The Mudra Of Attention

This insightful meditation allows you to go within, contemplate, relax and learn. Accessing the gift within, takes a particular kind of attention that is light and sustained, like an open hand. This is the attention that ripens into mindfulness and deepens into samādhi; from this wisdom can arise. This is a live recording where Ajahn at times, interacts with the audience.

Transcript

Coming into presence and more that we perhaps understand more thoroughly recognize we don't actually really get here on day one or day two.

You know we visually we kind of look like we're here.

And it takes a while for the rest to catch up.

It's sometimes a rather confusing journey beset with fogginess and dullness and distractedness.

This is the coming out of the out of the car crash experience.

Hearing all that kind of thuds and somatic twinges going on and physical discomforts and so forth.

So my sympathy.

I feel your pain.

I tell you there is there is a gift here and I guess you know otherwise you wouldn't have enrolled for this.

There is a gift here.

You are a gift.

There's a gift in you.

There's a given an unconditioned and uncreated and uncontrived something you didn't have to make happen.

So you didn't have to do or be good at.

And accessing that takes some skill and part of the skill is a skill of the heart to be patient to be generous to loosen all the time in the world.

Yeah.

Loosen,

Soften,

Sharpen,

Flex,

Be flexible.

Adjust to what's appropriate.

Don't get rigid.

Don't get locked to any of it.

It requires a particular kind of attention and ripens into mindfulness and deepens into samadhi unification,

Collectedness from which real understanding of the way it is can arise.

What is attention?

What's appropriate attention?

What is paying attention?

These English words.

So different.

So just a little bit of theory.

Take what you can take what's important.

So first of all we say there's something called a pamada which means don't be don't be heedless.

Don't be casual.

Don't be skip over.

Just be alert.

Tune in.

Doesn't mean it's like someone standing in a forest clearing just listening to the birds,

Movement in the wind.

Is that deer?

Does that sound distant,

Near,

Threatening?

How is that?

Nothing much.

What's that smell?

Does that sense?

Pick it up.

You know it's like just an open listening,

Attentiveness.

You're not spacing out,

You're not drifting off.

You're trying to find anything you're open.

Pay attention.

Be attentive in this sense.

Pamada.

It's the crucial piece.

You might say it's the pause piece.

We pause and just.

.

.

Because if you pause,

That's the beauty of it.

In pausing you don't go unconscious.

You just go off topic.

And so pausing doesn't mean blacking out,

Does it?

It doesn't mean shutting down awareness.

It means you pause from the program,

The topic,

The intentionality.

Listen up.

So it's a very open state.

It's also a very attuned state.

Any kind of tune,

Resonance,

Sense,

Felt,

Impression,

Mood,

Feeling.

What's.

.

.

In all of this,

What's the important bit?

That's the entry.

Buddha says,

You know,

Those who don't do this are as if dead already.

Heedfulness is the path to the deathless.

Awareness is the path to death,

They're already dead.

We're already packaged on a program going down the belt.

You know,

If we're going an automatic,

We are in a way spiritually dead.

If we don't have that ability to come off topic,

To check our intentionalities,

To open,

Just like that.

So that is an ability we do have.

Sometimes it's kind of,

What am I supposed to do?

Why am I supposed to do this?

Just pause.

But how do I pause?

It just paused.

What for?

No,

Just do it.

Just loosen up,

Will you?

You got it already.

Trust it.

Doesn't have a direction.

Doesn't have a goal.

So this is perhaps the first thing that we always try to keep in touch with before we go into any kind of program,

Spiritual program,

Meditation program,

Life program,

Daily program,

Just allowing yourself.

It doesn't take long actually,

10 seconds.

And so we're really encouraging,

Do this during a day,

When you daily work.

Can you get 10 seconds after breakfast,

Can you get 10 seconds after you park the car,

Can you get 10 seconds when you just sit down in the office or wherever you're doing,

Can you get 10 seconds just to eat a meal?

Come on,

10 seconds.

You can't get it,

What's happening?

And what's there?

What's important now?

So building this in as just a part of how one operates.

It's a great thing for just cutting the engine,

Not saying it shouldn't be one,

But just checking it.

This is the first opening quality to be remembered,

To be treasured as something,

A possibility we can all do.

Second quality,

Another way in which the word attention can be used is the quality called Manasikara.

Manasikara is that which forms a boundary around things,

This focus essentially,

Frame something focuses here.

It creates if you like a little frame,

It's a bit like mindfulness,

But mindfulness is rather deeper than this.

Man is a normal function of Manas and Manas is the mind,

The aspect of mind that forms conceptual,

Conceptual boundaries,

Conceptual enables us to think about something.

Yeah,

We know that's Tuesday,

There it is.

We've defined Tuesday,

That concept,

And then within that,

Whatever that brings up,

That's Susan.

That's,

There's a concept,

Aren't they?

Labels and so there are,

You know,

That ability to form a label gives us a focus.

This is digging the garden.

This is,

You know,

Concept right within that.

So Manasikara is a normal function of the way we operate,

Gives us a sense of being able to step back to abstract and define and then having done so then intention can move in what I do with Tuesday.

How do I,

How am I with Susan?

How,

What do I need to dig the garden?

You know,

Maybe move into intention.

Intention is called Chitana.

This comes from Chitta.

Manasikara comes from Manas.

Manas is a conceptual boundary,

Conceptual frame.

Chitta is the movement of the heart within that.

Chitta is the movement of the heart within that.

These can be skillful,

Unskillful,

Deluded,

Distorted,

Wise and so on.

Compulsive and all that.

So before we form the boundary,

Just pause,

What's important now,

What's important to bring to mind,

To conceive of,

To bear in mind when I think of Tuesday,

Oh panic,

Well let's stop,

Stop.

Just an idea.

You know,

Notice how triggered we can get around certain concepts.

IRS.

Just sorry,

Sorry,

Didn't mean to bring that in.

You know,

It's got three little sound.

And then they all,

So there's a lot of this goes on and we just check,

Okay,

Is that,

That's the concept.

That's what attention is framed and pause.

Let go of that movement of heart because it's not,

It's not,

It's not wholesome.

Pause within that,

Check the mood and then what's really suitable now within that.

Now this,

So then what's called Yoni Soumanisikara and Yoni means going the source.

So Yoni Soumanisikara means the action of conceiving that gets to the point.

Now much conceiving tends towards proliferation,

Which takes us off the point,

Right?

Proliferation,

Prepuncture,

Oh it's Tuesday,

I've got to get this done,

We're going to overwhelm.

Yeah,

Getting to the point,

Tuesday,

Ah,

This means dread,

Dread,

Okay,

There's dread.

So,

We get to the point of what those terms really mean for us in our hearts.

This is what Yoni Soumanisikara does,

It gets to the point.

So when you get these trains of thought running through the mind,

Quite with complex,

Very complex narratives,

Micro dramas of seconds or minutes of duration,

You know,

With all kinds of movements and resonances and stuff going on in them,

Tumbling on,

Yoni Soumanisikara is the function of attention,

It says,

Okay,

What's the one word,

What's the one word that summarizes this?

Could be anxiety,

Could be excitement,

Could be eagerness,

Could be feeling hopeless,

Any of that,

You know,

These are all very,

Very simple experiences actually,

We have our personal narratives but they come down to pretty standard universal heart qualities.

The message is underneath the topic and Yoni Soumanisikara gets to the message underneath the topic.

It comes through the skin,

Comes through the skin.

Now attention forms a boundary,

Forms a skin,

You know,

Conceptual skin puts us in a box and Yoni Soumanisikara actually wires attention,

Gets to what's really holding the heart,

What's really holding the heart.

And after a while you begin to get it,

You begin to know what to look out for.

And generally what we begin to recognize is the surfaces have a lot of movement in them,

A lot of glow or bluster or movement need to be held carefully and what's really the point here.

So I was just noticing,

You know,

I've always had a deep mistrust of tea bags because of this because it's in a bag,

You can't see what's inside it.

Could be suspect,

You know.

And then I noticed that more and more over the years of my life,

The packaging of things has become more and more predominant.

So now you need to buy a can or package anything,

It's almost every inch of that is coupled with some kind of message,

A good organic biodegradable,

Balanced,

Healthy,

Da-da-da,

With the sorts of nuances of fragrance and delight and warmth and conviviality.

This must be rubbish.

Otherwise he wouldn't need all this stuff,

Would he?

You know,

It's obviously been packaged and you can kind of realize when packaging is the predominant quality,

When the skin of things is the predominant quality,

Saying don't look within,

Just go for the skin,

You think,

Uh-uh,

Check that one out.

If it's self-advertised,

It can't be that much good.

I wouldn't need it,

You know.

It's not a bad strategy to adopt anyway.

But penetrate,

And what's the packaging around,

What's your package,

What's the packaging around yourself,

What are the messages on your skin?

Probably,

Yeah,

Probably not always complimentary,

Are they?

Can we acknowledge that and also penetrate what's within this,

The uncertainties,

The uncertainties,

The anxieties,

The trying to make it work,

The,

You know,

Pretty normal human qualities,

Aren't they?

A search for two fundamental things,

Security,

May I be safe,

May I be able to relax,

May I feel comfortable,

Is that so unusual,

Is that so shameful?

We are soft,

Vulnerable creatures.

We are easily wounded physically,

Very easily to damage a human body.

We can't really stand the elements like the other creatures can.

We've got soft bodies.

We're also,

On a heart level,

We're also very easily woundable.

Shrug,

Scowl,

Dismissive gesture can cut.

And so within that experience,

You know,

There can be a lot of uncertainties,

Anxieties,

How we're being seen.

So with this,

The kind of the mechanism that arises around the persona is something that I must somehow protect myself from that possibility.

And so we get this kind of inner tyrant thing,

Which is constantly keeping us on guard against the possible hostility that might arise around us.

But actually,

The inner tyrant,

Inner critic is already hostile.

And it's kind of continually triggering potential hostilities.

So we tighten up.

This is the sort of thing that happens.

We end up internalizing phenomena that we might be around us.

So with deeper tension with Yoni Samadhi Sikara,

We say,

Look,

You get to it.

I am frightened.

There is fear.

There's uncertainty.

There's anxiety.

It's not quite secure yet.

And you recognize it.

Well,

Isn't this the case for all creatures?

Isn't this really the case for all creatures?

Is that so wrong?

Who says it's wrong?

The packaging says it's wrong,

Doesn't it?

It's actually the way it is.

So security and insecurity.

The other great requirement is food.

Everything needs food.

Everything needs input,

Physical,

Emotional,

Psychological,

Whatever,

Some kind of food where there's a sense of being able to absorb,

Take in the good.

Everything needs that.

Everything wants that,

Whether it's warmth,

Emotional warmth.

Really need that.

Is that so wrong?

Do we label ourselves as needy?

Do we shame ourselves with that?

Well,

Everything needs it.

So what's wrong with that?

What's wrong with any of it really is not that such impulses arise,

But that they're projecting towards places where they can't actually be met.

So we get kind of pathological anxiety.

We're trying to find security in something that can't make us secure.

So it just keeps trying and trying and trying and trying and trying to make things secure.

And you get the controller,

Don't you,

Who's trying to make sure that everything lines up and they've covered every base and they've checked every box and they've locked every door and they've done whatever they can.

So you end up this kind of control,

Trying to control the world of input.

So then this never ceases because there's always a new piece of input happening and there's always something that possibly could go wrong or might not be approved of or in line or according to the rules or the protocols or what people like or might be,

You know,

It's always it goes on like that,

Doesn't it?

So we're trying to find security in that which can't be secure.

In my opinion,

I've never seen it be secure yet.

Things are always going wrong in some sense.

I'm going wrong.

Moods are happening,

Sensations are happening,

Feelings are coming in,

Energies are going up and down.

It's not the way it should be.

So trying to place security in that which can't be secure leads to a kind of certain frozen attitudes and clamping,

Clamping down.

So it's cuts off joy,

Receptivity,

Cuts off our food,

Actually.

Food comes from softness and openness taking in.

So the more that we aim for security,

The less heart food we get.

So often people tend to oscillate between,

You know,

Movements that are aimed at getting the input kind of,

You know,

Tidied up and secure and so forth and movements that are aimed at just really enjoying oneself profoundly.

Let's go to the beach.

Let's jump around.

Let's do stuff.

Uh oh,

Here come the cops.

Quick,

Jump,

Jump,

Jump.

Shivering down.

Or,

You know,

You switch from one to the other,

You get this kind of movement.

Now we try to find food and the,

Yeah,

Physical food,

Material food is one aspect of it.

And this is the obvious aspect.

I say material food,

Which is stuff you put in your mouth,

But also material food in dependence upon material substances,

Stuff,

Essentially,

You know,

Feel good stuff,

Glitter stuff,

Smooth stuff,

Trinkety stuff,

Dressy stuff,

Surface stuff,

Feed the surfaces.

And again,

This,

This,

This human tendency,

Feeding surfaces,

As you can see,

Some people have got some very,

Very well polished plush surfaces.

A minority,

Of course.

And that's pretty disastrous,

Really.

Planetary sense,

Consumer sense,

Inequality sense.

Yeah,

Pretty disastrous.

And it actually doesn't feed the main thing.

Because actually surface is only a tiny amount of what we are.

You know,

Even look at human body,

You've got skin.

Most of that is inside that,

Isn't it?

It's even a very obvious level.

And even more profoundly,

You know,

Most of us,

It's not surface,

Most of us is,

Is depths,

Inner depth.

It may be chaotic depth.

It may be sad depth.

It may be sort of weird depth,

But it's depths.

And that's what you drop into once you stop and pause and let go of the surface.

You go in there,

Whether you want to or not.

That's not necessarily all great news by any means.

But that's what happens.

Because most of you is not surface.

We do have surface and that's part of it,

But most of us is not.

And you go into,

You know,

Beneath the personality,

Beneath the activity of the mind,

Which tends to form a surface.

The persona is the surface,

The mask that we speak through.

Everybody needs one.

There's clothes,

There's skin,

That's fine.

But when that pauses or stops,

Or even behind it,

We can detect there's all that moving,

Volatile,

Emotive,

Sensing stuff.

Now,

This is what needs to be entered.

This is what needs to be fed.

And I think this is really nothing new,

Is it?

Feeding the heart,

Feeding the spirit.

What do you feed it with?

Presence.

Very simple medium.

It will create its own happiness.

You don't need to feed it happiness.

It will create its own happiness.

You don't need to feed it achievement.

It will achieve itself,

Thank you.

It's fine.

What you need to bring to it is just simple,

Caring awareness and bear with it.

This is called sati.

Deep attention takes us in there.

Sati bears that in mind.

Bears it in mind,

Stays with it,

Stays with that.

Now,

You know,

Mindfulness,

Sati,

What's the difference between that and attention?

Why is attention?

Is the precursor,

The one that establishes the scene,

If you like.

What is important to be focused on at this particular time?

What takes us in?

What's really touching me?

What's really getting to the point?

Is it physical sense?

Is it fear?

Is it joy?

What's in there?

And you can't know this even if you have to name it,

You just get there,

How does it feel?

How is it?

How do you sense that?

You feel top heavy,

You feel spaced out.

Okay.

What's,

How,

Now you're staying,

Framing that up,

Bearing that in mind.

When we say bearing in mind,

We really mean bearing in chitta,

Bearing in heart.

And there's the distinction and it's quite important distinction between mindfulness and attention.

Attention certainly helps if it's wise attention,

But attention is really a boundary setter,

A focal point of,

You know,

We say it's a framing up,

But then sati is referring,

Frame of reference,

Not just the frame of statement.

This is you,

This is that,

For a frame of reference.

Reference means how is,

How am I with this?

How is this affecting?

What's the meaning of this to me?

Very simple example is the Buddha says,

Well,

You know,

You go to one example of sati mindfulness of body,

You go to a graveyard or a charnel ground and you look at a heap of bones.

Now when you look at those heap of bones,

You don't get heap of bones.

This color that you think,

Heap of bones,

Oh,

Me too.

That's why you do it.

You're not doing an anatomical study.

You're not doing forensic science.

You're looking at a heap of bones because you get,

Oh,

Heap of bones there,

Heap of bones here.

I get it.

That's what it's about,

Right?

Or you look at other people's bodies,

You think,

Yeah,

Heap of bones in there,

Whatever that means.

But it does,

It's,

There's a resonance there.

Resonance means that the citta gets it.

And when citta gets it,

There is a kind of shifting,

A trembling.

This is what resonance means.

I mean,

Whenever you get an aha moment,

That's the resonance.

What does that feel like,

You know?

When you get that,

Words are just flying by and dong,

Something hits your gong.

That's a resonance.

When you see someone you know,

Yeah,

There's breath,

There's whatever,

Dong.

Oh,

Yeah.

And then the resonance occurs,

Doesn't it?

And then from that,

Emotions occur.

But resonance is the source of emotion.

It's kind of somewhere between emotion,

Cognition,

And there's even a bodily sense with that in the subtler sense of the body.

You may feel something flushing up into your face.

You may feel a certain,

You know,

With affection,

You feel a certain quality happening around the chest.

With fear,

A certain quality happens in the belly.

You feel the energy sink down there and it tightens,

You know?

Obviously in very profound,

Strongly resonant experiences have these effects.

Sometimes people start weeping,

Tears come through the eyes.

What's happening?

That's embodied,

Isn't it?

The body,

The embodiment is actually coming out through the physicality.

But,

You know,

To a degree to which it comes out in the physical form depends on just how physically,

You know,

How physically accessible that is.

But whenever we get it,

Whenever we get the aha,

Whenever there's a resonance,

Something,

You know,

You can call that which shifts,

That which stops,

That which pauses,

That which moves,

That which opens or closes,

That's the embodied citta.

And it has a bodily aspect to it.

Not this visual body,

But the felt body.

We warm,

We shiver,

We tighten,

We loosen,

We feel ourselves going up into our heads.

You know,

You feel your energy coming down into your hands,

Something you see a tool,

Your energy goes into your hand because you know that tool is not something you're going to eat.

So your energy goes into your hands,

Isn't it?

You see someone falling over,

Your energy goes into your body,

You want to pick them up.

Resonance,

You get it.

It's not just the visual phenomenon arising and passing,

Is it?

Now from attention's point of view,

That's visual object.

Doesn't mean anything really,

It's just a visual object.

But with sati,

Connects it to the embodied citta and there's a kind of resonance.

This is the power and the requirement of sati.

Sati is connected with the word to remember.

He said,

Etymologically,

And of course,

You know,

That's words change their meaning,

But that which allows one to remember,

That which it's the source of how we remember,

It's the aha that reminds me,

Aha that means this.

So and that's called sati mindfulness.

And it connects to the citta.

If you want to know where that embodied citta is,

It's there.

Now the qualities of a,

You know,

Now we can do attention.

That's that,

We always do attention of some kind.

The skill is to do deep attention,

Wise attention,

Your ni somni sikara,

Which is your stuff is happening,

You're scanning,

You're there.

Actually what's the important thing here?

What's the real meaning here?

Feeling scattered,

Feeling dizzy,

Feeling drowsy.

Okay,

Well what's the response to that,

To get to respond to that,

Take it into,

Well it looks like we need to lift the body,

Breathe in,

Open the eyes,

Stand up,

Walk around.

We get it and we were able to respond to that.

So from sati,

Wise reference,

We come up with a kind of sampajanya and wise responsiveness to what's suitable.

So there's always some quality,

Then mindfulness in this way acts as the parent of wisdom,

Of appropriate wisdom,

Of specific,

This point now wisdom.

And as this starts to link up,

As we get,

As sati continually gives rise to wisdom,

The wisdom discards what's unnecessary,

Discards what's superfluous,

Discards what's directly obstructive and begins to unify the mind around that which is steady,

That which is enjoyable,

Secure food.

Therefore the mind is satisfied,

Therefore it rests.

This is samadhi.

So there is a security and there is food.

These primary needs or sentient creatures can be addressed.

The need for security,

Stability is defined and touch into,

Gradually deepen into the ground,

The gift of presence.

Here we are.

Wherever you are,

Here you are.

Easy enough phrase to trot out,

But really getting it deeply and feeling safe within that.

Everything else is insecure.

And when there is this increasing ability to touch the ground,

Then you also,

You can let that which is insecure be insecure.

So there's a freedom of anxiety.

We know the next moment we could be dead because it's true.

We don't know tomorrow because we can't.

And instead of that being a source of panic,

There's a sobriety and within that we feel yes,

But there's this,

There's the ground which is knowing,

Present,

Here.

And that's all we have.

And it's a gift.

It's a gift.

It's a given.

When you know that,

Then of course your ability to establish relative securities,

Relative safeties for so long,

Which is also necessary in the world,

That becomes something you're much more calm and composed about,

Less frantic about,

Less demanding about.

It doesn't have to be that great because it can't be.

So then your surfaces get lighter,

Cleaner,

More flexible.

You don't have to have a lot of stuff to feel okay.

And you don't have a lot of stuff to feed on because you've already got this.

Chitta essentially is nourishing,

Is warming,

Is satisfying when it comes out of its panic and its frenzy.

It's its own best food.

The idea of this is because this is the only thing,

The only quality that we as humans have.

The rest of it is borrowed,

Owned or stolen from the earth essentially.

Borrowed,

Used,

Loaned,

However.

We take it from that,

All material things.

We don't actually own any of it.

We claim.

We want to really acknowledge that tendency as if there's a right to that.

Just because people worked hard,

It still doesn't make it claimable.

And we also,

The more we realize our own gift,

What we can and only we can produce,

Wisdom,

Compassion,

Presence,

Mindfulness.

This is what we can produce.

This is our gift,

Our contribution.

Let's do this.

And then not only do we generate goodness in the world,

We also lessen how much we ask from it.

This is a very powerful and deeply significant teaching process.

So for now.

Now,

Mindfulness of breathing.

Breathing is also a given.

As I'm suggesting,

As you begin to touch into the groundness of embodiment and then waiting,

Being open to whatever breathing feels like,

However you know you're breathing,

Whatever moves within you that has that same rhythmic process,

Doesn't matter where it is.

You don't have to scrunch up your attention to it.

Attention actually is something to be light with,

Kind of light attention,

Not scattered,

But not heavy.

It's the light,

Sustained attention.

Like you just like an open hand.

It's not grasping.

It's a light attention,

Lightly but sustained attention,

Deepening into the heart of things.

Now,

Holding that,

That mudra of attention,

Things will collect,

Take some time.

You keep resonating back into that.

Where is body?

How is body?

How do I know that?

What does it feel like?

What's the earth here?

What's the warmth here?

Where's that moving sign?

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

And it will come to you.

It will come to you.

It will come joyfully.

So these are my offerings for this morning.

And take what you can use out of that.

I trust your wisdom and your practice to guide you.

Reviews

So much to learn! Thank you ❤️

Excellent

I

Focused kindly attention and the nature of mind, mindfulness and the "open hand" approach to practice beautifully described in this teaching. Thank you

Wonderful... orienting...

More a talk than a meditation. That said,listening with relaxed attention and an open mind is wonderful. I became aware of spaciousness and also of the idea of experience being describable as one word. Valuable.

Look for security and nourishment where it can be found.

Thanks very much. Just what I needed this morning

Outstanding! I gained so much valuable insight just listening to this for the first time, and look forward to listening again. Very easy to understand and his beautiful calming voice and humor are part of what makes this so appealing to me. Thank you for sharing your beautiful wisdom 😊🙏

Awesome, thank you!