Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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48 direct opposition to awareness in which the mind is at rest. It is living in the future, rather than living in the present. Ignorance (avijja) is not a lack of knowledge, but of understanding, which is due to a conditioned way of thinking. It is not the absence of knowledge, but the presence of delusion. How can a deluded mind find the truth? The transition from ignorance to understanding, which is comprehensive insight, is as the opening of a curtain, which allows one to see from within his darkness. Thus the overcoming of delusion is a revelation, an emancipation, an enlightenment. Here is no logical deduction, no mathematical equation, no acquisition of information, but here is a direct seeing that which is, even if that is a delusion. For when a delusion is seen as such, it ceases to be a delusion. To see the false as false, that is truth. How to see and learn to see the truth, is a foolish question, which is the outcome from a desire to acquire knowledge. And that shows the foolishness of a search in the darkness of ignorance. Understanding through insight (vipassanā) arises from direct perception and ‘bare attention’, which we have called here ‘awareness’ (sati). It is in awareness of whatever is or happens, that the light of insight can dispel the ignorance of delusion, and therewith open the mind to see and understand things as they are (yathā-bhūta-ñāṇa-dassana) without attachment and prejudice, without repulsion of traditional objection. The seven Facets of Insight The next group spoken of in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta as objects of the mind (dhamma) with reference to awareness of mental reactions (dhammānupassanā) is the group of seven factors of wisdom (satta sambojjhaṅga) or the ‘seven facets of insight’ (see the present author’s monograph of this title (1979)). Concerning the mind-objects or awareness of mental reactions (dhammānupassanā), the disciple who practices this way of awareness (Satipaṭṭhāna) is aware not only of the harmful states of
49 mind, such as the five hindrances (nīvaraṇa) and the ten fetters (saṁyojana), but also of those factors which in seven aspects lead to enlightenment (sambojjhaṅga). They are enumerated as follows: mindfulness (sati), investigation of phenomena (dhammavicaya), energy (viriya), rapturous joy (pīti), tranquillity (passaddhi), concentration (samādhi) and equanimity (upekkhā). As facets of insight-meditation (vipassanā) they lead to and are hence called the seven factors of enlightenment 11 . They are also named as means for attaining threefold wisdom 12 , namely remembrance of former existences, clairvoyance, and the extinction of all cankers (āsavakkhaya), which is the attainment of arahantship. Dealing briefly here with these seven facets as mind objects of contemplation through awareness, we meet immediately with an apparently strange situation, namely, that mindfulness as a factor of enlightenment (sati-sambojjhaṅga) is a mind-object (dhamma) in this way of awareness (Satipaṭṭhāna). Putting it tersely: mindfulness is an object of awareness. Awareness is being aware of the presence of this factor of mindfulness. They are not two kinds of awareness or mindfulness, but here is shown insight (anupassanā) into the arising, functioning, passing away of this state of mind. Just as the mind can be aware of the presence of a particular thought, not through analysis which is just another thought but through insight, so ‘bare attention’ can be aware of the mental state of mindfulness. It is the body that death or illness of the body is experienced. So it is bare attention which is aware of the presence of mindfulness. Then, the body (rūpa), the sensation (vedanā), the perception (saññā), the mental reaction of formation (saṅkhāra) is reflected in the attentiveness of the mind (viññāṇa). Such attentiveness is not a mere point of view, but the actual experiencing of awareness. It is the realisation of the manner in which a hindrance, a fetter, a factor of enlightenment has arisen. It is, therefore, a contemplation of a state 11 satta sambojjhaṅga: Samy. xlvi, 5 12 tevijja: A. x, 102
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Copyright Notice This work is licen
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4 Awareness of Perceptions . . . .
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From the publisher Henry Van Zeyst,
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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 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: 47 is thus made an object for striv
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
Page 93 and 94: Awareness in Reaction Methods How c
Page 95 and 96: 79 of, will be there. But that is n
Page 97 and 98: 81 past. Clinging to the past has f
Page 99 and 100: 83 denial or to a spiritual ideal,
Page 101 and 102: 85 When the mind is totally open an
Page 103 and 104: 87 happens to a watcher who is foun
Page 105 and 106: 89 now projected into the future as
Page 107 and 108: 91 property, who set fire to my hou
Page 109 and 110: 93 experience. When no answer is so
Page 111 and 112: 95 there is freedom to see, to unde
Page 113 and 114: 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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