Creative Guidance – Dynamics of Focus & Awareness – Inspirational Educative Articles

Dynamics of Focus & Awareness:

While focus is all about picking a single point and diverting your attention to that point, awareness is to hold several things in your consciousness at the same time. 

What an archer needs is focus, and what a meditator needs is awareness. Focus is only the starting point of meditation. Eventually, you have to develop the ability to simply be aware of things. 

When an archer is focused on the target and pulling back on the bowstring to shoot, he might not be aware of anything that is happening in his surroundings. All his focus and attention is consumed in watching the target. 

Focus consumes all your attention; awareness, however, is different. When you begin your meditation, it is difficult to simply be aware of things. The easier way to start is by picking a point and focusing on it. With practice, this focus will expand into awareness.

Initially, you have to begin your meditation with focus, and eventually you will learn how to just be aware. With enough practice, you will realize that you don’t have to put in a great deal of effort to focus on your breath. You will intuitively see that it is a lot easier to watch the breath if you are relaxed and not trying too hard. 

With practice, your awareness will allow you to observe a distracting thought, acknowledge it, and let it go. You no longer have to fight with your thoughts. If a thought enters and says, “Hey, let’s go for a walk,” you will calmly say, “No, let’s sit and watch the breath.” 

Since you are not intensely focusing on the breath, your awareness will allow you to watch the breath and your thoughts at the same time. Sometimes, it is next to impossible to avoid a thought. With awareness, you can watch your breath and continue to listen to the noise in your head. This will help you to stay in the present moment, and you can avoid drifting in thoughts. 

The whole purpose of meditation is to ensure that you don’t drift in thoughts. When you begin to drift in thoughts, very soon you will be asleep; instead of meditating, you will be sleepitating! Knowing the subtle difference between awareness and focus is the key to experiencing the magic of inner silence.

“This article is a part of the creative endeavor of Nirvana Foundation and IASBABA.”