What is Open Monitoring Meditation?
Open Monitoring Meditation (OMM) is a style of meditation in which one monitors all ongoing mental content without explicit effortful attentional focus, and becomes meta-aware of all sensory, cognitive, and emotional experience in a non-judgmental manner. Unlike focused attention practices that concentrate on a single object (such as the breath or a mantra), open monitoring invites the practitioner to maintain a broad, receptive awareness, observing whatever arises in consciousness without selecting, judging, or engaging with any particular phenomenon.
The core principle involves watching thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations as they emerge and dissolve, maintaining what contemplative neuroscientists describe as meta-awareness—awareness of awareness itself. Rather than suppressing or redirecting attention when distractions arise, the practitioner simply notes their presence and allows them to pass without further elaboration or attachment.
Origins & Lineage
The concept of OMM originates from Buddhism and has just begun to be examined within cognitive neuroscience. Open Monitoring has its roots in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, where it is known as Vipassanā meditation. These correspond to samatha (śamatha) and vipassana (vipaśyanā) in Buddhist philosophy, respectively. Vipassanā, meaning “insight” or “clear seeing” in Pali, constitutes one of the two foundational meditation methods in Theravada Buddhism, complementing samatha (calm-abiding or focused attention practice).
Historically, meditation was not universally practiced among Buddhists; it was often reserved for monastics pursuing enlightenment. The modern mass vipassana movement emerged in early 20th-century Burma (Myanmar) during the colonial period, when Burmese meditation teachers began teaching insight practices to laypeople as a means of preserving Buddhist teachings. This democratization of meditation practice represented a significant departure from centuries of precedent.
The modern concept of Open Monitoring was popularized by researchers such as Jon Kabat-Zinn, who incorporated elements of Vipassanā meditation into his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program. Kabat-Zinn’s work helped to bring mindfulness and OM practices into the mainstream, making them more accessible to a wider audience. Since the introduction of MBSR in the late 1970s, open monitoring has been adapted into secular clinical contexts, studied extensively by neuroscientists, and integrated into various mindfulness-based interventions.
Traditions and meditation practices that are based on Open Monitoring include “Shikantaza” or “just sitting” in Japanese Soto Zen, “choiceless awareness” by Krishnamurti, Vipassana or insight meditation from Theravada Buddhism, Sahaja and Sahaja Samadhi meditation.
How It’s Practiced
During OMM the focus of the meditation becomes the monitoring of awareness itself. In contrast to FAM, there is no object or event in the internal or external environment that the meditator has to focus on. The aim is rather to stay in the monitoring state, remaining attentive to any experience that might arise, without selecting, judging, or focusing on any particular object.
In practice, open monitoring typically begins with establishing a stable foundation. To start, however, the meditator will focus on a chosen object, as in FAM, but will subsequently gradually reduce this focus, while emphasizing the activity of monitoring of awareness. Once a baseline of concentration is established, the practitioner relaxes effortful attention and opens awareness to the totality of experience.
The meditator sits in a comfortable but alert posture and allows attention to rest in a receptive state. Sounds, bodily sensations, emotions, and thoughts are noted as they arise—not as distractions to be eliminated, but as the very content of practice. When the mind becomes caught in a thought stream, the practitioner gently returns to the stance of the observer, recognizing thinking as thinking without following the narrative.
What distinguishes open monitoring from mind-wandering or passive daydreaming is the quality of meta-cognitive awareness: the practitioner remains conscious that they are observing, maintaining a continuity of non-reactive attention even as the contents of consciousness change.
Open Monitoring Meditation Today
Open monitoring meditation is encountered in multiple contemporary contexts. Vipassana retreat centers, such as those in the tradition of S.N. Goenka or the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts, offer intensive silent retreats ranging from 10 days to several months. These immersive environments provide extended periods for developing the sustained meta-awareness that open monitoring requires.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) programs—now offered in hospitals, universities, and community centers worldwide—incorporate open monitoring alongside focused attention practices. Many meditation apps and online platforms include guided open awareness sessions, though the quality and fidelity to traditional instruction varies.
Zen centers teaching Soto Zen offer shikantaza (“just sitting”) practice, which shares the open, non-selective quality of vipassana-style open monitoring. Secular meditation teachers increasingly distinguish between focused and open styles, allowing practitioners to understand the specific cognitive skills each cultivates.
Contemporary neuroscience research has generated substantial interest in open monitoring, particularly its effects on attention, creativity, emotional regulation, and brain network activity. EEG research shows that open monitoring meditation produces increases in gamma band activity, oscillations in the 30–100 Hz range that are associated with high-level information integration across the brain.
Common Misconceptions
Open monitoring is not simply relaxing or “zoning out.” It requires active meta-cognitive engagement—a sustained quality of alertness that differentiates it from passive mind-wandering or dissociation. The practice involves effort, though not the same effortful concentration required in focused attention meditation.
It is not a practice of thought suppression. Unlike some misconceptions about meditation that frame it as “emptying the mind,” open monitoring involves full acknowledgment of mental content. Thoughts are not problems to be solved but phenomena to be observed.
Almost every meditation tradition begins students with focused attention practice, and the neuroscience supports this. You need a baseline of attentional stability before you can sustain the open, panoramic awareness that OM requires. Many beginners attempt open monitoring prematurely and experience frustration or confusion, mistaking distraction for successful practice.
Open monitoring is not identical to mindfulness, though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Mindfulness meditation is a complex technique but most of its variants consist of a combination of two types of basic meditation practice: focused attention meditation (FAM) and open monitoring meditation (OMM). FAM and OMM are currently combined in mindfulness-based meditation. Contemporary mindfulness interventions typically integrate both focused and open monitoring approaches.
Finally, while open monitoring originates in Buddhist contemplative traditions, the secularized versions taught in clinical and scientific contexts are intentionally separated from Buddhist cosmology, ethics, and soteriological goals. This represents both an adaptation and a reduction of the traditional practice.
How to Begin
Start with FA. Almost every meditation tradition begins students with focused attention practice, and the neuroscience supports this. A common recommendation is to build a consistent FA practice for several weeks to months before introducing OM.
For those ready to explore open monitoring, several entry points exist:
Books: Mindfulness in Plain English by Bhante Henepola Gunaratana provides clear instructions rooted in the Theravada vipassana tradition. Joseph Goldstein’s The Experience of Insight offers systematic guidance for insight meditation practice. For the Zen approach to open awareness, Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind introduces shikantaza.
Structured Programs: Enroll in an MBSR course to learn both focused attention and open monitoring in a secular, evidence-based format. The program runs eight weeks and includes guided instruction, group practice, and home assignments.
Retreat Settings: Consider a 10-day vipassana retreat through the Goenka tradition (dhamma.org) for intensive immersion, though be prepared for rigorous practice including complete silence. Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock Meditation Center offer retreats of varying lengths for practitioners at different levels.
Teachers: Seek qualified meditation instructors who can differentiate between focused and open practices. Teachers trained in MBSR, vipassana, or Zen traditions will understand the specific challenges and techniques of open monitoring.
Preliminary Practice: Begin with 5-10 minutes daily of breath-focused meditation to develop concentration. Once you can sustain attention on the breath with relative stability for several minutes, gradually introduce brief periods of open awareness—perhaps the final 2-3 minutes of each session—observing whatever arises without returning to the breath anchor.