Effortless Awareness: The Technique Of No-Technique

Dzogchen or Open Awareness techniques, while simple, are not often easy. This related Unified Mindfulness technique – “Do Nothing” or “Auto Focus” – paradoxically allows the practitioner a systematic entry point into “no technique.”

Transcript

Good,

And take your time to settle into a comfortable posture.

I always like to find the best balance that we can between alertness and ease.

So you might lift the crown of your head and stretch up a little bit,

And then relax,

Noting in particular whether your face and shoulders and arms and legs have any unnecessary tension that you can just let go of.

So now as a warm-up,

We're going to spend a few minutes becoming intimate with intention,

And this will come up for different people in different ways.

You may begin to notice a visual representation of something you're about to do.

You may have a distinct or a subtle inner talk,

Nudging some kind of action with your intention or even movement,

And probably for most people,

Intention will be an indistinct felt sense in the body or any combination of sense modalities.

Now if intention seems like something really big to you,

If you're not sure where to start looking,

You can consider small movements.

If you move around a little bit,

You may be able to watch more closely in time to back into where was the beginning of that intention to place my awareness there,

To focus on something.

You may begin to notice it in relation to thoughts,

Trying to understand something,

Trying to apply more concentration or more equanimity.

The sense of trying to do anything is a clue that there's intention.

So for many people,

It will help to really relax and slow down the internal clock so that you have time to observe without having to understand esoteric notions like the self arising that is in fact what we're watching happen on this accessible level,

Watching the self manifesting to direct our attention.

So for just a few minutes,

Use this as a noting technique.

And as always,

You don't need to be right.

You don't need to figure out whether or not something's an intention.

If it calls you,

Go ahead and try to soak into that,

See what you can find out.

Remember that we're not doing the technique yet,

So it's okay to look.

Just a warm-up exercise.

At the beginning of each movement of your attention,

There's likely to be the whiff of intention if you're not unconscious.

If you find a label supportive,

Feel free to label intention and stay with it as long as it lasts so you can get a clearer taste of what intention feels like.

It's just so light,

So in the background that we don't normally pay attention to it,

But checking out what's happening standing in front of you,

Going through the little toolbar.

So intentions that may be a little easier to notice would be visual images or mental talk.

The body sensation tends to be a little more indistinct.

It can seem like a movement of attention itself moving toward what it's trying to direct.

It can be like space itself resolving into something that's almost solid in order to have an impact.

So note intention.

So.

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It's possible there may be some emotional overlay,

Some judgment,

Frustration,

Confusion.

See if you can get under that to a more neutral perception of the intention itself without the reaction to that intention.

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Now this can already get a little bit funny because we have directions to note intention,

But having that as our direction necessarily formulates an intention.

So try to leave that one in the background just like we say when you're mentally labeling we don't label the labels.

Otherwise you could go into a hall of mirrors and never come out.

Metaphorically,

That's a joke.

You will come out.

But you know you allow that one intention to be in the background to keep intention as your focus range.

See how close you can get to the moment of its birth either as you're directing your attention or maybe right at the inception,

Maybe right before you actually direct your attention.

There's an intention that may be able to be dropped.

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Now for anyone if it's the case that you're still not sure if you're noticing any intention at all feel free to employ a few very very intended small silent movements and so before you move you could decide like I'm going to move one foot back or I'm going to switch which hand is on top and you know maybe never even get to it,

But just soak in very deeply to the sense that you've made a decision.

That's the thing we're dropping.

That's backtracking to warm up exercise one if you need that.

Exercise two is just you're noticing intentions without too much trouble just drop them when you notice them but they are in your focus range so feel free to go looking.

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And if that much is working you may begin to notice that the mind typically kind of might flail about a little bit or it might just collapse for a moment like it doesn't have a clue what to do when you drop the intention and that's generally the fun part there is just watching what happens when you drop an intention instead of following through on it.

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So in this way we're tapping back into what we all knew as babies but didn't have the intelligence to realize which is just the automaticity of attention itself.

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So now let's do the actual technique.

Do nothing.

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And we mean it really do nothing.

You're not going looking for anything at all.

You may not be aware of any intentions for the rest of this part of the practice.

Only if one just so happens to grab your attention then you drop it if you can.

That's it.

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If you catch yourself trying to maintain awareness that's an intention.

Drop it.

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Find out what happens when you stop trying.

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Nothing to do.

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Know where to be.

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Call off the search.

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Now and then you may notice that without more directions your mind may start slipping into unconsciousness then there may be a waking up all of a sudden going,

Oh what was I supposed to be doing?

Pay attention and then remembering,

Oh that's an intention.

Drop it.

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Now by way of contrast starting on a dime see,

Hear,

Feel the technique.

You can open your eyes a little bit if you like to get more sensory input.

I recommend using mental labels to make it a little more active and now you're very much having an intention every few seconds noting a sensory experience,

Applying a label,

Soaking into that if it lasts.

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See.

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Hear.

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Feel.

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Remember we have noting options if you find them supportive.

If any of that's unclear to you feel free to ask me afterwards.

But remember if you know two or more modalities at the same time you can use inclusive noting.

You can note gone if you're noticing disappearances.

You can re-note if your sense experiences are somewhat stable.

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So to emphasize the contrast here really use some energy in your concentration to soak into your sensory experience using mental labels.

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Now do nothing.

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When this is productive it tends to have a flavor of freedom,

Playfulness,

Joy.

Ani d Court of hobbies Grandiose D Long light.

Trust.

And not an ordinary trust but trust in the undefinable and ever-changing thing.

So remember there is absolutely nothing to do unless you just so happen to notice an intention to control your attention.

And if so,

Drop it if you can.

And if you can't,

You let go of that too.

Feel free.

Now for contrast,

Let's switch to another technique with a very active stance,

Feel good.

Feel good means our focus range is the emotional body,

Somatic experience that seems to be emotional in nature,

And we're generating positivity on purpose.

However you like,

You may be able to just turn it on,

You could smile,

And the moment you sense that there's been a little activation of positivity,

Turn all your attention toward that emotion and blow on that ember to strengthen and be in positivity.

If it fades,

You strike the body bell again,

Call up positive emotion so that you can know it intimately and strengthen or expand it if that's available to you.

If it indies,

You turn that emotion.

Continue to feel good for another minute or two.

Pulling your attention into the focus range of positive emotion.

Following the focus of the focus of the most important test,

Now do nothing.

I mean we don't go looking for anything now.

And the fun thing is when you notice challenges,

Like you might find yourself stuck in a place of self starting to try to not pay attention to anything and then that too is an intention.

Drop it if you notice it,

If you can.

Ed Did you see how close you could go?

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The historical influence on this technique is Shikantasana,

Shikha meaning wholeheartedly,

Being one with,

The Ta meaning a bullseye in the sense of just being with,

With this clarity that's supported as you are meditated instead of meditating.

And the Sa is for a dozen,

Just sitting.

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Reviews

Enjoyed this meditation, good exercise in doing non doing.

Very helpful in contrasting intentions versus truly doing nothing and abandoning intention.

One of my favorites. Varied instructions, each gentle but creating container for an intense, calm practice experience. Very subtle, lots to work with here

I've done this twice now and I love it. The instructions are detailed and clear, shifting modes from active to "calling off the search" is incredibly effective. Thank you!

Great. About 25 minutes in I thought: I feel like I’m working out joyfully in an attention gym. Then you said something like that. This was interesting and fun.

5 stars for breaking down the way into the “Do Nothing” technique from Shinzen Young’s Unified Mindfulness work. Excellent guidance that I suspect I will return to often. 🙏