Week #4 (5/5/10)

Focusing with equanimity on the sensation of breath in the nostrils, or on the sensation of vibration, tingling, pulsing, etc., inside the hands... this is a tool. We have been practicing the application of this tool within a specific set and setting, i.e., while sitting still and quiet for an allotted period of time. With this tool, we have been building our capacity to focus only on the feeling of sensation, without thinking about the sensation and without doing anything about the sensation. For example, when we are sitting quietly and we suddenly have a disturbing thought or hear a loud motorcycle pass by outside, this thought or this sound is heard with equanimity - it already is, and it is part of everything else that already is, and we accept what is without reacting to it or making a story out it. What we directly experience is that this thought or this sound always passes away - it is temporary - but the Awareness that allows us to perceive the thought or sound remains! In this way, we are glimpsing or tasting Awareness, through direct experience.  

This awareness is the direct experience of simply being, without any thinking or conceptualizing about what is. In the instant of this direct experience, this glimpse, this taste, where is your separate entity sense-of-self - the "me," the "I"? Is there a separate sense-of-self present, or does it only come in after the fact, when thinking says something like, "I" just felt a sense of peace, wholeness and completeness!"? Explore this yourself this week, during your sitting times. Take advantage of as many opportunities that present themselves to you to sit for 5, 10 or 15 minutes and be focused in awareness, glimpsing, tasting, resting in awareness without conceptualizing what is.