Developing and Directing Your Awareness

If, as the old saying goes, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, then the journey of meditation begins with the cultivation of awareness, or attention.
 In fact, awareness is the mental muscle that carries you along and sustains you on your journey, not only at the start but every step of the way. No matter which path or technique you choose, the secret of meditation lies in developing, focusing, and directing your awareness. In meditation, you can use awareness in different ways. To begin with, you can increase your powers of awareness by developing concentration on a particular object. 
Then, when you've stabilized your concentration, you can, through the practice of receptive awareness, expand your awareness to illuminate the full range of your experience. Next, you can concentrate even further in order to cultivate positive emotions and mind-states. Or you can use awareness to investigate your inner experience and contemplate the nature of existence itself. 
Concentration, receptive awareness, cultivation, and contemplation constitute the major uses of awareness throughout the world’s great meditative traditions.