AWAKE AND AWARE


It is important to experience and not to believe. In order to do that, 
we have to pay attention. In the famous and often quoted Kalama Sutta, 
the Buddha gives ten points which are not suitable as criteria to 
follow a teacher or a spiritual path. All of them have to do with a 
belief system because of traditional lineage or because of sacred 
books. Not to believe but to find out for ourselves is the often 
repeated injunction of the Buddha. Unless we do that, we cannot have 
an inner vision, which is the first step that takes us on to the noble 
path.

An inner vision is an understood experience. Without that, insight 
cannot arise. That holds true for small matters in daily life, just as 
it holds true for the deepest and most profound understanding of the 
Buddha's teaching. If for instance somebody is not pleased with us and 
we don't understand why, we shall have that same disharmony happen to 
us over and over again. We need to realize that we may have said or 
done something to cause that displeasure. This is a small matter 
showing the need for understanding an experience.

If we think these happenings are something outside of ourselves, we 
can't change our attitudes. Practicing Dhamma means constantly 
changing ourselves to reach out towards the sublime. If change were 
not possible, the Buddha would have given a lifetime of teaching in 
vain.

Unless we pay total attention to every detail we'll never change 
towards the sublime. Attention to detail is the core of mindfulness. 
Most people lack the practice and also the instructions to be truly 
mindful. It's one thing to read about it, but an entirely different 
matter to do it. Mindfulness is the essence of understanding, because 
without it there is no seeing into the heart of any phenomena.

Watching the breath means "knowing exactly". Mindfulness is not 
judgmental, nor discriminating, nor telling stories. Mindfulness knows 
when there is concentration and when there isn't when the mind wanders 
off and when the mind becomes peaceful. Perfect mindfulness knows 
every moment that is occurring.

When we pay attention to our feelings and do not react to them but 
only observe, then we're using the second foundation of mindfulness, 
//vedananupassana// (mindfulness of feeling). When we know we're 
thinking, it's //cittanupassana// (mindfulness of thought) and when we 
know what the content of the thought is, it's //dhammanupassana// 
(mindfulness of mind objects). If we're not paying attention, we're 
not really awake. We need to practice clear attention to any one of 
these at all times.

It is possible that in meditation the mind becomes concentrated. If 
there is a feeling of peacefulness, one has to know that quite 
clearly. Without realizing what is happening, one cannot go further, 
because one doesn't know where one is at. This is an important detail 
of meditation, knowing exactly what's happening and being able to 
verbalize it after the occurrence. The verbalization is the understood 
experience, and occurs naturally after the experience. This holds true 
for any mind-state and for any feeling. The Dhamma is the Buddha's 
verbalized experience. Unless we can do that with our own experiences, 
we are left with a belief system, which can dull the mind. But 
meditation is to sharpen the mind. The mindful mind is a sharpened 
axe, with a sharp and finely honed blade which can cut through all our 
illusions. When we sit in meditation, we can get to know the 
disturbances of our own mind: such as the dull mind that doesn't know 
what's going on, or the sleepy mind, the distracted or the resisting 
mind, that doesn't want to obey. That is mindfulness of mind objects.

Like most human beings, we have a distracted mind, geared so much 
towards trying to resist the unpleasant and crave the pleasant, that 
this pattern is very difficult to change. If we find ourselves 
resisting the unpleasant, seeking the pleasant, we just know that this 
is a normal habit pattern. This is how this little spaceship earth 
operates, and how our economy works. Do you know anybody who's 
blissfully happy because of it? It is an impossible venture, it is a 
guaranteed failure, yet everybody is still trying. We have all been 
trying long enough, we can give it up, at least for the time we're 
meditation. However it is possible to get rid of //dukkha//, but not 
by eliminating the unpleasant sensations, only by getting rid of our 
reaction to them. This is the most important primary entrance into the 
spiritual path. Unless this is perfectly understood, the rest will not 
fall into place. We won't get rid of the unpleasantness of sitting, or 
of mosquitoes, or of anything unpleasant we may encounter. All is 
mind-made and therefore mind-reacted. //Dukkha// disappears when our 
reactions disappear.

Unless we know that we are the creators of our own //dukkha//, 
Dhamma remains a mystery. We start practicing when we no longer blame 
our surroundings, other people, the political situation, the economy 
or the weather. We see only our own reactions. Naturally our reactions 
aren't immediately going to be all favorable and wholesome. That will 
take a while. But at least we can start doing something about 
ourselves.

Mindfulness needs to be used not only in our meditation practice, 
but also every time we move, feel or think in our daily life. While 
awake, mindfulness has to be our primary objective. One has to come to 
terms with oneself. Only then will the world make sense one day. The 
universe is this mind and body. We find out what this mind and body 
are all about, and we kill know the universe and its underlying truth. 
All is distinctively the same, but we have to know what it is.

When we come out of meditation, we should be aware of opening our 
eyes, moving our body, of everything we are doing. Why? First of all, 
it will keep us from thinking unwholesome, negative thoughts. It 
facilitates meditation. The mind needs to be kept in check and not 
allowed to run wild. The ordinary, unpracticed mind is like a wild 
bull running around in a garden. It can make a mess of the garden in 
no time. That's what our minds are doing. They're making an awful mess 
of this world we live in. We don't even have to read the newspapers to 
know about it. It's to be seen everywhere, and comes from our own 
minds. All of us are included, except the enlightened ones. A wild 
mind can't meditate. It has to be caught, kept in check, and a halter 
put on. Every time it runs away, we bring it back with mindfulness, 
like training a wild horse which in its wild state cannot benefit 
anyone. If the horse is tamed and trained it can be extremely useful. 
How much more this is true of the mind!

Mindfulness of the body means that we know the movements of all 
parts. As we watch ourselves, we will see that there is mind and body. 
The mind giving the orders, the body following suit. We can recognize 
too that sometimes the body can't obey because it is weak. This is our 
first entrance into insight, realizing there are mind and body and the 
mind being the more important one. The difference between a trained 
and an untrained person it the understood experience.

Mindfulness which extends to the body movements extends to the other 
aspects of mindfulness as well. If, for instance, we are thinking 
about the future we are no longer paying attention to the body; 
instead we can pay attention to the thought process. We know that we 
are thinking, and are making kamma. The thoughts are the mental 
formations, as well as the kamma formations. We are the owners of our 
kamma. Whatever we think, that we will be. It's an impersonal process 
which has nothing to do with any particular entity.

Then we can become aware of the content of our thoughts, which means 
knowing whether it is wholesome or not. We can learn to drop any 
negative thinking and replace it. This is where our meditation 
training comes in, which is not divorced from outer activities. When 
we pay attention to the breath in meditation and a thought intervenes, 
we learn to let go of the thought and come back to the breath. The 
same procedure is used in daily life to let go of unwholesome 
thoughts. We substitute at that time with a wholesome thought, just as 
we substitute with the breath in meditation.

Mindfulness of the thinking process is what the Buddha Named the 
"four supreme efforts." [*] They constitute the heart of the 
purification process. The spiritual path is the path of purification 
and hinges on mindfulness. "There's only one way for the purification 
of beings, for the overcoming of //dukkha//, for the final elimination 
of pain, grief and lamentation, for entering the noble path, for 
realizing Nibbana, that's mindfulness." (Words of the Buddha). To 
practice the purification process is necessary not only for one's own 
peace of mind, for adding to the peace in the world, but also in order 
to be able to meditate.

* [The four supreme efforts (//padhana//) are:
1. To avoid unwholesome states of mind
2. To overcome unwholesome states of mind
3. To develop wholesome states of mind
4. To maintain wholesome states of mind.]


The hope that one might sit down on a pillow, watch the breath and 
become concentrated, is a myth. One has to have the mind in proper 
shape for it. Therefore, we must practice these four supreme efforts 
not only while we are meditating, but in every-day life. We will gain 
inner peace which everybody is looking for and very few people ever 
find.

The first effort is not to let an unwholesome thought arise which 
has not yet arisen. The requires sharp mindfulness. A thought which 
has not yet arisen creates waves ahead of it. To realize that these 
waves are boding no good, needs much attention and practice. The 
second effort, not to continue an unwholesome thought which has 
already arisen, can be done by anyone of good will, if it is 
understood that there is nobody else to blame. Unwholesome thinking is 
not due to outer triggers, but results strictly from our own 
defilements.

The third step is to make a wholesome thought arise which has not 
yet arisen. This means that we continually watch over our mind and 
encourage positive, wholesome thoughts where none are present even 
under the most trying circumstances. 

Finally, to make a wholesome thought, which has already arisen, 
continue. In the meditation practice, this concerns our meditation 
subject. But in daily life it means our mind's reaction. If we have 
some sensitivity towards ourselves, we can feel that there is a 
disturbance within when unwholesome thinking arises, a feeling of 
resistance. Unwholesome thoughts have been thought of so often for so 
many years, that they have become part and parcel of our thinking 
process. It takes mindfulness and determination to let go.

In meditation we become aware that our unwholesome thoughts are not 
caused by someone or something external. Then we gain the power of 
mind to drop what we don't want, to keep and substitute with what is 
useful for us. These four supreme efforts are the fourth foundation of 
mindfulness concerned with the contents of our thoughts. If everybody 
in the world were practicing this, it would be a better world to live 
in.

Our inner being manifests in feeling, which arises through our sense 
contacts. Thinking is also a sense contact. Unwholesome thinking 
produces unpleasant feelings, such as being ill at ease, or unhappy. 
Seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling are the five outer 
senses. Thinking is the inner one. All of them make contact and 
produce a feeling. There is the eye and the eye object. When both are 
in good condition, the eye consciousness arises and seeing results. 
The sense base, the sense object and the sense consciousness meet. 
When we know how this being, which we call "me", operates, we can stop 
the pre-programmed print-out, that's always answering the same way. It 
is quite possible to predict how a person will react to any given 
stimulus, because we have a program which has never been interrupted 
yet. To discontinue it, we first have to know that there is a program 
and what it consists of.

For instance, we have the hearing base, which is the ear drum; then 
there is sound. When the hearing consciousness arises, because both 
base and object are present, hearing results and from that a feeling 
arises. The ear can only hear sound, the eye can only see form and 
color. The mind does all the explaining. Everybody has a slightly 
different explanation, so that nobody sees or hears anything alike. 
When one man sees a woman, and sees her form and color, the mind says 
"isn't she beautiful, I must marry her." When I see that same woman, I 
don't think anything like that. Yet everyone tries to convince the 
people around them that what they themselves are seeing and hearing is 
correct. Because they often can't convince others, they start shooting 
or persecuting them.

Thinking is also a sense contact. There is the brain base and there 
are ideas. The mind consciousness arises, contacting the idea and 
thinking starts. From that a feeling results. If we think we love 
every being, whether we actually can do it or not, we certainly get a 
warm pleasant feeling from the thought. By the same token, if we think 
we hate a person, we get a cold and distant feeling. Now comes the 
reaction to the feeling, which is either wanting/craving or not 
wanting/ rejecting. By being attentive to ourselves, we can experience 
that quite clearly. The reaction to the feeling is our renewed entry 
into duality and //dukkha//. At the same time it provides us with the 
doorway out of all difficulties. If for once we don't react, but know 
a feeling just as a feeling, if we can do that, mindfulness has been 
established. We also gain the confidence that we can do it again, and 
are actually practicing spiritual purification. That is an important 
inner conviction. The Buddha said we need both, study and practice. It 
helps us to know something of what the Buddha taught. But if we don't 
practice, then we are only parrots or hypocrites, proclaiming 
something we have no personal experience with.

Through our practice of mindfulness we become aware of the feelings 
which arise when we make sense contacts. Feelings happen all the time 
and need to be recognized so that we can change our instinctive way of 
living to a deliberate way of being alive. Instinctively we are a 
constant reactor. Deliberately we become an actor.

Probably the most important lesson we can learn is to keep our 
mindfulness going in our every-day activities. We can practice 
wherever we are, at home, marketing, in the office, writing letters, 
telephoning, any time at all. The meditation itself gives us the 
impetus, showing how awareness removes the obstacles inherent in our 
viewpoints. We cannot see the whole, only parts. We see what is around 
us, but we never see beyond that. With mindfulness comes an opening, 
where everything seems to fall into place and has an interconnection. 
We lose our exaggerated sense of self-importance, and can unite more 
with all manifestations. All these are still side issues. Mindfulness 
means knowing. As we know and really experience, we can prove, 
eventually, the four noble truths to ourselves. then our work is 
completed.

Mindfulness has, as one of its factors, the ability to be one 
pointed. We do not become foggy or distracted, but can keep the mind 
in its place. We have to realize that mind obstructions are a human 
calamity and not a personal one. This understanding helps us to 
patiently endure and gradually change.

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