Dearest Friends,

It was such a joy to be reunited with all of you again today—and to also meet the newest member of our sangha!

In today’s conversation, we revisited Joseph Goldstein’s definition of mindfulness as “knowing what’s going on while it’s going” and how this skill isn’t one that we practice it for its own sake but as a prerequisite to responding wisely to whatever life is presenting. In my opening reflections, I also highlighted that mindfulness—defined in this way—is a skill that we naturally possess, i.e., for the most part, we’re born with the capacity to be aware of our unfolding experience.

At the same time, this innate capacity is one that we can enhance to an exceptional degree with training. Moreover, the more we develop it, the more we’re able to respond to life with balance, skill and wisdom. The contemporary metaphor that I used to describe this is “zooming in”—the act of magnifying a document, an image or a user interface so that we can see it in finer detail and then work with it with greater ease.

In our daily lives, we can apply this ability to “zoom in” to three general domains:

• First, we can direct it towards our inner experience and learn how to work skillfully with our thoughts, emotions and sensations. (Tara Brach often describes this as bringing what’s “below” the line “above” the line.)
• Second, we can direct it towards our relational field and learn how to interact with the people around us more wisely. (This is what we practice in sangha with our community guidelines on mindful speaking, listening and relating.)
• Third, we can direct it towards the external world and learn how to discern the causes and conditions that give rise to either suffering or liberation. (The reflection I posted last week On Causes and Conditions serves as a demonstration of this final point.)  

In practical terms, developing our capacity for mindfulness so that it becomes increasingly sharp, lucid and penetrating requires practicing in a particular way. The general principle is to pay close and sustained attention to the subtler aspects of our chosen meditation object. Obviously, this requires a great deal of energy (and a lot of patience and persistence too!). Over time, however, we gradually cultivate the ability to perceive the object of our meditation in increasingly higher “resolution.” In daily life, this eventually reveals itself as the ability to notice the finer grains of experience—and to refine our actions accordingly.

SUGGESTED PRACTICE:

Sit quietly and attend to your breath. Focus your attention on a relatively subtle aspect of the respiration. It could be the temperature of the air that touches your upper lip when you inhale and exhale. It could be the sensation of the air touching the inner walls of your nostrils as you breathe in and out. It could be the sense of which nostril is more open when you breathe in a particular moment. Whichever aspect you choose, attend to it with curiosity and interest…and work with humility, patience and persistence.

REFLECTION PROMPTS:

1. What was the suggested practice like for you? What did you discover or rediscover from deepening your attention while meditating?
2. What practical benefits have you seen in your life as a result of having a more heightened awareness, in general?
3. Where have you directed this heightened awareness the most? In which domain do you feel most called to direct it towards now?