Practice Library

Attentional balance

9 teachings in the library are about this.

• D4S1 - Concentration, and Balancing Effort With Relaxation David Oromith · 86 minutes · recorded August 10, 2026

  The morning opens with mindfulness of breathing at the nostrils, with relaxation, stability and the counting. David turns to concentration, the fifth of the six perfections, and what gets in the way: excitation, the scattered mind, and laxity, the dullness that can feel like meditation. He talks about balancing effort with relaxation, and about mindfulness as the guard at the gate and introspection as the manager checking on it. In a second practice we attend to sight, sound and mind, then harvest joy.

• Guided Meditation - Awareness of Awareness Through Sound, Body and Mind David Oromith · 19 minutes · recorded July 14, 2026

  Eyes open and the gaze resting in space, sounds are noticed arriving on their own, then the difference between a sound and the awareness of it: sounds come and go, what knows them does not. The move repeats in the body, taking the most obvious sensation and asking whether the awareness itself is aching, and then to a thought and a worry, met from the awareness holding it. It closes sharpening on the in breath and relaxing on the out.

• Guided Meditation - White Light at the Heart Centre David Oromith · 21 minutes · recorded November 12, 2023

  Twenty one counted rounds steady the mind, then a glowing white orb appears at the centre of the chest, no bigger than a golf ball, at the level of the heart. It is enough to imagine it is there. David calls this the root of the mind, where it converges in deep dreamless sleep and at the end of a life, and asks for a loose focus and the sense of meditating from there rather than behind the eyes.

• Guided Meditation - Settling Body, Speech and Mind in Their Natural States Lama Alan · 25 minutes

  Lama Alan Wallace leads the three settlings in turn. You let awareness descend through the whole field of tactile sensation, releasing tension from shoulders, jaw and forehead until the body rests in relaxation, stillness and vigilance. Then you relinquish control of the breath and let the body breathe as if asleep, releasing involuntary thoughts with each out breath. Attention is finally held within the field of the body, like a horse in a corral, quietly observing whatever arises.

• Guided Meditation - Visualisation for Dream Yoga, Orbs of Light at the Throat and Heart Lama Alan · 21 minutes

  Lama Alan Wallace teaches two visualisations for the night. You place a small, deep ruby red orb of light inside the throat and let your awareness descend into it and take its form, a gentle shamatha weighted towards relaxation and stability rather than vividness, which you carry into sleep for lucid dreaming. Lama Alan then moves the orb down to the heart as deep sapphire blue, for lucid dreamless sleep, closing with a dedication of merit.

• Guided Meditation - Body Scan, Moving a Three-Dimensional Field of Awareness Through the Body Lama Alan · 41 minutes

  Lama Alan moves a field of awareness slowly through the whole body, beginning as a small patch at the crown of the head and widening until it is three-dimensional. It travels down the head, arms, torso, legs and out to the toes, stabilising on each in breath and shifting on each out breath. Three faster sweeps follow, then the field opens to illuminate the whole body at once, with nothing added to what is sensed.

• Guided Meditation - Settling the Mind in Its Natural State, with the Snorkelling Metaphor Lama Alan · 25 minutes

  Lama Alan uses a snorkelling metaphor to move you in stages from the breath to the mind itself. Floating on an air mattress, you rest in the tactile field; then you dip your face beneath the water and turn part of your attention to the space of the mind. Handhold released, thoughts, images and reactions to sounds become the whole object, observed without grasping and without distraction, attentive but not reactive.

• Attentional Balance Glen Svensson · 78 minutes

  Attentional balance, the shamatha side of the model, where deficit shows up as laxity and hyperactivity as excitation, both met with mindfulness and introspection. Glen Svensson compares the full body, abdomen and nostril versions of mindfulness of breathing, and the merits of the breath, the mind and awareness as objects. Two guided practices: the rhythm of the breath with the emphasis on relax, release and return, then merging mind with space. Questions cover anxiety and mental afflictions held at an unconscious level.

• Mindfulness of Breathing (Nostrils) Glen Svensson · 90 minutes

  In this practice we narrow our attention to the entrance of the nostrils, which is said to be very good for clarity of attention, as the breath grows subtle and forces closer attention. Glen Svensson explains the acquired sign, a mental image of the air element that replaces the sensations as practice deepens, and completes the nine stages up to attentional balance, using a guitar string for the fine tuning of focus. He describes the physical and mental pliancy that marks shamatha itself. Questions cover shavasana, and how far to go without a qualified teacher.

More by subject

• Anger and aversion 143
• Attachment and craving 123
• The nature of mind 92
• Emptiness 84
• The bodhisattva path 81
• Anxiety and fear 79
• Death and dying 77
• Distraction and attention 72
• Sleep and rest 66
• Buddhist psychology 59
• Illness and pain 57
• Karma 57
• Teacher and student 56
• Genuine happiness and wellbeing 52
• Habits and change 52
• Patience, forbearance and acceptance 50
• Impermanence 46
• Relaxation 43
• Gratitude and appreciation 42
• Relationships and family 38
• Motivation and intention 37
• Tantra and Vajrayana 37
• Depression and low mood 32
• Dream yoga 32
• Comparison and self-cherishing 31
• Dreams and sleep 31
• Guilt and regret 28
• Self-criticism and shame 28
• Work and daily life 28
• Rebirth and continuity 26
• Lineage and tradition 23
• Buddha nature 22
• The four noble truths 22
• Ethics and precepts 21
• Stress and burnout 21
• Emotional balance 19
• Generosity and dana 18
• Forgiveness 17
• Consciousness and science 15
• The six perfections (paramitas) 15
• Enthusiastic effort (virya) 14
• Sangha and community 14
• The eight worldly concerns 14
• The four thoughts that turn the mind 14
• Grief and loss 13
• Perception and projection 13
• Dependent origination 12
• Refuge 11
• Not-self (anatta) 10
• Ecology and the climate 7
• Cognitive balance 6
• Nature and the outdoors 6
• The eightfold path 5
• Peace and conflict 4
• The sixfold matrix of mental balance 4
• Secular mindfulness 3
• Self-compassion 3
• Symbolism and iconography 3
• Introspection and self-monitoring 2
• Spiritual materialism and bypassing 1
• The three marks of existence 1