Guided meditation [1]

Meditation on ‘Attention’

This meditation is a non-dual insight practice designed to help you relax into stillness and observe the mind’s activity without being absorbed by it. It can be done anywhere - whether you’re in a supermarket, at home, waiting for a train, or walking in nature. The key idea is that there’s no need to focus or “do” anything. You simply rest in the natural awareness that lies beneath the mind’s automatic activity.

The mind constantly seeks attention, pulling you toward thoughts, sounds, bodily sensations, or emotions. This meditation invites you to notice that pull without following it. You gently allow yourself to fall back behind the mind, recognizing it as just another object arising in awareness. You observe the automatic nature of the mind, seeing how it reacts and latches onto things, yet without becoming entangled in it.

By resting in stillness and understanding that you are not the mind, you experience a deeper sense of freedom, relaxing into the truth of who you really are - beyond the mind’s constant seeking and grasping.

Listen to the meditation. And if you need a short introduction to these meditations you can listen to this.

Transcript:

You can do this meditation anywhere - whether you’re in the supermarket with your headphones on, sitting at home, waiting for a train, or preferably during a walk in nature. And the best part? It’s actually much more fun to do them anywhere. That’s one of the unique advantages of non-dual insight meditations - changing the context, circumstance, or place can offer you fresh insights and a different perspective on non-dual awareness. Each environment adds a new layer to your experience, allowing you to explore stillness from various angles.

You keep your eyes open during the meditation and just listen to my voice. The beauty of this meditation is that there is no actual “doing.”

Begin by settling into your surroundings, wherever you may be. There’s no need for any specific posture. Just let yourself be comfortable, whether you’re walking, standing, or sitting. Allow your body to relax, and as we continue, remember that there is nothing to achieve or focus on.

The mind is an attention-seeking machine. It operates automatically, reacting to whatever is happening around you. A loud noise pulls your attention, a phone notification steals your focus, a thought or emotion arises, and suddenly you are absorbed in it. This happens without you choosing - it’s an automatic function of the mind. This mechanism, while useful for survival, often pulls us out of the present moment in the modern world, where distractions are constant.

Now, try to notice this. Take some time and see that your mind is indeed seeking or finding something to cling to. It will give attention to a thought you have, or a sound, or a feeling in the body, or even a sudden small emotion. You might find it easier to notice when your attention is drawn to a sound or bodily sensation because they feel more obvious. Yet, the same automatic pull happens with your thoughts and emotions - it’s just more subtle. You can feel or try to sense the pull toward something, which is what we call attention. This pull is the mind’s way of latching onto an experience or thought, and by observing it, you begin to see how this process unfolds on its own.

During this meditation, I invite you to notice how your mind reacts. You may feel a pull to do something, to focus on a thought or sensation. When you notice that happening, simply let it go. Relax into the awareness that your mind is seeking something to grasp, but you don’t need to follow it. Just allow the mind to do what it does, but instead of engaging, allow yourself to rest in the stillness beneath. Simply relax and let go. Try to fall back behind the mind - relax beneath it or behind it - so that you can sense the mind itself as an object above you, rather than being caught up in it. Notice the space beneath the mind, and let yourself rest there, away from the constant movement of thoughts.

This is a paradox: when we are told to do nothing, the mind interprets it as a task. It tries to find something to engage with. And that’s okay. Your job here is not to suppress that instinct but to simply recognize it. When your mind contracts, thinking it needs to do something, just see it for what it is - an automatic reaction. Calmly release it, and return to resting in stillness.

Here’s a key insight: what if you are not the mind? What if the mind is just an autonomous machine, constantly seeking attention on its own? Thoughts and sensations arise, and your attention automatically follows, but that doesn’t mean you are the one being pulled. Beneath this automatic process, there is something else - something still and silent. And the reason it’s hard to notice this silent space is because the mind is constantly busy, shifting your attention from one thing to the next.

In this meditation, you have the opportunity to step back and observe this process. As thoughts, feelings, and distractions arise, watch them like fireworks - bursts of color and sound, grabbing your attention for a moment, but ultimately separate from you. You remain at rest in the stillness beneath, untouched by the display. The mind does its thing, lighting up with thoughts and reactions, but you are not pulled into it. It becomes a beautiful show, a play of sensations that you witness without being absorbed.

And as you notice this, understand that it’s normal for your mind to keep trying to engage. You may have to steadily release it many times during this meditation. That’s completely okay. There’s no need for this to be perfect - there is no perfection here. The practice is about getting a sense, a taste of resting in stillness. Each time you release, you get a taste of resting in your natural state - free from the mind’s grip.

Over time, as you combine this understanding with direct experiences of observing the mind’s activity, a deeper truth begins to reveal itself. You start to see the mind as it truly is - an attention-seeking machine, separate from the stillness within. And with this understanding comes a sense of freedom. You no longer need to be pulled along by the mind’s whims. Instead, you rest in the stillness beneath, relaxing and letting go.

This is the essence of non-dual awareness: resting in stillness and understanding that the mind is just another object arising in awareness, just like your other sensations, and that the mind will unfold just like any other experience. There’s no need to resist or control it. You simply allow everything to unfold naturally.

As you deepen this practice, this understanding will lead you closer to the ultimate freedom of simply being - resting in the truth of who you really are, beyond the mind’s endless seeking.