 Seven aspects of awakening (Bojjhangas)
Seven aspects of awakening (Bojjhangas) 
This is the final meditation in our practice of Satipatthana: http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/....
In this meditation, Tenzin practices becoming successively mindful of the factors defining flourishing (awakening) in Buddhism. There are seven aspects of awakening we will be mindful of: mindfulness itself, noticing mental states, effort/energy, skillful pleasure, calm, concentration, and equanimity.
Here we use breathing as the base meditation (I use walking equally often).
1. Mindfulness. Be mindful of the breath. Ask yourself, are you being mindful of the breath? If you notice you are not being mindful of the breath, you have succeeded in being mindful of your state of mindfulness of the breath!
Mindfulness arises from the intention to be mindful, practice, and being around good examples set by others.
2. Noticing mental states. Now broaden your attention to your whole body. Now broaden your attention to notice anything around you and any thought you have. Notice for each mental state whether it is worldly or skillful (conducive to flourishing). The sensation of air is in itself worldly; being mindful of the sensation is skillful. Being distracted is worldly; being mindful of the distraction is skillful. Feeling sense pleasure or pain is in itself worldly; feeling equanimity about those feelings is skillful. Concentrating on your breath is skillful. Feeling compassion or kindness to yourself or others is skillful. Ask yourself, am I noticing whether mental states are skillful?
Noticing mental states arises from mindfulness. Feel free to go back to the last aspect, mindfulness of breathing, to help you be mindful of noticing whether mental states are skillful or worldly.
3. Effort/energy. Noticing skillful mental states may motivate you to put effort into letting skillful states arise and sustain, and may allow you to know when you have succeeded. Now narrow your attention to your breath. Ask yourself, what effort do I use to concentrate on the breath? Should I actively apply attention to a greater degree - or let it happen more effortlessly? Sometimes maintaining attention may not feel effortful, it just happens. The breath is interesting. Energy is the effort that happens by itself.
Effort to make skillful states depends on noticing skillful states. Feel free to drop back to the last aspect, being mindful of noticing.
4. Skillful pleasure. Be mindful of any pleasant physical feelings that arise. Does your body tingle? Do you feel waves in your body? (I personally think I feel extra tingling at this stage because of the self-suggestion or thought of tingling. But Gotama implies it can arise directly from absorption in one's primary object of meditation. Regardless, at this point I cultivate mindfulness of whether or not I feel pleasure arising in any way from the exercise.) Gotama describes the pleasure that may arise as like being kneaded and massaged all over; or as like being in a cold pool with water welling up on a hot day.
Pleasure arises from energy. Feel free at any time to drop back to being mindful of energy and its conditions of arising.
5. Calm. As you let the pleasure subside, you may feel calm. Ask yourself, how calm do you feel as you attend to your breath. Ceasing the inner verbal dialogue also helps with calm.
Calm is facilitated by skillful pleasure (the pleasure removes the pull of other disturbances). Feel free at any time to drop back to being mindful of pleasure and its conditions of arising.
6. Concentration. Once you are calm you can concentrate well. Ask yourself, how well are you concentrating on the breath. If you notice that you are not concentrating, that's fine; you have succeeded in being mindful of your level of concentration.
Concentration is facilitated by calm. Feel free at any time to go back to being mindful of calm, and its conditions of arising.
7. Equanimity. Once you are concentrating on breath, equanimity may arise. This is an evenness of mind unperturbed by the pleasure or pain (that arises from the senses, from reputation, or criticism or praise), i.e. a mind without craving or aversion. Concentrating naturally helps one overcome the pull of such pleasures and pains; the act of ignoring them in order to concentrate reduces their power. Ask yourself, what equanimity do you feel.
Equanimity arises from concentration; feel free at any time to drop back to being mindful of concentration and its conditions of arising.
For the previous meditation (third section of 4th Satipatthana) see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peJrp...
This is the fourth and final section of the fourth and final Satipatthana; notice the similarity to anapanasati (mindfulness of breath, see words in bold here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4xIX... ), which is the first section of the first Satipatthana; we come full circle.
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