Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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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