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In my book, Waking Up to Life! I outline a very long list of benefits derived from Attention Training, ranging from practical and life enhancing, to beyond practical and life enhancing.
Since writing the book, I have re-entered my own Attention Training practices with renewed gusto and energy. What I have discovered (or re-discovered) is startling.
For example, did you know that when you develop the capacity to anchor your attention to your breath for even brief periods, contentment and emotional stability (maturity) is the rapid result?
What’s more, if you persist for longer periods, your contentment becomes happiness.
Beyond that, your happiness becomes joy, pleasure and eventually… bliss!
Now I am not talking about new-agey kinda stuff. I am talking about over five thousand years of experiments that were conducted by countless brilliant explorers that have gone before us. These experiments took place in an inner lab, using the tools of Attention Training.
These people did not lose their mind, they went beyond the mind. If that sounds strange, then you have just found another example of how out of touch we are here in the west.
I will put this as simply as I can here:
First, when attention stabilizes and is energetically focused like a laser, the body and mind settle down.
Second, when attention is allowed to rest for extended periods, while stable and focused like a laser, experience moves through a spectrum, from contentment, to satisfaction, to happiness, to joy, to bliss.
What’s more, these experiences are unconditional, in that they are not caused by external circumstances or determined by the events of your life situation. (To use an extreme example, you can experience this in a dirt dungeon the same as in your cozy bed).
Finally, when attention is expanded while remaining stable and energized, the nature of your experience and who you really are in your depths becomes glaringly obvious.
As I sit at my computer and type these words, the most obvious part of my experience is one of radiance in the center of my chest, because that is where my attention is rooted.
What’s the most obvious part of your experience right now?
I awoke today, as I always do, to hear my cat Francis purring beside my head. I looked over at her and she looked at me, her eyes shining with (what seemed to be) contentment.
I rolled onto my back, as I always do, and began my morning practice of:
1. flashing Awakened Attention,
2. realizing today I may die and
3. bathing in the up-swell of gratitude that always accompanies that realization.
After and few minutes, I started my main practice of Resting In The Heart * (as I always do).
As I was resting attention in the direct and immediate knowledge of my existence (Resting In The Heart), I heard my cat, Francis, purring contentedly.
As my mind started to settle down and my attention began to bathe in its source, I had the thought, “Francis must be resting in her Heart too”.
Then THE mind, (as it always does) began to make further associations and analogies, drawing my attention from the practice of Resting In The Heart, to activity in the head.
This mental activity was not one of contentment, or satisfaction, or even usefulness. This mental activity was useless, habitual and automatic. This mental activity led my body to a place of discontent, dissatisfaction and eventual discomfort.
Then, in a moment of clarity, I heard my cat Francis purring beside my head.
Attention immediately plunged from head to Heart, from chatter to silence, from activity to stillness.
This in turn led my body FROM the experience of discontent, dissatisfaction and discomfort TO the experience of contentment, satisfaction and joy. My body and mind became saturated in the pleasure of Resting In The Heart. Simple, untainted and naked.
When attention eventually withdrew from the Heart space and again entered my head, I realized that the Heart is indeed my Home and that any moment of discontent, dissatisfaction and discomfort is actually a sign of Home-sickness.
When was the last time you were Home?
* Note: please understand The Heart here does not mean the organ or emotional center or chakra, but the space in the center of the chest where, upon inspection, our experience of bare existence or ‘I Am-ness’ arises. Look and you will see. I promise!
* * * * *
Above is a sample of the profound understandings that accompany Attention Training and the resultant Awakened Attention. After sixteen years of inner and outer exploration, it is my conclusion that Attention Training is the simplest, most practical, yet totally profound, and meaningful understanding that one may be fortunate enough to be exposed to.
For more like this, get some free excerpts from my new book Waking Up to Life!
The value of art is not in its practicality or utility, but in its beauty and its ‘as is-ness’, reminding you that you are beautiful before you consider your purpose. Like art, you as a human being, are always already of value in your unique expression of Life’s creativity.
Beyond the beauty of your Being, your life can be seen as a living, breathing, art-form, as the mediums of flesh, speech and deed are woven into a living fabric of form, novelty and function.
As living art, you can use a variety of textures, colors, tones and visions of Life to build, paint, sing, or write your life with the care of an artist’s eye. You can express yourself and your life artfully, attending to the subtleties, as well as, the more obvious aspects of your living, loving and dying.
To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else.
~ Emily Dickinson
Sometimes our Life-Art may be very extreme, abstract, surreal and unbalanced. The artful Life is not about health, growth, or balance, but about becoming an accurate expression of Life’s impulses and allowing Life’s beauties to flow through us, unimpeded. It’s about seeing and hearing with many different kinds of eyes and ears, inner and outer, fleshy and intuitive, while being constructed by Life’s masterful hands. This is another reason why Awakened Attention is so valuable. Awakened Attention allows us to hear and feel the silent, subtle and invisible impulses and currents as Life communicates them through us.
With ears and eyes open on many planes of existence, we are much more able to hear and see our lives in a way that is comparable to an epic story, a heart wrenching poem, an awe-inducing painting, or a great sculpture, simultaneously a work in progress and a finished masterpiece.
For if there is a sin against life,
it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life
as in hoping for another life
and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.
~ Albert Camus
The above is an excerpt from Waking Up to Life!
There are free excerpts available.
We here in the western world have long fashioned our views of success around ideas of acquisition, growth and wealth. These are the ingredients of the ‘good life’.
Now that the eastern world has the power and resources to follow suit and claim its piece of the ‘good life’, the world’s march toward becoming a depleted wasteland has sped up. The billion Chinese and the billion East Indian’s, taking a page out of the North American guide to consumerism, materialism and superficiality, are now playing catch up to our shallow way of life, with hastened natural resource depletion and environmental despoliation the result. Who could blame them for wanting what we’ve had for decades?
Marketers around the world attempt to speak to potential buyers sense of vanity, insecurity and quick fix mentality.
Put another way, most marketers target prospects who are functioning at the level of ’self-esteem’. Since we are a society that promotes self-esteem as a goal, we are also a society that is completely vulnerable to the barrage of marketing messages that are floating on the media waves. (Imagine a sales pitch to Buddha for Viagra, to Mother Theresa for designer shoes or to Jesus for hair restoration)
At the midpoint of my life it makes sense to me to go the opposite direction and downsize.
There is very little I need to be happy, because material things don’t really make me happy. Actually, things don’t make anyone happy for very long and only lead to more wanting. I can appreciate some comfort and security, but that can be bought at a price that doesn’t leave a massive pile of garbage and a pit of consumption.
My vision of my life’s end is now one of me walking backwards, while sweeping away my footprints… leaving no trace.
Awhile ago I received some emails suggesting I was a little harsh regarding my stand on ‘The Secret’ in a post entitled: ‘The Secret’ Is Not A Secret, Just Another Distraction For Old Kids.
It turns out Oprah is guilty of propagating this useless trash too.
The reason for the harsh tones is simple: Life is tough enough without charlatans and snake charmers like this misleading people.
At the same time, maybe ‘The Secret’ will expose the secret that many seekers out there arbor. That secret is that they are looking for comfort and quick fixes rather than truth and understanding.
The problem with the mind does not usually involve the content of the mind, but rather attention lost in the content of the mind. Attention is often lost in the mind, in stories, dramas, fantasies, and memories.
When attention is lost in the mind, we suffer the effects of the body’s reactions to whatever the mind is displaying.
If attention is lost in a mental story of catastrophe or regret, it will register in the body as if the story is true and is happening now, rather than conceptually in the mind. If that same story is happening but attention is not lost in it, the story may be seen for what it is, which is a spontaneous display of mental activity.
What this means is this (are you ready?)
You are not doing. The mind has a mind of its own.
This is an absolutely essential understanding, and can only be seen and deeply known through repeated observation of the mind. When the mind is observed for any length of time, it become obvious that ‘it’, the mind, is not ‘mine’ and ‘I’ am not it.
Properly seen, this leads to the important understanding than can be summarized as, “THE activity of THE mind causes THE suffering”. This is in complete contrast to “MY mental activity of MY mind causes MY suffering.
“Wow, does THAT feel better!
(Not to mention it’s the truth…)
Buy the New Book: Waking Up to Life!
The Art & Skill of Awakened Attention
A Guide for Awakening to the Power, Presence and
Passion of the Living Moment
P.S.: The mind is a wonderful gift, but it is a far cry from our greatest expression of Life.
Alive AS Life, you ARE that greatest expression.
I went to a new movie last night that was over three hours. This means that I was sitting in the same small seat, surrounded by the same people, for three hours and ten minutes.
In my opinion, you DO NOT want to be noticed at a movie. If you are noticed, it’s usually because you are attracting attention, probably without even knowing it. Attracting attention at a movie means you are distracting FROM the movie. Most people are there to give their attention to the movie, not to you. If you are attracting attention at a movie, you are probably a nuisance.
If I am watching a movie, I am involved in that movie. To have someone destroy that involvement because they are demanding attention diminishes my experience. The experience I paid for.
Many people seem to be oblivious to the fact that we all live in two worlds.
The first world is private.
That private world is your inner world of thoughts, opinions, viewpoints, and the inner commentary that you experience first hand and is yours alone. This is the world of self-talk and automatic thoughts and inner monologue. The first world is in your head.
The second world is public.
In that public world, your private world overlaps with everyone else’s, creating a public world. What you say and do, enters into other people’s worlds. Your private world overlaps with other private worlds, creating a public world. This second world is the one you are a PART of.
Why does this matter? Let me give you some demonstrations of why it might matter.
One young man was sitting behind me in the theater last night, with the compulsion to make his private inner world public. He gave his opinion of what was going on in the movie, out loud. He became part of my/our experience. He didn’t just laugh or scream, he verbalized his viewpoints. He made his inner private world part of the outer public world.
He diminished my private experience with his compulsion to make his private experience public.
Conversely, another gentleman decided to sit in front of me with full awareness and consideration. He realized that as he and his partner took the two seats in front of me, he might make my view less than it was.
In an act of utter attention and consciousness, he asked his (shorter) partner to take the aisle seat to avoid obscuring my view. (Hard for a man, because he usually wants to be on the aisle seat, thus protecting his partner!)
It seems like a small act I know, but these acts often say much regarding the degree of awakeness of the actor.
What do I mean by, awake, in the sense I am talking about here? Before I get into being awake, what does it mean to be asleep?
Read what Tony deMello says about being asleep, in the quote below:
Most people, even though they don’t know it, are asleep.
They’re born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up.
They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing
we call human existence… ~Anthony de Mello
Here are some examples of being asleep.
* Standing at the till after making a purchase, oblivious to the fact that until you move, seven others will wait in line. You count your change and tuck everything away just right before you move on, thereby allowing everyone else to move on.
* You are exercising your right to smoke outside and you blow your smoke in the direction of an old couple (even though you are 7.435 meters from the hospital door), one of whom is hooked up to a respirator.
* You have stopped at a red light without realizing you have blocked the right hand turning lane. You are unaware that the five cars that are stuck behind you could turn, if you were only aware enough to move forward a few feet.
To be awake, means to be alert, aware and attentive to what is going on around you. This does NOT mean thinking about what is going on around you, but to simply keep your attention anchored in your actual experience as it is happening.
What do you think?
In the next few days I will share some views in relation to what is typically called Road Rage.
Aaron The Wake Up Guy
To be reminded, make sure you have received my Special Report and stay updated on this topic: http://www.wakinguptolife.com/
Aaron The Wake Up Guy
Get some free excerpts from my book here: http://www.wakinguptolife.com/products.htm
I’m going to make a big deal about this very soon.
4000 to 8000 accidents per day caused by driver distraction.
Imagine your loved one killed by a driver who was distracted because they were chatting on their cell phone or selecting their next Cd. Check out this article.
We are living in an increasingly complex world. There can be enormous stress in attempting to simply meet the expectations of our place of employment. Combine this with our familial, financial, cultural, recreational, and social demands, and add in our oftentimes unreasonably high expectations we have of ourselves, and the pressure can be detrimental. One of the most common results of our attempts to meet these expectations is an increase in the amount of time we spend in our own minds, thinking, imagining, analyzing, remembering, planning, hoping, and regretting.
This would not be such a problem were it not for the severity of the situation.
We have become compulsive ‘thinkers’, ‘thought junkies’ mesmerized by our own mental chatter and emotional dramas that seldom have anything to do with reality. To put it quite simply, we do not use our minds; we are lost in our minds. This is the dis-ease of our modern times, and nearly everyone has it.
When we are lost in our minds, we are vulnerable to
mental and emotional reactivity (anger/violence/abuse),
addiction (drug/alcohol/sex),
stress (anxiety/guilt/fear),
low self-esteem (negative self-talk/pessimism/apathy)
lost relationships (poor communications/inattentiveness/carelessness)
ineffectiveness (lack of clarity/lack of concentration/poor decision making).
There are many words used to describe an individual that suffers from the effects of attending to compulsive mental activity:
Asleep, lost, neurotic, dreaming, automatic, hypnotized, and robotic to list a few (of the kinder ones).
A more technically correct term is ‘Unconscious’. Unconscious is defined as ‘lacking in awareness’, and it is this ‘lacking in awareness’ that can be traced to the roots of much of the worlds suffering. We lack the ability to attend to our present situation with awareness and clarity, here and now, free of useless habitual mental activity. Instead, we are immersed in our own mental activity, lost in inner chatter, opinions, beliefs, misinterpretations, analysis, and judgments.
We live in a fantasy-land made of thoughts of the future (producing fear/anxiety), memories of the past (producing guilt/regret), or self-talk about the present moment (producing dramatics/distortions).
While I have no wish to vilify the mind and ignore the enormous benefits humanity drives from mental activity, the long-term effects of these subtle and debilitating forms of suffering I’ve outlined are enormous and far-reaching. But…
But…
What happens when we begin to question this way of being?
What happens when we begin to look at our lives with clarity and precision?
What happens when the mind stops moving, we allow ourselves to become still, and sit with the bare actuality of our lives? What happens then?
These questions are my deepest interest, and it is my greatest gift to be able to assist others to explore these questions, as well as their implications to our lives. It is my understanding that nothing can make a bigger difference in this world than remedying the Unconsciousness of which I describe. It is also my understanding that Waking Up to Life! is beyond all other efforts toward change, healing, and growth.
To be awake means to be aware, alert and attentive, not lost in mental activity or drifting in a hazy cloud of nothingness. Either you are awake or asleep. One or the other.
One excellent way to solidify and deepen our efforts in waking up is to observe others.
On your next trip to a mall or park or other place suitable for ‘people-watching’, find a good spot to sit to observe the passer-byers.
First, allow your mind to become still by focusing on your breath’s for a few moments. Then, as your thinking settles down, start to observe the passer-byers with an open curiosity. See if you can get a sense of if they are awake, or not.
This is not about being malicious or judgmental, but about simply being awake and curious enough to see if you can ‘detect’ if others are awake or asleep. Do they appear full in their eyes and body, or is their attention lost in the head? Are they aware of their physical location in relation to others? Can you spot people that are either completely oblivious or over-involved with their present tasks.
Watch your own thoughts about those you are observing. See of you can catch your mind making subtle judgments or commenting on the appearance of others. Notice how the mind does it all on its own. Notice how when you catch the mind judging or commenting, it stops.
