There are many different kinds of meditation practices. When we sit down and close our eyes, we could be doing any number of things, from visualizing a peaceful scene, to working on concentrating the mind, to cultivating a particular attitude of mind by repeating suggestive phrases.
When we bring our attention to the sensations of our breathing, we can simultaneously focus our attention, calm our mental activity and open our minds to the possibility of actually seeing all of our experience in a new way. Gaining deeper insight into my own experience is the primary goal of the meditation practice I do.
If we are going to try bringing our attention to the present moment, to “see things as they are,” some simple pointers regarding what to look for, what to notice, can be useful. I often begin a meditation sitting by consciously checking-in with each of my sensory systems: what sounds are present, what my body-feeling is like, what are the colors showing up behind my eyelids; and I usually notice that there’s no strong odor or taste present. And as I bring my attention to the sensations of my breathing, I notice that the active mind — yet a sixth “sensory system” — makes its appearance in the form of thinking and imagining.
Bringing a simple, attentive awareness to these distinct sensory systems can help us see how they work: in the seeing, simply the seeing; in the hearing, simply the hearing; in the feeling, simply the feeling; and in the thinking, simply the fact that thinking is going on without concern for what we might be thinking about. In this way, we can begin to study for ourselves the workings of our mind and the feelings in our bodies.
When we distinguish our sensory systems in this manner, we can begin to see how they work together to create a unified sense of ourselves in the world. If we see shapes and colors in a particular configuration, we might think “cup”…but we don’t actually ‘see’ a cup: we see colors and shapes and then we THINK “cup.” Our full experience of ‘cup’ involves all our senses, including such things as any memories that might exist concerning that particular “cup” (e.g. perhaps simply its weight) and any expectations or plans for its use that we might have.
As we engage in sitting for more than just a few minutes, we are likely to discover a variety of thoughts coming to mind. But rather than simply falling into fascination with whatever those thoughts are about and following along after our own train of thought, we can shift our attention to whatever physical sensations are occurring in our body and check out what kinds of sensations are occurring there. Some feelings or sensations go hand-in-hand with particular thoughts or stories, and we might notice that the combination of story and physical sensation combines into a particularly compelling emotion.
Still, we can create some perspective and avoid getting completely caught up in the story/emotion if we can keep our attention focused on just what is happening in the present moment, breaking it down by its component elements: using our breath to help keep our attention steady much as we might use a handrail on a precarious stairway, we can note what’s going on physically in our body, what the story is about, and what emotion or mind state this all adds up to.
Keeping our attention steady while we do this takes practice, like practicing a tennis swing or piano scales or learning any new skill. Honing our ability to pay attention to and distinguish among the various elements of our experience, however, is what creates the payoff for our practice: the more deeply we are aware of what we are doing and the more details we can make out in what is going on in our minds and bodies, the better the choices we can make and the more freedom and peace we can bring to our minds and to our hearts.
