Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

50
of mind, a bare attention to mental qualities, whether they are to be
abandoned as hindrances and fetters, or to be cultivated as factors
of insight and stages on the holy path. It is thus awareness of the
contents of a mental state.
The list of seven facets of insight is then headed by awareness
(sati) as the most indispensable factor and foundation, without
which none of the others could develop. It is entirely an alertness
of the present moment without any foothold in the past or grasping
towards the future. There is no condemnation because there is no
comparison which involves memory. There is no striving for perfection,
because there is no goal of achievement. Awareness leads
to insight, and is insight, because it is awareness of the true nature
of an action. Without assertion, without denial, without acceptance
which are all expressions of the reflecting ‘self’, it is awareness
and perception of the reactions of that imaginary ‘self’ to an environment
of chosen activity. Thus, there is awareness of delusion
and ignorance, and in that awareness there is freedom from thoughtprojection.
In that insight there is no problem and hence no conflict.
Investigation (dhamma-vicaya) is the second factor of enlightenment.
Although this factor is very often and almost always interpreted
as investigation of the teaching, it is here really an investigation
into the nature of mental phenomena 13 , which is the meaning
of the term ‘dhamma’ as we are considering now in ‘awareness of
mental phenomena’ (dhammānupassanā). Thus, it is not an analysis
of the Buddha’s doctrine, but rather an opening of the mind’s
eye to see the nature of its contents.
Investigation, therefore, is indeed an important part or aspect
of awareness, of seeing rather than a research. Where research is a
planned action to discover a hidden secret, it is obviously motivated
by the ‘actor’ of an action. But when the mind is open without prejudice,
without expectation, without method for achieving, without
striving for a goal, then there is the occasion for a revelation to oc-
13 See Nyanatiloka Thera’s Buddhist Dictionary, 1980, under Bojjhaṅga