Homework: Upon waking, immediately reconnect your attention with the center of the body
Upon waking, immediately reconnect your attention with the center of the body
On waking our mind should still be immersed in the brightness at the center of our body – finding us in a good mood from the moment we wake with consciousness as to all the good deeds one has done in the past – the new day holding the possibility to improve further upon one’s track record of good deeds from the past.
Benefits to practitioner
This item of homework will train us to be mindful, waking in mindfulness – greeting the new day without reluctance, drowsiness or dizziness. The first thing on one’s mind when one wakes should be thoughts of good deeds. If good things are at the top of one’s mind, it will help to attract similar things into our life. Therefore, waking with our mind focused on merit our new day is guaranteed to fill with meritorious deeds; the bad things temporarily forgotten because our focus is on merit instead. Whenever merit predominates in the mind, unwholesome intentions have to take a back seat. This ensures that each new day promises to hold more good deeds than the previous.
Benefits to others
Creates a positive and pleasant atmosphere for those close to us at home.
Sets a positive mood for the home.
Boosts morale mutually between family members – especially for those who are feeling down – because often the morale of the family reflects our own. If a family is in good cheer from the moment they get up, often they will be cheerful the whole day.
Details of practice
Usually, if one has practiced all the first four items of homework (or even two or three of them) before going to bed, this alone will enable us to wake up with our mind already centered – unless we have woken up moody in the middle of the night and have not recentered our mind before going back to sleep. To practice this item of homework properly, the moment we wake up, we should recall the joy and brightness of merit we were thinking about before we fell asleep. We should re-align our mind with that feeling. (If for some reason we had not centered our mind before falling asleep, we should be quick to do so when we wake up, instead), allowing the soft, and refreshing light at our center gently to permeate the whole of our body and mind until we feel cleansed and pure.