I was sitting on the terrace of the guest house a little earlier, drinking a chai. At one point I noticed that I had drunk half the glass rather habitually, without really tasting it. Of course, I had been tasting it to some extent but not fully savouring the flavour. My focus had been elsewhere, mostly on the enchanting view down the valley. However, as usual, my attention had also been seduced by thoughts, rather inconsequential thoughts at that.
All this reminded me of photography. When composing an image, there is usually a focal point that the attention is naturally drawn to. The rest of the composition is important, yet is mostly forming a backdrop to that focal point, giving it a context.
So it is with our mind. Our awareness, at any given moment, is drawn to one of our senses or to our thoughts. The other senses are there in the background, influencing our experience in a secondary role. The bizarre thing is that thoughts, more often than not, claim to be the focal point. Now it is true that, occasionally, a thought can be exciting, significant, worthy of that dominant position in the composition of our mind. The vast majority of thoughts, though, are uninspiring and of no real value. Yet we keep allowing our attention to focus on them. It is as if we keep focussing the camera on rather boring grey clouds, even when a majestic eagle is in the foreground of the photo. So let’s try refocussing our awareness more to our juicy senses and less on those boring thoughts.
I really enjoyed the rest of that chai!