Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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more important than the understanding of the problem? A method
has already chosen the approach without seeing the significance of
the problem, the actuality of the challenge. A method is aimed at
finding a solution to do away with the problem; and hence it is a
form of escape.
The Passive Approach
But in a passive approach of awareness there is only the seeing of
the problem without judgement. Thus there is no identification,
no colouring of the problem as good or evil, as mine or not mine.
Then the problem can present itself in its own form and thus reveal
its content. Without interpretation and identification there is no
choice, no desire for a solution, for an answer, for a revolt. Then the
challenge is not met with an old pattern which is of the memory,
of ideals, of ‘self’. In the absence of self-awareness there is only
awareness of the challenge which is always new. Such awareness will
show that we are not passively interested, but that we are related
to the problem with self-interest, with prejudice, with desire for an
answer, with the image of an ideal solution.
Now, what does awareness do? It not only sees my nervous reactions
which drop when ‘caught in action’, but it sees the entire
building up of the mental system which has produced those reactions.
For reactions are not only of the nerves, they are also the
unconscious layers of thought, to which the ‘I’ so readily reacts as
the easiest way out of a problem. Conformity to fashion, social
customs, cultural ties, national flag-waving, religious adherence to
rituals, which one may laugh at privately and yet cling to in public
to avoid ‘difficulties’, are some of the expressions of that inner fear
of standing alone while losing the support of the mass. Awareness
will not only expose the childlike immaturity of conformity, but also
the basic fear underlying it. Exposure of fear does not make one
brave, but shows the emptiness of conformity, but also the basic