Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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There is just stillness, peace, release, freedom. And in that complete
stillness there is a great tenderness; in that utter peace there
is great love; in that total freedom there is a direct understanding
which is the wisdom of insight. And there is no room for anything
else.
Negation of Thought
Meditation, which is contemplation, is negation, because it is not
the outcome, or the result, or the reaction of effort, or of intention,
or of desire. Meditation comes in total denial of thought, of memory,
of system. Contemplation is not impelled by desire for success
or achievement; there is no thought of experience which would be a
thought of ‘self’; it does not aim at a goal, at an ideal, at continuance,
at being, or becoming. But in total negation of all that is
past or future, there is only the present moment, not to mould or
to shape, but to watch. In watching the present moment without
introducing a thought about it, there will arise a reaction which is
the ‘self’. Meditation is to understand that reaction, to see in that
reaction the ‘self’ as it is, as it works, as it schemes, exploits, hides
and influences, distorts and manipulates, with a purpose to absorb,
to become, to continue, to expand.
There is no need to concentrate on a chosen object, when the
observation of the working of thought exposes the cunning of the
mind in reaction to obtain stability, to acquire security, to spread
its influence and power. When awareness thus sees the reaction of
thought in action, the mind will become quiet, as there is no escape
or ideal presenting itself in negation of thought as memory or desire.
Without object is no thought for concentration, but whatever is
present is seen as it is in itself, not as useful to the mind or to
‘self’ in approval or rejection. Then, effort will be seen as an escape
to become; and effort will cease. With the cessation of becoming
there is just the fact of seeing what is: false as false, and that is