Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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thing to be talked about as an achievement. It is the natural state
of mental health, the absence of which is felt in flurry, worry, agitation,
hope and fear. The advantage of this method, which is not
a form of procedure but rather an orderliness of regular habits, lies
in its always ready availability. In the midst of social company with
its hollow activity and empty conversation, it is possible to tranquillise
the mind by just a few seconds of this ‘bare attention’ on
the invisible breathing, leaving one refreshed and detached without
intentional withdraw and isolation. It is not an exercise of isolation
or retirement, but of practical observation and non-involvement.
Breathing, inhaling and exhaling, is a function of the body which
takes place with or without interference of thought, and thereby it
provides a wonderful opportunity of watching its function and any
change thereof, due to control or lack of control, due to interference
of thought. The mere observation of the rhythmic rise and fall, entrance
and exit, of simple breathing provides an awareness, which
an intentional search could never induce.
Yet, all this is still concentration, though the object is so evanescent.
This vagueness, however, opens the mind in awareness, when
concentration becomes contemplation. Then the process of thought
will silence with the abandoning of the counts of breath. Now
breathing as such is no longer a method or a means. And in the absence
of change there is the equilibrium which only a tranquil mind
can experience. Now the conflict arising from resistance to a disturbance
has no ground, and in the experiencing of non-individuality
the three characteristics (anicca-dukkha-anatta) are realised in direct
awareness, which is the perfect mindfulness (sammāsati) of the
noble eightfold path.
Contemplation on peace
Contemplation on peace (upasamānussati) is that which leads to
the fading away of all defilements (āsavakkhaya: A.I.30). Peace is