Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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cur, a revelation not through divine grace, but through removal of
the obstacles, fetters, hindrances to direct seeing which is insight.
Then investigation is a natural discovery of what was there all
the time, discovery of the delusion which prevented one to see falsehood.
To see the deluded ‘self’ as ‘no-self’ (anatta) is the greatest
discovery possible in the field of mind and mental action. To see that
there is no self-entity, no identify of an ego apart from action, from
thinking, from investigating, that is freedom of insight, freedom of
direct understanding, which is enlightenment.
Energy (viriya) is always mental 14 and therefore does not arise
through any of the five bodily senses. It is the capacity of acting,
which is often denied in the process of reaction which is thought and
memory conditioned by desire and impulse, an impelling condition
which urges on to a predestined goal.
As a factor of enlightenment (viriya-sambojjhaṅga) it is not the
power to overcome obstacles, but rather the strength of culture, of
evolution, which only requires the proper environment in order to
blossom and bring forth its fruit which is enlightenment. If there is
any effort, it can only be directed to the removal of darkness. But
darkness is not something to be set aside. There is no darkness, but
there may be the absence of light. Similarly, there is no ignorance,
but only the absence of understanding. When, therefore, there arises
insight (bodhi), there, is also the aspect (aṅga) of energy (viriya)
which comes from within, as mere seeing, perceiving and being aware
without the effort of building up. The energy of insight is not the
will to acquire, but the courage to destroy the false, to face the fear
of destruction, the readiness to let go all that is meaningless, the
non-attachment to what is now seen as a dream, as an illusion, as
will to become what is not.
The energy to be what one is, to see the phenomena at work in
arising and in ceasing, that is the energy which sets the mind free
from thought. The next factor or facet of insight is the exuberant joy
14 Atthasālinī i. iv. 2