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Awareness: Easy in
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can do it. She sighs and turns back to the music. I watch her back fondly for a
moment, reecting that practice is often hard and tedious, and we sometimes
simply dont want to do it. We want the benets of practice, the beautiful
music, and we know that the way to do it is by sitting down each day and
practicing, but still we are reluctant to do so.
Awareness is a simple concept, but practicing it isnt always easy.
classes. For that short period of time, we hold back the future and the past
and live in the present, basking in the beauty of the here and now.
But what about all the other minutes of our lives? What is meditation for, if
not to transform our lives, to allow us to experience the truth through action?
Again and again I return to Swami Ramas passage, and attempt to take up
the challenge of the Bhagavad Gita.
In the process, I have discovered a little exercise, simple in itself, that I
practice every day. It can be done with almost any activitymaking
sandwiches, tying your daughters shoelaces, typing on the computer. At
di;erent times in my day, I practice mindfulness in my actions. Heres the
exercise.
Take your attention to the point at which the action takes place. Youre
17/08/2015 13:54
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https://yogainternational.com/article/view/awareness-easy-in-theory-dif...
making co;ee for colleagues at work. Fill the kettle, watching the water
stream out of the tap. Plug the kettle in, observing which of your senses is
involved in the action. Open the co;ee jar, spoon the co;ee, add the milk. All
the time focus on the point at which the action takes place; i.e. your hand,
your eye, the water, etc. Observe what happens. Breathe.
Notice how the mind becomes still and one-pointed and how the activity is
transformed. By focusing your attention on the action as you are performing
it, you are gracing it with your presence.
seless.
Like many yoga practices, the technique is simple. Try it in the marketplace
and in the kitchen, in tra c jams and in the o ce. Mindfulness brings us
into the beauty of the present, and transforms the actions that make up our
lives into a form of meditation.
(https://yogainternational.com/guide/15-for-30-yoga-challenge)
17/08/2015 13:54
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