The Four Levels of Meditation Practice

SECTION 1

Understanding the Four Levels

Level 1: Relaxing into Calm
Level 2: Efforting to Develop Technique
Level 3: Effortless Technique
Level 4: Nondual Awareness

These levels describe how you’re practicing, not what you’re practicing. They show how your relationship with the practice changes over time.

Learning to meditate could be compared to climbing a mountain. Metaphorically, each of the four styles starts on an easy flat path at the bottom of the mountain, enters steep forested terrain, emerges into an expansive view, and finishes at the top. Some people stay on the same path all the way up, but most people try different styles for balance and diversity.

Reason

Why This Matters

Many people judge themselves harshly when meditation feels effortful or when their mind wanders. They don’t realize these experiences are completely normal at certain levels.

Understanding levels helps replace self-criticism with self-compassion. It also helps teachers provide better guidance because they know exactly what their students need right now.

Self-compassion is a critical quality to develop for all styles of meditation.  It is one of the key ways that meditation relieves suffering!

Reflection Question

Think about your current meditation practice. Does it feel more like hard work, or does it flow more naturally? Keep this in mind as we explore each level.

SECTION 2

Relaxing into Calm

Common Practices

At Level 1, you might practice:

• Breath awareness (noticing your natural breathing)
• Breath counting (counting each exhale from 1 to 10, then starting over)
• Slow exhales (breathing out longer than you breathe in)
• Body scanning (moving attention through different parts of your body)
• Progressive muscle relaxation (tensing and releasing muscle groups)

What’s Happening in Your Brain

When you practice at Level 1, you’re helping your nervous system shift from the “fight or flight” state to the “rest and digest” state. Your brain starts producing calmer, slower brainwave patterns.

This level typically takes tens of hours of practice. That might sound like a lot, but remember: you’re building a foundation that supports everything else.

If You’re Teaching

If a student feels restless, overwhelmed, or like they “can’t meditate,” they probably need more time at Level 1. Even if they’re eager to learn advanced techniques, encourage them to build this foundation first.

SECTION 3

Efforting to Develop Technique

FOCUS

How Different Styles Show Effort

The effort looks different depending on what you’re practicing:

What’s Happening in Your Brain

At Level 2, your brain’s frontal regions (the “control center”) are working hard. These areas help you direct attention and override habits. This is called “top-down control.”

What This Feels Like

Many people at Level 2 think they’re “doing it wrong” because meditation feels like work. But here’s the truth: effort is part of learning.

When you first learned to read, it was hard. You had to sound out every word. That didn’t mean you were bad at reading—it meant you were learning. The same is true for meditation.

If You’re Teaching

Reassure students that effort doesn’t mean failure. It means they’re actively building new neural pathways. The effort will decrease with consistent practice.

SECTION 4

Effortless Technique

What’s Happening in Your Brain

At Level 2, your brain relies heavily on top-down control—the thinking regions at the front deliberately direct attention, like a manager giving orders.

By Level 3, that effort has decreased. Your neural circuits have been trained to stay on task with less involvement from the frontal regions. Processing becomes more bottom-up: the back and deeper regions of the brain handle more of the work, and information flows forward more efficiently.

This shift allows attention to operate more automatically—like catching a ball without consciously calculating the movement. As frontal effort decreases and brain networks coordinate more smoothly, the mind can enter what psychologists call a flow state, the brain’s version of muscle memory.

What This Feels Like

Many people are surprised that meditation gets easier at deeper levels. They might even wonder if they’re “doing enough” because it doesn’t feel like work anymore.

This ease is actually a sign of progress, not laziness.

If You’re Teaching

Help students understand that this shift is natural and positive. Encourage gentle consistency rather than more effortful striving.

SECTION 5

Nondual Awareness

What We Know (and Don’t Know) about the Brain in Nondual awareness

Scientists are still uncertain about what happens in the brain during Nondual awareness. Early research suggests:

• This ease is actually a sign of progress, not laziness.
• Highly efficient brain activity
• Reduced sense of self-processing
• Less complexity in brain signals

But many questions remain. We hypothesize that Nondual awareness is the culmination of the four general styles. Future research will show whether the brainwave patterns of Nondual awareness differ depending on which general style gives access to it, or whether it’s the same, no matter which general style gave rise to it. In other words, do different meditation styles create different brain patterns at this level, or do they all converge to the same state?

Important Notes

You cannot force nondual experiences. They emerge naturally from consistent, patient practice over years.

 

If you’re teaching, the best support you can offer at this level is:

 

• Encouraging humility and groundedness
• Helping students integrate experiences into daily life
• Focusing on how practice affects behavior and well-being

SECTION 6

Using Levels to Guide Your Practice

Here’s something fascinating: If you combine four meditation styles with four levels, you can get 16 distinct meditation-related brain states. That’s why two people can both say “I meditate” and have completely different experiences. They might be practicing different styles at different levels.

You will notice that the IMBR taxonomy is in the shape of a pyramid.  That’s because the styles become more similar as you go up the levels.  Some people feel that all Nondual states are the same. Others feel that the Nondual states vary according to what style you were practicing when you jumped to Nondual awareness. When we get more Nondual brainwave data, we’ll tell you what we find.

Alfred Korzybski famously held that “the map is not the territory”.  For clean, clear representations, maps always leave out some details. What’s missing from the IMBR taxonomy is that most people start with focused awareness at level one, though many people will start with Open Heart practices. Open Presence is very similar to Level 4, though Zen and TM will both start folks with Open Presence at 1. It can be very challenging to do Open Presence without mind calming techniques like breath focus.  TM uses a mantra, which makes it sound like a Focused Awareness practice – but TM mantra practice seeks to dissolve the mantra, not keep it fixed in memory.

Questions to Ask Yourself

To understand where you are right now, ask:

• Is my practice asking for effort or ease right now?
• Am I working to build calm, develop a technique, or allow something to flow naturally?
• What kind of support does my nervous system need today?

Important Notes

 

Think of one student you currently work with. Consider:

 

• Which level best describes their practice right now?
• What challenges are they facing that might be normal for that level?
• What kind of guidance would best support them?

White Paper

What is Meditation Depth

If you would like to learn more about meditation depth, where the levels came from, and get citations to the foundational papers, please download our white paper, “What is Meditation Depth” at https://imbr.org/white-papers/. 

 

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