The meditator ascends the nine stages of meditative concentration (serenity, shamatha) by recognizing the two essential features of concentration, recognizing the obstacles that impede it, and applying the antidotes. 

At this stage of the course, students begin a new practice: concentration combined with visualization, and learn how to recognize: 

Distinguishing Features of Concentration: 

1. vivid intensity, intense mental clarity 
2. stability, one-pointedness 

Faults That Prevent Serenity: 

1. Laziness 
2. Forgetting the instructions 
3. Not recognizing agitation and dullness 
4. Not applying antidotes 
5. Over-applying antidotes