Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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12 insubstantiality (anatta). The lack of awareness is then a lack of understanding which is basic ignorance (avijja) rooted in delusion (moha). The overcoming of ignorance through a realisation of truth, which is to know and see things as they really are (yathā-bhūta-ñāṇadassana), is then truly an awakening from a state of delusion. To be awake then, is to rise from the slumber of ignorance and delusion, to perceive, to understand, to comprehend, to realise, to be enlightened (bodhi). It is this process of awakening, which is the ‘application of mindfulness’ (Satipaṭṭhāna), and which requires an intense state of alertness and attention (yoniso manasikāra) to the actuality of experience, an awareness of mental states as they arise, rather than paying attention to states which have arisen. Thus, ‘inhaling a deep breath, he is aware: I inhale a deep breath’ (dīghaṁ assasāmī’ ti pajānāti 3 ). To be awake is seeing the act in action, that is, the actual reaction in the mind. Whether the breath is long or short is immaterial in itself, except perhaps for a lung specialist looking for symptoms. But the awareness of the mental state which produces this quality of action is an awareness of the reactionary ‘self’ which is being expressed. What follows after the diagnosis is of interest perhaps to a psychiatrist, who can analyse a symptom, tracing it through memory. That too, is mindfulness (sati) as recollection (anussati) or memory, but not awareness of the present reaction, which reveals the prevailing motive or volition (cetanā), which is the activity (kamma) which makes the ‘I’. Attention is often the result of selection, which is volition, which is the ‘self’ in action. For, attention is an activity of the mind which precludes distraction. Whereas alertness is choiceless and is as much interested in the distraction, if that is the reaction, as in the preselected focus of the attentive mind. The reaction, which is an afterevent, is of much more interest, because it shows the actual state of the mind reacting to experience. The experience itself is not impor- 3 M. I, 56
13 tant (breathing, concentration, tranquillity, trance, ecstasy, etc.), but the reaction thereto when being experienced is the revealing factor of actuality at work. And that is the ‘method’ (paṭṭhāna) of being aware, the ‘application of awareness’ (Satipaṭṭhāna). It is not anger arising in a deluded mind, it is not the cause of anger providing the opportunity for the arising of anger, but the reaction thereto in actuality, which can reveal the present process of selection or rejection, which is the birth of a ‘self’ in projection in desire, in search of continuance, resistance in existence, the essence of conflict. Awareness is an alertness which is not found in attention. It is a neutral state without selection, a readiness which is fully active in seeing a reaction a reaction without comparison, without absorption, without denial. Then there is no creation of opposition, of conflict, of ‘self’, which is always appropriation, the process which makes the ‘self’ grow. Thus, awareness is a ready receptivity in which there is no prejudice, and hence a neutrality without selection.
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 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
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49 mind, such as the five hindrance
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51 cur, a revelation not through di
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53 of achieving, but just melts awa
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55 which prevent the mind to be at
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57 bare attention, not with the int
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59 of a search for happiness contai
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61 ery experience is fresh, in whic
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that craves for continuance, of all
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66 Originally, in the early suttas,
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68 the conflict, and conflict is mi
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70 mind again. ‘What is felt is p
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72 counter-balance to delusion (moh
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74 be able to get rid of the deprav
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Awareness in Reaction Methods How c
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79 of, will be there. But that is n
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81 past. Clinging to the past has f
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83 denial or to a spiritual ideal,
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85 When the mind is totally open an
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87 happens to a watcher who is foun
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89 now projected into the future as
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91 property, who set fire to my hou
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93 experience. When no answer is so
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95 there is freedom to see, to unde
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97 what it is, and not where it com
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Awareness in Meditation Stillness o
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101 future, based on a dead memory.
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103 neither the ‘self’, nor the
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105 truth; becoming as ‘self’,
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107 to become perfect. Awareness do
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110 is the wide vista for all to se
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112 truth in spheres where sense-pl
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114 has no entity, no conflict can
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116 all know what is right; and yet
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118 true relationship, as all conta
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120 is in loving, the thought of lo
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122 loving; and that moment is alwa
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124 Compassion is frequently seen a
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126 should not be a barrier of dist
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128 is the food on which the ‘I
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130 Sympathy Sympathetic joy (mudit
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132 no preoccupation, no pettiness,
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134 not ‘mine’, but which is al
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136 through mind-control or substit
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138 am that projection, that ideal,
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About the Author Henri van Zeyst wa
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Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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