Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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4 fear underlying it. Exposure of fear does not make one brave, but shows the emptiness of the mind in fear. When the mind is truly empty, thought as reaction ceases, and in that silence an altogether new relationship of understanding can establish itself from moment to moment without attachment, without fear, without conflict. To be aware of something is not just a vague acquaintance with something in the background: a baby crying in a house down the lane. To be aware means to be fully involved. It is an experiencing, as to be hungry, which gathers in all the senses; even sight gets blurred, hearing indistinct, because hunger is a challenge to the entire system. We may read of people dying of starvation, and feel pity; but we are not involved in the same way, as long as there is a mere recording, a comparison with an image in the memory. But when I am hungry, I am so totally involved that I am hunger itself; that is, I am the immediate response to that experience. There is no escape possible through thought, memory, sublimation, sacrifice. Whatever I do or not do, I am experiencing hunger to the exclusion of everything else. I cannot bring in another unrelated element, such as prayer, submission, distraction; for, the experiencing of hunger is all-pervading. I can temporarily avoid the issue and escape in a dreamland of plenty for the moment, by artificial means, prayers or drugs, concentration or activity, but I am still hungry. I am that hunger. In that awareness there is an immediate experiencing which produces immediate action. If the hunger is purely physical, I do something about it; if the need is extreme, I may even steal and disregard all consequences, because the awareness is not on the outcome, but on the need. Psychological hunger, which is the desire of the mind to continue in its search for self-satisfaction, will likewise disregard all consequences in its search for continued existence of the ‘self’. But if there is awareness, seeing the reactionary activity of thought which seeks
5 continuance in impermanence, conflict in its contradictory search, then that awareness will also see the void of both search and conflict. Awareness is not Concentration Concentration (samādhi) on something is not awareness (sati). Concentration is deliberate focussing of the mind on some particular object, and is therefore, an act of the will. The object is selected, in preference to some other object, whereby it becomes a chosen condition or ideal; and all mental energy is then concentrated exclusively on that selected object of thought. It is not awareness (sati), but recollection (anussati). The deliberation, the selection, the preference, the exclusiveness of the mental choice, the chosen frontiers within which the wandering thoughts are controlled, require great mental effort, so much, that greater effort is exercised in the controlling of thought than on the focussing of the mental eye on the single object chosen for concentration. The means become more important than the goal; and the entire activity is a wilful exercise, a purposeful direction, an intentional restriction of energy to be channelled with pre-selection, with purpose of attainment, of gain, of making become something which was not there before. Concentration, mindfulness or even mere watchfulness on breathing (ānāpāna-sati) may cause one to notice a change in the rhythm of the breath, a quickening of its tempo, betraying the interference of some external thought of love or anger. Then, it is not important to follow up the breath from the nostrils filling the lungs, but rather the interference. When an angry thought arises, it is not the breath which should be followed in concentration; it is not even the anger which should be attended to, for that can be done without meditation, by either suppression or substitution, or even by sublimation. What is needed most of all is the understanding of that anger. Further, it is not so much the knowledge of the immediate cause of my anger, which may
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: 3 more important than the understan
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
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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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