From the book
Glossary
The framework uses precise language, so you can find what suits you, diagnose problems with your meditation, and fix them easily. These are the key terms from There Are Only 7 Ways to Meditate.
- Meditation
- “Meditation is a purposeful activity of mind, with seven principles and making use of the two core, or more, of the seven mind-technologies.” — Meditation Teacher College
- Meditation is limited to an activity of the mind. You’re not meditating if your activity includes anything other than the mind, or fewer than the first two spheres of meditation.
- The Seven Spheres (mind-technologies)
- The seven mind-technologies inside all meditations. Together they form the new framework for understanding meditation: Restful Absorption (RA), Intentional Awareness (IA), Engrossed Attention (EA), Authentic Attitudes (AA), Visualisation or Imagination (VI), Question or Introspect (QI), and Mantra or Invocation (MI).
- Restful Absorption (RA)
- A core mind-technology within every meditation. Ideally you are at rest — still and completely relaxed — relaxing enough for absorption to take effect.
- Absorption — what happens as you fall asleep; it maps to the four brainwave states described by science: Beta (normal waking), Alpha, Theta, and Delta (fully asleep). When your mind becomes calm through RA, you connect more effectively with imagination, creativity, inner wisdom, and intuition. Absorption is the main ingredient in meditation that releases accumulated stress.
- Cocoon Effect — your meditation capsule: absorption creates a comfortable, undistracted space. When RA is combined with EA, you can meditate for longer, cocooned in absorption.
- Intentional Awareness (IA)
- A core mind-technology within every meditation. Moment-by-moment conscious awareness — being aware on purpose. Bare awareness with nothing added: thoughts are allowed to be there, but ideally you are not engaged in thinking; sounds can be heard, but you are not actively listening. IA is a training in being present — and because it is a training, the ideals are not rules.
- Engrossed Attention (EA)
- EA steadies your IA in a narrow-focused attention, using introspection and memory to hold one object. You come to know the object through a finer and finer degree of focus, creating more conscious awareness.
- Engrossed — describes this technology’s special relationship with absorption: it becomes harder to draw yourself away from the object, and easier to relax deeply without falling asleep. The recommended training object is the breath.
- Authentic Attitudes (AA)
- Completely natural attitudes everyone possesses — you can strengthen one as a meditation, or use them within all your meditations.
- Neutral Zone — being without positive or negative opinions.
- Gentle — a supportive inner environment where rest is available; relaxing away from negative thinking in a tender, forgiving, understanding, soft manner.
- Beginner’s Mind — being curious about whatever appears in your awareness; open to your assumptions being wrong, treating experience as an experiment. It takes courage to let go of the old and welcome the new.
- Allowing — accepting the present moment, and everything in it, as it is. Once you have noticed it, it is already in the past; you cannot change it.
- Appreciation — finding something, however tiny, to recognise and enjoy. Allowing yourself to experience beauty — no matter how small.
- Kindness — toward yourself, beginning with simply not judging yourself. Trust is an element of kindness.
- Visualisation or Imagination (VI)
- Using your imagination — especially broad in its uses, from healing to better performance (e.g., in sport). VI doesn’t have to involve visual images in your mind.
- Question or Introspect (QI)
- Contemplating, asking questions, or introspecting. Although this sounds analytical, that part is minimal — the emphasis is on opening to intuition. Found within some types of prayer and insight/wisdom meditations.
- Mantra or Invocation (MI)
- A mantra is a tone, or set of syllables, shown to have positive effects; an MI invokes specific frequencies within your mind. The informal practice of MI is chanting. There are many MI available, depending on your goals and preferences.
- Object of Meditation
- The primary focus of your awareness — what you are directing your attention toward and attempting to notice something about.
- Formal Practice
- Sitting, lying down, or standing still — completely focused (as best you can) on your meditation practice.
- Informal Practice
- Partially using the mind-technologies while doing other things. Informal practices either prepare you for meditation or add extra training time — so the results of your formal practice are greater. Bonus: the technologies improve whatever else you’re doing, too.
- Distraction
- The object of meditation is no longer within your awareness — you’ve forgotten your intention and are involved with something else: thoughts, emotions, discomfort, or even something pleasant. See Bubbles of Stress for the biggest cause.
- Bubbles of Stress
- Why minds get distracted: accumulated stress being released. A bubble of stress rises to the surface during meditation; when it bursts, the release disturbs our systems — energetic, physical, emotional, mental — and creates a distraction.
- Wandering
- Not completely distracted: the object is in the background and you’re still aware of it, but your mind — or part of it — is more interested in something else.
- Slumber
- Becoming less conscious instead of more conscious: the cocoon effect is taking hold, but you are drowsy, heading toward sleep.
- Attitude
- Our learnt tendency to evaluate and react to things — people, situations, and ourselves — in a certain way.
- Distorted Attitudes
- A lifetime of accumulated stress creates imbalances that distort thinking, attitudes, and emotions. The book describes five main distorted (weather) patterns:
- Whistling Wind of Cynicism — scoffing, sceptical, pessimistic, suspicious, jaundiced by life.
- Foggy — a blank screen of confusion; disoriented, with an empty mind.
- Weeping Cloud — sad, upset, anxious; crying for no reason; even positive emotions feel too intense.
- Stormy — from simmering frustration, irritability and impatience, up to full-blown anger and temper.
- Whirlwind — the hyperactive mind: an endless stream of strategising, rehearsing, worrying, or ruminating. It feels as if you cannot calm your mind.
- IntrAnaut
- A person who explores the inner space of their mind so as to awaken to their true potential. The difference between a meditator and an IntrAnaut is the level of dedication to uncovering their True Nature. Knowing that “retreats create quantum jumps in your personal evolution”, an IntrAnaut finds ways to be on meditation retreat.
- IntrAnaut™ is a trademark of Colin Ellis and the Meditation Teacher College. IntrAnaut Academy is a brand of the college.