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.