Try to maintain that sense of being centered, all-around, and equal, because that’s the kind of awareness you’re looking for. You need an awareness that’s all-around. The reason the mind slips off to the past or the future is because it gets very small.

"Try to maintain that sense of being centered, all-around, and equal, because that’s the kind of awareness you’re looking for. You need an awareness that’s all-around. The reason the mind slips off to the past or the future is because it gets very small. It’s as if the route to the past and the future is a little tube, and you usually make the mind small enough to fit down the tube. But here you’ve got the mind enlarged. It won’t fit.

Another image is that when you’re thinking about something, you have to narrow down your awareness of the body so that you can create your little thought world. But as long as you can maintain this full-body awareness, when it’s really solid, there’s no space for the thought worlds to appear, or if they do appear, there’s no space for you to move into them, because you’re consciously too big.

In Pali this is called mahaggatan cittam, the enlarged mind. When your mind is enlarged and all-around like this, then when you’re hunting for your defilements, whenever they come into range, from any direction, you’ll be able to sense them. Otherwise, if you’re focusing on one little area, the defilements can be chattering away in other parts of your mind, and if your focus is too narrow you won’t see or hear them.

So you want this scattershot awareness. It’s centered, so it’s not scatter-brained, but it radiates in all directions. The breath is equal in all directions, the awareness is equal in all directions, they both fill the body, and there’s a sense of ease that goes with them."

~ Thanissaro Bhikkhu "All-around Knowing"

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