Our “support” of mind is a stability of awareness.

Steady even through the turbulent winds of the mind. Awareness of awareness is the “support” of the mind. Through our regular awareness training with shamatha or attending exercises, we practice again and again to cultivate this “support”- this capacity to remain unmoved by the events of mind regardless of their content. Awake, we are conscious with some observational distance of what is happening. Seeing and noticing without indulging… and in this wakefulness, there is “space” or “emptiness” opening up within us… expanding and settling us into a clearer and calmer state of mind.

In this “space” we are simply watching and observing the activities of mind intimately and sensitively minus the “personal identification” with what is witnessed. The act of “awarenessing” is this stability of awareness- this simple acknowledgment of what is observed… sensed… felt…or thought… just as it is.

Thoughts, feelings, sensations, and images are all part of this moving and changing kaleidoscope of the mind. They rise, periodically intensify, and subside in a shifting and flowing rhythm. Abidingly, we observe their “dance” and their movement. They attract our attention without capturing it. We are meditative in our attention and the objects of attention help to develop our awareness. In awareness, our practice gives us space to view the “viewer” in a calm and abiding way. The relative fitness of our mind is conditioned by the strength of our capacity to sustain our full attention. Our “attentional muscles” are focused in small ways early in our practice and then gradually expanded into larger, more challenging realms as we develop greater concentration and confidence. Over time, our capacity to pay attention can become highly refined and discerning to do the difficult work of penetrating, stripping down, and transmuting our limiting habitual patterns.

We experience the power of mind- the energy to create and dissolve our psychic conditions through awareness and attention- through balanced effort- and through clear, purposeful intention. Stability of awareness sustains the ‘energy’ and ‘light’ of mindfulness. It is the “support” we need to come to know and to understand the activities of mind, as well as the nature of our own being.

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