Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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has no entity, no conflict can disturb what is beyond perception. It
is only in the insight (vipassanā) of contemplation that the four sublime
states can be seen as truly ‘buddhic’, in the sense of awakening
to reality.
In the mental culture of contemplation (vipassanā bhāvanā) the
incursions of detrimental distractions are excluded, not by suppression,
but by understanding the search for the pleasurable as a mental
reaction with the projection of the ‘I’-concept. In the comprehension
of such reactions as they arise with their causes and their aims,
there is revealed the true state of the mind at the moment. The
cultivation of loving kindness (mettā) by a mind which is inflamed
by passion and anger might suppress and even sublimate such unbecoming
feelings. That is the work of meditation which concentrates
on the goal of attaining tranquillity of mind (samatha bhāvanā). But
that does not alter the structure of one’s character which is inclined
to passion, which is ambitious to attain virtue, which is still selfish
in its very essence. Similarly, the concentration on sublime spheres
may lead to rebirth as a Brahma, but not to the deathless emancipation
of Nibbāna, in which there is no more becoming, no more
birth, and no more death. Concentration may provide an escape as
sought by the bodhisatta and his teachers in his last life. But as an
escape from mundane conflicts, they cannot provide a solution. And
that is the difference between the pre-Buddhistic practices of concentration
and the exclusively Buddhist approach of insight through
contemplation. The states of mental absorption (jhāna) to which
the practice of sublime virtues leads towards the overcoming of the
hindrances (nīvaraṇa) cannot provide to the mind more rest than
sleep gives to the body. Contemplation gives insight and maturity,
whence right action follows as its fruit. Then, loving kindness is love,
which has neither subject nor object, and which knows no bounds
and no source; a love which is truly immeasurable.
These four ‘divine’ virtues are also called immeasurable (appamaññā),
because they bring about happiness and tranquillity be-