The Mind Illuminated Mind Map, by Daniel M. Ingram

Stage 5: Sustained Full-minded Awareness
  Goal: To overcome subtle dullness and increase mindfulness power.
  Slipping into subtle dullness.
    Concentration with dullness
    Vividness and Intensity may fade
    Pleasantness and comfort may cause misjudgment of attainments
    Subtle dullness is difficult to recognize
    Seductively pleasant
    Field of consciousness shrinks
    Expanded awareness can also increase “fuzziness”, leading to “double fuzziness”
    Time seems to pass without knowing where it went
    Creates illusion of progress
    Use the Moments of Consciousness Model to increase perceiving moments and decrease non-perceiving ones.
    Try Body Scanning practice
    Try Meditation on the Elements
    Notice how the sensations of the breath cycle and other body areas interact with each other
    Work to perceive more pixels and extremely subtle sensations
  Freedom from Strong Dullness
  Ability to easily keep Subtle Distractions from becoming Gross Distractions
  Stronger and more continuous Introspective Awareness is cultivated, increasing fully conscious mindful awareness, to guard against subtle dullness.
  Whole Body Breath Awareness may be a good technique to cultivate.
  Mastery: sustain intensity of full-minded awareness, intending to increase it further. Dullness doesn’t arise once gross distractions are overcome.
Stage 6: Subduing Subtle Distraction
  Goals: engage attention to the object so as to exclude peripheral sensations from attention and subdue subtle dullness, and develop metacognitive introspective awareness and exclusive attention through curious intention.
  Exclusive focus/single-pointedness not yet achieved, as peripheral thoughts and sensations occur.
  Subtle background distractions still alternate with meditation object.
  Experience the whole body with the breath.
  Non-conceptual perception progressively allows perception of the Arising and Passing Away of individual sense-percepts of the “meditation object”.
  Vigilance and Effort keep the mind pacified.
  Define your scope of attention more precisely, ignoring everything outside that scope until subtle distractions fade.
  Non-conceptual perception of meditation object increases.
  Mental self-talk fades progressively, murmurings of mind easier to disregard.
  Stable attention to and vivid perception of the meditation object.
  Access Concentration, Flow, and light whole-body Jhanas may be cultivated and achieved.
  Mastery: virtually no subtle distractions, and awareness of thoughts, ambient sounds, bodily sensations, internal mental states only intermittently present and don’t become distractions. Exclusive focus attained.
  Second Major Milestone: Exclusive attention to meditation object, be that wide or narrow, dullness gone, powerful metacognitive awareness, aware of mind state every moment, stable attention, uninterrupted continuity, a skilled practitioner.
Stage 7: Single-Pointed Attention to the Meditation Object and Pacifying/Unifying the Mind
  Goal: mind habituated to non-distractibility and full-minded awareness such that effort no longer needed to sustain these, i.e effortless attention and effortless powerful mindfulness.
  Intend to guard against dullness and distractions.
  Initial effort still required for focused attention and vividness.
  Vigilance and effort required to sustain freedom from subtle distractions and dullness.
    Very Close Following, using extremely detailed investigation, microscopic movements of sensations and individual “frames”, perhaps rapidly speeding up to dissolve into vibrations and become an Insight Experience.
  Dryness, doubt, boredom, and tediousness may arise.
    Various insight and jhana practices add variety and depth, such as Pleasure Jhanas
    Review Hindrances and Antidotes
    Investigation of Mental Objects: self-talk, visual images, kinesthetic feelings, memories, emotions, symbolic thoughts.
  Bizarre sensory phenomena, spontaneous movement, and powerful energy may arise
    Practice diligently and patiently, past boredom, doubt, bizarre sensations, movements, and learn when to let go of control.
    Review Grades of Piti
  Striving for effortlessness may not work properly.
  Knowledge of Suffering and the Dark Night may arise
  Boredom and Restlessness require Diligence.
  Powerful Insight Experiences may arise
  Physical Pliancy and Meditative Joy may arise
  Resolve Remorse and Worry, seek Forgiveness, Make Amends, Own Mistakes, Review Hindrances, Refrain from Unwholesome Actions, Practice Generosity, Virtue, Patience, and Joyful Effort.
  Do the Mindful Review Practice
  Mastery: mind pliant and tamed, attention easily controlled without disturbing concentration and awareness, unprecedented calm, it is recognized that effort no longer required, as, when effort dropped, unprecedented clarity and skill are still maintained.
  Milestone Three: effortless sustained exclusive attention with powerful mindfulness, complete pacification of discriminating mind, unification of mind, harmonious mind, mental chatter and discursive analysis stop, no resistance or preoccupations, become Adept meditator.
  Transition
Grades of Piti
  Grade I: minor, brief, unpredictable, maybe colored light, maybe movements or twitching, occasionally in Stage 4, typically Stages 5-6, nearly always in Stage 7.
  Grade II: momentary, brief, lights, sounds, unusual sensations, autonomic reactions, occasionally may include energy, pleasure, movements, happiness, typically in Stage 7-8, may occur in Stages 5-6.
  Grade III: longer episodes, wavelike, showering, more intense, energy common, may be pleasant and unpleasant at once, principal feature of Stage 8, common in Stage 7 also, rarely occur in earlier Stages.
  Grade IV: exhilarating, intense, sustained, physical pliancy, lightness and weightlessness, bodily distortions typical, illumination may be intense, may be very fine and rapid sensations, strong feelings of joy, known as “uplifting piti”.
  Grade V: pervading piti, full maturation of meditative joy and physical pliancy, energy currents are smooth, physical comfort, stability, intense joy, mind unified, marks mastery of Stage 8 and entry into Stage 9.
Stage 8: The Compliant Mind and Pacifying the Senses
  Goal: Pacification of the Six Senses, disturbing phenomena stop being disturbing, body as compliant as the mind, no pain, no discomfort, arising of Meditative Joy.
  Occasional intrusions of sensations, discursive thoughts, mental states, unusual sensory phenomena occur until one enters quiescence.
  Practice effortless attention and introspective awareness until unification and joy.
    Jhana
    Insight
  Effortless stability of attention
  Continuity and Exclusive Focus
  Full-minded Awareness with Vivid Intensity and Clarity
  Mental pliancy of the Adept Practitioner
  Meditative Joy, pleasure in the body, happiness
  Attention rests stably on object as directed, quality of awareness stays bright and sharp without dullness.
  Open awareness easy without getting caught in whatever arises.
  Full-minded, compliant, superior mind.
  Mastery: ears generally perceive only inner sound, eyes perceive only inner light, body suffused with comfort and pleasure, free of pain, body and mind suffused with pleasure and comfort, mental state tends towards joyfulness, can sit for hours without dullness, distraction, or pain.
  Adept
Stage 9: Physical Pliancy and Meditative Joy
  Goal: maturation to become so familiar with physical and mental pliancy that joy and pleasure become tranquility and equanimity.
  Mental excitation and intense joy may be distracting
  Anticipation can disrupt concentration
  Overestimating positive factors as being higher attainments may cause difficulties
  Continue practice until familiarity with joy turns it into tranquility and equanimity.
  Mental and Physical Pliancy
  Physical Pleasure
  Joyful Mind
  Great Happiness
  Mastery: consistently able to invoke mental and physical pliancy along with profound and imperturbable tranquility and equanimity.
Stage 10: Stability of Attention and Awareness Persisting Beyond the Sitting Practice
  Mental and Physical Pliancy with almost imperturbable peace and calm, joy and happiness, profound equanimity.
  Positive qualities persist longer and longer after sits.
  Strong desire noticeably attenuated.
  Negative mental reactions become rare.
  Easygoing and agreeable.
  Rarely disturbed, even by pain.
  “Unsurpassable” and “Unexcelled” mind.
  Powerful concentration.
  Fully conscious awareness.
  Drop rapidly into deep meditative states as soon as sits down.
  Four Applications of Mindfulness in daily life very easy.
  Threshold of jhanas and Nibbana.
  Not permanently free of desire and ill-will and the suffering they create.
  Milestone Four/Mastery: the many positive mental qualities present strongly even between sessions, so life imbued with effortless stability, mindfulness, joy, tranquility and equanimity.
Information about this Mind Map
  This Mind Map was made using iThoughts by Daniel M. Ingram during September, 2018, when he was invited to be a co-teacher with Culadasa at his meditation center, Dharma Treasure, in Cochise Stronghold.
  It is based on the work of Culadasa, aka John Yates, and his The Mind Illuminated (TMI) system.
  It avoids commentary, critique, explanation, extrapolation, and instead simply presents the TMI system as found in the book TMI, as well as the practice guide book, as well as a smaller handout on the TMI site that explains the stages.
  It does not list the Interludes found in the TMI book, which are recommended to help get a sense of the system, so, for those, please consult the original sources, as you should do for all of this information to confirm it for yourself.
  While this mind map was shown to Culadasa in its initial drafts and final form, he curiously refrained from detailed comment, so his personal opinions on it are largely unknown.
Stage 1: Establishing a Practice
  Mastery: don’t miss practice days except when necessary
  Let it come, let it go, let it be
  Routine
  Discipline
  Diligence
  Motivation
  Resistance, procrastination, fatigue, impatience, boredom, lack of motivation
  Intend to sit and develop practice, reflect on motivations.
  Goals: Develop a regular practice
  Novice
Five Hindrances and Five Meditation Factors
  Worldly Desire
    Unification of Mind: overcomes worldly desire
  Aversion
    Pleasure/Happiness: overcomes aversion
  Laziness and Lethargy
    Directed Attention: overcomes laziness and lethargy
  Agitation, Worry, Remorse
    Meditative Joy: overcomes agitation, worry, remorse
  Doubt
    Sustained Attention: overcomes doubt
Seven Problems and Antidotes
  Procrastination and Resistance
    Recall benefits of practice
    Refresh and renew motivations
    Just do it
  Distractions, Forgetting and Mind-Wandering
    Stage 2: work with mind-wandering
    Stage 3: with on overcoming forgetting
    Stages 4-6: work on overcoming all distractions
  Impatience
    Observe impatience as an object
    Cultivate joy, peace, contentment, and equanimity, and unification of mind, and work to recognize those qualities when they arise
    Enjoy your practice
    Avoid disharmony-dissatisfaction-impatience cycle
  Monkey-Mind
    Ground in the body
      Scanning bodily sensations
      Attending strongly to any bodily sensation
      Evoking whole body awareness
      Becoming aware of other non-emotive sensations such as sounds
      Intentionally set the Locus of Attention, perhaps with a larger “monkey cage”
  Self-Doubt
    Avoid comparison
    Strengthen motivation
    Make meditation a habit
  Dullness, Drowsiness, and Sleepiness
    Energize mind with Stage 3-4 techniques
    Stage 5: work on overcoming subtle dullness
  Physical Discomfort
    Find the most comfortable position possible
    Use pain as an object to gain insight into desire and aversion
    See stages 3-4
Stage 2: Interrupted Continuity of Attention to Meditation Object
  Mastery: stayed with object more than is lost, sustained attention lasts minutes but wandering lasts seconds
  Directing and Sustaining Attention
  Consistent, immediate positive reinforcement
  Repeated redirection of attention
  Active Engagement and Investigation
  Following the entire cycle of the breath in a game-like way: may use mental self-talk to help this in Stage 2.
  Cultivate Peripheral Awareness
  Restlessness, Forgetting, Monkey-Mind, and Wandering, Impatience: cultivate Introspective Awareness, and see Seven Antidotes.
  Intend to stay fully present with the breath.
  Intend to appreciate “aha” moment when mind-wandering recognized.
  Goal: shorten periods of mind wandering, extend periods of sustained attention to object.
Stage 3: Extended Continuity of Attention to Meditation Object
  Milestone One: Continuous attention to the meditation object, stable attention.
  Mastery: mind rarely wanders from attending to object, breath rarely forgotten. Take satisfaction in your accomplishment!
  Wandering, but shorter than stage
    Checking in periodically, briefly, and gently with Introspective Attention to identify distractions and dullness, maybe every 6 breaths or so, perhaps using labeling as needed.
    Labeling distractions: “thinking”, “planning”, “remembering”, but avoid analysis, then return to the breath.
    Connecting: making comparisons and associations. Breath longer or shorter? Pauses longer or shorter?
    Following the all parts of the breath with ever closer attention while also maintaining Extrospective Awareness to increase the Total Power of Consciousness. Cut back on use of self-talk to follow the breath in this stage.
    Full-minded Awareness: develop vivid intensity.
    Introspective awareness: develop it further.
  Sleepiness, dullness, and dozing
    Take 3-4 deep breaths
    Tense all muscles until you tremble slightly, then relax, repeat a few times
    Try standing meditation
    Do walking meditation
    Splash cold water on your face
    Avoid overshooting and creating agitation
    Make strong intentions to clearly perceive the breath
  Alternating Attention creates Scattering of Attention
  Intend to invoke introspective awareness frequently, before you have forgotten your object.
  Intend to sustain peripheral awareness while engaging the breath as fully as possible.
  Goal: overcome forgetting and falling asleep.
Stage 4: Uninterrupted Continuity of Attention to the Meditation Object
  Mastery: freedom from gross distractions and strong dullness, thoughts and emotions not replacing meditation object as primary focus, no hypnogogic distortions of object, know short vs long breaths. Breath stays in foreground and undistorted by strong dullness.
  Uninterrupted continuity, but not yet exclusive attention.
  Work to balance distractions and dullness.
  Increase vigorousness of intention to observe details
  Gross distractions occur.
    Metacognitive Introspective Awareness: watching the mind while the mind watches the breath.
    Introspective Awareness becomes habitual, practice as if holding a robin’s egg.
    Exercise Diligence: effort is required to reach Stage 5.
  Strong Dullness
    Recognize when it occurs
    Rely on introspective awareness and apply appropriate antidotes
    Repeat first two steps until dullness doesn’t recur
    Expand peripheral awareness
    Recognize Sinking and do whatever it takes to get out of it
    Avoid the seduction of hypnogogic visions, pleasurable sensations, and paranormal experiences with intention, redirection, vigilance, and investigation.
  Discursive Brilliance
    Set aside special practice periods for analytical meditation and creativity.
  Emotionally charged memories and visions
    Ignore as long as you can
    Observe, objectify, and skillfully dissociate from emotions while staying present to them
      Impersonal labeling
      Keep it physical when possible, and investigate the sensations in the body
    Acknowledge, Allow, and Accept
    Avoid getting bogged down in content
    Remember your safe environment
    Appreciate opportunity for purification
    Take breaks as needed
    Be patient
    Engage in skillful distractions, conversations, movies, exercise, good food
    Try loving-kindness practice
    Seek professional help
  Pain and Discomfort
    Careful in-depth exploration.
  Goal: Overcome scattered attention, gross distractions, and strong dullness.
  Intend to become vigilant so introspective awareness becomes continuous to correct dullness and distractions.
  Skilled