Now, please stand to attention ... and give me your full attention. Alright, can I ask for your 'bare attention'? 'What the hell is that?', I hear you ask. Well, let me explain. This post is all about mindfulness and, more specifically, a most important element involved in mindfulness called 'bare attention.' (No, not 'bear' attention, or 'bare' [as in 'barenaked'] attention, just bare attention. Stop being frivolous, Ellis-Jones.)
Let's begin. For what it's worth, my own
definition of mindfulness goes something like this:
Mindfulness
is the watchful, receptive, deliberate, and purposeful presence of bare attention to, and choiceless awareness of, the content
of the action (both internal and external) of the present moment … from one
moment to the next.
The word
‘presence’ refers to both physical and psychological presence---of you, your
body, and your mind. 'Watchful' presence means that there you are very much aware that you're aware of what is going on in and about you, and this alert and open awareness of your actual awareness proceeds deliberately, purposefully, and receptively on your part. I will speak about ‘bare attention’ in this post. In at least one previous post I have written about the meaning of those words ‘choiceless [i.e. non-judgmental] awareness.’ I use the word ‘content’ because it is ‘content’---in terms of our
personal experiences of actual occurrences of things in space and time---of
which we are aware and to which we ought to give clear and single-minded
attention.
That content may
be internal (eg thoughts, feelings, mental images, as well as bodily sensations
and the like) or external (sounds, sights, etc), and, as I say, we are talking
about the content of actual events be
they internal or external or as is almost invariably the case a mixture of both
of those things. And it is action in the present moment; thus the recollection
of some memory of a past event is a present ‘now’ experience. It is always
experience in the present moment.
However, as we all know, the present moment is ever so elusive and ephemeral.
Life is a constant flow, and never static, and so we speak of the action of the
present moment from one moment to the next.
Now, what do we
mean by ‘bare attention’? One of the best books ever written on meditation, and
insight meditation (or mindfulness) in particular, is The Heart of Buddhist Meditation, by the German-born Sri-Lanka-ordained Theravada monk, Nyanaponika Thera [pictured]. Before I
go any further I need to make it perfectly clear that you don’t have to be into
Buddhism to practise the type of meditation I write about on my blog. Not at
all. Indeed, you don’t have to be religious at all. (Perhaps it helps not to
be. Only kidding.)
Anyway, all you
need is a purposively open mind---and, most
importantly, a mind that is curious and
receptive to whatever is happening in
your moment-to-moment experience of daily life. And, after all, is it not
self-evident that it helps to be purposefully alert, receptive, and attentive to what is going on in and
about us? Whenever I mention that I'm into mindfulness some people immediately
think of yellow robes, gurus, transcendental states of consciousness,
mind-altering drugs, alternative medicine, alternative spirituality, out-of-body experiences, escapism,
and just plain wackiness. Mindfulness is none of those things. Mindfulness is
simply going about your daily, everyday life---with your eyes wide open and
your mind open, curious and engaged. Got that? Then please never forget
it---and pass the word around.
Back to Nyanaponika
Thera. In his book The Heart of
Buddhist Meditation the venerable monk and teacher defines, or rather
describes, bare attention in these words:
Bare attention is the clear and single-minded awareness of what actually
happens to us and in us, at the successive moments of
perception. It is called ‘bare’, because it attends just to the bare facts of a
perception as presented either through the five physical senses or through the
mind which, for Buddhist thought, constitutes the sixth sense. When attending
to that sixfold sense impression, attention or mindfulness is kept to a bare
registering of the facts observed, without reacting to them by deed, speech or
by mental comment which may be one of self-reference (like, dislike, etc), judgement
or reflection. … [original emphasis]
Now, I can hear
you asking, ‘But what if I find myself wandering in thought, or starting to
form some liking or disliking of the content of the experience---a reaction, in
other words?’ Well, Nyanaponika Thera gives this advice:
If
during the time, short or long, given to the practice of Bare Attention, any
such comments arise in one’s mind, they themselves are made objects of Bare
Attention, and are neither repudiated nor pursued, but are dismissed, after a
brief mental note has been made of them.
One of way of
doing the latter---and perhaps the simplest and least intrusive way---is simply
to say, ‘Thinking, thinking,’ or ‘feeling, feeling,’ or something like that. In
other words, any noting should be brief and perfunctory. Now, for heaven’s
sake, never try to actively expel the
thought, feeling, or whatever. Remember the law of non-resistance? Whatever you
resist, persists. Be gentle, and use indirect means. Just ‘note’ and
gently---yes, gently, indeed ever so gently---bring your mind back to a state of clear and
single-minded awareness of what is otherwise happening in and around you. Observe each thought or feeling as it arises---then let it fade out in its natural manner ... as it always will, provided you don't resist it or get 'carried away' by and with it.
One more bit of useful advice from Nyanaponika Thera. (Note. He has much more to say about the matter
in his book. Please get a copy of it. I think it will help you immeasurably.)
Your bare attention should not only be clear and single-minded, it should also
consist in a ‘bare and exact registering of the object [of your
moment-to-moment experience].’ In other words, let your concern be solely with registering---with passive detachment and objectivity---the facticity and actuality of things-as-they-really-are as they unfold from one moment to the next. Do not personalize this. Just watch and observe, as if it all were happening to someone else (that is, as if you have no personal connection with whatever you observe). That is not
an easy thing to do, as we are all so accustomed to labeling, judging,
interpreting, analyzing, and otherwise commenting upon things-as-they-happen.
The inevitable result? We lose direct and immediate contact with reality. We
are no longer with ‘it,’ so to speak. We are some place else. That is certainly
not the best way to live. We all know that from personal experience. So, don't dwell upon or otherwise cling to thoughts and feelings. Let them fade out in their natural manner.
Only when we live mindfully, with bare attention, can we truly be said to be living in the 'now,' experiencing life right as it happens, so to speak. Sure, there is a place for labeling, judging, interpreting, analyzing, and otherwise commenting upon things-as-they-happen---but not every second or few seconds. That is not the way to go. Bare attention
means being and living attentively, receptively, and purposefully in the so-called present moment ... for moments pass. As I write this, THIS (now past) moment has already gone forever …never to return. Such is life.
By the way, Nyanaponika Thera had this to say in his book about mindfulness. He said that mindfulness---the 'method of no-method'---provides 'the most simple and direct, the most thorough and effective, method for training and developing the mind for its daily tasks and problems.' That's what you really want---or at least need---isn't it? If so, please forget about costly, gimmicky and trademarked forms or so-called 'techniques' (oh, how I hate that word) of meditation, and go for the most simple, direct, and natural means available and proceed to apply it to your entire life. You see, mindfulness takes meditation---in the true sense and meaning of the word---and then applies it to one's whole life.
By the way, Nyanaponika Thera had this to say in his book about mindfulness. He said that mindfulness---the 'method of no-method'---provides 'the most simple and direct, the most thorough and effective, method for training and developing the mind for its daily tasks and problems.' That's what you really want---or at least need---isn't it? If so, please forget about costly, gimmicky and trademarked forms or so-called 'techniques' (oh, how I hate that word) of meditation, and go for the most simple, direct, and natural means available and proceed to apply it to your entire life. You see, mindfulness takes meditation---in the true sense and meaning of the word---and then applies it to one's whole life.
Happy
bare-attentioning, everyone!
RELATED POSTS
BRUCE LEE ON MINDFULNESS
PIERCING THE MOMENT WITH MINDFULNESS
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE 'CONSTANTLY AWARE'?
PIERCING THE MOMENT WITH MINDFULNESS
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE 'CONSTANTLY AWARE'?
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