The 4 Types of Awareness Every Meditator Should Try
- A chapter from the book Mindfulness, A Guidebook to the Present Moment -
‘Altogether, the idea of meditation is not to create states of ecstasy or absorption, but to experience being.’ – Chogyam Trungpa
Once we have some experience with mindfulness meditation, we can begin to explore different types of awareness and expand our practice in unique and interesting ways. Up to this point, the meditations and glimpses in this book have been object based. That is, we choose a meditation object, like the breath, a mood, or a sound, and repeatedly return our attention back to that object when our mind wanders.
This constant practice of noticing distraction and returning back to an object works to train our mind. We will have developed the ability to remain focused for prolonged periods of time, and to be able to observe objects with increasing levels of subtlety. With these skills, we can then move onto deeper concepts and types of meditation that are traditionally seen as more challenging and esoteric. That said, the following practices can be attempted by a raw beginner, but it is generally believed that some level of experience and proficiency with traditional mindfulness meditation is necessary to ensure that the mind is suitably equipped.
In her book ‘The Little Book of Being’ Diana Winston does a wonderful job of placing the different types of mindfulness practices onto a ‘spectrum of awareness’. She sorts them into a hierarchy that ranges from ‘object based and focused awareness’ all the way to ‘objectless natural awareness’. While these practices can be found in a variety of different books and teachings, I have not seen them so systematically organized anywhere else. Thus, I will be using her titles and order below.
1: Focused Awareness
This kind of mindfulness practice is what we have been mainly working with up to this point. The meditator chooses a meditation object, traditionally the breath, and continually returns their attention back to it for the duration of the session.
2: Investigative Awareness
Here we open our awareness to notice other aspects of our experience when they become predominant. We start with a focus on the breath but when our attention is drawn away from it, for example by a sound, thought or physical sensation, we turn our attention towards whatever drew our attention away and investigate its changing nature. When it no longer holds our attention, we return our focus back to the breath.
Glimpse: Investigative Awareness
Close your eyes, and for the next minute observe your breath. If something draws your attention, observe its changing nature mindfully. When it no longer holds your attention, return your focus back to your breath.
3: Choiceless Awareness
Here we allow ourselves to focus on whatever is arising in our body or mind, without returning our focus back to the breath. In a way, we do not choose the object of our meditation, they choose us. We just attend to them as they arise. When practicing choiceless awareness, it is important to remain mindful, to not get lost in thought, memory, or emotion. It is common to realise that rather than meditating, you have instead been thinking or planning. If this happens, simply ground yourself by focusing on the sensations of the breath, and then return to your choices practice. Your goal is to observe whatever arises, without getting caught up by it.
Practically speaking, you will sit and turn your attention to the contents of your consciousness as they arise, then you simply observe them coming and going. A thought comes, you observe it, and watch it pass. A memory comes, you observe it and watch it pass. If you find yourself actively thinking or planning, take a mindful breath and gently return to your choiceless awareness practice.
Glimpse: Choiceless Awareness
Close your eyes, and for the next three minutes, observe the contents of consciousness as they appear. Make no effort to choose what you focus on, nor to direct, engage with, or push for anything. Simply observe whatever appears as it appears.
If you find yourself actively thinking, planning, or perpetuating a thought, gently acknowledge it and return your focus back to the contents of your consciousness. If you need too, do some mindful breaths (Focused Awareness) before returning to your Choiceless Awareness practice.
4: Natural Awareness
Here we move away from objects as the focus of our meditation, and instead we turn our attention towards that which notices the objects, or to awareness itself. We are in essence attempting to turn the camera of awareness back onto itself, becoming aware of awareness and just be with it.
Natural awareness can be explored from three different perspectives, although all are inherently interconnected:
1: Awareness of ‘that which contains everything’ – Here we draw our attention to the open spaciousness of consciousness, becoming aware that it literally contains everything. All thoughts, emotions, memories, events, and physical sensations of every variety are to be found within the realm of consciousness. Even our sense of awareness of these sensations is itself to be found within consciousness.
2: Awareness of ‘that which knows’ – Here we ask the question ‘who or what is noticing’ or ‘who am I?’. This simple question has tremendous depth and has indeed been the focus point of lifetimes of contemplative practice, so if your instant reaction was to disregard it as pithy or obvious, then I encourage you to take another look. Where are ‘you’ located? Do you have a consistent self? Can you find ‘that which knows’?
3: Awareness of ‘that which is’ – Here we click into the awareness that is already and always present. We notice the fact that it is impossible to not be aware. We realise that everything is happening all on its own. We sit with the awareness that is simply happening, we rest there, and if we find ourselves drawn by a mental or physical phenomena we attempt to reorientate ourselves back into awareness. We wake up back to the natural state of spacious awareness.
As you can see, natural awareness is a challenging state to describe. Although it can be approached from a variety of perspectives, it is far easier felt than explained. This is because unlike the other three forms of awareness practice, natural awareness encapsulates the entirety of consciousness, including the thing observing it, and the act of observation. Instead of looking at a beautiful painting, here we are becoming aware of the paint itself, as well as the painter and the act of painting.
Another useful analogy is to look at the contents of consciousness as waves on an ocean. You cannot have a wave apart from the ocean, and likewise you cannot have a phenomenon apart from awareness. There is no place for sensations of the breath to appear but in consciousness. Any mental or physical phenomena, or even the act of attention itself are like waves. They can be noticed, watched, followed, and investigated, yet they are not apart from the ocean, they are the ocean. In this case, the ocean is the totality of awareness.
Meditation: Natural Awareness
For the next ten minutes, turn your attention inwards. Begin by grounding yourself with focused attention on the breath, and then let your attention shift onto the contents of your consciousness. Notice how expansive consciousness is. Notice how it contains all of your thoughts, emotions, memories, feelings, as well as all of the physical sensations, including sights and sounds. Notice the sense of awareness itself. What is the nature of awareness, and what is it like to be aware?
Now ask yourself the question ‘Who or what is aware?’ If your mind wanders, gently return it back to that question. Gently sit with this question for a few minutes.
Now become aware of awareness. Notice how it is ever present and happening all on its own. Rest in this space for the remainder of the session.
If at any time you find your mind wandering, or lacking focus, do some focused awareness on the breath and then return to your natural awareness practice.
I like to approach natural awareness through the Sanskrit phrase Tat Tvam Asi. There are multiple translations, but I lean towards ‘I am that’ or ‘The knowing, the knower, and the known are one’. In this way Tat Tvam Asi highlights natural awareness. I am the thought that has trapped my mind. I am the physical sensation. I am the state of awareness. I am awareness itself. These things are all one and the same. All a part of consciousness. Once again, I must highlight the inadequacy of words here to describe a state beyond words. As with most esoteric teachings, they are merely a finger pointing to the moon. They will show you where to head but cannot quite get you there. You must experience it for yourself.
Glimpse: Tat Tvam Asi
For the next few minutes, turn your attention inwards. Take a moment and observe the contents of your consciousness, and then turn and observe attention and consciousness itself. Now gently repeat the phrase ‘Tat Tvam Asi’.
You can use this phrase during your day whenever you notice strong emotions, think of mindfulness meditation, or become aware of attention or consciousness. The idea is that we are training ourselves to become naturally aware more often throughout the day, as well as attempting to link the state of natural awareness to a trigger word or phrase, in this case ‘Tat Tvam Asi’, so that when we next have a formal session, we can arrive there easier.
It is important to highlight that each of the stages on the above ‘Spectrum of Awareness’ are themselves total practices. Some meditators will focus on one to the exclusion of all else and receive tremendous benefits, whereas others prefer to use different practices at different times. Both approaches have merit, but my preference is to try a variety of different practices as I feel that doing so expands my mindfulness skills across a broader spectrum of objects and concepts. That said, I do tend to begin all of my meditation sessions with focused awareness meditation on the breath, and then explore the other approaches on the spectrum of awareness from there.
If you choose to focus exclusively on one particular type of meditation practice, I still encourage you to intermittently experiment with the other approaches every few months. You may find that your work in one area will produce benefits in another. Initially I struggled with choiceless and natural awareness, but now am finding the practice enjoyable and insightful.
A final way to look at natural awareness comes from Naval Ravikant’s tweetstorm ‘Meditation: The Art of Doing Nothing’. Here he suggests that the best form of meditation is to sit and do nothing. You are to imagine your mind as an email inbox with a bunch of unopened mail. Every day, with every interaction and event that occurs, more emails are added. But if you sit and let your mind process those ‘emails’ eventually they will all be sorted, and you will reach a state of ‘inbox zero’. He suggests 60-minute sessions, but it is up to you to choose how long you will practice for.
‘Make no effort for or against anything. Whatever happens, happens. Surrender to yourself in the moment. Resist nothing and reject nothing, including the urge to resist and reject.’ – Naval Ravikant
Meditation: Inbox ZeroSet a timer for 60 minutes and close your eyes. Then do nothing. Repeat for the duration of the session.
This chapter is from the book Mindfulness, A Guidebook to the Present Moment
