Pathways

Causes and origins (Be → Do)

Contemplating how certain traits, states or conditions lead to or constrain particular events, behaviours and processes

• Body (BBe) → Acting (BDo) — Become more aware of the signals from your body and explore how they shape your actions 

• Senses (Ex1Be) → Attending (Ex1Do) — Become more aware of information from your senses and explore how that influences where you place your attention.

• Feelings (In1Be) → Motivating (In1Do) — Become more aware of your emotional state and how that leads you to value or desire particular things.

• Environment (Ex2Be) → Occurring (Ex2Do) — Become more aware of the characteristics of your surroundings and how they influence the nature and likelihood of events.

• Mind (In2Be) → Thinking (In2Do) — Become more aware of how you represent phenomena in your mind and the way this determines how you think about them.

• People (Ex3Be) → Interacting (Ex3Do) — Becoming more aware of the characteristics of the  people around you and how this determines the nature of the interactions between them.

• Knowledge (In3Be) → Believing (In3Do) — Becoming more aware of your knowledge and ignorance and how that determines what you trust to be valid and meaningful.

• Oneness (ABe) → Transcending (ADo)  — Becoming more aware of your connectedness to all things and how this opens you to perceptions beyond the mundane.

Effects and becoming (Do → Be)

Contemplating how certain changes, events or actions create, inhibit or transform particular traits, states or conditions

• Acting (BDo) → Body (BBe) — Become more aware of your actions and how they transform sensations of your physical state.

• Attending (Ex1Do) → Senses (Ex1Be) — Become more aware of what you direct your attention towards and how that shifts the priority you place on your senses.

• Motivating (In1Do) → Feelings (In1Be) — Becoming more aware of your needs and desires and how their satisfaction or frustration generates particular emotions.

• Occurring (Ex2Do) → Environment (Ex2Be) — Becoming more aware of things happening and what changes they produce in the world around you.

• Thinking (In2Do) → Mind (In2Be) — Becoming more aware of patterns in your thought processes and how that relates to the things that commonly occupy your mind.

• Interacting (Ex3Do) → People (Ex3Be) — Becoming more aware of the interactions between people (including yourself) and how that changes your perceptions of them.

• Believing (In3Do) → Knowledge (In3Be) — Becoming more aware of the assumptions that you make and how this what frames what you seek to learn.

• Transcending (ADo) → Oneness (ABe) — Becoming more aware of numinous experiences and how that transforms your sense of harmony with the universe.

Expanding (In → Ex) 

Opening your attention beyond yourself, projecting yourself into the world.

From... 

• Feelings/Motivating (In1) — Become more aware of your changing emotional state and your drives and desires. Use this awareness to...

• Mind/Thinking (In2) — Become more aware of the constructs and processes you use to understand your experience. Use this awareness to...

• Knowledge/Believing (In3) — Become more aware of the things you hold to be true and meaningful. Use this awareness to...

...to...

• Senses/Attending (Ex1) — explore their impact on what you notice and how you direct your attention.

• Environment/Occurring (Ex2) — explore their impact on how you interact with your surroundings and respond to events.

• People/Interacting (Ex3) — explore their impact on how you perceive and relate to other people.

Centring (Ex → In)

Situating yourself in the world, inviting the outer world into your inner world.

From... 

• Senses/Attending (Ex1) — Become more aware of sensations in the world around you and how your attention moves. Use this awareness to...

• Environment/Occurring (Ex2) — Become more aware of your surroundings and how they are changing. Use this awareness to...

• People/Interacting (Ex3) — Become more aware of the people you interact with. Use this awareness to...

...to...

• Feelings/Motivating (In1) — explore their impact on your emotional state and energy levels.

• Mind/Thinking (In2) — explore their impact on your thought patterns and the way you represent things in your mind.

• Knowledge/Believing (In3) — explore their impact on your certainties and expectations.

Ascending (B → A)

Moving contemplation from the concrete to the abstract, the here-and-now to the eternal, the physical to the spiritual

• External route (B → Ex1 → Ex2 → Ex3 → A)

  • Become more acutely aware of your body and your movements.

  • Use this to shift your awareness to your senses and your focus of attention

  • Use this to become more aware of your surroundings and how they are changing

  • Use this to notice the actions and interactions of the people around you

  • Use this to become more aware of what people have in common and what transcends their differences

• Internal route (B → In1 → In2 → In3 → A)

  • Become more acutely aware of your body and your movements

  • Use this to heighten your awareness of your emotions and desires

  • Use this to notice the patterns in the way you think about the world

  • Use this to identify your understanding and your assumptions about what is true

  • Use this to become more aware of the limits of your understanding and what unites you to the universe

Grounding (A → B)

Moving contemplation from the past-future to the present moment, the complex to the simple, the transcendent to the immediate

• External route (A → Ex3 → Ex2 → Ex1 → B)

  • Focus your awareness on your connection to what inspires awe in you.

  • Use this to shift your attention to the people you are connected to and the way they live

  • Use this to recognise the impact people's actions have on your surroundings

  • Use this to notice how this affects your perceptions and awareness

  • Use this to ground your attention in your body and movements

• Internal route (A → In3 → In2 → In1 → B)

  • Focus your awareness on your connection to what inspires awe in you.

  • Use this to examine your understanding and beliefs about the world and yourself

  • Use this to reflect on the patterns of thinking that have led to your sense of meaning

  • Use this to examine the impact your thinking has on your emotional state and values

  • Use this to ground your attention in your body and movements

Widening

Increasingly focusing on more examples or multiple aspects of the things you are contemplating, possibly by considering patterns over wider time ranges

• Body/Acting — Broaden your awareness to increasingly larger regions of your body or combinations of sensations

• Senses/Attending — Broaden your awareness to encompass a wider range of sensory information and stimuli

• Environment/Occurring — Broaden your awareness to include more aspects of your surroundings and more features of events

• People/Interacting — Broaden your awareness to include more aspects of individuals and groups and the patterns of their interactions

• Feelings/Motivating — Broaden your awareness to encompass the range of emotions and desires you experience

• Mind/Thinking — Broaden your awareness to include wider patterns of your concepts and trends in your thinking 

• Knowledge/Believing — Broaden your awareness to consider broader patterns of your assumptions and what you consider meaningful

• Oneness/Transcending — Broaden your awareness to encompass wider aspects of connectedness and patterns of transcendent experiences

Deepening

Increasingly focusing on specific examples or single aspects of the thing you are contemplating within a particular moment in time.

• Body/Acting — Focus down on an increasingly specific regions of your body or particular aspects of a bodily sensation

• Senses/Attending — Focus down on a particular sense and particular aspects of the sensory information

• Environment/Occurring — Focus down on an increasingly specific aspect of your environment

• People/Interacting — Focus down on particular aspects of specific individuals or interactions 

• Feelings/Motivating — Focus down on particular aspects of specific emotions or urges

• Mind/Thinking — Focus down on particular aspects of specific thoughts or thought processes

• Knowledge/Believing — Focus down on particular aspects of specific areas of knowledge or meaning

• Oneness/Transcending — Focus down on particular aspects of connectedness or your sense of things beyond your day-to-day experience