Development of Awareness

Part of learning any new skill is an awareness of the goal and what is involved in getting there. Meditation is no different.

So far we have seen that awareness is a potential outcome of meditation, and that concentration is involved in the process.

What can we do to enhance the development of awareness?
We simply pay attention to whatever happens during meditation.

Suppose your meditation method is to gaze at the flame of a candle. You find it is easy to focus on the flame. You settle into this task quickly. Soon you find your mind wandering to an itch on your knee. You come back to your awareness of the flame, but only after you scratch the itch. You then perceive that the color and intensity of what you see around the flame changes. When you blink, it changes again. You see wax dripping. You begin to sense the heat of the candle, even though it is several feet away from you. You come back to your awareness of the flame. You may even give up at this point, frustrated with this simple task.

You have not maintained steady awareness of the flame, even though that is your goal, and even though you were able to do it for a few moments at the outset.

Why is maintaining this level of awareness so difficult? 
When we consider the myriad levels of experience involved in a simple task, the answer makes a lot of sense. We are complex physical beings designed to survive in a relatively hostile environment. The senses we use to understand what is happening around us do not simply switch off when we decide to concentrate. They keep right on working, and so does the mind. Thoughts arise all the time, whether we're awake or asleep. We can't easily shut them off.

Yet we know that daily meditation can calm nerves, lower blood pressure, and so on.We know change occurs as soon as we begin.