Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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26 its avowed aim ‘the pacification of the mind’ (samatha), a method expanded in full only in the commentaries, especially in the Visuddhimagga, said to be compiled by Buddhaghosa more than 1000 years after the Buddha’s parinibbāna, the contemplation of insight (vipassanā) is exclusively Buddhist, based on the essential characteristics (lakkhaṇa) of the Buddha’s teaching: change, conflict and non-entity (anicca, dukkha, anatta). The concentration exercises (kammaṭṭhāna) adopted by the commentators, are far from being exclusively Buddhist, as several of these exercise were practised already by the Bodhisatta, and were ultimately discarded by him, as they could only lead him to peace of mind, but not to emancipation and deliverance. The contemplation of the body (kāyānupassanā) is not a form of concentration with analysis, which is thought in purposeful action, but is the awareness (sati) as mentioned in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, namely the four applications of mindfulness of the body (kāyānussati), of sensations (vedanānussati), of the mind (cittānussati) and of phenomenal reactions (dhammānussati), as explained by the Buddha 8 , as the four foundations of mindfulness (sati-upaṭṭhāna). It is with these four applications in mind that we shall now first speak of awareness of the body (kāyānupassanā), with special attention to the process of breathing (ānāpāna-sati). The awareness of the foundation of mindfulness is not an exercise in concentration, therefore, but the observing (=contemplation) of the nature and functioning of the body, its sense-actions, its mental concepts and the reactions thereto. Concentration through analysis is as a surgical operation on living organisms, in order to determine whether there is life behind all that, only to be left with a multitude of lifeless parts which, even when put back together, would leave the surgeon with the remnants of a corpse. Awareness, on the other hand, does not act like a surgeon, but is rather the work of a physician who observes the pulse beat, the colour of the skin, the lustre 8 A. i, 21, 27; D. 22; M. 10
27 of the eye, the flexibility of the muscles, who sees in them all the symptoms of malfunctioning. Here one observes the postures, i.e., the ways of movement (iriyāpatha), going, standing, sitting, lying. One observes and is aware of how these movements are the expressions of one’s mental attitude: aggressive in walking, or maybe escaping; defeated in lying down, or perhaps inviting; standing in perplexity or expectation; sitting in satisfaction or in fear; the quick change in unrest, the refusal to change in a desire for security, the neatness of movement in the desire to please and to acquire, the roughness of movement in anger and defeat, the lack of movement in doubt and fear, the slowness of movement in planned anticipation, the quick movement in eagerness to possess. It is not the ‘I‘ which goes and stands still. It is not the ‘I’ which changes with the movements. But it is the ‘I’ which IS the movement. I do not have a walk as an object of possession, but I AM walking; it is the ‘I’, the concept of a subject which now makes the object and calls it ‘mine’, whereas in truth they cannot be separated; when walking ceases there is no ‘I’ left behind. It is the action which changes and ceases, but there is no ‘I’ without these changes. It is the ‘I’ that constitutes the resistance to change, as in change there can be no abiding entity. It is thus resistance which is the essence of existence, which is mere change and impermanence. Thus, I do not HAVE anger, but I AM anger; it is the anger which has made the ‘self’ in opposition, in conflict. I am hurt by averse opinion of others, because the ‘self’-opinionated concept of my ‘self’ has been blown to pieces as a deflated balloon, as a bubble bursting in a pool of rain water. ‘I’ am hurt, because the concept cannot find its prototype. ‘The disciple understands that there is no living being, no real ego, that walks, stands, etc., but it is a mere figure of speech that we say: I go, I stand, etc. (Commentary). That is contemplation, which is awareness in seeing things as they are. That is insight (vipassanā) which is not interested in
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 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: 25 observation leads to a feeling o
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
Page 71 and 72: 55 which prevent the mind to be at
Page 73 and 74: 57 bare attention, not with the int
Page 75 and 76: 59 of a search for happiness contai
Page 77 and 78: 61 ery experience is fresh, in whic
Page 79: that craves for continuance, of all
Page 82 and 83: 66 Originally, in the early suttas,
Page 84 and 85: 68 the conflict, and conflict is mi
Page 86 and 87: 70 mind again. ‘What is felt is p
Page 88 and 89: 72 counter-balance to delusion (moh
Page 90 and 91: 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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