Practice 7 · Three-Phase Mindfulness

Now we walk out into the garden, and we do not hoe or plant. We only look. Building on the garden and the gardener, this practice is about noticing how attention shifts and flows. The way a good gardener walks the rows and sees which leaves are changing, which buds are opening, which plants are bending toward the sun, we will watch the small movements of our own mind.

Your attention is the water in this garden: it flows, moves, and sometimes waters places without you deciding it should. We are not here to curse the stream, but to learn how to turn it gently back to where we want it, to feed what we choose to nourish.

First Phase – Focus (3 minutes)

We start with what we know: focus meditation (see Practice 5).

• Sit in a relaxed yet alert position.
• Close your eyes or soften your gaze, welcome your mind, notice its condition.
• Bring your attention to your breath. Feel it. Hear it. Let it anchor you.
• When the mind wanders, as it will, bring it back gently, like a hand on the shoulder of a child.

Sit in silence for three minutes.

Second Phase – Widening Awareness (5 minutes)

Now keep your breath as home base, but let your awareness open like a wide-angle lens. Include:

• Sounds: near, far, soft, sharp.
• Physical feelings: the weight of your body, warmth, coolness.
• What you see behind closed eyes: light, dark, shapes.
• Any smell or taste passing through.

When anything catches your notice, name it silently:

• "Sound" for sounds.
• "Sensing" for body sensations.
• "Thinking" for thoughts.

Stay curious. Stay watching.

Sit in silence for five minutes.

Third Phase – Open Observation (5 minutes)

Ask yourself: "What is happening now?" Watch as awareness moves:

• Breath
• Sound
• Sensation
• Thought
• Stillness

No moment needs to be better or worse than it is. Simply perceived.

Sit in silence for five minutes.

Closing the Practice

• Take three deep, nourishing breaths.
• Feel how your mind is at this moment.
• Slowly open your eyes when you are ready.

Pause and take in what you just did: in these few minutes you did not only exercise attention. You increased the territory of your awareness.