The 6Rs are crucial, and the most profound is the Relax step. Many people seem to glaze over the Relax step, not really taking the time to understand what it is. It is the relaxing of the mind, body and the tightness in both.

 What does it feel like to Relax?

Relaxing the bodily, mental, and verbal Formations – it feels like a clear space, a pristine, thoughtless space without craving. The body is relaxed, but not slouching. Mind is clear, like a cloudless sky, and thoughts are gone, barely wisps, if they are present at all.

 To practice just the Relax step, as a preliminary step to understand what it feels like:

Just let mind be and then intend the relaxation. Relax, relax, relax – then, you are able to see what it means to have that open spacious mind. Then, you can quickly go to it, as you let go of the distraction, then you see that open mind.

 Some people seem to associate the Relax step with a sharp intake of air and a letting of breath. This is a reactionary aspect of the Relax step, but not the Relax step of stilling Formations in and of itself.

 Of course, one caveat – you mustn’t just Relax during the actual meditation. Once you understand what it feels like, you use it as part of the 6R’s. Then, there is development and progress, as it is intended. Besides, if you were to just relax, relax, relax, the mind would become dull, with no object.

 Once you understand the feeling of the Relax step, you are ready to incorporate it into the 6 R’s. This is what happens:

Your object is Metta. Suddenly you think back to a time with nostalgia, or you consider the future, or think about anything other than the Metta. You

1. RECOGNIZE, seeing the distraction.
2. RELEASING is the immediate letting go of the distraction – not attending to it, turning mind’s attention now to the
3. RELAX step – the stilling of Formations. Mind is now clear, ready to attend to
4. RE-SMILING, or checking if you ares still smiling, then
5. RETURNING to the object of meditation, then
6. REPEATING every time you see mind has been distracted.

 All of this happens in less than 5 seconds. It is a flow, a rolling of the steps.

Don’t get attached

Now, the other thing to consider is that mind attaches itself to the Loving-kindness, Compassion, Empathetic Joy or Equanimity.  

 Here, it’s important to pay attention to mind observing – just watching, not becoming the Metta. It’s an object, therefore, you are watching it, not becoming it. The feelings that come up from the object must be observed, and 6R’d if they distract. Likewise, you observe that you were distracted – not becoming the distraction by fighting it or ignoring it. Any such effort will only cause more craving and clinging. Allow the mind to do its work. It will unravel itself.

Observation is not focus – it is the mere watching and seeing what occurs, not becoming involved or identifying with the feeling or the object. This then would become absorption concentration; too much focus, pushing down insights to arise naturally.

 This is why relaxing is important – it provides the mind space, required for insights to arise.

The luminous Mind

  It’s only after the mind has reached stability through the jhanas, that mind can then watch its own clarity, luminosity, and radiance – the bright, quiet, clear mind, where at this point all crude Formations have been relaxed, and now one lets go of the subtler Formations.

This question came up in the Online 10-day Retreat Nov 3, 2020, guided by Delson Armstrong. Day 0 was part of a daily 30-minute discussion on the suttas, the Dhamma talk and reflections.

(Slightly edited to improve readability)

No, you don’t want to look for any kind of tension in the body.

Earlier somebody asked a question about doing the Relax step, but not necessarily finding any tension in the body. That’s fine, you don’t need to. The Relax step is not only letting go of the craving in the form of that tension, another aspect is that it’s also tranquilizing the bodily Formations. It’s something that is mentioned in the Anapanasati Sutta (Majjhima Nikaya 118); whenever you breathe in or out, you tranquilize the bodily Formation. This tranquilizing is the deeper effect of that Relax step.

If you are aware of tension and see that it’s there, you intend the Relax step to let go of that tension, which is that Craving.

Even if the tension is not there, utilizing the Relax step whenever you get distracted, will release Formations, will let go and relax the Formations, no matter how subtle they are.

Watch it here

This question came up in the Online 10-day Retreat Nov 3, 2020, guided by Delson Armstrong. Day 0 was part of a daily 30-minute discussion on the suttas, the Dhamma talk and reflections.

(Slightly edited to improve readability)

Sometimes you five R, which means that you don’t have to Repeat. So long as you are staying with your object of meditation (OoM), so long as your attention, your awareness, is on it, you don’t have to Repeat. 6R’s are only used whenever you see that the mind was distracted. If you find that there are thoughts in the background of your mind, while you have your awareness on the OoM, you don’t have to 6R those. They will go away on their own, because they have no attention that will feed them. But whenever your attention is no longer on your object, you 6R. It’s always the same steps, and it’s a flow as you said. It happens in about three, four seconds at the most. As soon as you Recognized you were distracted, you don’t have to verbalize in your head ‘Oh, I Recognize’. You already know that you got distracted. Knowing that you were distracted, that’s recognition, that’s Recognizing. In putting your attention to the Relax of the 6R process, you have Released your attention from the distraction, and put your attention now on Relaxing the tension in the mind and in the body.

Now you’ve already done the first two Right Efforts, which is the preventing and the abandoning. And now bringing up the wholesome state, you come to your Smile and you come back to the Feeling, Metta (Loving-kindness), Karuna (Compassion), whatever it is. It’s always the same steps in the progression, but the Repeat is only whenever you get distracted again.

Watch it here