STAGE 1: RELAXATION!

    When we sit for meditation, we must give up our concept of self ,our egotism.We must close eyes without tension,keeping our neck and back straight and unstraining every detail of our body without being BUT NOT neither too loose nor too tense. The position of our hands ,legs and body is not so important as long as we are sitting straight without any stress.

STAGE 2 : DEVELOPING CONCENTRATION!

    We should nothing with our mind .We should not think about the past nor plan for the future. We keep our mind from doing anything at present.byt doing so, there comes an awareness of wht is really there ....awareness of the nature of mind and matter ( IMPERMANENT =PARAMATTHA).In this technique ,five ways of perceiving IMPERMANENT =PARAMATTHA are recommended for focusing awareness: touch of in-breath and out-breath at the tip of the nose, vibration of the heart-beat,knowing i nthe forehead,hearing of sound (especially while receiving Dhamma instruction) and the rising and falling movement of the abdomen.
when we are new to this technique,we should try each of these five ways until we find out which one suit us best . Just five to ten minutes in each meditaion period is enough to develop concentration until we become accustomed to one technique. Once we get used to the technique,our mindfulness will automatically be established in the way we have chosen.Then, establishing concentration for five to ten minutes is not required anymore .At this stage ,we may recognize the appearing and disappearing nature which is common in touch ,awareness, vibration,hearing ,etc.... but we MUST not name or label them ; we must let go of all labels.

STAGE 3: MENTAL NOTHING:THE LINK BETWEEN CONCENTRATION AND WISDOM !

    In the next step, continual mental nothing of " nothing" becomes the most important. The illusion of something is always,related to death; so is nothing to deathless.Inorder to destroy the illusion of " I " we use mental nothing of nothing since it invoves the least possible amount of "" I "".
This is the stage of developing conecntration led by faith in Dhamma and Dhamma instrucotr .At this stage , we do not accept even the existence of  IMPERMANENT=PARAMATTHA . The ultimate cause of suffering is lack of insight into the unchanging truth of IMPERMANENCE.Whatever PATAMATTHA appear to us ,it is because of our own acceptance of its existence. Cause and Effect. As long as we do not accept the existence of anything,there will be no CAUSE AND EFFECT; so that nothing can appear .When Impermanent PARAMATTHA appears ,we do not accept it as being something,rather we should only accept it as being nothing ,nothing ,because the ultimate nature of impermanent PARAMATTHA is nothing but emptiness.
It is difficult for an untrained mind to practice the mental nothing of " nothing " because we are so accustomed to conceptualization. So we may know PARAMATTHA as something. We must not allow our mind to identify PARAMATTHA as something , like we are so used to . When this happens ,we will have to mentally note " NOTHING , NOTHING ,NOTHING '. Then we will realize that there will really be nothing instead try harder until we have overcome it .IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THAT THE AIM OF THIS TECHNIQUE IS TO ACHIEVE NOT MERE CALMNESS AND PEACE OF MIND BUT ENLIGHTENMENT. Do it persistently until we experience the existence of emptiness of objects for the first time; and we must keep on knowing the emptiness as it appears anew in every moment. Knowing the existence of emptiness is knowing the NATURAL TRUTH !

STAGE 4 : REALIZING THE EMPTINESS OF WHATEVER APPEARS!

    Once we know emptiness which is ever-new ,it is no longer necessary to note mentally on objects as nothing .Instead , we should keep on knowing the emptiness of objects as the leading role .In this way, we will come to know real emptiness. When we come to know the real emptiness,we must keep on trying to sustain the ever-new knowing of the ever-new emptiness.When we lost the knowing of emptiness and regain the knowing of something , even thoughts of past emptiness,we must overcome it with the knowing of nothing repeatedly until we have found the ever-new emptiness.If the knowing of emptiness of objects occurs uninterruptedly, there will come a stage where there is nothing to know. At this point , we may not know what to do and we could be confused and or even think that "" i have attained Enlightenment or NIRVANA."" In that stage ,mentally note again on knowing of nothing as nothing,nothing ,nothing !

STAGE 5: REALIZING THE EMPTINESS OF " I "

    constant and continuous ( continual) mental nothing in such way , there comes a stage of realizing that there is emptiness even in the knowing of emptiness or non-existence of the subject .In other words , there is only ever-new knowing of emptiness ,without the knower and the known. Through the continuous knowing of nothing,we will realize the truth that everything,whether living or non-living ,is also of the nature of nothing ( no i , no you, no human ,no living being ). In reality ,everything we know is absolutely nothing at all . As a result of continued knowing of emptiness for a length of time , more or less 15 minutes , (this can vary with individual) there will be a stage in meditaion where there comes feeling of disgust .At this stage ,it is very important to overcome this feeling of disgust by sticking to the knowing of nothing until the knowing of emptiness is restored .The knowing of the nothing should be sustained like a robot or a broken record .To arrive at uninterrupted knowing of the existence of emptiness for more or less 15 minutes ,it may take 7 days ,or 7 months ,or even 7 years depending on individual capability and exertion!

Image of Nature - Relative truth -a perception of reality as seen throught a conceptual framework.The way we have been conditaioned to percieve the world .

Concept - A way of knowing based upon the faculty of recongnition. A conventional or relative truth .