ABOUT 1 MONTH AGO • 5 MIN READ

Aura, Focus vs. Attention and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

profile

Yoga with Ethan ॐ

Heal Your {Body} • Master Your {Mind} • Free Your {Soul}

March 9th, 2025

Happy Sunday, Reader ☀️

Week one of kung fu training here in Osaka is now over, and man am I sore!

The schedule is rigorous: one hour of tai chi and two hours of kung fu in the mornings, and another two hours of kung fu and qi gong in the afternoons (equaling five hours of practice each day). Cleaning takes place four times per week and the Japanese rules and regulations are totally inflexible.

I train with a ferocity, thanks to years of disciplined meditation practice. My form is getting better every day, and the stabilizer muscles around my groin, knees and shoulders are getting much, much stronger.

I’m loving every second of it, too. My body and mind have been aching for this kind of intense rigor and routine. The few hours of free time I have each day are spent either eating, napping, or working on my website. There’s simply no time for silly YouTube videos or mindless podcasts. I have to be entirely focused on my goals.

More to come. I hope you enjoy this week’s {Body} • {Mind} • {Soul} Newsletter and have a beautiful Sunday,
- Ethan ॐ

P.S. I will be taking what I learn here, and applying them to my discourses at The Course of Transformation this summer in Portugal. I hope you’ll consider joining me and the 21 other students — spots are filling up.

P.P.S. Going forward, I will have a guided meditation and journal prompt in the {Body} • {Mind} • {Soul} newsletter. You will have free access to it for a few weeks, and then they will be gated by a pay-wall ❤️

Ethan Hill
Owner, Yoga with Ethan


Your auric field

Let’s talk science for a moment.

Electricity is produced when electrons are flowing through a wire.

Electrons flowing = power on. Electrons not flowing = power off.

As they flow (i.e. when the power is on), electrons generate an electromagnetic field (EMF) around them. This field radiates outward in waves, can be concentrated or dispersed, and its strength depends on the flow of energy (voltage) creating it.

EMFs aren’t mystical or theoretical — they’re derived from basic physics. Without their existence, your phone couldn’t wirelessly charge, and the MRI machines in hospitals wouldn’t work.

Why does this matter?

Because your body operates on similar principles. Your nervous system conducts electrical impulses through neurons, your heart generates measurable electromagnetic waves (which is why EKGs work), and every cell in your body maintains an electrical potential across its membrane.

In other words, because your body conducts electricity, it also has various electromagnetic fields orbiting around it.

These biological electromagnetic fields are known in ancient traditions as an “auric field.”

One who has a “good aura” has an electrical energy system that is working harmoniously, generating a symmetrical and expansive “orb” around their body, which can be directly felt by others.

Practice

Just because your and others’ aura is invisible doesn’t mean you can’t feel it.

Try this:

  1. Close your eyes and adjust your posture.
  2. Try to distinguish the outline of your body. Where does your skin end, and the atmosphere begin?
  3. Notice that you have an awareness of what takes place outside of this physical border. For instance, how do you know with eyes closed if you’re in a big or small room?
  4. Maintain focus outside of your corporeal boundary for long enough and you will learn your aura’s qualities: it’s a wave-like energy that radiates outward, can be concentrated or dispersed, and grows stronger with increased flow.

At first, this practice seems to only take place in your imagination. Because you cannot directly see your field with your eyeballs — and because the sensations seem to come from outside of the skin — your ego will claim that you’re just making it up. You’re not. Something is there. It just takes a little practice before you trust what you sense.



The difference between focus and attention?

There is a distinct difference between focus and attention.

Attention narrows reality whereas focus sharpens it.

In other words, attention operates via exclusion — to pay attention to one thing, you must disregard all other things. By paying attention to your hand, you must avoid paying attention to your foot.

Focus, on the other hand, operates via intent — how clearly would you like to see what’s here? For instance, while you can “pay attention” to the ambient sounds around you (by centering yourself on that portion of reality), it requires genuine focus to actually hear them.

Attention without focus is like being blind while insisting upon using a flashlight to navigate a dark room — useless. Focus without attention is like looking through a perfectly clear lens pointed at nothing — reveals nothing.

Think of it like a microscope: Attention zooms into a sample and focus brings it into view. You need to be able to master both in order to successfully use your mind.

In meditation, that means attending to one part of reality — breathing, the third eye, emotions — at the expense of all others, while simultaneously making sure focus is resolved enough to observe its unique features.

You can meditate with me below to get a feel for this.

Next week I’ll talk about the differences between focus and attention, and their subtle ally: concentration.

Meditate


“Love says ‘I am everything.’ Wisdom says ‘I am nothing.’ Between the two, my life flows.” — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

From just two interplaying forces — attraction and repulsion — the material Universe emerges as an infinitely complex set of patterns and geometries.

Using nothing but two numbers — 0 and 1 — the internet, smart phones, and artificial intelligence reshape our entire planet and culture.

With only two possible modes available — ignorance and Truth — souls undergo radical evolution and expansion into realities unknown.

On and off, love and wisdom, everything and nothing. These unpretentious opposites reverberate off of one another like the feedback from two microphones, generating human lives that are infinite in scope, but unique in expression.

Journal


Consider the areas of your life where you resist either fullness or emptiness. In other words: Where do you cling to your importance? And when do you worship your powerlessness?


Thursday, July 3rd → Wednesday, July 9th*

The Course of Transformation (🇵🇹 Portugal)

7-Day Nature & Yoga Retreat to Expand, Connect and Awaken

*Hosted just once a year. Only 22 spots. Limited scholarships available.


Yoga with Ethan ॐ

Heal Your {Body} • Master Your {Mind} • Free Your {Soul}