EXPANSION IN CONSCIOUSNESS


Just as we're capable of changing the body at will, the same applies 
to the mind. Changing the body can occur when we eat less and get 
thin, eat more and get fat, drink too much alcohol and spoil our 
liver, smoke too much and sicken our lungs. We can exercise to get 
muscles, or train to run fast or jump high, or to become very 
efficient at tennis or cricket. The body is able to do many things 
which ordinary people usually cannot do, because they haven't trained 
for that. We know, for example, of people who can jump two or three 
times further than is common, or run ten times faster than anyone 
else. We may have seen people doing stunts with their bodies, which 
look miraculous. There are also people who can use their minds in 
seemingly miraculous ways, which are really just due to training.

Meditation is the only training there is for the mind. Physical 
training is usually connected with physical discipline. The mind needs 
mental discipline, practice in meditation.

First we can change our mind from unwholesome to wholesome thinking. 
Just like a person who wants to be an athlete has to start at the 
beginning of body training, the same needs to be done for mind 
training. First we cope with the ordinary, later with the 
extraordinary. The recollection of our own death brings us the 
realization that all that is happening will be finished very soon, 
because all of us are going to die. Even though we may not know the 
exact date, it is guaranteed to happen. With the death contemplation 
in mind, it doesn't matter so much any more what goes on around us, 
since all is only important for a very limited time.

We may be able to see that only our kamma-making matters, doing the 
best we can every single day, every single moment. Helping others 
takes pride of place. There is no substitute for that. Someone else 
can benefit from our skills and possessions since we cannot keep them 
and cannot take them with us. We might as well give all away as 
quickly as possible.

One of the laws of the universe is the more one gives away, the more 
one gets. Nobody believes it, that's why everyone is trying to make 
more money and own more things, yet it is a law of cause and effect. 
If we would believe it and act accordingly we would soon find out. 
However it will only be effective if the giving is done in purity. We 
can give our time, our caring, our concern for others' well-being. We 
have the immediate benefit of happiness in our own heart, when we see 
the joy we have given to someone else. This is about the only 
satisfaction we can expect in this life which is of a nature that does 
not disappear quickly, because we can recollect the deed and our own 
happiness. 

If we really believe in our impending death, not just use the words, 
our attitude towards people and situations changes completely. We are 
no longer the same person then. The one we have been until now hasn't 
brought us complete satisfaction, contentment and peacefulness. We 
might as well become a different person, with a new outlook. We no 
longer try to make anything last, because we know the temporary nature 
of our involvement. Consequently nothing has the same significance 
anymore.

It could be compared to inviting people to our home for a meal. We 
are worried and anxious whether the food will taste just right, 
whether all the comforts are there and nothing missing. The house 
should be immaculate for the guests. While they're visiting we are 
extremely concerned that they're getting everything they could 
possibly want. Afterwards we are concerned whether they like it at our 
house, were happy there, are going to tell other friends that it was a 
pleasant visit. These are our attitudes because we own the place. If 
we are a guest we don't care what food is being served, because that's 
up to the hostess. We don't worry whether everything is in apple-pie 
order because it's not our house.

This body is not our house, no matter how long we live. It's a 
temporary arrangement of no significance. Nothing belongs to us, we're 
guests here. Maybe we'll be present for another week or year, or ten 
or twenty years. But being a guest, what can it matter how everything 
works? The only thing we can do when we are guest in someone's house, 
is trying to be pleasant and helpful to the people we're with. All 
else is totally insignificant, otherwise our consciousness will remain 
in the marketplace.

Doesn't it only matter to elevate our consciousness and awareness to 
where we can see beyond our immediate concerns? There is always the 
same thing going on: getting up, eating breakfast, washing, dressing, 
thinking and planning, cooking, buying things, talking to people, 
going to work, going to bed, getting up...over and over again. Is that 
enough for a lifetime? All of us are trying to find something within 
that daily grind which will give us joy. But nothing lasts and 
moreover all are connected with reaching out to get something. If we 
were to remember each morning that death is certain, but now have 
another day to live, gratitude and determination can arise to do 
something useful with that day.

Our second recollection may concern how to change our mind from 
enmity, hurtfulness and unhappiness, to their opposites. Repeated 
remembering makes it possible to change the mind gradually. The body 
doesn't change overnight, to become athletic, and neither does the 
mind change instantly. But if we don't continually train it, it's just 
going to stay the same it has always been, which is not conductive to 
a harmonious and peaceful life. Most people find a lot of 
unpleasantness, anxiety and fear in their lives. Fear is a human 
condition, based on our ego delusion. We are afraid that our ego will 
be destroyed and annihilated.

This willingness to change our mind should make it possible to live 
each day meaningfully, which is the difference between just being 
alive and living. We would do at least one thing each day, which 
either entails spiritual growth for ourselves or helpfulness and 
consideration for others, preferably both. If we add one meaningful 
day to the next, we wind up with a meaningful life. Otherwise we have 
an egocentric life, which can never be satisfying. If we forget about 
our own desires and rejections and are just concerned with spiritual 
growth and eventual emancipation, and being helpful to other people, 
then our //dukkha// is greatly reduced. It reaches a point where it is 
only the underlying movement in all of existence and no longer 
personal suffering and unhappiness. As long as we suffer and are 
unhappy, our lives are not very useful. Having grief, pain and 
lamentation does not mean we are very sensitive, but rather that we 
haven't been able to find a solution.

We spend hours and hours, buying food, preparing it, eating it, 
washing up afterwards, and thinking about the next meal. Twenty 
minutes of recollection on how we should live, should not be taxing 
our time. Naturally, we can also spend much more time on such 
contemplations, which are a way to give the mind a new direction. 
Without training, the mind is heavy and not very skillful, but when we 
give the mind a new direction, then we learn to protect our own 
happiness. This is not connected with getting what we want and getting 
rid of what we don't want. It's a skill in the mind to realize what is 
helpful and happiness producing.

This new direction, which arises from contemplation can be put into 
action. What can we actually do? We have all heard far too many words 
which sound right, but words alone won't accomplish anything. There 
has to be an underlying realization that these words require mental or 
physical action. The Buddha mentioned that if we hear a Dhamma 
discourse and have confidence in its truth, first we must remember the 
words. Then we can see whether we are able to do what is required of 
us.

If we contemplate to be free of enmity, we can recollect such a 
determination again and again. Now comes the next step: How can we 
actualize that? When going about our daily life we have to be very 
attentive whether any enmity is arising, and if so, to substitute with 
love and compassion. That is the training of the mind. The mind 
doesn't feel so burdened then, so bogged down in its own 
pre-determined course because we realize change is possible. When the 
mind feels lighter and clearer, it can expand. Activating the 
teachings of the Buddha changes the awareness of the mind, so that the 
everyday ordinary, activities are no longer so significant. They are 
seen to be necessary to keep the body alive and the mind interested in 
the manifold proliferations that exist in the world.

The realization arises that if we have been able to change our mind 
even that much, there may be more to the universe than we have ever 
been able to touch upon with the ordinary mind. The determination may 
come to make the mind extraordinary. Just as in an athlete, enormous 
feats of balance, discipline and strength of the body are possible, 
just so it is feasible for the mind. The Buddha talked about expanded 
awareness as a result of proper concentration, time and time again. 
Right concentration means a change of consciousness because we are 
then not connected to the usual, relative knowing. 

Being able to change our mind's direction, we are no longer so 
enmeshed in the ordinary affairs, but know that there must be more. 
Through having been disciplined, strengthened and balanced, a mind can 
perform feats of mental awareness which seem quite extraordinary, but 
are just a result of training. It means getting out of the mental rut. 
If we have a wet driveway and drive a truck over it time and time 
again, the ruts get deeper and deeper and in the end the truck may be 
stuck fast. Such are our habitual responses that we have in our 
everyday affairs. Practicing meditation lifts us out of those ruts 
because the mind gets a new dimension. Contemplation and resulting 
action make a new pathway in our lives, where the old ruts are left 
behind... Those were a constant reaction to our sense stimuli, of 
hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking. It's a 
great pity to use a good human life just to be a reactor. It is much 
more useful and helpful to become an actor, which means deliberate 
thinking, saying and doing.

It is possible to eventually have the kind of concentration where 
the meditation subject is no longer needed. The meditation subject is 
nothing but a key, or we can also call it a hook to hang the mind on, 
so that it will not attend to worldly affairs. When concentration has 
arisen, it can be likened to the key having finally found the keyhole 
and the door being unlocked. When we unlock the door of true 
//samadhi// we find a house with eight rooms, which are the eight 
meditative absorptions (//jhanas//). Having been able to enter the 
first room, there is no reason why, with practice, determination and 
diligence, we cannot gradually enter into all of them. Here the mind 
actually lets go of the thinking process as we know it and reverts to 
a state of experiencing.

The first thing that happens when concentration has come together is 
a sense of well being. Unfortunately there is a mistaken view 
prevalent that the meditative absorptions are neither possible nor 
necessary. This view is contrary to the Buddha's teaching. Any 
instructions he has ever given for the pathway to liberation always 
included the meditative absorptions. They are the eight steps on the 
noble eightfold path (//samma-samadhi//). It is also incorrect to 
believe that it is no longer possible to attain true concentration; 
many people do so without even realizing it, and need support and 
direction to further their efforts. Meditation needs to include the 
meditative absorptions because they are the expansion of consciousness 
providing access to a totally different universe than we have ever 
realized.

The mental states that arise through the meditative absorptions make 
it possible to live one's daily life with a sense of what is 
significant and what is not. Having seen, for instance, that it is 
possible to grow large trees, one no longer believes that trees are 
always small, even though the trees in one's own backyard may be tiny, 
because the soil is poor. If one has seen large trees, one knows they 
exist, and one may even try to find a place where they grow. The same 
applies to our mental states. Having seen the possibility of expanded 
consciousness, one no longer believes that ordinary consciousness is 
all there is, or that the breath is all there is to meditation.

The breathe is the hook that we hang the mind on, so that we can 
open the door to true meditation. Having opened the door, we 
experience physical well-being, manifesting in many different ways. It 
may be a strong or a mild sensation, but it is always connected with a 
pleasant feeling. Of that pleasure the Buddha said: "This is a 
pleasure I will allow myself." Unless one experiences the joy of the 
meditative state, which is independent of the world, one will never 
resign from the world, but will continue to see the world as one's 
home. Only when one realizes that the joy in the meditative state is 
independent of all worldly conditions, will one finally be able to 
say: "The world and its manifold attractions are not interesting any 
more" so that dispassion will set in. Otherwise why should one resign 
from that which occasionally does give pleasure and joy, if one has 
nothing else? How can one do that? It is impossible to let go of all 
the joys and pleasures which the world offers, if one has nothing to 
replace them. This is the first reason why in the Buddha's teaching 
the meditative absorptions are of the essence. We can't let go when we 
are still under the impression that with this body and these senses we 
can get what we're looking for, namely happiness.

The Buddha encourages us to look for happiness, but we need to look 
in the right place. He said we would be able to protect our own 
happiness. Even the very first instance of gaining physical pleasure 
in meditation already illuminates the fact that something inside 
ourselves gives joy and happiness. The physical well-being also 
arouses pleasurable interest which helps to keep us on the meditation 
pillow. Although it is a physical sensation, it is not the same sort 
of feeling that we are familiar with. It is different because it has 
arisen from a different source. Ordinary pleasant physical feelings 
come from touch contact. This one comes from concentration. Obviously, 
having different causes, they must also be different in their results. 
Touch is gross, concentration is subtle. Therefore the meditative 
feeling has a more subtle spiritual quality than the pleasant feeling 
one can get through touch. Knowing clearly that the only condition 
necessary for happiness is concentration, we will refrain from our 
usual pursuits of seeking pleasant people, tasty food, better weather, 
more wealth and not squander our mental energy on those. This is, 
therefore, a necessary first step towards emancipation.

We are now entering mind states that go beyond the everyday, worldly 
affairs...We all know the mind that is connected with ordinary 
matters. Such a mind worries about all sorts of things, is anxious, 
has plans, memories, hopes, dreams, likes, dislikes and reactions. 
It's a very busy mind. For the first time we may become acquainted 
with a mind which doesn't contain all these aspects. Pleasurable 
well-being has no thinking attached to it, it's an experience. Here we 
finally realize that the kind of thinking we're aware of will not give 
us the results we had hoped for. It is just good enough to project a 
willingness to meditate. We learn, even from that very first step, 
that the world cannot do for us what concentration can do. Happiness 
independent of outer conditions is far more satisfying than anything 
to be found in the world. We are also shown that the mind has the 
ability to expand into a different consciousness with which we had no 
previous contact, so that we gain first-hand experience of the fact 
that meditation is the means for spiritual emancipation.

Because of having had this pleasurable feeling, an inner joy arises. 
This gives the meditator the assurance that the pathway towards 
"non-self" is a pathway of joy and not of //dukkha//. Thereby the 
natural resistance to "non-self" is greatly lessened. Most people 
resist the idea that they are "nobody," even after they have 
understood it intellectually. But being able to experience these first 
two aspects of meditation, gives a clear indication that this is only 
possible when the "self," which is always thinking, is temporarily 
buried. Because when the self is active, it immediately says "Oh, 
isn't that nice," and the concentration is finished. It has to be and 
experience where nothing says "I am experiencing." The explanation and 
understanding of what one has experienced comes later.

This is a clear realization that, without "self," the inner joy is a 
much greater and more profound nature than any happiness one has known 
in this life. Therefore the determination to really come to grips with 
the Buddha's teachings will come to fruition. Until then, most people 
pick out a few aspects of the Dhamma, which they've heard about, and 
think that is sufficient. It may devotion, chanting, festivals, doing 
good works, moral behavior, all of which is fine, but the reality of 
the teaching is a great mosaic in which all these different pieces 
fall together into one huge, all encompassing whole. And the central 
core is "non-self" (//anatta//). If we use only a few of these mosaic 
pieces we will never get the whole picture. But being able to meditate 
makes a great deal of difference in one's approach to that whole 
conglomerate of teaching, which encompasses body and mind and 
completely changes the person who practices like that.

We have to base our meditative ability on our daily practice. We 
cannot hope to sit down and meditate successfully, if all we can think 
about are worldly affairs, and if we do not try to reduce anger, envy, 
jealousy, pride, greed, hate, rejection in daily life. If we use 
mindfulness, clear comprehension and a calming of sensual desires, we 
have a foundation for meditation. As we practice in everyday affairs 
in conjunction with meditation, we see a slow and gradual change, as 
if an athlete has been training. The mind becomes strong and attends 
to the important issues in life. It doesn't get thrown about by 
everything that happens.

If we can give some time for contemplation and meditation each day 
and not forget mindfulness, we have a very good beginning for an 
expansion of consciousness. Eventually the universe and we ourselves 
look quite different, based on our changed viewpoint. There is a Zen 
saying: "First the mountain is a mountain, then the mountain is no 
longer a mountain and in the end, the mountain is a mountain again." 
First we see everything in its relative reality; every person is a 
different individual, every tree is a particular kind, everything has 
some significance to our own lives. Then we start practicing, and 
suddenly we see everything in its relative reality; every person is a 
different individual, every tree is a particular kind, everything has 
some significance to our own lives. Then we start practicing, and 
suddenly we see a different reality, which is universal and expansive. 
We become very involved with our own meditation and do not pay much 
attention to what is going on around us. We see an expansion and 
elevation of our consciousness, know that our everyday reactions are 
not important. For a while, we may pay attention to just that and to 
living in a different reality. In the end, we come right back to where 
we were, doing all the same things as before, but no longer being 
touched by them. A mountain is just a mountain again. Everything 
returns to the same ordinary aspect it used to have, except it's no 
longer significant, or separate.

A description of an Arahant in the Discourse on Blessings (Mahamangala 
Sutta) is: "...although touched by worldly circumstance, never the 
mind is wavering." The Enlightened One is touched by worldly 
circumstances, he acts like everybody else, he eats, sleeps, washes 
and talks to people, but the mind does not waver. The mind stays cool 
and peaceful at all times.

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