? The Art of Attention Ven. Pannyavaro Website: www.buddhanet.net E-mail:
[email protected] For free distribution Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc. Table of Contents Table of Contents The Meditative Art of Attention An Orientation to the Six Sense Doors Try this Exercise in Orientating to a Sense-Door Dependent origination The Technique of Mental Noting The Four Spheres of Attention The Two Modes of Meditation Three-fold Strategy of Practice Restraint and Harmony Recollectedness Discernment and Insight Three-fold Strategy and Mental Impurities The Three Meditation Practices Instruction for Sitting Meditation Checking your posture Technique in Walking Meditation Awareness of Daily Activities Awareness of Feelings Achieving Balance in Meditation Five ways to maintain the balance Loving-kindness Meditation Systematic Loving-kindness Practice How to do loving-kindness meditation Ways of arousing feelings of loving-kindness Daily Meditation Practice This Moment! About Ven. Pannyavaro 2 2 3 4 5 6 9 10 11 12 13 14 14 15 16 16 17 19 20 21 24 26 27 28 29 30 31 33 33 The Meditative Art of Attention Meditative attention is an art, or an acquired skill which brings clarity and an intelligence that sees the ‘true nature of things’. Among the variety of techniques in Buddhist meditation, the art of attention is the common thread underpinning all schools of Buddhist meditation: Mahamudra in the Tibetan tradition, Zazen in Zen Buddhism and Vipassana meditation in Theravada. Its ubiquitousness is illustrated by this Zen story: A monk once asked his teacher, ‘What is the fundamental teaching in Buddhism?’ the Master replied ‘Attention’. The student, dissatisfied with the answer said, ‘I wasn’t asking about attention, but was w