Focus Method 1: Note Vanishings
The categories you can note are classified into active states, (i.e., Touch, Feel), restful states (i.e.,
Relaxation, Peace), and Impermanence states (i.e., Flow, Vanishing).
For all categories other than vanishing, “to note” is described in terms of:
“Acknowledge, soak in and open up.”
For vanishing, “to note” takes a simpler form, just:
“Acknowledge.”
That’s because if you take Nothingness to be your focus space and Noting States to be your focus method,
then the only state you can note is “Vanishing.” The relevant instructions would then be:
1. You don’t need to position your attention in any particular way.
2. Every time you are aware that something has vanished, note “Gone.”
3. The thing that vanishes could be simple or complex, intense or subtle, well-defined or ill defined.
The vanishing may be dramatic or subtle. Either case is fine. “All nothings are
uncreated equal.”
4. It is not particularly important that you have a clear sense of what has vanished. Your interest
is in the “going” rather that the “what.”
5. After each note, just hang out until something else vanishes. The wait for the next vanishing
may be short or long. Any pattern is fine.
Thus, it is possible to incorporate “noting nothingness” into our standard repertoire of procedures by
following the above instructions.

Focus Method 2: Do Nothing
How about “even coverage of nothingness”? This certainly would seem to be impossible! How can you
cover something with awareness if it is not extended in space and does not last through time? Well, let’s
look a little more carefully at the exact wording in the definition of “even coverage.”
1. Spread your attention over as much of the focus space as possible without straining.
2. Beyond that, do nothing intentionally.
Clearly part 1 is not relevant to experience nothingness, but part 2 is very relevant!
If your focus space is Nothingness, then “cover and do nothing intentionally” is reduced to “do nothing
intentionally.” The relevant instructions would then be:
1. You don’t need to position your attention in any particular way.
2. Let whatever happens happen, but as soon as you notice that you are doing anything
intentionally, stop.
We’ll refer to this process as “Doing Nothing.”
The second part of the instruction requires some clarification. We will define “intentional” to mean
something you can voluntarily control, meaning you have total control over initiating and stopping the
action –like raising or dropping your arm. Therefore, by definition, you can always stop an intentional
act. So if you cannot stop doing something, it is not really intentional and you don’tneed to stop. The
instructions are very clear; only stop doing what you easily can stop doing. Let anything else happen as it
will.
Examples of things that you can stop doing are:
 Intentionally thinking (as opposed to thinking that just happens to you)
 Trying to focus on a certain thing
 Trying to have equanimity
 Trying to keep track of what’sgoing on
 Trying to meditate
Thus, amazingly, it is actually possible to explore Nothingness using the two standard focus methods as
long as you realize that in this special case:
 Note States reduces to “just acknowledge each vanishing”and
 Even Coverage reduces to “do nothing intentional.”
Although “just acknowledge each vanishing” and “do nothing intentional” may seem to be very different
procedures, they lead to similar experiences.
Two other methods that will lead you in the same direction are the method of “Not this, Not this” (neti
neti) and the practice of Self Inquiry (constantly asking who is experiencing). If you find either of those
approaches useful, you can consider them to be “special exercises”to be used in addition to or instead of
the standard two methods described above when your focus space is “Nothingness” (True Self, No Self,
Source of Thought, etc.)