Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

More documents

Recommendations

Info

94 continue, who can project, who can live in the future and become the ideal, which, too, is but a concept of that same delusion, which is thought. Thought is not thinking; a thought is a concept, a word, an idea, a fixed point from which there is sensation, judging, comparing, selecting, willing, retaining, projecting. Thought is always about something from the centre, the observer, who has already the experiences of earlier thoughts, gathered and preserved in memory, to be into a continuance, a series of events, which then make up the individual, the ‘self’. When there is no thought of comparison and selection, then there cannot be any memory and hence no ‘self’. That can only be when there is no thought. It is not possible to stop thought, for the very effort of wanting to stop is another thought with a motive, following a pattern. But, seeing that thought is only memory and reaction, the mind can refuse to react to memory, by merely seeing what is, which is awareness of reactions as they set in. This is not concentration on an ideal, trying to see as one would like it to be, which is comparison and judgement, which is a thought of the past, trying to project itself into the future as an ideal. To see what is, means allowing all else to drop away as not actual. To see with memory or with ideals is not seeing and experiencing at all. It is a calling back of the past under the influence of education, of tradition, of faith, of customs, of public opinion. All these influences condition the seeing in the present, which is living in the present. Without living in the present there is no freedom from the bondage of the past; and without freedom, all vision is distorted, all action is conflict, being a reaction of thought. But there is no method to make thought cease; that too would be an ideal. The mind will stop thinking when it is understood (not merely intellectually with reasoned brain-work) with deep insight in experiencing, that thought in its accumulation is the ‘I’, the fixing of fixation of an idea in duration. When that fixation is gone,
95 there is freedom to see, to understand, to act, to live lovingly and truthfully. Thought is an action of the mind, but that does not make of the mind an organ which produces thought as a record produces music. The mind works through physical organ which is the brain, but that does not give it an independent existence. Speech is performed through the vocal organs, but that does not provide an independent existence for speech. To consider mind as the sumtotal and content of all thought is also a dangerous way of looking at things, for, the mind is neither a producer of thoughts, nor their container. In fact, there is no mind apart from its action which is being intelligently aware, in a way as there is no thought apart from the act of thinking. Thus, actually, mind does not exist at all as an entity, but it is a process of mental activity, something like a flame being a process of burning, of combustion. Apart from that actual process there is no abiding entity, whether one calls it substance or soul, self or God. While thought is a process of grasping through memory or ideal, by means of comparing the past with the present, or projecting the present into the future, the intelligent awareness of the present is not conditioned by thought, does not choose its object and is, therefore, not attached to its outcome. Open and unattached, the mind in intelligent awareness of the present moment is unconditioned and hence free to understand without being fed by the clinging of remembrance, or by the craving for projection and protection in security. While thought is self-reflective thinking, mental awareness is an opening up to new experiencing without choice, but with understanding which is insight. Awareness of an open and unconditioned mind does not compare or register, does not relate experiences to a ‘self’, but is the undivided experiencing in which a challenge is met with an immediate response, which is not a reaction through memory, but a pure action of insight, an understanding of need without greed.
Page 3:
Copyright Notice This work is licen
Page 6 and 7:
4 Awareness of Perceptions . . . .
Page 9:
From the publisher Henry Van Zeyst,
Page 12 and 13:
10 the ‘ego’, for the maintenan
Page 14 and 15:
12 insubstantiality (anatta). The l
Page 17 and 18:
Awareness, the Beginning of Enlight
Page 19 and 20:
3 more important than the understan
Page 21 and 22:
5 continuance in impermanence, conf
Page 23 and 24:
7 Awareness is not Consciousness Aw
Page 25 and 26:
9 When there is no Awareness We are
Page 27 and 28:
11 not come through exertion, does
Page 29 and 30:
Mindfulness as Recollection However
Page 31 and 32:
15 the Buddha is seen as the perfec
Page 33 and 34:
17 with good conduct, for they are
Page 35 and 36:
19 understanding of the degree of d
Page 37 and 38:
21 as change in evolution. And to s
Page 39 and 40:
23 our craving for continuity, this
Page 41 and 42:
25 observation leads to a feeling o
Page 43 and 44:
27 of the eye, the flexibility of t
Page 45 and 46:
29 awareness. When consciousness ce
Page 47 and 48:
31 thing to be talked about as an a
Page 49 and 50:
33 an escape is only more conflict.
Page 51 and 52:
Applications of Awareness Awareness
Page 53 and 54:
37 Here is a sensation which is con
Page 55 and 56:
39 as a soul to carry and to carry-
Page 57 and 58:
41 (saññā) ideations or mental f
Page 59 and 60: 43 an entity, free from the opposit
Page 61 and 62: 45 Attachment to rules and rites (s
Page 63 and 64: 47 is thus made an object for striv
Page 65 and 66: 49 mind, such as the five hindrance
Page 67 and 68: 51 cur, a revelation not through di
Page 69 and 70: 53 of achieving, but just melts awa
Page 71 and 72: 55 which prevent the mind to be at
Page 73 and 74: 57 bare attention, not with the int
Page 75 and 76: 59 of a search for happiness contai
Page 77 and 78: 61 ery experience is fresh, in whic
Page 79: that craves for continuance, of all
Page 82 and 83: 66 Originally, in the early suttas,
Page 84 and 85: 68 the conflict, and conflict is mi
Page 86 and 87: 70 mind again. ‘What is felt is p
Page 88 and 89: 72 counter-balance to delusion (moh
Page 90 and 91: 74 be able to get rid of the deprav
Page 93 and 94: Awareness in Reaction Methods How c
Page 95 and 96: 79 of, will be there. But that is n
Page 97 and 98: 81 past. Clinging to the past has f
Page 99 and 100: 83 denial or to a spiritual ideal,
Page 101 and 102: 85 When the mind is totally open an
Page 103 and 104: 87 happens to a watcher who is foun
Page 105 and 106: 89 now projected into the future as
Page 107 and 108: 91 property, who set fire to my hou
Page 109: 93 experience. When no answer is so
Page 113 and 114: 97 what it is, and not where it com
Page 115 and 116: Awareness in Meditation Stillness o
Page 117 and 118: 101 future, based on a dead memory.
Page 119 and 120: 103 neither the ‘self’, nor the
Page 121 and 122: 105 truth; becoming as ‘self’,
Page 123: 107 to become perfect. Awareness do
Page 126 and 127: 110 is the wide vista for all to se
Page 128 and 129: 112 truth in spheres where sense-pl
Page 130 and 131: 114 has no entity, no conflict can
Page 132 and 133: 116 all know what is right; and yet
Page 134 and 135: 118 true relationship, as all conta
Page 136 and 137: 120 is in loving, the thought of lo
Page 138 and 139: 122 loving; and that moment is alwa
Page 140 and 141: 124 Compassion is frequently seen a
Page 142 and 143: 126 should not be a barrier of dist
Page 144 and 145: 128 is the food on which the ‘I
Page 146 and 147: 130 Sympathy Sympathetic joy (mudit
Page 148 and 149: 132 no preoccupation, no pettiness,
Page 150 and 151: 134 not ‘mine’, but which is al
Page 152 and 153: 136 through mind-control or substit
Page 154 and 155: 138 am that projection, that ideal,
Page 157: About the Author Henri van Zeyst wa
show all

Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?