Here, awareness stays open to whatever arises in the mind rather than to one thing only—to the exclusion of all else—as in total concentration. The ability to maintain this mindfulness, an alert but nonreactive stance in attention, varies with our powers of one-pointedness. With mindfulness, the meditator simply notes without reactivity whatever comes into mind, such as thoughts or sensory impressions like sounds—and lets them go. The operative word here is go. If we think much of anything about what just arose, or let it trigger any reactivity at all, we have lost our mindful stance—unless
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