THE MINDFULNESS
Mindfulness is the ground in which meditation is rooted. It is the source of realization of all other paths. Right mindfulness draws attention away from the fantasies of the ego, and into the reality of the present. When it is applied, there is no possibility of wrong views, resolution, speech, livelihood or effort. This Buddhist mindfulness sees the world, both objective and subjective, as process and does not lose itself in a sense of false identity. There is no true life of meditation without the application of right mindfulness. Simply sitting and doing meditation is not sufficient to bring one to enlightenment because we cannot abide forever in meditation. We must live and act in the world when we are not in meditation. The essences of meditation are tranquillity, acceptance and equanimity, but these have no meaning if they are not available to us in daily life.
Buddha Nature, or reality itself, is not hidden behind phenomenon nor is it something we have to obtain. Buddha nature is present in all of existence, which includes our own cognitive processes as well as physical reality. Indeed, if there was an essential difference in substance between subjective reality and objective reality, consciousness, as we know it, would be impossible. For instance, when we wake from a dream, the dream is gone because waking and dreaming are contradictory phenomenon. Whenever we experience everyday reality, we are able to experience both our own internal epistemological process, simultaneous with the direct contact of the external world. Consciousness does not require that our mind go into an input, sort, output mode, as does a computer, separating experience from ourselves. Instead, we experience reality as ourselves.
We are able to experience reality because all of existence is an internal dialogue with itself. The quest is the host, the host is the quest. There is no special reality to search for, which is separate from our own nature. We simply are reality. This reality, however, is simple thusness, it is not ideas or concepts, but being itself. In the words of Meister Eckhart, "Existence es Deus"; Existence is God. In Zen, we way the flowers are red, the leaves are green. Mindfulness is the joyful entering into our own spirit, the present. It is abandoning attachment to models of existence in the forms of words and concepts and crashing directly through the ice glass wall of self.
Thoughts and ideas are part of the phenomenon of life, and are to be enjoyed in freedom. This freedom requires that we must be constantly aware, that all ideation is itself void of permanent reality, and nothing more than phenomenon. Thoughts are neither real nor unreal. There is no accepting them, nor rejecting them.
We simply allow them to be. Feeling and perception are experienced as clouds across an azure sky, framing the beauty of the sky, neither detracting nor adding, perfect in their imperfections, limitless in their limit. They are just like this. Black ink on white paper. Mindfulness mind, then, is freedom mind. It is disciplined by joy and action, expressing itself in compassion and energy.
Ordinarily, we think of discipline as an activity that enforces and external code of conduct on a self which resists it. Mindfulness, however, is a discipline which is intrinsic to our nature, when we are free from our ego domination. That we are unmindful is due to our attachment to our sense of self, which continually references experience, rather that attending to it. Essentially, the ego is nothing more than a constant process of reference that has folded in on itself to the point where immediate experience has become secondary to concepts and personal feeling. When we experience anything, the ego immediately begins to reference the event in terms of its own understanding. This removes our attention from the thing in itself, and directs it toward our feelings about the event. Our experience of reality, while dominated by ego, becomes inextricably linked to personal feelings. The world then takes on a personal aspect that either has a pleasant or unpleasant connotation to it. No longer does our experience remain objective, but it becomes subjective in nature.
Personal feelings are the conceptual apparatus that separates us from the direct experience of reality. Personal feelings are not the same thing as emotions, which are natural responses to primary situations. Personal feelings are secondary responses attached to both a conceptual and emotional framework, which interfere with our self understanding. This construction darkens the path of self understanding, rather than illuminating it. Emotion is primary, as opposed to personal feeling. It involves an instantaneous natural response to stimuli, such as the fear we would experience when suddenly discovering a rattlesnake in our path.
In other words, emotion is an organic response to a particular life event. Personal feeling, on the other hand, is a complex of emotional memory contained within a conceptual framework that does not allow for immediate response to the moment without referencing its own complex matrix. Freeing oneself of personal feeling means that we return to a simpler, more direct emotional relationship with the process of our life. A person is no longer bound by past conditioning to emotive patterns, locked up with a matrix of personal experiences and past emotions. This allows an individual to experience life fully in the present, without carrying with them the burden of a life's history of emotion.
Emotion is no longer interrupted in the present by the patterns of the past. We are free to experience our life in an organic way rather than through the bondage of pathological conditioning.
This does not mean that we cripple our memory. We are still capable of recapturing past emotions. It is simply that these past emotions are no longer able to disrupt our life through creating negative patterns of conditioning.
The only way one can accomplish this liberation is through a systematic unearthing of these emotive patterns. This must be done in a controlled environment which will facilitate the process of separating emotions from the conceptual framework in which they reside. What we are doing is defusing our memory, and we should be as careful as if we were on a bomb squad. Because if we attempt this without the proper preparation and diligence, it will have the same explosive result!
The transformation of the psyche is analogous to the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into butterfly. Our ego with its construct of self is a psychic cocoon from which we will emerge transformed when our development is complete. It evolves in childhood in order to develop in us a sense of limit necessary for survival. It begins with body consciousness, and awareness of hands, feet, etc. and then evolves into a matrix of relationships connected to this function. For instance, when our hand touches fire, we experience pain and thus a fear or graduated respect is given to the experience of fire. That is, we begin to see fire as a thing which exists in relationship to us. This is unlike the infant who only perceives it as an object of consciousness.
Before the development of the ego, external objects are experienced subjectively as if in a dream. Therefore, the infant's experience of the world is like that of a dream in which all contents of the dream are self. Once a sense of separation begins with the experience of relationship, a correlating emotion begins to attach to experience. Now this is because this energy of emotion can be utilized as a binding element focusing our attention to a particular path of development. The state of consciousness that would ensue without any emotive binding might easily fall into chaos amidst a myriad of sensory input. Emotion, therefore, is a primary binding force that helps keep us centered in childhood.
In the well adjusted adult, emotion expresses a type of unifying energy between the world and the individual. To a child, emotion is, by nature, coercive because a child still dwells in a consciousness that has not yet fully delineated between subjective and objective reality. Since there is no objective reference point to view as a backdrop to emotion, the emotion becomes all inclusive to consciousness. Of course, this renders the child incapable of acting other than expressing simple emotion. That this does not threaten survival is only because of the protection provided by his parents.
A child raised in an emotionally mature home will learn from his parents how to confront the world in a manner that does not seek to relate all phenomena to an emotion. There will develop in the child a sense of self that is relational, but rationally motivated rather than emotionally motivated. Conversely, if the child's experience of his world is in relationship to emotion, he or she will develop an addiction to the energy of emotion itself.
As the sense of self begins to grow it will inappropriately attach emotional content to all areas of its self understanding.
Therefore a child who does not make the baseball team may experience a fear and depression totally inappropriate to the actual objective importance of the experience. The child in this instance has identified certain aspects of his self with a pattern that links directly with a primal ego structure defining survival. Depression is an emotive state not an emotion. It is the psycho physical organism's response to the linking of a primal life threatening emotional response to a continuing phenomenon. The psyche is unable to tolerate this prolonged emotional crisis.
What ensues is the creation of an emotive state which is the reaction of the psyche to an unacceptable pattern of emotion which has become habituated. If the pattern of emotion was left intact, it would exhaust the organism. Depression, for example, is a response to the identification of a continuing non life threatening pattern of emotion with this ground of primal fear. The psychophysical organism cannot tolerate the sustained stress of such a connection and thus depresses the entire emotional system.
This entire process of emotion becomes pathological because of the ego's insistence on referencing all phenomenon to itself. The ego itself is nothing but this reference, and therefore, the abandonment of attachment to personal feeling is experienced as a threat to life itself. A human being does not need to reference things to himself to either understand, or appreciate them, as consciousness and reason are not predicated upon internal dialogue, but upon systematic process. Internal dialogue is the modus operandi of the ego, while awareness and detached analysis is the reality of mind itself. Emotion is the immediate dialectic of the mind-body toward the world. Therefore, it is a legitimate subject of mindfulness, as is external phenomenon.
Traditionally the Buddha taught that there are four areas of attention for right mindfulness. They are body, personal feelings, states of consciousness, and external phenomena. The first object of mindfulness is the body, which is something that has taken on almost sacred significance in the west. A person's body is that which they are most attached to in terms of identifying self. When a person is asked to describe themselves, they almost invariably start with a description of their physical attributes. I am six foot, blond, blue eyed, etc.
The body is a miraculous phenomenon. A microcosm of the universe itself. Like the universe, it is a whole which does not exist outside of its parts, and its very law of being is inextricably bound up with process and interaction. Just as no object in the universe can exist without change, coming into being and passing away, neither can the body. The very nature of the body exists solely as identical with this process of life and death. The structure of DNA, for example, makes life possible but also guarantees it cannot continue forever and its inherent chemical makeup disallows the infinite self reproduction of cells. That which is eternal is not alive. To be alive, something has to be mortal.
Knowing this, we can direct our mindfulness upon our body and realize in the moment, the body's fluid and transitory nature, freeing ourselves from attachment to it. The body is almost deified in present culture as if it were something of religious importance. Mindfulness tells us that the body is in constant flux. It is an enormous bag of fluids which has no inherent glamour, only blood, bile, urine, puss, saliva, etc. To seek to preserve the body indefinitely is a sign of someone who does not understand the nature of reality. Life is not possible without death. Growth is not possible without transformation. Aging is not only a sigh of decay, but a symbol of transformation as well.
Life has no meaning without transformation. It is identical to it. Death, on the other hand, is the very embodiment of non change. To speak of eternal life for an individual is to speak in contradictions. For a thing to be alive, it has to be mortal.
That which does not change cannot be alive since life is process, and therefore change. Life as process feeds on transformation which means death of individual things and their transformation into other things. Life itself is eternal because it includes all transformations in it as eternal process. Individual things that have life share eternity in life, but are not eternal in themselves.
The process of mindfulness is analogous to the cultivation of fields by the farmer. In each case, a person is presented with specific space that requires attention. In one case, the space is physical while in the other it is mental or spiritual space. As is the case with anything living, the process of both farming and mindfulness involves interaction of diverse elements, creating a whole. Human personality is not, by nature, either good or bad in regard to its potential for moral action. It is like a field which contains within it a vast supply of nutrients capable of sustaining a wide variety of life. What grows in the field is determined by what is cultivated in it. If it is allowed to lie fallow, then wild grasses and weeds will abound, if cultivated, then crops will be abundant.
Like farming spiritual cultivation is a step by step process. First we attune ourselves to a specific area of concentration such as our emotions or contemplation of our body. Then we adjust our concentration to whatever our life presents to us in the moment as a natural object of concentration. When we eat, we just eat; concentrating fully on chewing, tasting, swallowing. In Theravadin Buddhism, there is a systematic meditational inquiry into each of the objects of right mindfulness. In Zen we allow the moment to present itself to us and take our direction from the flow of this time. Neither path is superior to the other, but the former requires a certain amount of isolation, while Zen mindfulness is more appropriate to application in daily life.
It is a very difficult and demanding task to be in the moment, moment by moment, if we step outside this moment and peer at the future as a countless chain of moments to be grasped. If we are in this moment then there is only THIS. Fear and exultation both disappear into emptiness, there is only reading speaking, eating, walking and so on.
We should not make our life more difficult by adding on expectations, and mistaking desire for direction. To have direction is to work for the future by being in the present, aware that the future is never graspable. The future is a fantasy. When we arrive at it, it transforms itself into a dream from the past.
Direction is necessary if we are to accomplish anything, but it does not require that we attach to a specific result to our actions. To do so ignores the ephemeral and transitory nature of reality in which there are no guarantees. The correct application of right mindfulness in regards to our work is to apply an attitude of sacrifice toward our efforts. We sacrifice the fruit of our efforts to the effort itself, without hope or fear. Without this sacrifice, it is impossible to make the moment the moment, and we will be lost in a maze of our own desires.
Understanding that our feelings provide the doorway to emotional attachment, we must remain mindful in order to police the connection between simple feelings and emotional constructs that they trigger. If we do not apply mindfulness to this process, we will be carried along by the torrents of past conditioning, and this will carry us out of the moment and into the past or future.
One area of difficulty modern dharma students face is their attachment to their own opinions. Opinions are phenomenon which are, by nature, finite and transitory. This is even the cast with spiritual opinions. They are also just as empty as political or any other opinions. Yet students seem to believe they can wander around with a baggage car of opinions and still make progress in the way. They do not like specific teachers or traditions, and often are not too fond of their own coreligionists because they are too conservative or liberal.
Zen Master's opinions are no different from other people's opinions. They have no intrinsic reality to them. While I have no problem sharing my opinions with others, I am not in the slightest concerned with their ultimate validity. They are just opinions! What is the difference then, between spiritual understanding and opinions? The difference is that spiritual understanding, to the extent that it is real, does not concern the ego. Wherever the ego is involved, all views are just opinion. Spiritual understanding has nothing to do with judgment, it has to do with decision. It does not say this is good because that is bad, but this is good because it is good, and that is bad because it is bad.
Spiritual understanding references everything from the moment. The question to be asked is what is skillful means to produce compassionate and wise action in this moment. The mindfulness that is required in spiritual understanding in the moment is rarely complicated if we are diligent students of the eight fold path. Otherwise, if our life is not in tune with itself, we are driven by the ego and opinion and any choice is potentially complicated. Of course, it all starts with right views. One must make sure that these truly are right views, and not right opinions.
Two people can hold identical views and one of them can have understanding while the other merely has opinion. It is not the idea that has reality, but the reality behind the idea that determines whether a perspective is opinion or understanding. If someone actually lives by a certain perspective, totally committed to it, living a life consistent with itself as we have seen in the interpenetration of the eight fold path, then that life has understanding. The hallmark of someone who has understanding, is that while they are rooted in spiritual life, they have flexibility within it. They are not even concerned with their own opinions, much less someone else's.
Even if someone has memorized all the various teachings in the Buddhist sutras, but has not been able to employ them in their life, such a person is a mere bag of opinions. If another person has a simple but basic grasp of the dharma and their life reflects this in their actions, then this person has understanding. The former abides in their opinion while the latter abides in truth.
When I first came to San Diego, I wished to make contact with one of the senior Buddhist teachers in the area. I thought that it would be good to maintain a friendly relationship since we all share the same purpose. Since this person was several years my senior, I naturally respected both their age and extensive experience. My age and own experience reflects a slightly different approach to dharma, and I thought that each of our groups, while maintaining their own way, could complement each other.
However, it was reported to me that the other teacher felt that I was too young to be a good teacher, and compared me with several other young teachers who had been involved in moral lapses. All this with no contact at all with me, except a five minute phone call! This information does not bother me at all since I can only concern myself with right action in this moment. I do not know if I am a good teacher or a bad teacher, too young or too old. I can only bow with respect to this teacher for reminding me to watch my step!
Opinions are just opinions, there is no reason to cherish them or be afraid of them. The surest indication of whether a dharma teacher is keen eyed or not is in their freedom from opinions while maintaining strict morality. If they are rigid and inflexible judging everyone, or wild and morally loose, then they are the blind leading the blind. Mindfulness requires freedom from opinions, both yours and others, even if those others may lay claim to spiritual titles. Real teaching must integrate with your understanding or it has no value.
Mindfulness requires the abandoning of opinion because of the effect holding onto opinion has on altering our attention from the present moment. The moment we give in to the subjective chain of beliefs that tie us to our ego, we are pulled out of the moment. No one opinion stands isolated from the whole complex of opinion which goes to make up our false sense of self, the ego. There is no one perspective we can hold on to and not cause a chain reaction of subjective bondage that sees the world as self and others. Spiritual understanding, on the other hand, is an activity which unites our consciousness to the present, recognizing that our self is the process of the moment.
To hold strongly to opinions and attempt to practice mindfulness in the moment is simply not possible. Our true nature is dynamic process. Life that transcends life and death, but is not separate from them. The most difficult opinions to rid ourselves of are those that pertain to ourselves. We hold strongly to sets of words that define ourselves in a static way. We are right, kind, good, loyal, honest, and so on. These are mere opinions, for in fact there is only the opportunity to apply kindness, honesty, and other virtues in this moment. A quick analysis of past actions is just as likely to produce a negative set of self definitions, but neither positive nor negative self opinion has any validity in dealing with the present.
The only energy capable of adequately meeting the challenge of mindfulness is the dual energy of wisdom-compassion which sees all events as part of itself, and all creature's interests as the interest of its own heart. The flowering of this energy is found in the practice of meditation, the final noble path of the Buddha way.
