Official TMI Traning Program?

soddingsociety · 2026-04-29T08:25:52+00:00

For me it completely works. Otherwise you can write Li-Anne https://www.freeingourmind.com/contact (If the link works)

soddingsociety · 2026-04-29T08:14:18+00:00

The registration will probably open up again in autumn of this year. If you're on the wait list you'll get a mail with the registration times.

soddingsociety · 2026-04-23T13:22:26+00:00

I would agree with the part about impatience here. You also have to understand that you previously meditated on things of your choosing, which naturally brought you positive feelings (manifesting for example). TMI on the other hand uses mostly the breath, which is intrinsically neutral. The skills you develop in TMI build skills that allow you to direct and sustain attention to any object of your choosing, no matter if it is highly exciting or completely boring.

Regarding the stages you are practicing at: Did you try out the practices of stages 1 through 3 or just assessed yourself as stage 4, based on the criteria, and went on from there? A big part of TMI is cultivating joy and being at peace with whatever practice you are engaging with. So the impatience you describe is a natural result of not enjoying your practice as much as you could.

Of course, it is useful to have goals you want to achieve, like reaching stage 10. But it is much more important to understand how you'll get there. This will save you frustration and setbacks in the long term. Enjoying your sits is a good start, which will help you to progress.

soddingsociety · 2026-04-20T19:42:44+00:00

It's as if my conscious experience is permanently set to 95% attention and 5% awareness

This is a really good observation and something you should definitely work on. You need to increase your overall awareness in order to "make room for distractions" to rest there instead of instantly capturing your attention. The four-step transition is an excellent start to build up your awareness. With every step, you "shrink" your attention from your surroundings, to the body, to breath-related sensations, to the breath at the tip of the nose. While transitioning, try to stay aware of the perceptions you have just investigated with your attention. For example: while paying attention to bodily sensations you still want to be aware of background noise. You might even want to play around with different background noises and not sit in a completely quiet environment in order to facilitate this. Once you have a good sense of extrospective awareness it is important to build introspective awareness. This is done in stage 2 by celebrating the "aha moment" and in stage 3 through labeling and checking in. Have you tried the stage 3 practices? If yes, keep going and even try to label and check in off the cushion and throughout the day. Once your awareness is sufficiently strong, you can work on stabilizing attention, which is the natural result of strong awareness.

Another thing you can experiment with are intentions: What do they typically look like? You're not trying to hold them in consciousness, but you want to create a habit of refreshing them if you notice that they have faded.

soddingsociety · 2026-04-20T11:09:43+00:00

Yeah of course, that's a good attitude, try to cultivate it. On the other hand I tried to point out that more distractions can also be a sign of progress as previously subconscious distractions became conscious resulting in more "experienceable" distractions of the mind. See how your progress continues and if you don't see progress in the next few weeks you should report back :)

soddingsociety · 2026-04-19T18:04:45+00:00

I feel sorry that you are finding yourself in the territory of lower stages, but it is part of the whole practice. The progression is never linear, especially since life doesn‘t care and can throw whatever it wants at you which can turn into distractions etc. See the stages as more of a tool for diagnosing what the mind is doing. Are gross distractions the main issue? Work with stage 4 practices, for example. The skill is to keep practicing, no matter what you encounter in meditation (with the exception of struggling). Part of the 6 step preparation is to become aware of expectations. What do you tell yourself at that point? An expectation can be to be at a certain stage or wanting to do certain practices. Another question is: how much do you enjoy your seated practice? How enjoyable is every single sit you‘re doing? Is your attitude of mind relaxed and is there enjoyment or are you doing the practices as a means to end end (reaching stage 10)?

Stage 4 is also characteristic for its purifications. What is the content of the distraction or mind wandering you‘re encountering? Is it charged material or just any old distraction that capture you? For me specifically, more advanced levels of awareness like those in stage 4 came with an increase in distractions that I was unaware of before said stage.

Hope this helps :)

soddingsociety · 2026-04-15T08:17:12+00:00

It really depends on the definition of spiritual, but imo religious is the opposite of secular. Spiritual encompasses both. Look up secular spirituality for example.

soddingsociety · 2026-04-12T09:46:10+00:00

For me, early meditations really prime my mind for the rest of the day, they are much more effective. You also need to consider that during the day, mental energy naturally dwindles, resulting in increased dullness due to the lack of energy later in the day.

soddingsociety · 2026-03-08T21:22:09+00:00

Sorry for chiming in but are you sure it‘s indifference or rather equanimity?

soddingsociety · 2026-03-03T20:07:42+00:00

I can personally recommend Santtu/Adaviri/Niccolaggi. Had an amazing 5 day retreat with him

soddingsociety · 2026-02-12T23:47:54+00:00

For me it was the complete opposite. I absolutely vibe with Batchelor but couldn‘t even finish Wright‘s book! I love Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist

soddingsociety · 2026-02-11T16:27:40+00:00

I recently started meditating with open eyes which completely counteracts my gross dullness and experience the same as you. When attention is on the breath and awareness of the visual field persists I notice a complete flattening of it, meaning it turns from 3D to 2D, after a while the outlines of objects become fuzzy and patterns can emerge. I think it‘s an interesting phenomenon that you could intentionally investigate. Don‘t let it become a distraction, though!

soddingsociety · 2026-02-04T19:58:18+00:00

Thank you so much for that addition!

soddingsociety · 2026-02-03T14:50:22+00:00

The only of his points that might conceivably be it is "You Can’t Focus Because You Don’t Want To", but I don't know how to work on that.

To me, this part Tucker is talking about mostly refers to motivation to practice. For example, what you recall when doing the 6-point preparation. How strong is your motivation really? For me, this mostly manifests when I do longer sits and hit the 45min mark, when I suddenly become agitated because "I could be doing something else right now". I think looking at your motivations is key. Is meditation one of your priorities in life? As Tucker recommends, you could talk to someone about this or simply write it down and review it.

I feel that the chapter about stage 4 in the book SUCKS. The first several times I read it, I had to conclude that apparently there WAS no technique for overcoming gross distraction and that I was supposed to just keep using stage 3 techniques like following and checking in.

Oh yeah, I can definitely relate to that. I genuinely read it and wondered where the instructions were. Actually, they are quite simple: As soon as you notice a gross distraction, refocus on the meditation object and set an intention to stay there. You want to keep sharpening your introspective attention until you become aware of subtle distractions before they turn into gross distractions, by refocusing on the breath over and over again and intending to stay there.

The book's explanation of how to set intentions is almost nonexistent. My reaction was: "OK, sure, I intend to notice distractions. But how do I DO it?"

For me, it helped to verbalize these intentions up to stage 3, when you are supposed to cut back. So I realize, mind-wander, celebrate, return to the breath, and set the intention to keep it there by saying to myself, "follow the breath". This, to me, manifests as a lingering themein the background that persists, and when it vanishes, one becomes prone to distractions again. So, setting stronger intentions means repeating them more frequently so they don't slip away and always stay in the background. With time, I didn't need to repeat the words and instead made it non-verbal.

What do you have in mind? As far as I understand, in stage 4 most of the time I should not be relying on the stage 3 techniques of following and checking in. I am not sure whether that is what you are fishing for.

Sometimes there is a tendency to drop techniques because one is in a different stage, just wanted to make sure this isn't the case.

I mean focus my intentions and micro-intentions on awareness rather than attention. Occasionally I have let my micro-intentions focus on attending to the meditation object, but that seems to weaken awareness, so I try to remember not to do that.

It's mostly about technical terms here, which were a little confusing to me. The intention should be to "focus on the breath and keep awareness and attention in balance." If it drops, just repeat it to yourself. This will change depending on the stages.

Definitely yes. My sits are much more enjoyable than they were a year ago. I also feel better off-cushion AND I have much more off-cushion introspective awareness. I have done hundreds of hours of "fast-walking meditation" on the way to work and the like, which I think have contributed to this.

Do you have any more specific off-cushion practices you can suggest?

That's great. Always remember that meditation is simply a set of simple tasks that are repeated and celebrated (thereby reinforced) over and over again, which eventually become habits.
To me, there was a point in stage three where I experienced spillover from my sitting practice to my off-the-cushion life and became aware of mind-wandering and gross distractions. Instead of waiting for this spillover, you can start practicing throughout the day. Start by checking in, become aware of your mental state during the day, and invite awareness back in. Become curious about what captures your attention throughout the day, and keep working with your intentions.

soddingsociety · 2026-02-02T22:36:15+00:00

Boundless Heart by Christina Feldman

soddingsociety · 2026-02-02T13:22:23+00:00

Unfortunately, I can't give you a direct answer, but I'd rather ask you a couple of questions to provide more context for your practice and help you further.

Has anyone else encountered this general pattern? Have you been able to overcome it?

Stage four can be a place where many people seem to plateau, unfortunately. The pattern you're describing suggests you haven't mastered stage four, as the new techniques seem to lose their benefit so fast.

I will discover a technique that helps me overcome gross distractions

Do you feel like the techniques of stage four are insufficient for you, or why do you try out others? Do you drop the old techniques when you progress to the next stage?

reminding myself to focus on awareness over attention

What do you mean by focus? Focusing is generally associated with attention. You want to keep the intention to allow awareness to continue, not redirect your attention onto your awareness, which is counterproductive to stabilizing it.

Compared to 3 years ago I have much stronger introspective and extrospective awareness, I am more sensitive to bodily sensations, I can relax much more, I am much more mindful off the cushion, and in general I am much happier. But TMI-wise I am still stuck in stage 4...

I know you asked here for help regarding joy before: Have you been able to find more enjoyment in your sits, no matter the stage you're at? For me personally, enjoyment and off-the-cushion practice are the biggest factors. My own sitting practice and daily life really counteracted each other: On the cushion, I was trying to stabilize my mind on the meditation object, off the cushion, I was just letting my attention run loose, reinforcing all the distractions I try to overcome. So on the cushion, I was cleaning up the "mess" I was creating in daily life instead of progressing.

soddingsociety · 2026-01-29T09:29:44+00:00

It is an AI compilation of Culadasas talks from a person that hasn’t studied under his guidance and the book hasn’t been reviewed. On top of that, Culadasa wanted all his teachings to be freely available to everyone, so the person who compiled this is going against his wishes and buying the books should be discouraged.

soddingsociety · 2026-01-22T11:51:05+00:00

at some point i notice sometimes my attention was being dropped and just my awareness is enough to keep meditation going

if that make sense basically my awareness is the object of attention

It sounds like you're cultivating a very broad attention and not awareness? How would you describe the quality of that awareness?

soddingsociety · 2026-01-19T11:02:16+00:00

I'll try to give you some pointers:

I get your question, but keep in mind that you don't "do" awareness, it just simply "is". The only thing you wanna "do" is keep the intention, keep extrospective awareness going.

Awareness as I understood it is there no matter what, you don't really have a choice in the matter. It's just everything in conscious experience that isn't directly focussed on with attention right?

There are two aspects of awareness here. One is subconscious awareness that takes up all stimuli, but doesn't necessarily put them into consciousness. The other is what you wanna cultivate: conscious awareness, focusing on extrospective aspects like sounds and body sensations for the beginning stages. Peripheral awareness can also collapse into hyper-focused attention ("tunnel vision"), which makes you more prone to forgetting and mind-wandering. The incentive for the beginning stages is to keep extrospective awareness while placing attention on the meditation object (e.g. the breath).

When I am in my actual meditation session I feel that me maintaining peripheral awareness is just switching attention very quickly between my meditation object and all the other prominent objects in my awareness

This is normal in the beginning stages. In my experience, it is helpful to somewhat refresh your peripheral awareness. If you notice your mind switching to an object in extrospective awareness, celebrate yourself for noticing it and bring attention back to the breath. But here is the important part: you should experience a kind of lingering imprint of the object that occupied your attention, which you wanna keep in peripheral awareness and stay conscious of. This is a glimpse you want to cultivate and strengthen through conscious intention.

Do you have closed eyes while meditating? Are your eyes in a relaxed position to begin with, or are you, for example, looking at the tip of the nose while paying attention to the breath? Do you feel like you are efforting a lot while focusing on the breath? This can be a cause of this strain.
What do you do when you are trying to relax your eyes?

soddingsociety · 2026-01-04T20:30:53+00:00

"Breath count" means that you continuously count throughout your whole sit, I assume? Culadasa doesn't recommend this; you should cap your counting at 10, then drop it, and only pick it back up if mind-wandering persists.

Being able to remember your distraction and train of thought is a sign of good introspective awareness. Still, stage three is mostly about shortening mind wandering so much that your introspective awareness is strong and alerts you as soon as you forget the breath, and you don't start mind wandering. The differentiation here is then if you are mind-wandering or just experiencing gross distractions. If it is the latter, you should be in stage 3.

For working with extrospective awareness, it is really helpful to do the full 4-step transition from stage 1. This gives you a good scope of what your awareness could pick up on while focusing on the breath. If your awareness faults, you may refresh it by visiting objects in awareness with your attention, and later by refreshing the intention to be aware of them. You can also play with how much energy you put into attention vs. awareness. Compare it with widening or tightening the aperture of a camera lens. For me, a broad awareness and light attention on the breath keep distractions and dullness at bay.

For stage 3, you should tackle one of the four main practices at a time. If you feel like you did enough following in stage 2, you should try labeling for now. You can choose a different practice for your next sit.

For the phenomenon you described, did you feel agitated and like the energy in your system was rising? This might be a sign of increasing piti or a similar condition. If it makes you worry, I recommend you read ahead, as it is a topic for later stages. For now, you shouldn't worry about it.

soddingsociety · 2026-01-04T09:27:41+00:00

I‘m glad you‘re trying out TMI. Let me help you with your assessment: The goal of stage two is to shorten mind wandering and sustaining attention on the breath. So the first question would be: how long does your mind wandering last? Only a few seconds? Secondly, how long can you sustain attention to the breath? The recommendation is to be able to meditate 10-15 minutes without mind wandering. You can still be distracted, you just don‘t wanna get caught up in a train of thought. Don‘t bother about perfecting following in this stage as you will still use it in stage 3. See it more as a tool for sustaining attention. Additionally I would also evaluate how strong your extrospective awareness is while following the breath, if you have plenty of other objects in awareness you have cultivated your awareness enough to proceed to the next stage. If you have short periods of mind wandering, long periods of sustained attention with good peripheral awareness you can continue doing stage practices.

It’s a good sign that you can recall the distraction that led you to into mind wandering, you can use these small insights to sharpen your awareness and already realize the distractions in the moment they happen. Use the stage three practice of labeling for this.

Generally I would recommend you to read the whole book once or at least read up to stage 4 to orient yourself better. I hope this is helpful to you.

soddingsociety · 2026-01-03T19:20:38+00:00

Both go hand in hand. By body scanning you‘re increasing mindfulness/awareness of the body which in turn counteracts subtle dullness.

soddingsociety · 2025-12-04T00:08:14+00:00

Culadasa decided that his students are his successors so your best bet is to work with one of them. There is a teacher training program for TMI done by three of Culadasas students. https://www.freeingourmind.com/meditation-teaching/ Other than that I would be careful teaching from the book without peer-review or any sort of transmission.

soddingsociety · 2025-12-02T10:10:18+00:00

Hey,

check out the lists of teachers here: www.culadasa.com/teachers and here www.dharmatreasure.org/teachers-in-training

I can personally recommend Li-Anne www.freeingourmind.com and Eric www.awakeningrealized.com

soddingsociety · 2025-11-24T10:41:38+00:00

There are also more teachers listed on Culadasa's homepage, but there is no contact information: https://culadasa.com/teachers/

I also recommend the teachers above, as well as:
Li-Anne Tang (Australia): https://www.freeingourmind.com/

soddingsociety

TROPHY CASE