The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. - Marcel Proust
In the early stages of meditation and beyond it is important to practise meditation at time other than your daily sessions. Choose times when it is safe and convenient to do so. Pick a focus of concentration and fix your awareness upon it.
1. Sit comfortably and relax.
2. Select a sound (Such as a birdsong) and concentrate your attention on it. Each time your attention tries to wander, bring it gently back to the sound.
3. Each time your mind tries to label the sound, or to use it to set up a train of association, bring it back to direct contemplation of the sound itself. Center your attention on hearing.
4. Repeat the exercise, this time by viewing an object (the more familiar the better, animate or inanimate). Concentrate your attention , blinking only when necessary. Become aware of it as occupying without a name and without a function other than to be itself. Do not think of it in terms of color, or beauty (or lack of it) or of content. Center your attention on the pure fact of seeing.
