Begin this meditation like all meditations,
Cutting the flow of that illuminating chatter,
By engaging fully with the sensory present.
So you are maintaining your peripheral awareness,
While giving your attention first to sound and tactile sensations,
Narrowing the scope of your attention to tactile sensations only,
Narrowing the scope again to tactile sensations of the breath only,
Narrowing the scope again of your attention to tactile sensations of the breath at the nose.
Give your full attention to those sensations only,
While you maintain peripheral awareness,
While your attention is fully engaged with tactile sensations of the breath.
Sound remains,
Even thought can remain,
But remain in peripheral awareness without capturing your attention.
So sound can become your ally rather than an enemy of meditation.
Sound can help you to maintain peripheral awareness and attention at the same time.
This peripheral awareness is also giving you reports about your mental state.
This is the source of your continuous introspective awareness.
Use that continuous introspective awareness to notice an invigoration of your clarity on the inhalation as you are focusing your full attention on those sensations at the nose.
And that real-time report notices a deepening of your relaxation as you release with each out-breath.
Let continuous introspective awareness give you real-time reports about the quality of your attention so that you can notice incipient laxity or distraction.
Before they fully form,
When your attention is shanghaied,
Let your reflex become,
To release your grasp on the distracting object,
To rejoice,
Ah,
I am lucid again,
This is it.
Return to your chosen object,
Tactile sensations of the breath at the nose,
And then reaffirm your intention to follow the full course of the exhalation,
All the way to the pause.
And while your attention is fully engaged with these sensations at the nose,
Your introspective awareness is giving you real-time reports so that you notice invigoration of clarity on the inhalation,
Deepening of relaxation on the exhalation.
Haha
