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shower -- but you are very disrespectful to the shower. You have not been there, you have been somewhere else. You eat, but you are disrespectful to the food. You are not there, you simply go on swallowing the food inside you. You go on doing your things habitually, mechanically. When Buddha does a thing he is utterly there, he is nowhere else.
WHEN HE HAD EATEN AND RETURNED
FROM HIS ROUND, THE LORD PUT AWAY
HIS BOWL AND CLOAK, WASHED HIS FEET,
AND SAT DOWN ON THE SEAT ARRANGED FOR HIM,
CROSSING HIS LEGS,
HOLDING HIS BODY UPRIGHT, AND MINDFULLY
FIXING HIS ATTENTION IN FRONT OF HIM....
These minor details are worth relating, because they bring the quality of buddhahood. Each moment he lives in awareness. What he is doing is irrelevant; each moment he pours his attention into whatsoever he is doing. When he makes a gesture he is totally the gesture. When he smiles he is totally the smile. When he talks he is totally his words. And when he is silent he is totally silent.
To watch a buddha is a blessing in itself -- how he walks, how he sits, how he makes gestures, how he looks at you. Each moment is a radiant moment of awareness. That's why Ananda reports. There must have been great silence when Buddha came, arranged his dress, washed his feet, sat on the seat arranged for him, sat upright, then focussed his whole attention in front of him. What is this 'fixing your attention in front of yourself'? That is a special Buddhist method called ANAPANSATIYOGA -- mindfulness of breath coming in and breath going out. That is the meaning of focussing your attention in front.
When Buddha is doing something, for example dressing, then he is attentive of that act. When he is walking he is attentive of walking. When he is not doing anything then he is attentive of breath coming in and breath going out. But he is attentive; even while he is asleep he is attentive.
Ananda asked Buddha once.... For ten years he lived with Buddha and he was surprised that he remained in the same posture the whole night. Wherever he put his hand, he kept it there the whole night. He must have looked many times, must have sneaked
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