Each step of The Practice of Living Awareness has layers of intended results. Step 2: tip of the nose has three levels of engagement and three intended results.
- withdrawal from the outer and coming in to the inner. This is classically called pratyahara (Sanskrit). Cultivating withdrawal from outer stimuli, responsibilities, and activities provides the possibility of focus and concentration. Then concentration can be used in meditation as well as life.
- the sense of relation which leads to perspective. This is a result of coming inside. The world of subtle relations can come into view. Perspective the relation that one thing has to another, that all things have with all other things. Therefore, perspective is the frame of reference. The tip of the nose is small compared to the source of each breath. Breath gives us life – it is big compared to the cup of coffee that we might put more emphasis on. All things have their corrected value when put in the context of relatedness. The tip of the nose begins that exploration.
- Coming inside and what one develops as a result become the foundation for insight. Vipassana means clear seeing: insight. Vipassana includes the recognition of causes and the conditions that result. Equally so, one can go backward from conditions or results and look for the causes that one has put in motion or in place that caused the resultant conditions.
The Practice of Living Awareness is a synthesis. Ultimately, all meditation is!
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