Practice 14 · Finding Awareness

Sit somewhere comfortable. Greet your mind as you would greet an old friend: what are you showing me today?

Focus

Choose the breath, your feet or a sound around you. Let attention rest there for the period you have chosen.

If counting or a quiet label helps, use it. If it does not, leave it aside. When you notice that attention has moved, see whether you can return gently.

A wider field

Allow more of the room and your experience into view: sound, touch, body sensations, thoughts and feelings.

You can imagine a theatre in which different scenes appear. You do not have to stay outside the scenes or make yourself detached. Notice what it is like to become involved, and what it is like to recognize that involvement.

If an experience becomes difficult to stay with, return to something ordinary around you or end the practice.

Inquiry

Ask: what tells me I am aware of this moment?

Notice whether an answer comes as words, an image, a sensation, a sense of presence, or uncertainty.

Then ask: who am I, in the midst of all this?

Stay with the question as long as it remains useful. There is no prescribed conclusion and no need to make thought go silent.

Closing

Let the investigation rest. Feel the support beneath you and look around.

Perhaps you noticed a changing experience with a little more room around it. Perhaps something else happened. Take your own observation seriously. A question can remain open and still be worth asking.