Maps of Awakening
In the previous blog I wrote about the ‘do nothing’ meditation and Tilopa’s advice to “just rest”. This blog is about more structured approaches, specifically maps of the awakening process and the stages one goes through on the path to liberation.
At the risk of losing readers before I’ve even started I should say that I don’t use maps to guide my practice. I’m more of a ‘do nothing’ sort of person in the way of the previous blog (https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2024/06/develop-inner-peace-and-clarity-tilopas.html). However, I do find maps very interesting and I think they might help some people to get up off the couch, put their footie boots on and get onto the pitch (the European Football Championship is on at the time of writing…). And the authors of the maps say that they are much more helpful than that. For example, Culadasa (author of the 10-stage model described below) says, “Through these practices, Insight accumulates and matures, and the experience of Awakening quickly follows.”
So here are a handful of the models that I particularly like: four older models and two contemporary; four Buddhist models or models built on Buddhist ideas and two Christian, just to give an idea of the range of maps that are available. And there are citations or links to all those that I describe, in the ‘Sources’ section below.
The ten ox herding pictures of Zen Buddhism
This is a series of allegorical pictures depicting the stages of a journey towards awakening, from a Zen Buddhist practitioner’s perspective. The origin of the pictures isn’t clear but they are at least 1,000 years old. These are the stages depicted in the pictures:
• First stage: The ox herder searches for the ox, representing the initial desire to find something or someone to help with one’s dissatisfaction.
• Second stage: The ox herder sees the ox’s footprints, symbolizing the decision to take action and look for a solution to one’s problems.
• Third stage: The ox herder sees the ox, representing attraction to the idea of enlightenment.
• Fourth stage: The ox herder catches the ox, symbolizing the initial attempts to grasp or understand the concept of enlightenment.
• Fifth stage: The ox herder forgets the ox, representing the realisation that one’s true nature is already present and that there is no need to strive for something external.
• Sixth stage: The ox herder searches for the ox again, symbolizing the return to the original state of seeking and searching.
• Seventh stage: The ox herder finds the ox, representing the direct experience of enlightenment and the understanding of one’s true nature.
• Eighth stage: The ox herder rides the ox, symbolizing the integration of enlightenment into daily life and the ability to navigate the world with wisdom and compassion.
• Ninth stage: The ox herder forgets the ox again, representing the transcendence of ego and the understanding that enlightenment is not something to be grasped or possessed.
• Tenth stage: The ox herder returns to the market, symbolizing the return to society with the wisdom and compassion gained through the journey, and the ability to share it with others.
A clear and accessible account of this series is given in ‘Riding the Ox Home’, a book by John Daido Loori, a teacher and abbot at Zen Mountain Monastery in New York. The book provides a commentary on the ten pictures. By the way, this is a good place for me to re-iterate that I gain nothing materially from either authors or publishers or anyone else for any recommendations I make. I include them because I think they are useful sources.
For me, the great strength of the ox herding pictures is the awareness they give of aspects of the process involved in awakening. They can also help people who have been meditating for a while, feel they have made some progress, but have lost sight of a wider perspective.
I have also read accounts by people who have gained insights simply by contemplating the images, rather than using them for conceptual understanding. A possible disadvantage is that some will get the idea that the stages are fixed and not realise just how varied the process can be. I also have a preference for maps that are more clearly connected to practice.
The ‘seven stages to purification’ by Buddhaghosa
This text by Acariya Buddhaghosa, written in the fifth century AD, is considered a core of Theravada Buddhism. It brings together the complete path of progression from novice to ultimate enlightenment (nirvana or nibbana). This sequence is meant to be taken one step at a time as each stage is said to build on the previous one. It describes steps for developing morality, for meditative concentration and for insight, before finally dropping you off at the gateway to enlightenment. The seven stages to purification can be translated as:
• First Stage: Understanding the Impermanence of All Phenomena: Recognising that all phenomena are impermanent and subject to change.
• Second Stage: Understanding the Unsatisfactoriness of All Phenomena: Recognising that all phenomena are unsatisfactory and lead to suffering.
• Third Stage: Understanding the No-Self Nature of All Phenomena: Recognising that all phenomena do not have a permanent, unchanging self.
• Fourth Stage: Understanding the Impermanence of the aggregates: Recognising that the aggregates that make up an individual (such as the five aggregates of clinging) are impermanent and subject to change.
• Fifth Stage: Understanding the Unsatisfactoriness of the aggregates: Recognising that the aggregates are unsatisfactory and lead to suffering.
• Sixth Stage: Understanding the No-Self Nature of the aggregates: Recognising that the aggregates do not have a permanent, unchanging self.
• Seventh Stage: Attaining the State of Arahant: Achieving the state of Arahant, or fully enlightened being, by abandoning the ten fetters that bind us to the cycle of suffering.
It is worth noting again that these stages are not necessarily linear - individuals may progress through them in a different sequence. Additionally, these stages are not mutually exclusive, and individuals may experience several of these stages at the same time.
A free copy of the text in English has kindly been provided by the Buddhist Publication Society and the link is given below under ‘Sources’. Snelling’s ‘The Buddhist Handbook’ is another very good source as it puts these stages into a comprehensive and non-sectarian overview of the history and practice of Buddhism.
The seven mansions of the Interior Castle of St. Teresa of Avila
The Interior Castle, also known as The Mansions, is a spiritual guide written by Saint Teresa of Ávila, a 16th-century Carmelite nun. It is a description of the spiritual experiences and visions that she received from God. It is used as a guide by many Christians seeking a deeper understanding of their own spiritual journey.
According to St. Teresa, the Interior Castle is a vision of the soul as a castle with seven mansions, each representing a different level of spiritual growth and union with God. The castle is made of a single diamond or crystal, symbolizing the clarity and purity of the soul. The outer walls represent the human body and at the centre of the castle is the King, who represents God within the soul. The sequence given by St. Teresa is as follows:
1. The first mansion represents the soul in a state of mortal sin, unaware of its spiritual state.
2. The second mansion represents the soul preoccupied with worldly desires and attachments.
3. The third mansion represents the soul beginning to seek spiritual growth and purification.
4. The fourth mansion represents the soul experiencing spiritual growth and illumination.
5. The fifth mansion represents the soul in a state of spiritual union with God.
6. The sixth mansion represents the soul in a state of mystical union with God.
7. The seventh mansion represents the soul in a state of perfect union with God, where it is transformed into a divine being.
St. Teresa describes both how to move from stage to stage until union with God is achieved and also the experiences that occur along the path. The journey begins with prayer. I have given a link to the translation by E. Allison Peters in ‘Sources’ below.
The journey towards union with God by St. John of the Cross
I wrote a little about this in a previous blog (https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2023/10/dark-night-of-soul.html) where my emphasis was on the stage known as ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ from a more contemporary perspective. Getting a bit closer to the original, the Dark Night of the Soul is a complete spiritual journey described by St. John of the Cross, a 16th-century Spanish poet and Carmelite monk. The journey begins with a sense of darkness and emptiness, where the soul feels abandoned by God and disconnected from the world. This is a time of suffering, where the soul is forced to confront its own imperfections, weaknesses, and attachments.
As the journey progresses, the soul goes through stages including:
1. Purification of the Senses: The soul renounces its attachment to worldly pleasures and desires, and begins to detach from its physical and sensory experiences.
2. Purification of the Spirit: The soul renounces its attachment to spiritual consolations, such as feelings of joy, peace and ecstasy, and begins to detach from its own ego and self-importance.
3. Annihilation of the Ego: The soul experiences a complete surrender of its own will, desires and attachments, and becomes one with God.
4. Union with God: The soul reaches a state of complete union with God, where it experiences a deep sense of peace, joy, and fulfillment.
Some features include:
• Darkness: The journey is characterised by a sense of darkness where the soul is forced to confront its own limitations and imperfections.
• Detachment: The soul must detach from the world, its own ego, and its own desires.
• Suffering: The journey is marked by suffering, where the soul is forced to confront its own weaknesses and imperfections.
• Annihilation of the Ego: The soul must surrender its own will and desires, and become one with God.
The map provided by the Dark Night of the Soul is about a transformative journey that requires courage, humility and surrender, that leads to a deeper understanding of oneself and one’s relationship with God and, ultimately, to a state of union with the divine.
I give a link in ‘Sources’ below to a website that includes writings of St. John of the Cross and also includes modern writers giving their experiences of the dark night. This site, plus the writings of St. John of the Cross, may be a source of help to those who find the spiritual journey to be difficult and, at times, unpleasant. In that sense they provide a map, or a light, to guide one through hard times.
Culadasa and Immergut’s (2017) 10-stage map
This is a ten stage model with skills to learn at each stage:
Stage One: Establishing a Practice
Stage Two: Interrupted Attention and Overcoming Mind-Wandering
Stage Three: Extended Attention and Overcoming Forgetting
Milestone skill: Continuous attention to the meditation object
Stage Four: Continuous Attention and Overcoming Gross Distraction and Strong Dullness
Stage Five: Overcoming Subtle Dullness and Increasing Mindfulness
Stage Six: Subduing Subtle Distraction
Milestone skill: Sustained, exclusive focus of attention
Stage Seven: Exclusive Attention and Unifying the Mind
Milestone skill: Effortless stability of attention
Stage Eight: Mental Pliancy and Pacifying the Senses
Stage Nine: Mental and Physical Pliancy and Calming the Intensity of Meditative Joy
Stage Ten: Tranquility and Equanimity
Milestone skill: Persistence of the mental qualities of an adept
It is a progressive and practical, skills-based model, with each stage building on the previous one. It allows for some individual variation, but proposes that stages cannot be skipped. Although I have called it a contemporary map, it is based on an older Tibetan Buddhist map of the practices necessary for developing one-pointed concentration, which the current authors describe.
If you follow the practices described in the text they will likely lead to the development of significant meditation skills of concentration and freedom from distraction, and they will also take the practitioner to deeper states of mind that will last for longer periods between meditations.
Roger Thisdell’s ‘cosmological’ map
This is the most recent map that I am aware of - it is still a work in progress at the time of writing. It draws on an image created by NASA scientists that represents the initial singularity, through the expansion of the Big Bang to the present. The version of the image created by Roger Thisdell (link given below in Sources) is reproduced at the top of this blog. He uses the diagram, which may or may not be linked to the cosmological process of the expansion of the universe (he hints at a link in the video), as a map of both the development of the mind and perception, and also of the development of insight leading to nirvana / nibbana.
I found it an enjoyable model to reflect on. One of the things I like about it is that the creator / cartographer maps the stages of jhana meditation onto it, with the final jhana stage of ‘cessation’ being associated with the Source. Having had profound experiences while going through the jhanas, I can see the appeal of mapping them onto something equally mind expanding!
Is it useful? It’s a bit early to say, but it might be, so I think it’s worth running with for a while to see where it goes.
Finally...
As far as I am aware, all of these maps and models can take you into the territory of awakening or enlightenment or union with God, depending on your frame of reference, but they are not the same as awakening or enlightenment or union. No map of stages or set of techniques can do that. They may make it more likely, but they can’t guarantee that moment of realisation. As I think I said elsewhere in these blogs, you can meditate for decades and not feel you’ve ‘got it’ or you can suddenly awaken with no preparation, or even, as Steve Taylor’s research has shown, a life-changing insight can follow a traumatic experience!
And those who choose to free themselves of the constraints of a map entirely and simply flow in the manner of Wu Wei may still notice some of the processes described above appearing.
I love maps! I can lose myself in them for hours 😀 and I know that some people find them incredibly useful. In this blog I have listed a few of the better-known maps, but there are many more – the four noble truths with the eightfold path of Buddhism is one of the most well-known, for example. If you think you would find a map useful then I think the ones I describe here are worth exploring. For myself, I shall go with the ‘Pathless Path’ of direct experience for now. Go well my friends!
“How many paths are there to God? There are as many paths to God as there are souls on the Earth.”
Rumi
Sources
Acariya Buddhaghosa (translated from Pali by Bikkhu Nanamoli). (2010). The path of purification (Visuddhimagga). Buddhist Publication Society: Kandy, Sri Lanka. Retrieved from https://buddho.org/book/visuddhimagga-the-path-of-purification/
Culadasa (Yates, J.), Immergut, M. (2017). The Mind Illuminated: A Complete Meditation Guide Integrating Buddhist Wisdom and Brain Science for Greater Mindfulness. Hay House.
Loori, J. D. (2002). Riding the ox home: Stages on the path of enlightenment. Shambhala Publications Incorporated.
Saint Teresa of Avila. (Edited and translated by E. Allison Peers). (1946). Interior Castle. Dover Publications.
Snelling, J. (1987). The Buddhist handbook. A complete guide to Buddhist teaching and practice. London: Century Paperbacks.
Taylor, S. (2012). Spontaneous awakening experiences: Exploring the phenomenon beyond religion and spirituality. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 44(1), 73- 91.
The Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross (n.d.). Accessed 23rd June, 2024. https://makeheaven.com/st-john-of-the-cross.html
Thisdell, R. (2024). The creation of perception (awakening map) - jhana, emptiness, phenomenal transparency, axial aspect. Accessed 24th June, 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i17NhJ3b5UE
Thisdell, R. (2024). Qualia of the Stages of Insight - the seasons of life on the path (Theravada Buddhism). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2Vnev8oF7Y&list=WL&index=7&t=51s
Key words
attention, awakening, Buddhism, Christianity, liberation, map of awakening, meditation, mind, model, nirvana, nibbana,
Image
The map of perception, created by Roger Thisdell, can be seen, along with many others, at https://www.rogerthisdell.com/media
Link
https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2024/06/maps-of-awakening.html
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