In the middle of a guided Waking Up meditation I hear the following words:
Observe that you don’t actually choose the next thing you notice; whatever it is. Everything is simply appearing, including acts of attention. You don’t know what you will pay attention to next. See if you can drop back into that position of merely witnessing whatever happens.
– Sam Harris, https://dynamic.wakingup.com/daily/DA9545D
This is a difficult idea to assimilate: even the act of attending to the body is simply appearing in consciousness, and we do not know what we will pay attention to next. Consciousness is merely happening.
But perhaps the condition of unusually high degrees of movement provided by the context of dancing mean that sensations in the body are simply more likely to appear in consciousness. If this is the case, then is there an agent here? And if so, who is that agent?
This is a paradox of choice. We think we are directing our attention and it feels like we are directing our attention, but attention is merely yet another appearance in consciousness. If this is the case, then why do we move or dance in the ways we do? Habit? Training? Some kind of predictive processing in which we our orient towards movement and body-based priors feed consciousness and vice versa?
Here’s the full transcript of the meditation:
Let your body resolve itself into a cloud of sensation. Pay close enough attention so as to relinquish the form of your body. The shape of your hands, and back and head. Just let each new sensation appear in consciousness.
And among this many sensations are those of the breath.
And now notice whatever sounds you hear. And let your mind expand so it’s just the space in which sounds and sensations are appearing.
And the moment you notice you are lost in thought, watch the thought itself unwind. And just come back to noticing sensations and sounds.
Observe that you don’t actually choose the next thing you notice; whatever it is. Everything is simply appearing, including acts of attention. You don’t know what you will pay attention to next. See if you can drop back into that position of merely witnessing whatever happens.
Again the moment you notice a thought is present witness it clearly. Where does it go? And then briefly look for the thinker. Look for the seat of attention. Look for what’s looking. And then leave your mind at rest.
In the last minute of the session, become clearly aware of the sensations in your body. Return to the undifferentiated cloud of temperature, and pressure, tingling. Whatever is there.
– Sam Harris, https://dynamic.wakingup.com/daily/DA9545D
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