Three-by-Three Exercise

In Being Zen, Ezra Bayda introduces a meditation exercise called Three-By-Three, in which you bring three different sources of sensory input into awareness simultaneously, and maintain awareness of all three for three full breaths. You then continue on, using different collections of sensations, physical, visual or auditory, for each round of breaths.

This practice allows you to expand your sensory awareness beyond the standard narrow band that we typically use throughout the day. Ezra says:

The awareness moves from one point of focus to another, often attending to several aspects simultaneously. Without attempting to hold any of these aspects as a reference point, we witness the sensory world from a clear, alert perspective. This is ‘experiencing.’