Methods of Awakening - Occupy Now

[Edited January 27th 2020: No major corrections here, just a few minor grammatical errors. An audio version of this post will be made available in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!]

Occupy Now 

A Quick Guide To Being Here

This is a simple series of steps that will allow you to be present and attentive to experience with very little effort. Nothing complicated, nothing you won't already be familiar with and nothing special about it. this is a process I've used successfully in my own practice and I hope that it can be of use to others. It's not "my" invention or anything, it's just a practical, step-by-step approach which may facilitate your practice in some way. It's also fun and can be turned into a game, if you find it helpful, so play around with it and find out what works for you. 

It comes down to basic attentiveness/mindfulness. Nothing more complicated than that, but in this moment lies wisdom and through wisdom we can find freedom. Give it a try and see how it goes. Don't expect anything and don't try to anticipate what will happen next. Relax, enjoy it and see how nice it can be to just experience the world as it is.

1.    Notice where you are physically and your position relative to the objects and/or people around you. Be attentive to what’s going on at the sense doors, you don’t need to go looking for anything, just gently observe and be aware of your immediate experience without trying to add anything to it.

2.   In your imagination, recreate the environment around you so that you’ve got a mental image which is basically a reflection of your whereabouts in time and space. It doesn’t need to be 100% accurate, all we’re doing is fabricating a rough mental image which makes it easier to be fully present mentally, right here and now.[1]

3.    Look at each sense door in whichever order suits you, notice what is presenting itself and how that’s happening without effort from “you”, e.g. Sitting in front of the computer right now, the eyes see the screen, the keyboard, the phone, wallpaper, mirror, lamp, curtains and anything else present in the visual field simply because seeing is occurring. Apply this same attentiveness to the other senses too, then look at how it is to experience them all at once with the same openness and clarity.

4.    There can be a sense of calm, of safety and childlike wonder which accompanies simply experiencing this moment as it is. All the senses are aligned with the present moment, each doing what it does without effort. It becomes evident that there is a complete lack of stress or anxiety here, at least until some thought or other sensation ‘pulls’ us away from what’s already occurring. By simply recognizing that you’ve been ‘pulled’ away from this immediate sensate experience, you’ll be back in the moment again because you’ve noticed that thought is no longer aligned with what’s happening right now.[2]

5.    In continually recognizing how your immediate experience is all there is, how the senses operate without any involvement or effort from “you” as an independently existing identity, there is the opportunity to ‘let go’ of those mental fabrications and allow things to happen as they will. Through this effortless recognition, we can remain attentive to experience as it is and always be right here, in this eternal now.

This developed from a post I wrote on The Dharma Overground a while ago, but I've taken it and refined it a bit based on how my practice has developed since then. I may work on it more in future so bear in mind that this is just a suggestion based on current experience, as such it might change at anytime but you need to do what works best for you.

Practice well,

[1] This step is just a way of getting the ‘internal world’ to reflect the ‘external world’, inspired by the Hermetic axiom: “As above, so below”.

[2] Once you’re familiar with that, what I’ll describe as, mental pulling, you can begin to investigate what it is that causes that to happen. It’s always, without exception, some thought, feeling, belief or other mental fabrication that leads to this occurring and, because each of them are just more transient sensations with no independent existence, they can be broken down further and the psychological binding they effect can be dissolved permanently.