The Noble 8fold Path - Levels of Awareness - Right Mindfulness

As a religion, Buddhism exists at the popular level + the philosophical / metaphysical level. Popular level: going on pilgrimage, e.g. to places connected with the Buddha. These talks are a sort of pilgrimage - harder than any geographical one - are we falling by the wayside? Many still with us...

Today the beginning of the end - levels of awareness - right mindfulness.

Progress in the Higher Evolution is a progress in awareness, and is shown by successively higher levels - hence levels of awareness.

Right mindfulness = samyak smriti / sati = mindfulness / awareness but literal meaning is 'memory / recollection'. Will approach the shades of meaning indirectly, via an example of unmindfulness in daily life:

writing an urgent letter - telephone rings - long chat - forget about the letter - thirsty - put on the radio - listen - knock on the door - chat - find you are too late for the post.   

Unmindfulness covers: forgetfulness, due to being easily distracted, due to weak concentration, due to lack of wholeheartedness & no continuity of purpose [drift], therefore no real individuality - we are succession of people all embryonic.

So mindfulness is a state of recollection, undistractedness, concentration, continuity & steadfastness of purpose, and continually developing individuality - all of these are encompassed in perfect awareness/mindfulness. 

4 levels: Awareness of things / self / others / reality (Truth / The Ultimate)

Awareness of things

... meaning material things / realm of nature. Mostly we have peripheral consciousness of the things around us - we are not aware of what's around us / our environment / nature/ The Cosmos - because we very rarely stop and look. We think we have no time. Even supposing we stop and look, we hardly ever see the things in themselves - we usually see our own projected subjectivity - we see things through the veil or fog of our own mental conditioning. For instance through its utility to us - need to undo this, look at things for their own sake, untainted by our own preferences, desires, prejudices. E.g. Far Eastern story about painting bamboos: if you want to paint bamboos, learn to see them first. The disciple just looked, for years, became 'one with the bamboos'. Then he painted.

This should be our attitude towards the whole of nature, towards all things. -> become supremely receptive.

Awareness of self

.. of oneself, incl: 

• awareness of the body and its movements -> won't do anything in a hasty, confused or chaotic fashion. e.g. Japanese tea ceremony - everything done with awareness.
• counterpart in our culture: the business lunch :-) - trying to have a good meal + pull off a good deal at the same time - contradictory. 
• Awareness of the body & movements will have the effect of slowing things down - they will feel slower, but may well  actually get more done 
• awareness of feelings - knowing whether we are happy or sad, or dull / neutral / somewhere in between. Through doing this, unskilful emotional states will tend to be resolved, and skilful ones will end to be refined.
• awareness of thoughts - often we don't know what we are thinking - we allow thoughts to drift around but not consciously. Should learn to watch from moment to moment where thoughts arise where they go - will make the flow of thoughts / the mind chatter reduce. Eventally the mind will become silent - all discursive thoughts will be wiped out and the mind will be left silent and empty - much harder to achieve than silence of the tongue - it is at this point that real true meditation begins.
• Should practice these three all the time day and night, even in dreams. -> gradually but surley this awareness will transform our whole being and character. Psychologically, awareness is the most powerful transforming agent we know.

Awareness of people

Usually we are aware of people as things / objects / lumps of matter. However one should become aware of people as persons - look at them! Not stare - just looks - not as easy as it sounds. 

• communication exercises are good practice here

Also communicate with them! - if it gets telepathic it indicates a high level of mutual awareness.

In India - darshan (which means a sight) - awareness of the spiritual teacher. After the evening service, the teacher just sits there. People come and sit and look - take the teacher's darshan - try to be aware of him as a person. E.g. Ramana Maharshi - would sit giving darshan all day, day after day. People would come and look - most didn't ask any questions - getting awareness of the teacher as a spiritual person. 

Awareness of Reality

Not thinking about reality, but direct non-discursive contemplation. Will mention one or two forms of many:

• recollection of / awareness of / the Buddha i.e. of reality as embodied in the form of the enlightened human being / enlightened teacher. Traditionally start with what he would have looked like - tall, serene, in the yellow robe. Then see the Buddha in various important moments of his life e.g. when he gained enlightenment. Then recollect the attributes / spiritual qualities - try to become aware of their innermost essence = Reality itself expressing itself through the Buddha
• awareness of Shunyata / of Voidness - beyond thought, desire... - can only be practiced after some previous experience in meditation

Most difficult type of awareness to maintain, so some means to help - e.g. constant repetition of a mantra or a syllable (once initiated) - puts one and keeps one in contact throughout all the ups and downs of daily life. Eventually this wells up spontaneously amidst daily life.

So these are the 4 principal levels of awareness

- through awareness of things, become free of the taint of subjectivity

- awareness of self refines our psychophysical energies

- awareness of others stimulates and awareness of reality transforms.

All of these contribute to the Higher Evolution. And they bring us near to the last stage of the path, next week.

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1. “Our concentration is weak because we have no continuity of purpose. There is no one overriding purpose that remains unchanged in the midst of all the different things we do.” Is this a fair analysis of your own experience? If so, how could you develop more continuity of purpose? 

Sometimes this is the case - particularly when I'm trying to relax in the evening or at the weekend. To develop it, perhaps I could be more intentional with what I am choosing to do with my time.

2. How much time do you spend appreciating nature and your environment, compared to the time you spend immersed in busy-ness, the media, and your own thoughts? If these two are out of balance, how could you remedy this situation? Would you be willing to take a precept to put this into practice? What would get in the way? 

The rain gets in the way! And blurry intentions! But I do enjoy wondering round the garden so get a bit of this every day (in summer - harder in winter). And sometimes walk / cycle. This is a really good point: if I'd like to really relax and spend my time in a way that brings meaning, then present-moment awareness can't really be beaten, whatever it is that I'm doing.    

3. What do you do that puts you in touch with your body? What do you do that cuts you off from body awareness? Could you change the balance between these two? 

In touch: daily exercises, settling in meditation. Sometimes body scans overnight. Cut off from body awareness: working for long hours and perhaps cycling at night when I'm tired. What could I do about that: would be nice to say 'don't let myself get so tired' but that's often not possible (in the short term).  

4. Is there a connection between awareness of the body and awareness of feelings? 

Yes - tightness in the body = unrecognised stuck feelings (unattended distress). My experience of slowly over a year or more becoming more aware of what's going on in my body, and stuck bits gradually becoming fluid and easy (work in progress). 

5. Sangharakshita refers to ‘communication exercises’ as a way of becoming more aware of another person. Do you have any experience of these? If so, did you find this a comfortable or an uncomfortable experience? Might your response tell us something about what gets in the way of awareness of other people? 

They may have helped me to start looking at people in the eye - something I never did prior. Also an exercise where we stood up in front of a small group and just practiced feeling what that felt like, without necessarily saying anything - that was very helpful. They helped to get past what I guess is a learned automatic reaction coming from self-consciousness, that is no longer necessary.   

6. “Repetition of [a] mantra … puts one in contact with that which it represents, [and] keeps one in contact with it in the midst of all the ... ups and downs … of daily life.” Have you ever used mantra in this way? If so, do you find this an effective way of maintaining mindfulness?

I haven't tried this and I can't really see how it would be possible with the sort of job that uses my brain. But one can sing a mantra in the car e.g. For me it can have a settling effect and a 'recollection of the Buddha' effect - probably more the more time one spends with a particular mantra.