The Spectrum Of Awareness

Gathering some notes for a One Mindful Breath session. Jump to:

• Notes to self
  • TODO
  • Agenda ideas
    • Some options to shorten it
    • Agenda version 2
    • Agenda: final version (ish)
• One Mindful Blurb
  • Details
• Practices
• Overview
• Warm up
• Cool down
• Focused Awareness
• Investigative Awareness
• Choiceless Awareness
• The flip (from Choiceless to Natural)
• Natural Awareness
  • That Which Contains Everything
  • That Which Knows
  • That Which Is
• Full Spectrum Meditation
• After
• Session notes
  • Intro, credit, Overview, Practices
  • Minitation: Investigative flowing into Choiceless (about 5 minutes)
  • DIY intro
• References

Notes to self

• Start with the agenda (content, not precise times).
• Have a good analogy. Maybe the camera lenses one. Or a classic ocean and waves or sky and clouds one.
• Could make little icon-like images to illustrate the points a bit: narrow / board; effort / effortless; object / object-less.
• Make sure we have enough time for discussion too.
• Start disclaimer / note: we’re presenting these as four distinct practices, but that’s just for convenience. Really, they blur into each other, help define each other. These four types are the map, not the territory. The territory is your experience of them.

TODO

• Finalise blurb
• Finalise session content
  • Decide who does what

Agenda ideas

• Intro, credit
• Overview
• Practices
• 1m intro, 10m practice for Focused Awareness
• 1m intro, 10m practice for Investigative Awareness
• 1m intro, 10m practice for Choiceless Awareness
• 2m intro to Natural Awareness
  • 10m practice That Which Contains Everything
  • 10m practice That Which Knows
  • 10m practice That Which Is Everything
• End with 20m Full Spectrum Meditation

👆 This is too much to try and cover in one session. It’s about 90 minutes by that list! 😅

Some options to shorten it

• Ditch Natural Awareness practice, just talk about it.
• Merge Investigative and Choiceless. Sort ditch Investigative.
• Make all the practice sessions 5m each.
• Talk through Focused, Investigative, Choiceless, then do them in one 20m practice.
• Ditch “That Which Is”, and do “That Which Contains Everything” flowing into “That Which Knows”.

Agenda version 2

• Cold open of Warm up, 5m Focused, Cool down.
• Intro, credit, Overview, Practices.
• Investigative flowing into Choiceless, one session.
• Break for (short!) discussion.
• Overview of Nattyware.
• That Which Contains Everything flowing into That Which Knows, one session.

Agenda: final version (ish)

• G. Short What’s On Top. Two words to describe what’s on top.
• G. Cold open of short Focused Awareness minitation.
• S. Intro, credit, Overview, Practices.
• S. Minitation: Investigative flowing into Choiceless.
• G. Tiny overview of Nattyware.
• G. Minitation: That Which Contains Everything flowing into That Which Knows, maybe That Which Is too.
• S: Tiny reminder of the practices. Intro for DIY final longer meditation.
• S: Ring the bells.

One Mindful Blurb

Exploring the spectrum of awareness

Details

🕒 Time: Doors open at 7:15, and we start the session at 7:30

📍 Location: We meet in the Wellington Friends Centre at the end of Montcrieff Street, up the steps and in the room to the right.

🧘‍♀️ Guided Meditation: we’ll spend most of the session sitting in meditation.

🗺️ We’ll practice some different kinds of awareness: focused awareness, investigative awareness, choiceless awareness, and natural awareness. We’ll vary our attention from narrow to broad, our effort from high to low, and our focus from one object to many, to none.

🔮 This session is for anyone interested in trying different types of meditation and seeing how they can serve different purposes and moods.

💻 Unable to join us in person? The session will also be streamed on Zoom for regular attendees who can’t make the session. To join from 7:30 pm select ‘Join a meeting’ and then enter the meeting room number 919-527-2569.

Practices

• Focused Awareness: very narrow, high effort, one object.
  • Cultivates concentration, tames a busy mind.
• Investigative Awareness: narrow, some effort, some objects.
  • Good for being flexible, but controlled.
• Choiceless Awareness: broad, variable effort, many objects.
• Natural Awareness: very broad, effortless, no object(s).
  • Highlights impermanence, fluidity.

With Natural Awareness, it’s a bit like each of the attributes (width, effort, object) reaches a limit and flips to its opposite. Narrow becomes infinitely broad, effort becomes effortless, and object(s) become no-object. (Like a wave getting smaller and smaller until it disappears by becoming the sea.(?))

Overview

• These four are a model / map for working with awareness, with the goal of helping to bring some fluidity and flexibility to your practice.
  • They’re from The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering Your Natural Awareness by Diana Winston.
• They’re different ways to meditate, but not hierarchical: they’re useful for different things and situations.
• We’ll very briefly discuss then do a short practice of four types of awareness: Focused, Investigative, Choiceless, Natural. They vary by:
  • width of attention, from narrow to broad;
  • amount of effort, from quite a lot to none;
  • the object of meditation, from one object to none (Could say: from one anchor to anchorless).

Warm up

• Get into a comfortable position. Adjust your posture a little.
• Close your eyes, on have your gaze downwards and gentle.
• If you notice any tightness or discomfort, invite yourself to settle, to be soft, to relax, to settle.
• Take a few deep breaths.

Cool down

• Take a few deep breaths.
• Notice how you feel now, after the practice.
• The same? A little different?

Focused Awareness

• Most like “classic” mindfulness. Good for clarifying and unifying your mind.
• Choose one anchor for this session.
  • Whatever feels easiest or clearest. They all work equally well.
  • Breath, at your nose or chest or belly. Sensations in your hands, or feet. Or something else.
• Warm up
• Let your attention come to rest of your anchor.
• When you notice your attention has wandered, again, as it will, just gently guide your attention back to your anchor.
  • It can help to label the distraction, to help let it go from your mind.
• Cool down

Investigative Awareness

• Attention a little broader, effort about the same, some objects but mostly one.
• Good for noticing the tone of moods, emotions, memories, and for noticing their impermanence.
• When something arises and pulls you away, let you attention rest on it briefly, then come back to your anchor.
  • Just noticing, witnessing. Not judging or evaluating.
  • Watch it shift, morph, change.
    • From “my emotion” to “an emotion passing through me.”
• “Investigative” like explore it experientially, not like figure it out with thinking.
• Warm up
• Allow whatever happens, whatever arises.
  • It’s okay to feel whatever you feel.
  • Whatever you’re feeling, you’re not the only one.
  • Naming the emotion can help.
• Bring attention to part of your body that feels at ease, solid, safe, stable, pleasant.
  • Feel the goodness for a moment. Let it sink in.
  • Use that as your anchor for this session.
• When an emotion arises, if it feels difficult, gently come back to your anchor.
• Cool down

Choiceless Awareness

• Now we’ll let our attention go more broad, have a more variable amount of effort, and take it more objects of meditation.
• We’ll let go of our anchor and notice objects change and move through us.
• If your attention moves away from the anchor, there’s no need to return to it.
• Treat it like a playful series of noticings.
  • Let go of like or don’t like, and just notice things arise and pass away.
• Some things you might notice:
  • body sensations like heavy/light, warm/cool, tingling and vibration.
    • Let go of the story and just notice the changing sensations.
  • emotions like sadness, joy, irritation, anxiety, sometimes nothing much at all, sometimes there but subtle.
  • mental activity like remembering, planning, fantasising.
  • maybe something we don’t usually focus on with meditation: smells or tastes.
• Warm up
• Start with your anchor.
• Notice what’s arising. Body sensations, emotions, mental activity, something else.
  • A sound, a memory, a sensation in your body.
  • Things might move slowly or quickly.
• Can feel disorienting if you usually practice with an anchor.
  • That’s okay. Notice that feeling for a moment.
  • If it helps, come back to your anchor for a moment.
• Cool down

The flip (from Choiceless to Natural)

Let’s make a bit of a shift, a bit of a change in perspective.

Focused, Investigative, and Choiceless are object-focused. Let’s try something subject-focused. Instead of putting our attention on the contents of consciousness, let’s put our attention on the context of consciousness.

You might have heard people describe this as “look for the looker”, or “turn attention upon itself.” It can be a bit tricky because it seems… dodgy? weird? a bit peculiar? At first, it might seem inscrutable. Then you might feel like you “get it”, with a “but”. It seems to easy, too obvious, too close. That’s it! It’s relaxing motion, not a tensing. It’s applying less effort, not more.

Natural Awareness

• Free-flowing mindfulness that’s awake, open, spacious.
• Pure, pristine, luminous.
• Deeply connected to a fundamental sense of wellbeing. Not “everything is perfect.” (More like “everything is okay.”)

Minimal effort, or none. Build up concentration and stability with more focused practice makes it easier to move into Natural Awareness.

Three framings that people tend to feel it as one of.

• That which contains everything.
• That which knows.

• That which is.

• Bring to mind a time you felt at peace, at ease, at home, connected. For example: in nature; with a dear friend; in the zone in athletics or sport; in the midst of creative or artistic pursuits.
• Bring more senses into the recollection. What are you feeling in your body?

That Which Contains Everything

Everything that’s happening in the mind is like clouds in the sky. The clouds are part of the sky, not separate. Wide open, vast, spacious.

• Notice sounds coming and going. Listen really far out, the furthest away you can. Don’t analyse, just listen.
• Notice the sensations in your body. Imagine you can feel the space around your body. Now feel the space expanding out, until it reaches the corners of the room.
  • Now add listening.

That Which Knows

• Who or what is noticing? “Look at the looker.” Not always easy to do!
• Posed as a question, but there’s not a right answer. Sit with the question. Sit with the confusion.
• Ask the question and see what arises. Experiential answer, not an intellectual one.

That Which Is

Just click into the awareness that’s always and already there. Can you be not-aware? Try!

• Don’t worry about trying to get this practice right. Just be. Nothing to do.
• Let your eyes rest on whatever’s in front of you, not on any particular object. Just settle there, rest for a bit.

Full Spectrum Meditation

Focused to Investigative to Choiceless to Natural. They flow into each other, make sense of each other.

• Focused. Bring attention to your anchor. Don’t get lost in stories. Just notice.
  • Feel your mind unifying and calming.
• Investigative. Now notice when other things become predominant. Stay briefly, then go back to your anchor.
  • Experience doesn’t belong to us, it just moves through us.
• Choiceless. Let go of the anchor.
  • Just track experience, moment to moment.
• Natural. Let of anything. Just be. Let your body and mind rest.
  • Awareness is happening all the time. There’s nothing we need to do.

After

• When we’re not sitting, it’s more like post-meditation than not-meditation.
• Notice how there’s not really a difference. Awareness is still there.

Session notes

Intro, credit, Overview, Practices

• This is from The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering Your Natural Awareness by Diana Winston
• Also at The Spectrum of Awareness – Diana Winston on the Waking Up App, some “Insights at the edge” episodes on Sounds True, on Spotify and other place.
• Four ways to meditate.
  • A map / model for awarenesss.
  • Bring some fluidity and flexibility to your practice.
• Different ways to meditate
  • Not hierarchical
  • Useful for different things and situations.
  • Vary by:
    • object of meditation, from one object to several to kinda none;
    • width of attention, from narrow to broad to kinda everything;
    • amount of effort, from quite a lot to little to kinda no effort.

The four kinds:

• Focused Awareness: one object, very narrow, high effort.
  • Cultivates concentration, tames a busy mind, clarifying.
• Investigative Awareness: one main object, narrow, some effort.
  • Good for being flexible, but controlled.
  • Good for noticing the tone of moods, emotions, memories, and for noticing their impermanence.
  • “Investigative” like exploring experientially, not like detective thinking.
  • Still connected to the anchor, but a little room to explore.
• Choiceless Awareness: several objects, broad, variable effort.
  • Good for flexibility, relaxing and resting.
  • Also called Open Awareness. Just sit and notice whatever arises, moment after moment.
• Natural Awareness: no objects, very broad, effortless.
  • Highlights impermanence, fluidity.

Minitation: Investigative flowing into Choiceless (about 5 minutes)

We’ll start with our anchor. Then when we get pulled away, let our attention rest on the object briefly, notice it. Then gently back to the anchor. Then after a minute or two we’ll lightly let go of our anchor.

• Settle into a comfortable posture.
• Bring your attention to your anchor.
  • Part of your body that feels at ease, solid, safe, stable, pleasant.
  • Maybe your breath.
  • Pay close attention to your anchor. Notice everything you can about it.
• When something pulls you away, just notice it.
  • There’s no need to judge or evaluate it, just notice it.
  • Maybe it’s an emotion. Or a thought. Or a sensation in your body.
  • Let it hold your attention for a moment.
  • If it’s something that feels difficult, that’s okay.
    • See if you can let whatever is there be there.
    • See if you can leave it where it is. Soften around it.
    • Gently come back to your anchor.
• Notice your anchor.
  • Then noticing what else arises, giving it your full attention.
  • Then coming back to your anchor.
• Now, loosen your hold on your anchor. Keep alert, but don’t worry about coming back to it.
  • Let go of the story and just notice that what’s arising keeps changing.
    • Just pay clear attention to whatever is arising.
  • Try and let go of like or don’t like, and just notice things arise and pass away.
  • Sounds, just noticing them, not getting lost in a story
  • Body sensations. Movement, heaviness, tingling, warmth, vibration.
  • Emotions. Like sadness or joy, frustration. Simply notice.
  • Thoughts. What’s happening? Planning, imagining, remembering.
• Now bring attention back to your anchor.
• Take a few deep breaths.

DIY intro

• We’ll end with about 15 minutes of DIY.
  • Pick one, or more, of the styles that we had tiny tastes of, and sit with it a bit longer.
  • No guidance for this bit of sit.
• As a quick reminder, the four were:
  • Focused Awareness: one object, very narrow, high effort.
  • Investigative Awareness: one main object, narrow, some effort.
  • Choiceless Awareness: several objects, broad, variable effort.
  • Natural Awareness: no objects, very broad, effortless.
• You might like to do a “Full Spectrum” version: Focused into Investigative into Choiceless into Natural.
• Take a few moments to set your intention.
• …
• Three bells to start, three bells to finish.

References

• The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering Your Natural Awareness by Diana Winston
  • My notes on The Little Book of Being - Diana Winston
• The Spectrum of Awareness – Diana Winston on the Waking Up App

Added 2024-05-19, last updated 2024-06-10.