Most people have heard of mindfulness, but they are not aware there are deeper stages of meditation. Mindfulness is the first step on the ladder of meditation. Here are the seven steps of meditation:

1. Mindfulness – In the first step of meditation, you collect your attention and learn to be present. Once you are present, you can begin to monitor your experience in the present time, or apply your focused concentration to the task at hand.
2. Contemplation – In this step, you move your attention along the thread of consciousness, and contemplate the content arising at deeper layers of your mind. We teach this practice in our beginning meditation course, The Introduction to Meditation Program, and in our intermediate courses, the in-person Mudrashram® Master Course in Meditation, or the by-mail or online Accelerated Meditation Program.
3. Awakening – As you progress in contemplation, you reach the stage where you can unite your attention with the three immortal principles of consciousness: your witnessing consciousness (attentional principle), your loving spiritual heart (spirit), and your blissful, wise, and compassionate Higher Self (Soul). In the awakening process, you first encounter this immortal essence within you; then you unite your attention with it; and finally, you become one with it and identify with it. We teach you how to awaken your immortal essences in our intermediate classes.
4. Transformation – You learn how to unfold your spiritual potentials through transformation. You learn how to travel in full consciousness as your attentional principle and view all of the levels of your Soul’s consciousness, which we call the Superconscious mind. You learn how to free your spirit and enable it to travel back to its Origin on the inner streams of light and sound. You learn how to move your Soul from its current position on the Great Continuum of Consciousness to a new, higher state of development. You learn how to do this in our intermediate courses.
5. Realization – As a result of transformation, your Soul’s unfoldment allows you to understand something new. You begin to have profound insights. You gain new abilities. Your love and compassion expands to embrace a wider circle. Your experience in meditation brings these gifts to you. You learn to deepen this process of gaining understanding and insight, expanding the circle of your love, and discovering your Soul’s abilities in the Mudrashram® Advanced Course in Meditation.
6. Ministry – As you continue to unfold your spiritual potentials, you begin to be able to minister the Light of Spirit, You learn how to express your ministry through spiritual healing, counseling, teaching, guiding, doing intuitive readings, and ultimately, awakening the spiritual potentials of others. We train others in spiritual ministry in our advanced webinars and our teacher training programs.
7. Mastery – When you complete your journey of development, you arrive into the Presence of the Divine, where you are anointed and empowered to help others move through these other six steps.

If you wish to learn how to learn the full spectrum of meditation practices—beyond mindfulness—we invite you to learn more about our Integral meditation system through reading the articles available on this website, studying our books, and listening to and watching our webinars. If what we teach resonates with you, we welcome you to join us for the great adventure of depth meditation, and we can assist you move through all these seven stages to arrive at the shores of spiritual Mastery.