Friends giving One-Pointed Attention at a retreat.
For our home retreat experience this week, our focus is to apply one-pointed attention strategies to deepen our meditation and bring wisdom to every aspect of our lives. Easwaran reminds us that
“By seeking the Self through meditation, we will come to live in awareness of the unity of life expressed in everyone, everywhere, every minute.”
As a practical way to approach this week’s focus, think of an instance in your daily life where you’d like to apply One-Pointed Attention more. Please share this with us! Hearing about your efforts helps us all to develop our skills.
Consider how you might make the most of this opportunity for applying more One-Pointed Attention during the week. You might choose an idea from the list below, or choose an idea of your own. You may decide to extend an instance where you already have success with One-Pointed Attention. Choose something that will work for you!
When interacting with others, I give my full attention – especially when it’s a challenging or difficult situation.
I’m developing detachment by practicing dropping tasks when needed.
I’m working on noticing when I find myself doing two or more things at once, and choosing to do one thing.
At work or school, I’m working on extending the length of time I am in complete concentration. It may mean trying to stick with something just a little bit longer than usual.
Example: I’m working on One-Pointed Attention during breakfast by noticing when I’m drawn to checking my phone while eating, and seeing if I can make a change.
We’d love to hear from you and hear what you’d like to try out this week. Feel free to share your reflections as you go!
To start your experiment, here’s some inspiration from Easwaran in this three-minute video clip about the purpose of training attention.
