Practice 7 · Three-Phase Mindfulness

From Lesson 6: The Gardener Comes First · Replaces the garden-framed focus practice (shortened; the full focus script is Practice 5) and “Your Mindfulness Practice in the Present,” the cleanest three-phase version in the book. In the book: ▶ Practice 7 — pathtounknowing.com/practice7 [QR]

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Now we walk out into our gardens, and we do not hoe or plant, but we just look. Building on our understanding of the garden and the gardener, this practice focuses on noticing how our attention shifts and flows. As a good gardener will go down the rows and see which leaves are changing, which buds are opening, which plants are bending toward the sun, we shall be observing the little motions of our own mind.

Your attention is water in the garden: it flows, moves, and at times waters some parts without you deciding that it should. We have come not to curse the stream, but to learn how to turn it softly back to the source, to feed what we desire 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.
Shut your eyes, welcome your mind, observe its condition.
Bring your attention to your breath. Feel it. Hear it. Let it anchor you.
When the mind is lost, as it will be, bring it back mildly, like a hand on the shoulder of a child.

Sit in silence for three minutes.

Second Phase – Increasing Awareness (5 minutes)

Now, make your breath your home base, but allow your awareness to open like a wide-angle lens. Include:

Sounds: near, far, soft, sharp.
Physical feelings: the heaviness of your body, heat, cold.
Closed-eye visual experience: light, dark, shapes.
Any smell or flavor coming through.

When anything takes your notice, call it by name in your mind:

“Sound” for sounds.
“Sensing” for body sensations.
“Thinking” for thoughts.

Stay curious. Stay watching.

Sit in silence for five minutes.

Third Phase – Expanding Observation (5 minutes)

Ask yourself, “What's happening now?” Watch as awareness moves:

Breath
Sound
Sensation
Thought
Stillness

No moment should be better or worse than it is, simply perceived.

Sit in silence for five minutes.

Closing the Practice

Breathe in three deep, nourishing breaths.
Feel what your mind feels at this moment.
Slowly open your eyes, when you are ready.

Stop and take a moment to realize that in these few minutes you have not only exercised attention, but increased the area of your consciousness.

This practice is one of seventeen in the book.

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