Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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be able to get rid of the depravities 19 . So it will become clear
that, unless the power of mindfulness (sati-bala) and the faculty of
awareness (sat-indriya) are developed as steps on the noble eightfold
path, they might provide supernormal clairvoyance, transformation,
bilocation, mental creation and other psychic phenomena, but these
will not lead on to emancipation through insight.
Mental Balance
Yet, there is a very close connection. E.g., the first formless sphere of
thought in ecstatic concentration (arūpa jhāna) is a state of mental
absorption in which ‘infinite space’ (ākāsa) is the object of attainment.
In this state all discursive thought (vitakka-vicāra), and even
joy (pīti) and the bliss of well-being (sukha) have been put away.
‘This mental state takes its rise in mindfulness (sati) with disinterestedness
(upekkhā) as its chief characteristic’. Thus, awareness and
mental balance go easily hand in hand, as neither has any positive
object for striving. Without desire for attainment, without hope for
achievement, without fear of loss, awareness and equilibrium have
much in common.
Still, awareness is not just equilibrium, for equilibrium is onepointedness
of mind (citt’ekaggatā) and awareness does not point or
focus at all. It is alert without aiming, equipoised without poise,
balanced without suspension.
Awareness is intrinsically linked with patience, devotion, foresight,
sensitivity, perceptivity, mental concentration, all mental factors
which in themselves are essential, thought neutral, for they can
be turned for good or for evil. Awareness, attention, mindfulness,
is indeed a great power, when it is seen that practically nothing can
be achieved without attention, without diligent awareness, without
constant mindfulness. It is therefore not just one among the five
19 MA.II.31