Tarthang Rinpoche's accomplishment can grow and flower. More than 80 exercises that can be done on-the-job are included. From the chapter "Developing Awareness": In training awareness to focus, we need at first to be as constantly watchful as a shepherd tending his flock. Otherwise, thoughts, ideas, memories, images, and emotional dramas will wander aimlessly about and draw awareness to them. As we become more familiar with awareness, we do not need to exercise this same degree of vigilance, for awareness has a built-in reminding quality that will bring the mind back. Like a bee attracted to the pollen of a beautiful flower, awareness may fly away, but it keeps coming back. Exercise 9: "Keep It Simple": To cultivate a light, focused awareness in your work, start with a simple short task and see if you can be aware of what you are doing from beginning to end - directly present in your own experience. If attention begins to slip away, gently bring it back. When you complete one task, do another. Every day and every hour, the opportunity to practice in this way is available. Exercise 10 "Working and Walking": A simple way to cultivate awareness is to focus on the activity of walking. Just as we walk from one place to another and do not notice how we get there, so we work to get something done and do not contact the experience of working. If we develop more awareness in walking, it will transfer to working. Practice being aware of the activity of walking during the day. You will find that rushing about tends to diminish awareness, so it is best to begin by walking slowly. As you focus, you can develop a gentle sense of presence that makes you enjoy walking. Once this enjoyment is activated, you can move quickly and still remain aware, opening the senses to what is going on around you.
