JORDAN SIEMENS/GETTY IMAGESIf you’ve ever taken a medita-
tion workshop, you probably got
specifi c instructions for what to
focus on—maybe your breath,
a mantra, or a candle fl ame. The
Buddha himself offered more
than 40 objects of meditation,
including physical sensations,
mental states, and specifi c life
experiences.
But meditation is ultimately
not something we do but rather
a state that arises when all
“doing” is done. Swami Satchi-
dananda, the founder of Integral
Yoga, once said, “Meditation is
an accident, and yoga practices
make us accident-prone.” Other
traditions also speak of “meth-
odless methods” that are meant
to drop us directly into that
meditative state variously called
“bare attention,” “Maha Mudra,”
“silent illumination,” “just sit-
ting,” or simply “choiceless
awareness.” Such “practices”
encourage sitting as awareness
itself, with no chosen focus, so
that you maintain an evenness
of attention on whatever arises“There is no place to seek the
mind; it is like the footprints of
the birds in the sky.” ZENRIN
Practice awareness to let yourself be as infi nite as the heavens.
by Frank Jude Boccio
BE THE SKY
yoga living
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