Tips/Tricks for confirming peripheral awareness during meditation

[u/chubbs069]

I've been following the book for about 2 months, currently at stage 2. I've come to realize that up until very recently I was focusing all my energy of strong attention at the tip of the nose, and as a result, believe that I was not able to maintain any type of peripheral awareness.

I have since been attempting to put equal energy on attention and awareness, but I'm not confident with my ability to maintain awareness. It seems/feels like I am rapidly swapping between attention and awareness, rather than having both at the same time.

I was hoping someone had some tips to 'test' my awareness. Some type of test or something to do during meditation to affirm that I have awareness. As it's possible that I do have decent awareness and am just overthinking things. The issue is, I don't know how to confirm this, and don't know exactly what it should feel like/what the experience should be like.

[u/JhannySamadhi]

At first it will go back and forth, that’s normal. Use a sound of some kind that is consistent, but preferably has some variation, like birds, traffic or wind. If you don’t have something like that, a clock ticking or something similar to that will work. Just avoid TV or people talking. Now you just have to keep the sound in your awareness as consistently as possible. Over time the gaps will close and your awareness will be effortlessly “on.” 

[u/chubbs069 → u/JhannySamadhi]

This is what I was thinking of doing as well. So I tried it today with the the audio from a "clock ticking sound," and I think it went well.
I wanted to ask if you thought there were any downsides or reasons not to consistently use this. While I had it on the lowest volume where I had to "focus" to hear it, it still could have been slightly hypnotic, or at least took away awareness/attention from my other surroundings. It was quite powerful when compared to a silent room.

[u/JhannySamadhi → u/chubbs069]

It would be wise to change it up on occasion. I think maybe storm sounds on your phone or something of that nature would be more effective. 

Be sure to keep attention firmly on the breath so that attention doesn’t settle on the sound. You’ll know when you’re ready for no noise, which will likely take some time. 

[u/chubbs069 → u/JhannySamadhi]

Thanks again. I cannot currently fathom hearing the noise without having any attention on it. What a trip! It sounds fascinating and I’m excited to experience what that might be like.

[u/Using_Tilt_Controls → u/JhannySamadhi]

What do you think about using the heartbeat sensation for background awareness, or the phosphene patterns when the eyes are closed? I’m attracted to them both but my concern is that they could lead to distraction (taking over as the primary object of meditation) or subtle dullness.

[u/JhannySamadhi → u/Using_Tilt_Controls]

You should have as much as possible within peripheral awareness. Anything in your sense sphere

[u/RationalDharma]

I put together a few here: https://rationaldharma.com/blog/guided-awareness-practices/

And this guided meditation on how to cultivate it: https://insig.ht/CpOhMEpO3Rb

Briefly, if you expand your attention to the whole body (the posture, energy, degree of comfort, etc. general sense of how the whole body is, and you can include your sense of the space around the body too) then go back to the breath, for at least a few seconds afterwards, even when attention is narrowed in on the breath, your background sense of the body will be more present in awareness. For example you’ll be more likely to notice if your posture changes or some tension starts to arise somewhere. Eventually that will collapse and you’ll have to refresh it again. If you repeat this you’ll get a sense of the spectrum from peripheral awareness being more and less online.

That’s extrospective awareness (I.e. of the body, sounds, sights), and introspective awareness is similar, but what you’re becoming more aware of is the movements of attention. Hope that helps!

[u/chubbs069 → u/RationalDharma]

incredibly helpful. I like the idea of actively going “back and forth” in an effort to eventually keep the awareness online. Excited to get into those blogs.

[u/abhayakara]

See if you have an idea about what you should be experienceing when your attention is stable: that you should be perceiving nothing else. That you should be excluding everything else. Anything like that.

What you should be experiencing in later stages is that you are keenly aware of sounds but they do not draw your attention. So notice any intention to suppress sensation and see if you can let go of it.

[u/r_sukumar]

I try to keep up with the peripheral awareness with the small noise arising from my environment while paying attention to the breath. Not sure if it’s a tip you’re looking for.

Question for me is keeping awareness on the body sensations also considered peripheral awareness?

[u/sharp11flat13 → u/r_sukumar]

Question for me is keeping awareness on the body sensations also considered peripheral awareness?

I would think so, yes. Buddhism has a notion of six senses: the usual five senses plus thought.

I think of peripheral awareness as any information coming from the first five, and introspective awareness as any information we can observe about our thought processes.

[u/r_sukumar → u/sharp11flat13]

That’s clearly said! How can one improve introspective awareness? Is labeling any arising thoughts considered as introspective awareness?

[u/sharp11flat13 → u/r_sukumar]

I’m not a teacher, so I can’t tell you any more about working on introspective awareness than you would find in the book. But there are some really knowledgeable people on this sub, so maybe someone else can chime in.