Take An Awareness Break

So, are you starting to be balanced in that open awareness, where you are aware of what is happening in the body, mind, intellect and the senses, from the moment you wake up?

Now, is that too much to ask? I, too, keep forgetting where I leave things. Like I
still don’t know where my watch is (a gift from Sandhya’s father). It’s been missing for a month. This is a clear indication that I was not attending to that moment and action, when I was putting it down in the first place.

But like how the Buddha said in the Dhammapada, ‘With dripping drops of water, even a water jug is filled’, slowly, slowly, with each ounce of effort, the possibility of progress is growing.

One good way to establish this habit is to try to become mindful right in the morning. Notice the first few moments of wakefulness before your memories, thoughts, ego and habitual routines take over. They should not know that you have woken up.

Try to be really soft and quiet in that place, in that cusp of wakefulness, where the petals of sleep have not fully opened but you are inwardly aware. In that space of awareness, notice the breath, notice sensations of the body, notice sense of touch as foot touches floor, etc. Then later, you will find that while driving car to the office or studio, a part of you is aware, appreciatively aware of the beauty of the sky, the swaying plants, etc.

And keep on trying to enter this space of mindfulness throughout the day for a few minutes each time. Maybe, every 2 hours or so, if you can time some alarm in your handphone, let the beep remind you to take an awareness break. Whatever you are doing, just become really aware of what is happening; as to what exactly you are doing, what muscles are being employed, how the ego is reacting, how is the body posture, how is the breath, the degree of attention, etc. In that moment of awareness, let go of the ‘my, me’ ideas. Do not relate to people as ‘my son, my wife/ husband’, etc. These kinds of ideas mask our awareness of them. When you look in neutrality, you will really see so many things you can really appreciate.

All these attempts will help you to finally get established in the centre of the moment; without falling totally to past or the future, or to expectation and judgment.
Like how you got balance in the crow posture. You would have realised in your initial days that the balance training involves continuous falling; first to the back itself, as the feet keep landing, for people like Rouxin. Then, sometimes, some heavy wobbles to the front, which Kwan occasionally does. And sometimes to the side which Susan does. But slowly, slowly the gross falls change to subtler adjustments. Perhaps instead of heavy pushing and landing on the feet, it becomes just a touch with that toe and then you are up for a few seconds. Until finally, you get or will get ‘centred’- in the middle, staying steady, light and joyous.
So, how is your breath right now? Are you slumping?