And now we know that all we need to do to gain clarity and focus is keep our awareness fixed here and feel the breath.
The more we can do that,
The more we start to perceive all of our distractions that we've built into ourselves and the more we gain the opportunity to become immune to them so that we can take our clarity and focus everywhere.
And so we can start testing to see what our mind can actually do.
What can our mind actually do?
Our mind,
Our minds can become acutely aware of reality,
Can become sharper and sharper and that's what we're going to do today.
We're going to decondition our minds from focusing on the obvious,
The gross and we're going to train our minds to focus on the subtle,
To become more precise.
Continue to feel the breath but now slowly start to narrow down your area of awareness.
Previously we said our mind could only stay within the larger triangle from the top of the nose down to the corners of the mouth.
Now let's create a smaller triangle,
A smaller boundary for the mind,
An inverted triangle from the tips of the nostrils down to the top of the upper lip,
A small triangle here.
Mark this area in your mind and slowly start to move your awareness into this space,
Into this triangle and continue to feel the breath in this area.
Feel the difference in focus and clarity whilst changing this area of awareness.
Does your mind comply?
Does it resist?
Is it easier to focus?
Is it more difficult to focus?
Can you feel the breath in this new smaller area?
What's the difference in how it feels?
Again the Buddha gave us such small simple steps towards developing our minds that produce such massive results.
So let's start to integrate this new small step of narrowing down the area of awareness,
Testing the limits of our minds,
Taking one more step on the path of the journey into the self.
If anything distracts us,
If we find that our minds move away from the breath or from this smaller triangle,
Then we react exactly the same way as we did before.
We simply bring our awareness back and feel the breath.
We note what the distraction was,
Note whether it's part of a familiar pattern,
Oh another one of those and then we come back to the breath.
We come back to this smaller triangle.
Feeling the breath come in and out of the nostrils.
Feeling the breath come in and out of the nostrils.
Always remembering that the most important thing is the direct experience of our awareness feeling the breath,
Of our awareness staying within this area.
Do not imagine the breath.
Do not count numbers.
Do not imagine images to make the practice easier.
Do not control or regulate the breath.
Simply let reality be a reality.
Simply let reality be as it is including the breath and build this habit of allowing things to be as they are and perceiving them as deeply as you can.
This is the practice that takes us deeper into ourselves and deeper into reality.
So now let's focus on this small triangle from the tips of the nostrils down to the top of the upper lip and let's feel the breath moving in and out of the nostrils.
And let's see how long we can maintain our focus for.
See how many opportunities arise to bring our mind back and to build this connection with our mind to strengthen this connection.
So so so so so so so so so so so so so good let's continue to build this focus sharpen our awareness learn this new skill today feel what it's like applying it as we move through the rest of our day during the break times continue to carry your awareness with you continue to feel the breath in this smaller triangle feeling the difference in the practice now that we've started to feel the difference in the practice now that we've started to narrow down our area of awareness remembering that every situation is an opportunity for us to cultivate and develop this focus this awareness
