What does it actually mean to be awake to your actions?
Being awake to walking,
Does it mean that I focus on one of many bodily sensations I feel as I walk?
To be awake to your actions,
Whether it's the breath,
The body,
The mind,
The body's actions,
To be awake to your actions,
Whether it's the breath or to your walking,
Is a way to be awake to your own mind,
The emotions,
The feelings,
Sensations.
So when we say we are awake to our breath,
A breath is not something you can see or smell or taste.
Breath is something that you sense through the sense of touch that happens when the air moves in and out around your nostrils.
Then how can we be awake to emerging anger,
For example?
Because you can't see anger,
You can't hear anger.
You can't taste it or smell it.
It's not thought,
You can't think it.
But when you get angry first,
You generate heat in your body.
And your body tenses up.
And we can sense this through our sensations.
So when your mind turns to negative,
You can sense it at its emergence through the reactions of the body.
So what's really important is that as your mind turns negative,
There's going to be subtle signals throughout your body that you can grab onto if you're sensitive enough to sense it.
So when we say we are awake to the breath,
If the breath is rough already,
Then it's easy to sense it,
To be awake to it.
But to practice so that you can be awake to the subtle nuances of the breath.
And by practicing so that you develop this capacity to detect subtle nuances of the breath,
You can apply that to detect subtle nuances throughout your body.
So in that sense,
If you train your attention on the tip of your nose,
Then you're awake to the subtle sensations of the breath.
But if you move your attention to your feet,
Likewise you can sense the subtle sensations of your feet.
So when you are getting angry,
You can immediately tell by the subtle signals throughout your body that you're indeed getting angry.
And the fact of being aware,
Consciously aware,
And sensing the pre-signals of anger,
Allows that anger to dissipate itself.
However,
If you don't notice the anger until it has crossed a certain threshold,
Then at that point,
Even if you become aware of the anger,
It doesn't dissipate itself,
It actually amplifies itself.
And the only way left to go at that point is for you to suppress your anger.
So others might not notice that you're suppressing anger,
But you know you're creating a lot of tension and stress within you through that suppression.
So we are able to avoid creating stress by suppressing anger,
By noticing and being mindful to the subtle emerging signals of anger throughout our body.
That's why we need to develop this capacity and skill to be able to be mindful to emerging nuances.
So breath happens automatically if we don't pay attention to it.
And also other things around our body,
A lot of the bodily motions,
Activity,
Functions happens automatically.
So first thing we have to do is pay attention to our functions,
To our movements,
So that we are consciously aware when we are sitting that we are sitting,
When we are bending that we are bending.
But these are not that difficult because if you pay even the slightest amount of attention,
You are aware that you are moving in this fashion.
What's more important is not just recognizing the macro motions as you do them,
But the subtle nuances,
Subtle sensations that accompany or that precede these macro motions.
To sense what happens at the bottom of your feet.
When you touch,
See the nuance sensation at the tip of your fingertips.
And to sense the sensations that accompany each motions.
So when you are moving,
Not just notice the motion itself,
But the sensation that precede or accompany that larger motion.
