Mastering Attention & Awareness

The purpose of this meditation is to inquire into the nature of attention & Awareness. By understanding how to modulate attention with Awareness, you become more skillful and flexible with your attention. You see how to co-create your experience. By learning to recognize Awareness itself, that within which the process of attention happens, you realize the vast freedom and clarity of that recognition.

Transcript

Attention and Awareness The purpose of this meditation is to inquire into the nature of attention and awareness,

And realize deep peace,

Openness,

Clarity and connection in this process.

First,

Let's take a moment to settle into a comfortable seat.

Feel the contact with your seat underneath you,

And the connection of your seat with the grounded presence of the earth.

Feel the indivisible unity of this grounded presence.

Rest your palms cupped open in your lap,

Or resting on your legs,

Whichever feels the most comfortable for you.

Soften,

Open and relax your hands.

Feel the soft openness embodied in your hands.

Imagine a string attached to the top of your head,

Drawing your spine gently upright,

Giving you a feeling of vertical spaciousness up through the core of your body,

Up through your spine,

And through the top of your head.

Feel the uprightness of your spine,

Gently extended from the tip of your tailbone,

All the way up to the top of your head.

Feel the awakened clarity,

The knowingness,

Rising up through your spine.

Tuck your chin just slightly to gently lengthen the back of your neck.

Lightly close your lips,

And breathe in and out through your nose.

Rest your tongue upwards on the roof of your mouth,

With the tip of your tongue touching the gum line behind your upper front teeth.

Soften and relax your tongue here.

Take a moment to check in inside,

And notice how you feel.

If you could sum up this feeling in a word,

Phrase or image,

What would this be?

Call to mind your intention for your practice.

Why is this important to you?

Consider dedicating your practice to the well-being of all beings.

Now,

Let's begin by defining what attention is and what awareness is.

First,

You can think of attention like an arrow.

It's an arrow from you,

The perceiver,

To a focal object,

The perceived.

So,

Let's take as a focal object something out in front of you.

Choose an object and look at it.

You can imagine that there's an arrow from you,

The perceiver,

To the object,

Which enables you to attend to it and be aware of it.

That's attention.

Now,

Let's begin to notice modulations of attention.

A first modulation of attention is labeling or not labeling.

As you focus on this object,

You might notice a tendency to label what you focus on,

To name it.

You might immediately label it painting or bookshelf or whatever it is you're attending to.

This might be even more apparent if you are focusing on something that has emotional significance.

As you become more conscious about your process of attention,

You may start to notice how quickly and how subconsciously labels,

Names,

Judgments,

And stories get layered on top of the raw act of attention.

So,

With this first modulation,

See if you can notice any labeling and see if you can attend without labeling.

This can be a huge aha and a profound transformation of how you relate to the world.

So,

This first modulation is about noticing when you label something and seeing if it's possible to attend to something without labeling it.

Can you perceive as a raw sensory experience without labeling what you perceive?

So,

Look around your environment and see if you can move your attention to one thing and then another without labeling what you see or naming it as a defined thing.

Can you see as a raw sensory experience without names or labels?

A second modulation is whether attention is pulled toward an object or if there is a pushing away from the object or simply a neutrality toward it.

So,

Choose an object in your visual field and notice if you feel an affinity with it,

If you like it or feel pulled to it,

If you feel an attraction or an aversion to it,

Or if it just feels neutral.

Attention modulated by attraction,

Aversion,

Or neutrality changes your orientation toward that which you perceive.

So,

Noticing this modulation of attention can also give you great insight about how you relate to experiences,

To yourself and others,

And how you might work with your perceptions so that you can see more clearly or relate more effectively with less filtering and bias.

For a good test,

You might apply this to social media posts or to watching the news.

For the moment,

Look around your visual field and notice attraction,

Aversion,

Or neutrality in relation to what you see.

Okay,

So this is attention.

It is like an arrow directed at an object,

Which may or may not be accompanied by labeling or naming the object,

As well as by being pulled toward it,

Pushing it away,

Or feeling neutral.

Now,

Let's define awareness.

Awareness is that which knows where the arrow of attention is placed,

That which knows the labels you place on things,

And that which knows your orientation toward them,

Such as attraction,

Aversion,

Or neutrality.

Awareness is that which directs attention and that within which the activity of attention happens.

So you can think of awareness as a vast open space or field of knowing within which attention is focused on various focal objects.

So,

Right now,

You,

As awareness,

Can attend to a focal object in front of you and know that you are attending to it.

You are aware of that.

So again,

Choose a focal object in front of you and attend to it.

Be aware of attending to this object.

You can also become aware of the space within which this process of attention happens.

This is like the background within which the foreground experience of your focal object arises.

You can be aware of a focal object in the foreground,

Or you can be aware of the background within which this focal object appears.

So,

Now,

Become aware of the space around your chosen focal object.

So,

Previously,

You were attending narrowly to just your focal object,

And the space was in the background.

Now,

Bring this space surrounding your focal object to the foreground.

So,

Rather than focusing on your focal object,

You are focusing on the more diffused,

Wider space around your focal object.

Attend to this space as wide out into your peripheral vision as possible.

As you do this,

It's as if your focal object fades to the background,

And the surrounding space comes into the foreground.

Feel this wide open space around your focal object.

This points out another possible modulation of the process of attention from narrow focus to diffused focus,

Or from a single focal object to the wider space around this focal object.

You can switch back and forth between these two to refine your sensitivity to and recognition of this switch.

So,

Focus narrowly on your focal object again,

And then shift to taking in the space around your focal object as wide out into your peripheral vision as possible.

Again,

Attend narrowly to your focal object,

And then shift to taking in the space around your focal object as wide out into your peripheral vision as possible.

Notice that these modulations have a different feel to them.

Narrow attention to an object is concentrated.

Diffused recognition of the space within which focal objects arise is a wider,

More open and spacious feeling.

Now,

Notice how your consciousness feels after focusing and diffusing attention like this.

You might feel brighter and more spacious.

Just notice how you feel.

The different modulations of attention have important functions.

Narrow or single-pointed focus enables you to zero in on one thing and let go of everything else,

Which is essential to performing many tasks skillfully and efficiently.

The ability to choose your focus is a powerful inner skill.

And,

The ability to release a focal point to move on to something else or to access a wider,

More diffused openness is also a vital skill.

It keeps you from getting stuck and stressed.

It gives you a sense of vastness and freedom.

You can refine this further by differentiating two more modulations of attention.

Directed and open.

You can consciously direct attention or you can allow attention to rest open to whatever arises.

Let's try that now.

So,

Again,

Choose a focal object in front of you and direct your attention to it.

Allow attention to stay on that object until you notice that it drifts away.

Now,

Simply allow your attention to rest open,

Allowing anything to come into awareness.

Noticing whatever arises.

Objects,

Sounds,

Smells,

Thoughts,

Feelings.

Whatever you become aware of.

Until you notice your mind just wanders off.

Alternate these two modulations back and forth a few times,

So you have a good feel for the difference between directing attention and resting with open attention.

Notice the difference in how each of these feels.

In doing this,

You may have also noticed a further modulation.

Attention can be momentary or sustained.

Moments of attention have a different feeling compared to sustaining attention.

So,

Let's try this now.

Rest your attention open and allow momentary thoughts,

Sounds,

Objects to arise in awareness without sustaining focus on any one of them.

Simply allow attention to notice this,

That,

And whatever flows through awareness as a momentary experience.

Now,

Choose one of these possible focal objects that arises in awareness.

It could be a sound,

An object,

A thought,

A feeling,

Anything at all.

And sustain your attention on it until your mind drifts to something else.

Alternate between being aware of moments of attention and sustained attention until you have a good feel for this modulation.

Now,

Let's introduce another modulation.

Near.

Far.

Choose a focal object in your visual field a good distance away from you.

Focus on that object and notice the felt distance between you and that object.

Be aware of the object together with the space or distance between you and the object.

Notice how it feels to focus on something that is far away from you.

Now,

Choose an object very close to you and focus on this.

Notice the object and the feeling of closeness.

Notice the felt sense of closeness.

And now,

Alternate back and forth between the object that is far away and the feeling of distance.

And the object that is close and the feeling of closeness.

The next modulation is related to near-far.

It is external-internal or outside-inside.

So,

Focus on an object that is out in front of you.

And alternate this with feeling your body as a whole from the inside.

Feel the entire space inside your skin.

Notice the intimacy of this space.

Now,

Notice how it feels to focus on an object outside of you.

And how it feels to attend to the space inside your skin.

Notice the felt difference as you alternate between these two,

Outside and inside.

We'll use this same set of outside-inside for our next modulation,

Single-multiple.

Up to now,

You've been alternating between single focal objects and alternating attention between them.

Now,

See if you can hold multiple focal modulations at once.

Sense an object in front of you.

And sense the space inside your skin.

Together at once.

See if you can do this without trying to figure it out in your mind.

Just allow both the object in front of you and the space inside your skin to both be present at once.

This is holding multiple focal modulations at once.

Now,

Notice the object in front of you.

The space inside your skin.

And the space within which both you and the object are present.

So feel all three of these modulations together at once.

The object in front of you.

The space inside your skin.

And the space within which both you and the object are present.

Now,

Notice how attending to outside-inside and the whole space together at once begins to blur the distinction outside-inside.

It's as if there is simply one space,

One space of awareness.

So see if you can allow the distinction outside-inside to dissolve and simply rest as one space of awareness.

It's as if the perceived boundary of your skin dissolves.

And there is simply one space of awareness.

See if you can feel this.

Awareness is that within which all this activity of modulating attention happens.

It is like a vast open field within which all experiences arise.

Now,

See if it's possible to be aware of being aware.

You can do this by first attending to an object so you are aware of that object.

So again,

Choose something to focus on.

An object,

Sound,

Thought,

Feeling,

Anything at all.

And be aware of that.

Are you aware of focusing on this object?

Now,

Be aware of being aware of that.

Be aware of awareness itself.

The vast openness within which this object arises.

See if it's possible to simply rest as awareness.

See if you can rest as awareness itself without attending to anything in particular.

Just being this openness of awareness.

Now,

Lightly close your eyes and tune in to this felt sense of openness.

This felt sense of awareness itself.

Awareness is like a vast open field within which objects,

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Sensations,

Memories,

And all experiences arise.

Inquire deeper.

Are there any boundaries to awareness?

Does it have a beginning or end?

No,

It is vast.

Dimensionless.

Rest as awareness itself.

Let go.

Relax down.

And rest back.

Feel out into vast.

Dimensionless.

That within which all experiences arise.

Anything that arises,

Any thought,

Feeling,

Or sensation,

Is a modulation of awareness itself.

Like waves in the vast open ocean of awareness.

Be aware of the space of your body as an expression of this soft open space of awareness.

As arising within this space.

From this space.

As an activity of this space.

A ripple in this vast ocean of awareness.

Arising,

Playing for a while,

Then dissolving.

While the vast open space of awareness remains.

Ever steadfast.

Peaceful.

You are this vast openness.

You are awareness itself.

Playing in and as a world of expressions and forms.

Rest as vast openness.

Indivisibly one.

Slowly,

Very slowly,

Begin to open your eyes.

And feel the space inside your skin.

Together with the space all around you.

As one space of awareness.

One space arising within awareness.

This seeming space arises from dimensionless awareness.

Within dimensionless awareness.

What would life be like if you recognized yourself as awareness itself?

Vast.

Indivisible.

Take a moment to record the felt sense of vast,

Open,

But indivisible awareness in every cell of your body.

So you know your body as an expression of awareness.

And all the interactions of life as modulations and movements of awareness itself.

An all-inclusive play of ever-changing forms.

Open.

Indivisibly one.

And take a moment to write down anything you'd like to remember from this meditative experience.

Along with any insights and inspirations.

What would life be like as this vast,

Open,

Indivisible knowingness?

Attending to everything and everyone as an expression of awareness.

Well done.