19 CLASSICAL MINDFULNESS MEDITATION EXPANDED FURTHER

FULLY FLEXIBLE AWARENESS PRACTICE

Flexible awareness practice is one of the stops on the spectrum of awareness practices (see chapter 7). I often teach it in conjunction with practices for accessing natural awareness, because flexible awareness includes elements of both focused awareness and natural awareness. Flexible awareness practice is another part of classical mindfulness meditation.

In a fully flexible awareness practice, we don’t have an anchor or central focus to our meditation, but instead move our attention among secondary objects (such as sounds, the breath, thoughts, sensations, or emotions), noticing them on the basis of which one is calling out to us or which one is most obvious. So, for instance, you might notice a memory, then a vibration on your hand, then a sound, then a breath, then a feeling of frustration. The frustration may appear first as a thought, but then suddenly you notice heat in your belly. And so on. You can flexibly move your attention to whatever object is calling out to you, whichever object you choose.

One of the benefits to flexible awareness practice is that when we turn our attention to secondary objects, we investigate their nature. We discover that although they seem permanent and solid, they are actually changing and insubstantial.

Sometimes we experience being aware of objects without seeming to choose them. We find ourselves attending fairly effortlessly and spontaneously to whatever is calling out for our attention, moment by moment. We can call this experience choiceless awareness—meaning we don’t choose the objects, but they choose us! In advanced states of meditation, we can experience the rapid flow of arising and disappearing objects and have enough awareness to be present to all of them as they speed by.

Let’s give it a try.

                  Get in a comfortable posture. Close your eyes, if you wish, and begin with some focused awareness to help calm your mind. Focus on your breathing, and when your attention wanders off, bring it back to your breathing. Or if sound is your anchor, you can listen to the sounds around you.

                      Although you are attending to your anchor, it is likely that other things are happening in the background—meaning they are occurring, but you are not focusing on them. Now let the background become foreground. Notice whatever grabs your attention: you hear a sound, and you just listen to it; you notice a strong sensation in your body, and you feel it; a memory arises, and you notice the image or thought; another sensation comes, and you feel it; and so on. You can choose where to place your attention, or let the objects choose you, bringing attention to whatever is most obvious in any given moment.

                      You may start to feel a little lost without your anchor, so if you feel unsure about what to notice, go back to your anchor at any point. After a while try letting go of your anchor again and tuning in to whatever objects arise in your mind, from moment to moment.

                      Practice for as long as you feel drawn to. Whenever you are ready to stop, notice the effect of the practice on your body and mind, and when you are ready, open your eyes or conclude the meditation.

Flexible Awareness of Mental Activity

An interesting variation of flexible awareness is being flexibly aware only of our mental activity. Many students enjoy this type of practice, which we might think of as simply “noticing our mind.” You can settle back and turn your attention to whatever is arising in your mental field—thoughts, emotions, moods, and mental states. You notice what’s arising and, if you wish, label it—planning, remembering, judging, worrying, imagining, and so forth. I sometimes imagine a little person crawling into my head and bearing witness to what’s going on there.

This practice is actually a lot of fun if you have sufficient concentration to do it. You will know you have the necessary concentration because it feels fairly easy to keep your attention focused on your anchor without too much wandering.

Here, give it a try.

                  Settle into a comfortable physical position. Close your eyes, if you wish. Using your breathing or listening to sounds, spend a few minutes using focused awareness practice to stabilize your mind.

                      When you are ready, let go of your breath and any other physical or external object of focus, and turn your attention to your mind. See if you can notice thought after thought after thought. Give them labels, if it is helpful, such as planning, remembering, worrying, fantasizing, judging.

                      What happens when you notice a thought? Does it disappear? Can you think the thought with awareness? Do you notice a thought at the beginning, middle, or end of the thought?

                      Have fun with the exploration. If you start to feel overwhelmed or lost, take a break by bringing awareness to a physical aspect of your meditation: your bodily sensations or your breath. Or return to your anchor. Notice the physical sensations for a little while until you can return your attention to the mental activity.

                      If you are enjoying this practice, stay with it as long as you are drawn to. If it feels challenging, do it for just a few minutes at a time. Once you stop, notice the effect on your body and mind and then conclude the meditation.