To truly appreciate the magician’s act, you need to appreciate his princess….the body. They have been married since the time you were a small helpless embryo; long before you opened your eyes and saw the world (or the apple!). The best way to appreciate their show is to get ring side seats and watch them perform together. For that, we need to pay attention, very close attention. It is not as tough as you think. It is a bit hard at first, but with practice, it can soon become second nature.
You can personally witness the dance of the magician and the princess – if you look at them with relaxed attention. It means just that – relaxed attention.
Just do what you do daily, but observe their performance with detachment
– without any expectation of what you hope will happen
– without pursuing any feeling or thought that arises
– without clinging to any thought or feeling that leaves
– without rejecting a thought or feeling as being awkward or wrong
– without any concepts to label what you observe
-and please switch off your cell phones during the show (just kidding!).
That is all there is to relaxed attention. There is no effort involved in relaxed attention – it’s so simple, and that’s why it’s tough to explain, with words.
I am sure they will entertain you with their performance. Are you ready?
I’ll share some examples of what this means, just to get you comfortable with relaxed attention. It doesn’t matter if you are sitting or walking around, reading this on your IPhone. These are the things you can observe with relaxed attention.
– There is an intention (or will) to turn before the body actually starts turning. You can feel the intention as an urge.
– There is an intention (or will) to slow down, before the body actually slows down. Observe the tension in the body as it slows down
– If you slow down your speed to a crawl, you can feel the tension all over the body
– The mind senses the tension in the body and urges the body to increase the pace of walking again.
– Sometimes the body leads (you can feel the hardness of the seat or floor for example), the mind acts on it (intention to shift your posture) and the body follows (shifts the posture)
– Sometimes the mind leads (imagines how nice a glass of water will be), the muscles move to the refrigerator. As you gulp down the water, you can see the mind likes/dislikes the sensation
– Sometimes the mind starts imagining (day-dreaming) and the eyes gloss over, not using the eyes to see the people or things directly in front of it
– As you pay attention to different sensations, you can be aware of the breathing changing – sometimes coarse, sometimes shallow, and sometimes deep
– You can hear the sounds around you, only when your mind notices them; even though your ears are open all the time and there are many sounds around us all the time
– You see an object vaguely in your field of sight, when you turn, you first notice the form, then a label appears in your mind soon after (‘house’, ‘sedan’, ‘traffic’)
– You feel several sensations rising in you, some pleasant, some unpleasant– if you just watch them as they are, they arise and cease on their own, after a while
– Sometimes, sensations are so strong in your body that your mind stores the impression of the person or object that caused the sensation (‘@!#hole’, ‘woow..hot’, ‘boring’)
It’s nothing mystical. In fact, all you are doing is ‘paying relaxed attention to your life, as it flows in time‘. With practice, this will become second nature to you. You will be in a state of relaxed attention from the moment you wake up till the moment your head touches the pillow at night. With advanced practice, you can maintain the state of relaxed attention even when you are dreaming or in deep sleep.
With practice you will personally realize something extraordinary!
that the show is not about mind vs body. It is not mind or body. It is not mind alone. It is not body alone.
It is a mind-body show.
After all, they are one. The mind-body is in continuous flow, like a stream; just like matter and energy did, at the level of subatomic particles
You can distinguish them, by the function they perform, but you cannot separate them
How ironic!
We searched in the universe for space and time, but ended up finding space-time
We searched in nature for matter and energy, but ended up finding matter-energy
We search in ourselves for mind and body, but end up finding mind-body
As we keep searching for the apple, what else is in store? Expect more surprises.
Spoiler: We will search for the apple, outside and inside your mind – any guesses what we will end up finding?
The Urban Monk diaries 
nothing!!