Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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52 which is a mental exultation (pīti), but which can never be an object of thought. The memory of joy may provide a pleasant memory of an experience in the past, but that is not joy, that is not delight. Why should a memory be called back to provide satisfaction in the present? It is clear that in such memory there is no experiencing, but only a desire for gratification. It is the thought of ‘self’-gratification which makes thought delve into the archives of memory for the purpose of filling in a blank in the present. Just because here is no joy, one recalls a joyous experience. Thus the experience has become the property of an experiencer who is now craving for an clinging to what has been experienced, idealised, stored away and now brought back to fill the vacuum of the present moment. That means, the present moment had no experience to satisfy the ‘self’ and now the ‘I’ goes back into the past, having separated itself from the experience and brings back a dead memory. Thus, the experiencer had no experience in the present. But if there was no experience in the present, there could have been an experiencer either. It is this separation of the actor from his action which sets up an opposition of conflict: the ‘I’ which is the experiencer, the thinker, the actor, wants to possess the experience as ‘mine’, to call it back from memory, so that the ‘I’ can live again in that experience. But the memory, of an experience is never an experience, and thus there cannot be an experiencer holding on to the past, to memory, to property. Such holding in is the present. ‘I’ am just that: a memory, a reflection, a projection, a ‘clinger’ to what is not! That is the work of awareness, to make free, to be free. And that is joy! Delight as a facet of insight (bojjhaṅga) is a living experience which has no duration and therefore is only experiencing without comparison, without memory, without a past. In this actual experiencing there is no thought about it, so that it cannot become a memory as there is no reflection of an ‘I’ who wants to retain, to possess, to recall, to store. Such joy (pīti) is beyond logical thought (vitakka) and sustained application of mind (vicāra). It has no aim
53 of achieving, but just melts away in well-being (sukha), that is, in experiencing the absence of opposition and conflict, in the absence of ‘self’ as a delusion as a possessor, as an actor. Such joy can only be lived now in the present moment which is the moment of truth, of emancipation, of deliverance. Such is the facet of insight (bojjhaṅga). Tranquillity (passaddhi) is the obvious state resulting from an experience of freedom which is selfless joy. It is a serenity free from the disturbances of defilements (kilesa). It is the calming down of a searching mind, a repose in agitation, a cooling down of passionate desires. From the zest of delight (pīti) the tranquil mind passes on to concentration and equanimity. In tranquillity of this nature there is no motivation and no conditioning. Thus it is the perfect setting for awareness through which one is now able to see and understand without choice without distortion. It is the proper atmosphere, in which there can be direct perception which is insight. It is this direct perception which is the mental object (dhamma) of awareness without effort, without purpose, without interpretation, without comparison, without distortion, which is the light which gives sight, which is insight and realisation, a true factor of enlightenment (sambojjhaṅga). Concentration (samādhi) is not the end, but it may be a means towards the end, for it is a recollection (anussati) which prepares for awareness (sati). In fact, mindfulness (sammā-sati) and right concentration (sammā-samādhi) are mentioned as it were in one breath in many groupings, especially in the noble eightfold path. Being a faculty of focussing (samannāhāra), it is essentially a constituent of consciousness, without which there may be a mental reception, but no perception, no conception; and that means, no thought. But concentration is selective and intentional as a culture of the mind (bhāvanā) with its many methods (kammaṭṭhāna) and spiritual exercises. It has virtue (sīla) as its basic preparation, and insight (paññā) as its goal. And thus it is the link between virtuous
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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
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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 and 64: 47 is thus made an object for striv
Page 65 and 66: 49 mind, such as the five hindrance
Page 67: 51 cur, a revelation not through di
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
Page 115 and 116: Awareness in Meditation Stillness o
Page 117 and 118: 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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