Hi Aminah 
You’ve hooked me in with the lovely suttas and the problem posed!
So I think this isn’t particularly high on the list because one is giving because, “it’s the right thing to do.” So not because one is connecting to the joy of it, the result it leaves in the mind, the act of renunciation etc. Just because it’s the right thing to do, and one must do the right thing!! There’s sort of a puritanical feel to this one.
- I’m going to use and focus in on this aspect of your sequence if I can:
I think you can draw parallels between what Ajahn Brahm describes in the deepening processes of Breath Meditation and the following:
I think you have heard or read Ajahn’s teaching on this so I’m going to assume you’ll know what I’m talking about here. I’ll jump into the part of the process where one is able to sustain one’s attention on the breath without missing a single one, for a long period. This is deeply calming (placid) (and it also gives rise to “elation and joy”).
But to quote Ajahn Brahm “The breath calms down and the beautiful breath emerges.” (Mindfulness, Bliss and Beyond p.20) Then after a while, you start to sort of effortlessly/naturally focus on the breath whilst noticing just its beauty, ignoring the physical/touch aspects of it; eventually the breath part of this drops off the radar and it’s just the mental conception of “beautiful” that is left. Here is the ornament of the mind - an ornament is supposed to be a thing of beauty. In the scheme of ever increasing letting go/renunciation/generosity/refinement of happiness, this beautiful ornamentation is higher up the scale than the mere joy, elation or calm that preceded it.
To make his point Ajahn talks about how everything but the smile of the Cheshire cat disappears to Alice, in Alice in Wonderland. So everything of the breath and body are gone, all that is left is the beauty. Ajahn says this is what is referred to as the “nimitta” and that everyone perceives it a little differently, depending on their conditioning I guess. Often it manifests as a beautiful light. This mental ornament is “not just a pretty face”. It’s downright handy.
For one thing, if you keep renouncing, giving up, letting go, you’ll end up in the 1st Jhana. But leaving that aside…
It’s at this point (the nimmita stage) that you might notice that the mind (if it’s a proper, stable nimitta that sticks around) is highly malleable. You can do stuff with it. There’s a power and potency to it, one can manipulate it, use it and with quite deliberate intention. Words like, “application”, “implementation” come to mind. One can use one’s will here; I personally believe this is the mental space used for the culitvation of the will in order to develop what are termed, psychic powers. I think that the possibility for clear, deliberately intentional mental acts/kamma is potent in this mental space.
Ajahn makes the point that when the mind comes out of Jhana, it does so in reverse order so it goes from 1st Jhana to nimitta. He states (and this is backed up by the Buddha in the EBTs) that this is when it gets back into being active again and it can be “directed” (implemented, applied, used as a piece of equipment) to certain useful activities: contemplations listed in the Satipatthana Suttas, knowledge of your earliest memory (rebirth), whatever takes your conditioned fancy or inclination I imagine!
This is why I believe that a distinction is made between the 7th motivation and the 8th in AN8.33.
The 7th motivation is very nice. But the 8th is much nicer and more useful. Moreover, I think the purpose of this list is to make us realise that we can, even in our ordinary mental states, deliberately change our intentions/motivations - even after the fact almost.
If I may give an example. I once went somewhere, out of my way infact, to give something because I didn’t want certain items to go to waste. I even saw this act as a bit of chore on account of it involved going into work on my day off!! I recognised this mental state and felt rather ashamed of it, then remembering these types of suttas, I remember rather deliberately thinking, what if I replace this motivation with the one of making my mind beautiful by, as Ajahn Brahm says, “giving without expecting anything back in return”. And I did. I was astounded by the change in my mind state. Waves of delight assailed me as I went about the business of delivering these gifts and I couldn’t stop smiling for hours afterwards. Not only that, I felt crystal clear and light; it was a good mind state for further Practice.
So I think teachings like this are pointing to our capacity to use our mind like a hand that can deliberately pick one thing up, and put it down and replace it with another thing. We can change our focus, we can change our intention. It doesn’t mention anything about feeling guilty about the inadequacy of our intention, it’s just pointing to the power inherent in us, to notice our motivations and change them if needed - quite deliberately and actively.
Also, perhaps it is possible for Caganussati to be a meditation object similar to the breath or metta.
Finally, it’s interesting to note that Ajahn Brahm encourages people to base their meditation Practice in aspects of the 3rd Noble Truth, which details 4 ways of thinking about deep letting go, one of which is, giving. You might find it useful to see if he mentions this here.
Well…I’ve gone on and on again!! But I hope it helps! It was kind of fun finding the links and parallels here. Thanks for being the cause for me going on this pleasant little meander! 
With metta 
