Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

Introduction
The poverty of language is often such, that words are misleading
as much as they are revealing. Thus, ‘soullessness’ (anatta), as a
negation of ‘self’-entity, could possibly be misunderstood as describing
the state of a person without ‘soul’ as having no individuality,
as having no backbone! And so, ‘mindfulness’ could be construed
as a mind being full to overflowing with ideas and ideals. Then,
Satipaṭṭhāna, mindfulness, would be a method to obtain such fullness.
Nothing could be more misleading. Hence I have preferred to
speak of awareness. Here, no method is required; and Satipaṭṭhāna
then would be the application of awareness.
Awareness is not a method. It is just to be aware that the mind
is full. But that is not easy, because the mind, like nature, abhors
a vacuum, and to empty the mind is something to be afraid of. An
empty mind is supposed to be a stupid mind. When the mind is
blank, there is indecision, a lack of mental activity, of determination,
of perplexity. How can such a state of mind be a meditative mind?
These are some of the problems we are going to deal with, not
methodically, but with understanding which is insight. And insight
is that kind of meditation which is not concentration aimed at tranquillity
(samatha bhāvanā), but contemplation (vipassanā) which
alone can tell us the nature of mind and its components, the nature
of our emotions, ambitions, desires, the nature of that which forms
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