All-Inclusive Awareness
This meditation will enable you to develop the skill of entering all-inclusive awareness. The meditation itself is extremely beneficial, but the skill of entering the all-inclusive awareness in your everyday life, at your will, is no less important.
The meditation consists of seven steps that will bring your mind into a deep state of diffuse, wide and all-embracing attention which will also include your thoughts.
1.Entering Pure Consciousness
Do the Dissolving the Temporary I technique. You will enter the state of pure consciousness which will be a great starting point for the whole exercise. It will also allow you to relax immediately.
2.Wide Visual Attention
Look at the ceiling and pick up only one distinctive point on it. (This we can call the ‘physical attention,’ as opposed to ‘mental attention,’ which means to focus your mind externally or internally on something.) Concentrate on that point for 15-30 seconds. If any thought arises, just accept it, and return your physical and mental attention to the point on the ceiling.
Then, while keeping your eyes fixated on the original point, extend your mental attention onto a circular area around the point. Slowly extend the area of your mental attention, while keeping your physical attention at the chosen point.
Wander around the room for a while with your mental attention. If your eyes unintentionally move, simply return them to the first point of the physical attention, and continue with the other parts of your eyesight, that are preferably more away from the physical point of attention.
You may even try to become aware of the things behind your physical eyesight.
After several minutes of shifting your mental attention around, try to immerse yourself into a unified attention - be mentally attentive of your physical point and everything else.
3.Wide Auditory Attention
Now include sounds into your wide attention. Begin with only one sound and continue with the inclusion of all other sounds, all the while retaining your visual wide attention, too.
4.Body Awareness
Include your bodily sensations, one by one, into your wide visual and auditory attention. The body awareness should encompass sensations of your body’s touching your clothes, any inner tension, possible pain, itching, taste, smell, and finally the feeling of your inner body as a whole.
5.Breathing
Next, add the sensation of your breathing to your wide attention. Include the mild sensations of the air touching your nose’s interior, as it enters or exits the nostrils. Add the feeling of the air going all the way down to the bottom of the lungs and back to the nostrils. Also, include into your attention the movement of your diaphragm and belly as you breathe in and out.
6.Thoughts
Now, include any of your emerging thoughts into the wholeness of your diffuse attention. Use the approach explained above. If any of emotions appear, apply the same procedure to them.
7.Merging All
Finally, become aware of all these components together. Let your attention become all-embracing, including the whole vision, all sounds, all bodily sensations and body awareness, breathing, thoughts, and anything else that might emerge here and now.
Try to stay in this all-inclusive awareness as long as possible. If any disturbance arises, just accept it and return to the all-inclusive awareness.
The meditation consists of seven steps that will bring your mind into a deep state of diffuse, wide and all-embracing attention which will also include your thoughts.
1.Entering Pure Consciousness
Do the Dissolving the Temporary I technique. You will enter the state of pure consciousness which will be a great starting point for the whole exercise. It will also allow you to relax immediately.
2.Wide Visual Attention
Look at the ceiling and pick up only one distinctive point on it. (This we can call the ‘physical attention,’ as opposed to ‘mental attention,’ which means to focus your mind externally or internally on something.) Concentrate on that point for 15-30 seconds. If any thought arises, just accept it, and return your physical and mental attention to the point on the ceiling.
Then, while keeping your eyes fixated on the original point, extend your mental attention onto a circular area around the point. Slowly extend the area of your mental attention, while keeping your physical attention at the chosen point.
Wander around the room for a while with your mental attention. If your eyes unintentionally move, simply return them to the first point of the physical attention, and continue with the other parts of your eyesight, that are preferably more away from the physical point of attention.
You may even try to become aware of the things behind your physical eyesight.
After several minutes of shifting your mental attention around, try to immerse yourself into a unified attention - be mentally attentive of your physical point and everything else.
3.Wide Auditory Attention
Now include sounds into your wide attention. Begin with only one sound and continue with the inclusion of all other sounds, all the while retaining your visual wide attention, too.
4.Body Awareness
Include your bodily sensations, one by one, into your wide visual and auditory attention. The body awareness should encompass sensations of your body’s touching your clothes, any inner tension, possible pain, itching, taste, smell, and finally the feeling of your inner body as a whole.
5.Breathing
Next, add the sensation of your breathing to your wide attention. Include the mild sensations of the air touching your nose’s interior, as it enters or exits the nostrils. Add the feeling of the air going all the way down to the bottom of the lungs and back to the nostrils. Also, include into your attention the movement of your diaphragm and belly as you breathe in and out.
6.Thoughts
Now, include any of your emerging thoughts into the wholeness of your diffuse attention. Use the approach explained above. If any of emotions appear, apply the same procedure to them.
7.Merging All
Finally, become aware of all these components together. Let your attention become all-embracing, including the whole vision, all sounds, all bodily sensations and body awareness, breathing, thoughts, and anything else that might emerge here and now.
Try to stay in this all-inclusive awareness as long as possible. If any disturbance arises, just accept it and return to the all-inclusive awareness.
