But as you make this transition with attention, remember to always maintain peripheral awareness. Every step in the transition provides a good opportunity to learn to distinguish between attention and awareness.

Step one: focus on the present

First, close your eyes and spend a few moments becoming fully present. Take in everything presented to the senses. With your eyes closed, you’ll find the two main sensory stimuli are sounds and sensations originating on or in the body. Open your peripheral awareness fully. Next, allow your attention to tune into and range freely among any of the sounds, bodily sensations, smells, or thoughts you may experience. Within this holistic panorama, the one limitation you place on movements of attention is to remain in the present, here and now.

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If you find a particular sensation to be pleasant, take a moment to enjoy it. Let that pleasure condition your mind toward a state of happiness in the present. Try to distinguish clearly between the subjective quality of pleasure and the sense object that triggered it, savoring the pleasure, not the sense object. If your mind reacts to something unpleasant, distinguish between that reaction and the object that produced it, then let go of the reaction.

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In general, mindfully observing thoughts is tricky, so it’s better to focus on sounds, smells, and physical sensations to avoid being hooked by thoughts. A helpful phrase to remember when dealing with distractions of any kind is, let it come, let it be, let it go. Don’t try to suppress it, just let it come into peripheral awareness. Don’t engage the distraction or focus attention on it, simply disregard it and let it be in the background. Then, let it go away by itself. This is a passive process. There is nothing to “do” but allow these objects to arise and pass away on their own, moment by moment. When you find your attention has been captured by a thought, just come back to the present.

Step two — Focus on bodily sensations

Once you have become fully present with every kind of sensory stimulus, limit your attention to bodily sensations.

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Nothing should be suppressed or excluded from your field of conscious awareness. Just let sounds, smells, and thoughts keep circulating in the background, but don’t focus on them. Let them come, let them be, and let them go in peripheral awareness while you restrict all movements of attention to bodily sensations.

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For a beginner, it can be hard to relax at first because your mind is agitated and your body is unaccustomed to staying still for long. When you start feeling restless or your sense of contentment fades, then thoughts, memories, and emotions will begin to stir. Don’t get annoyed or try to suppress them. Instead, return to Step One, broadening your awareness until you become fully present with everything happening in the moment again. In particular, seek out the pleasurable aspects of the present and try to reestablish and reinforce feelings of contentment and happiness. Repeat this process of backing off and starting over as often as needed until the mind can rest easily with your attention focused only on bodily sensations. There is no need to hurry on to the next Step.

Step three — Focus on sensations related to the breath

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As you tune in, start paying attention to all the different kinds of breath-related sensations. You will notice them especially around your nose, face, chest, and abdomen.

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Without suppressing anything else in your field of conscious awareness, restrict your attention to these breath-related sensations. Once you settle in, start focusing more directly on the sensations of the breath in specific areas. Closely observe the rise and fall of the abdomen, then the expansion and contraction of the chest, then the sensations produced by air moving in and out of the nostrils. Allow your mind to move freely among the abdomen, chest, nose, and anywhere else where you feel breath-related sensations.

It’s important to breathe naturally. [...] Take note of, savor, and even purposely induce feelings of peace and happiness, especially as your attention becomes more stable and you experience more inner calm.

Step four – Focus on sensations of the breath at the nose

Now, direct your attention to the sensations produced by the air moving in and out of your nostrils. [...] Remember, the meditation object is the sensations of the breath, not the breath itself.

Without intentionally suppressing anything from awareness, keep watching the sensations of the in- and out-breath. If your attention wanders, gently bring it back. And that’s it! From this point on, the sensations of the breath at the tip of the nose will be your primary meditation object.

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