Most meditation involves focusing on something: the breath, a mantra, body sensations, loving-kindness phrases. These focused attention practices develop concentration and stability. But there's another approach—open awareness—that works differently.
In open awareness, you don't focus on any particular object. Instead, you rest in awareness itself, allowing whatever arises to come and go without selection or fixation. It's sometimes called choiceless awareness, objectless meditation, or simply being.
What Open Awareness Is
The Distinction
Focused attention: You choose an object (breath, mantra, sensation) and return attention to it when it wanders. The object is primary.
Open awareness: Awareness itself is primary. Objects arise within awareness—sounds, thoughts, sensations—but you don't select or follow them. You rest as awareness, not as attention to objects.
Different Names
Various traditions describe similar practices:
Choiceless awareness: Krishnamurti's term. Awareness without choice or selection.
Shikantaza: Zen's "just sitting." Goalless, objectless presence.
Open monitoring: Scientific term for the style of meditation that monitors all experience without focusing.
Dzogchen/Mahamudra: Tibetan practices emphasizing recognition of awareness itself.
Pure awareness / Natural awareness: Pointing to the awareness that's always present, prior to objects.
The Paradox
The challenge: How do you focus on not focusing? How do you try to be effortless?
The resolution: Open awareness isn't about effort to achieve a state. It's about recognizing what's already here—the awareness in which all experience appears.
Why Practice This Way
Limitations of Focus
What focus does: Develops concentration, stability, calm. Valuable skills.
What focus doesn't do: Doesn't reveal the nature of awareness itself. Keeps attention object-oriented.
The ceiling: Focus practices can reach impressive depth, but remain within subject-object structure.
What Open Awareness Offers
Freedom from objects: Not dependent on any particular experience being present.
Natural mind: Reveals the default, unconditioned quality of awareness.
Liberation from reactivity: When awareness isn't grasping objects, there's natural ease. The struggle of seeking and avoiding relaxes.
Insight: Direct perception of how experience arises in awareness.
In Traditional Practice
Many traditions treat open awareness as advanced practice:
After developing concentration: Stable attention makes open awareness possible. Without stability, "open awareness" becomes distraction.
As culmination: Some traditions view objectless awareness as the highest practice.
As recognition: Not achieving something new, but recognizing what's always been present.
Prerequisites
Is This for Beginners?
Generally, no: Open awareness is subtle. Without developed attention, it easily becomes spacing out.
The foundation needed: - Basic concentration ability - Experience with focused meditation - Some stability when you sit - Ability to recognize wandering
The guideline: If you can sustain focused attention for a 20-minute session with reasonable stability, you're ready to explore open awareness.
The Risk of Skipping Steps
The temptation: Open awareness sounds appealing—no focus, no effort, just being.
The danger: Without foundation, "open awareness" becomes unfocused daydreaming. The mind wanders unchecked, mistaking distraction for presence.
The check: Can you return to breath 50 times in a session? If not, continue developing focus.
How to Practice
Setting Up
Posture: Same as focused meditation—alert, upright, sustainable.
Duration: Can start shorter than focused sessions. 15-20 minutes is sufficient. Quality matters more than length.
Transition: Often helpful to begin with brief focused practice, then open up.
The Instructions
Relax focus: Let go of any particular object of attention.
Allow awareness to be open: Like peripheral vision versus tunnel vision. Awareness is open to all directions rather than aimed at one point.
Let experience arise: Sounds, sensations, thoughts—let them appear without selecting or following.
Don't fixate: When attention locks onto something (an interesting thought, a sound), notice the fixation and release back into openness.
Don't push away: Also don't reject experiences. Openness includes whatever arises.
Rest as awareness: Not as someone watching experience, but as the space in which experience appears.
What to Do When You Notice Something
The instruction: Notice it. Let it be. Let it go. Return to openness.
With thoughts: A thought arises. You notice it's there. You don't follow the story. It passes (or continues—that's fine too).
With sounds: Sound appears in awareness. You don't have to ignore it or focus on it. It's included in the open field.
With emotions: Same approach. Emotion arises, exists, passes. Not pushed away, not engaged.
When It Becomes Focused
The pattern: Attention locks onto something. Suddenly you're focused on a thought stream, a sound, a sensation.
The response: Notice the fixation. Relax. Open back up.
The key: No problem with the focusing itself—just return to openness when you notice.
When It Becomes Dull
The pattern: Open awareness collapses into spacy, unfocused dullness.
The indication: Nothing is vivid. Awareness is cloudy. You might be drowsy.
The response: Refresh alertness. Brief return to breath. Sit up straighter. Then open again.
The Quality of Practice
Alert but Not Tense
The balance: Awareness is clear, vivid, awake—but not straining.
The image: Like an alert resting. A cat watching the room—relaxed but present.
Receptive but Not Passive
The quality: Open to whatever arises, but not collapsed or zoned out.
The distinction: Passive = dull, checking out. Receptive = awake, inclusive.
Effortless but Not Distracted
The paradox: No effort to achieve something—but still present.
The clarification: Effortlessness doesn't mean no attention. It means no grasping.
Common Experiences
Expansiveness
The report: Awareness feels open, spacious, not confined to the body.
The guidance: Let this be. Don't fixate on the experience of expansiveness.
Subtle Bliss
The report: Pleasant feeling that differs from ordinary pleasure.
The guidance: Same—don't grasp it. Let it be present without making it the focus.
Clarity
The report: Everything seems vivid, clear, immediate.
The guidance: This is the quality of undistracted awareness. Don't make it special.
Nothing Special
The report: It just feels like sitting. Nothing dramatic.
The guidance: Perfect. Open awareness doesn't need to feel special.
Common Difficulties
"This is just spacing out"
The check: Are you aware of being aware? Or have you lost track?
The distinction: Open awareness knows it's aware. Spacing out forgets.
The solution: Brief return to breath to sharpen attention, then re-open.
"I can't stop focusing"
The habit: Attention wants to land somewhere. It keeps grabbing objects.
The approach: Notice each landing. Each time attention fixes, soften the fixation. Gradual training.
"Nothing is happening"
The expectation: Something should happen—states, experiences, insights.
The teaching: Nothing happening is fine. Open awareness isn't about producing experiences.
"I keep falling asleep"
The issue: The relaxation of open awareness invites drowsiness.
The approach: More alertness. Eyes open. Earlier in day. Briefer sessions.
Integration
With Focused Practice
The combination: Many practitioners alternate—periods of focused attention and periods of open awareness within a session or across sessions.
The synergy: Focus develops stability; openness develops flexibility. Both are valuable.
Into Daily Life
The extension: Open awareness isn't confined to sitting. The same quality can extend into ordinary activity.
The practice: Moments of open awareness throughout the day. Walking, waiting, between activities.
The Gradual Shift
What happens over time: Open awareness becomes more accessible. The quality of presence more familiar. Less difference between formal practice and daily life.
The Deeper View
What You're Noticing
The pointing: Open awareness points toward the nature of awareness itself—that which knows experience but is not any particular experience.
The discovery: Awareness is already here, already open, already accepting all experience. Practice is recognition, not achievement.
The Liberation
The freedom: When awareness isn't grasping objects, there's natural ease. The struggle of seeking and avoiding relaxes.
The insight: Everything that appears—pleasant, unpleasant, neutral—appears within this same open awareness. Nothing is outside.
Starting Practice
If you have foundation in focused meditation:
Today: Sit as usual. Begin with a few minutes of breath focus to stabilize.
Then, relax the focus. Let awareness be open to all experience.
Sounds, sensations, thoughts—let them be. Don't select. Don't push away.
When fixation happens, notice and release.
Rest in open awareness.
Ten minutes to start. See what happens.
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