a question, if you wouldn’t mind please trekking up to the microphone at the front so that the question is also on the recording. Thank you. This is a very good question. The answer depends a little bit on the system in which we are studying and practicing.

So for example, in the Burmese forest tradition of Pa-Auk Sayadaw, which follows very closely the Visuddhimagga, path of purification, the emphasis is very much on mastery of śamatha before cultivation of vipaśyanā, mastery of calm abiding before insight meditation. And here mastery implies jhāna, implies absorption, immersion with one unmoving object.

Technically speaking, the mental image of the breath in that system based on the arising of a nimitta, a sign of the breath. Now this already is quite a technical answer but the main point is that in order to immerse in an object the mind needs to be very still. Because as we know from Yogācāra, all objects are objects of mind.

If the mind is moving, it is because the object is moving, and vice versa. So in this way it’s quite challenging to give rise to very strong śamatha on an object that is shifting either due to our attention moving from place to place in the body or from our attention resting on an object that is changing frequently like the rise and fall of the breath.

But as the Buddha taught himself in his compassion he recognized that there are different gateways. It is also possible to cultivate a lot of calm in the mind on a moving object. But at some point if we are interested in deep śamatha we need to shift to a still object.

So where we are in our practice is up to us to recognize and the quality of our sensitivity to sensations of the breath is something that we can also develop on a moving object exploring the body, noticing, oh, here there is pleasant sensation, here there is unpleasant sensation, here there is softness, hardness, roughness, smoothness.

There is a whole landscape, a wilderness of sensation in the body.

But if we can slowly navigate our way through that wilderness to a place in the body where the breath becomes more subtle, for example at the touching place in the nostrils and upper lip, then this is a very conducive object for deepening of śamatha because eventually the mind paying attention to an object that is still and subtle becomes what? Also still and subtle. So skillful means.

No need to stay rigidly with a very subtle object if the result is drowsiness. The object is not clear, the mind is not sensitive enough to stay with that very subtle object. So use the skillful means of a more gross and obvious movement of breath.

Train the body in maintaining a full bodied and a healthy yogic breath in that way with that awareness so that when we do pay attention to a more subtle object, the breath takes care of itself and our posture doesn’t collapse, become dull, drowsy.

So whether or not we are really interested in jhāna, per se, or we feel that this map of the samāpattis is relevant to our practice, we know that the nine stages also bring us to samādhāna, to samādhi, to immersion with an object that is very, very subtle. And so we need at some moment in our practice, we need to make that step from a gross moving object to one that is more still and subtle.

But we do it with common sense when we are ready. And that can be different from day to day, it can be different within one sitting meditation practice. This is not a rigid system, it’s a helpful map for us to understand. But where we are in that map depends on our practice, depends on our body and mind at any one moment. So I wish you good luck.

Thank you very much to our translators as always, and to our friends who have made the effort to join from the beginning of the meditation session. If you are just arriving, you are finding yourself at the end of our morning sitting practice, which you are wholeheartedly invited to join at 7.45.

And we do ask that if you do not join for 7.45, and joining a little bit later, at the very least, please come for meditation and not for other activities during that session. And if you can, please also wait outside until 8.45, until we conclude. So thank you all very much.

I hope that this calmness and continuity of attention is a good preparation for receiving these beautiful teachings from His Holiness, and that indeed they are a support in our sādhana practice. Have a lovely day.