Bare Attention

In his very thoughtful book, Living, Dreaming, Dying: Practical Wisdom from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Rob Nairn describes the benefits of bare attention:

Awareness of the thought process at this moment of arising is what makes freedom from thought possible, because when the mind is only at the stage of impulse arising , the energies haven't fully engaged. There is an almost impartial quality about the energy of the impulse. (p.175)

When a thought arises, it is not taken as being "my" thought or something that comes to my mind. Rather, there is a kind of energy that coalesces around a particular constellation of thoughts, and it's that energy that needs one's attention before it becomes very powerful or directive thoughts. To give an example, I might experience an uneasiness when a sound arises that seems unpleasant. That sensation of "unpleasant" gets translated to an attempt to compare the sound with a "more pleasant", desirable silence, and I am also going through the process of trying to figure out where the sound comes from and what I can do about it. All of these "actions" I am performing are adding to the strength of the original energy, by endowing it with all these characteristics that confirm its substantial nature. The sound even starts to seem more "real" and "solid" when it is associated with other impressions, but we often fail to recognize that the sound is really simply energy that is passing through the ear drum and being transformed into signals in the brain.
  I think it's a good practice not to take these energies to be substantial but to try to relax with them rather than forming a lot of ideas around them. In this way, one gets a fuller picture of them as part of a larger and much vaster context. Bare attention also allows a person to see that they are able to make decisions about perceptions and sensations before they turn into full blown judgments or stereotyped actions or responses. Knowing how to be in the moment before thoughts coalesce into "I" and "you" can be such a helpful and priceless skill that can awaken a more present, open and spacious mind.

Nairn, Rob (2004) Living, Dreaming, Dying: Practical Wisdom from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Boston: Shambhala