Meditation Practice

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XI. Concentration (This is an exercise in pure awareness)

 

Choose one sense object for a basic object of attention. It is suggested that

you choose either the sensations in one part of your body of your breathing or

the sounds around you.

 

Focus your attention on this object, but do so in such a way that if your

attention shifts to something else you are immediately aware of the shift.

 

Let us suppose you have chosen for your basic object of attention your

breathing. Well, then, concentrate on your breathing.... It is quite likely that

after a while your attention will move to something else-a thought, a sound, a

feeling.... Now provided you are aware of this shift of attention to something

else, this shift is not to be counted as a distraction. It is important,

however, that you be aware of the shift while the shift is taking place or

immediately after it has taken place. Count it a distraction only if you become

aware of the shift long after it has taken place.

 

Suppose you choose breathing as your basic object of attention. Then your

exercise will possibly go something like this:-

 

" I am breathing.... I am breathing.... Now I am thinking.... thinking....

thinking.... Now I am listening to a sound.... listening.... listening.... Now I

am irritated.... irritated. Now I feel bored.... bored.... bored.... "

 

In this exercise, the wandering of the mind is not considered a distraction

provided you are aware that your attention is shifting to some other object....

Once you have become aware of this shift, stay with the new object (thinking,

listening, feeling....) for a while, then return to the basic object of your

attention (breathing).... your skill in self-awareness may become so great that

you will not only become aware of the shift of your attention on to some object,

but even of the desire to shift, the impulse in you to shift on to something

else. As when you want to move your hand you will first become conscious of the

desire arising within you to move the hand, your consent to this desire, your

carrying out of this desire, the very first stirring of your hand.... All of

which activities are performed in an infinitesimal fraction of a second and so

we find it impossible to distinguish one from the other until the silence and

stillness within us has become almost total and our awareness has acquired razor

edge sharpness. Self-awareness is a powerful means for increasing in love of God

and of neighbour. The self-awareness heightens the love. The love, when it is

genuine, fosters deeper self- awareness.

 

Do not go in search of abstruse means for developing your self- awareness. Begin

with humble things like the awareness of the feel of your body or awareness of

the things around you and then more on to exercises like the ones which are

suggested here and it won't be long before you notice the fruits of peacefulness

and love that heightened self-awareness brings with it.

 

to be continued...