Here is an article about practicing the Four Foundations of
Mindfulness. This practice is taught by Buddha as a very effective
means to attain Liberation. According to Buddha, by practicing the
four foundations of mindfulness diligently, one should be able to
attain liberation and enlightenment in as little as 7 days and no
more than 7 years.
I think this is a very well written article. I sent our
moderator Thusness a few portions which he thought was very very
good.
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http://www.dhagpo-kagyu.org/anglais/science-esprit/chemin/medit/etat_esprit/mindfullness.htm
An
introduction to the Four Foundations of
Mindfulness
excerpt of a teaching by Lama Lhundrup in Dhagpo Kundrol Ling,
November 2001,
revised with the help of Lama Mingyur and Lama Dorje Drölma
Introduction
As always
when listening to a teaching we first of all develop the motivation
of bodhicitta, the awakened mind intend on the greatest possible
benefit for all sentient beings: enlightenment. In order to realise
this and to establish all beings in that state we engage in Dharma
study and practice.
The Buddha
taught the four foundations of mindfulness as the basis of all
meditation practice in the Satipatthana Sutta, the tenth
sutra of the middle length collection (Majjhima Nikaya) of the Pali
canon. This sutra is the basis for the mindfulness practices of all
Buddhist schools. Further explanations are found in the
Anapanasati Sutta, where the Buddha talks about
mindfulness of breath as a means to develop all four kinds of
mindfulness, and in the Kayagatasati Sutta, where he
develops the instructions on how to practise mindfulness of body by
giving many examples. These three sutras together are the heart of
mindfulness practice in the Theravada tradition. Gampopa mentions
the four foundations of mindfulness in the Precious Ornament of
Liberation as the factors to be developed right from the
beginning of one's practice as one is entering the normaler path of
accumulation. They constitute the first four of the 37 factors of
enlightenment.
Here, in
the context of this brief introduction, we will not discuss all
aspects of mindfulness but concentrate on what the Buddha called
the "Four Foundations". Mindfulness itself would be a still vaster
subject as it includes virtually all practices starting with being
mindful of the preciousness of our human existence, impermanence,
cause and effect, suffering, continuing with a mindfulness of the
qualities of refuge, of bodhicitta, of the masters, yidams, and
protectors, and finally being mindful of mahamudra, the
nature of things itself. Mindfulness is what makes our practice
work. Without it, no practice whatsoever will have a profound
effect.
When
explaining the four foundations of mindfulness the Buddha first
talks about the motivation to develop: the wish to obtain complete
liberation, nirvana, the complete purification of clinging to a
self which means the same as going beyond all suffering, beyond all
worries and complaints into true happiness. He then says that in
order to practise the four foundations of mindfulness, no matter
which one we intend to practise, we should go to a secluded place,
sit with crossed legs, and with a very straight upper body first
let our mindfulness gather in front of us – not necessarily with
the help of an object, but simply through resting with unwavering,
steady eyes. Then, through contemplating the nature of samsara, we
should relinquish all desire, all wanting, all clinging to the
cycle of existence and dissolve all sadness and evil-mindedness.
With "sadness" the Buddha meant the sadness which arises in the
beginning when we take the resolution to leave samsara behind, an
uneasiness due to leaving our beloved attachments. There should be
no such sadness in our mind when we are letting go of the causes of
suffering (!), but rather the great joy of a firm resolve to go
towards liberation and to become able to make it accessible to all
others as well. In order to practise mindfulness it is very helpful
to have the support of a joyful aspiration.
Mindfulness
is the practice of those who are happy to get out of samsara. Our
basic attitude of mind should be free of clinging to this world.
Having this as our basis we can develop the four foundations of
mindfulness. For this we have to practise with diligence and with a
clear, precise knowing of what we are doing, with clearly
understood instructions on our meditation. Mindfulness means not to
be forgetful, not forgetting the object of one's intention.
Mindfulness needs to be accompanied by equanimity, a stable mind,
not impressed by whatever might appear in mind, and it should be
continuous, without interruption; not sometimes mindful and
sometimes not. A continuous mindfulness is actually based on a deep
letting go, just as Gendun Rinpoche always instructed us.
Mindfulness establishes itself naturally when we have no interest
for the world and let go of our worldly preoccupation.
But there
could also be spiritual preoccupations that create obstacles: a
strong wanting to let go, one is struggling to find relaxation with
the hope to attain something and the fear not to obtain it. When
there is too much wanting we will soon reject mindfulness practice,
since we will not be able to enter authentic relaxation. Wanting
agitates the mind, and so do hope and fear.
The Buddha
taught four foundations of mindfulness which are set out in a
progressive order and serve as foundations to discover
liberation:
The
mindfulness developed with these practices is always the same: to
be aware of what is. But the methods used to develop and keep the
mindfulness change and become increasingly more subtle.
I.
Establishing mindfulness of body
The basic
instruction of the Buddha on mindfulness of body is: "Regard the
body as body." It means to regard whatever is body, whatever has
form, as being simply a physical form and not my body,
my form, not to identify with the body, but just to regard
it as body, an agglomeration of physical constituents. To see what
the experience of these physical constituents is like is the next
step of this meditation.
The
initial instructions for this mindfulness could be condensed into
the question: "What do the senses perceive?" This refers
to the five physical senses (without the mental sense): whatever
can be experienced through touching (inner physical perception),
hearing, smelling, tasting, and seeing.
There are
many ways to develop mindfulness of the body. All are meant to lead
to non-identification with the first skandha of body or form. The
most important of these methods is the meditation on the breath.
But first we will give the list of other meditations which can be
done according to the Buddha:
All of
these meditations are also mentioned by Gampopa in the Precious
Ornament of Liberation. They are important remedies for desire
and ignorance. Further meditations to develop mindfulness of body
are:
It is
actually very important to be mindful of our physical movements. If
we are not even mindful of our body, how mindful will we be of our
mind? Physical movements are few and actually quite slow, while
mental movements are many and extremely quick. The point of
practising mindfulness of body is to develop the capacity to
refrain from unwholesome acts with body and speech, to settle the
mind and to gradually arrive at a mindfulness of mind itself which
is the chief of all actions, the starting point for all creation of
karma. Mindfulness of the body is definitely more easy to practise
than mindfulness of mind.
Mindfulness of
breathing
All of
this was taught in the Anapanasati Sutra, where it is
indicated that the breath can actually serve as the key method to
develop all four foundation of mindfulness.
For the
interested practitioner we include here some oral Instructions of
Gendun Rinpoche on mindfulness of breathing :
"When we
follow the movement of our breathing in and out, it should be left
quite natural, just as it is. We should not force either the body
or the mind in any way at all but remain completely relaxed and
simply let the mind become aware of the coming and going of the
breath, without any distraction, any other thoughts, anything else
catching our attention. Let the mind merge with the movement more
and more until it is completely absorbed in it. Do this first for
21 breathing cycles, without distraction, and then for a greater
number, all the time staying attentive.
Staying
attentive does not mean concentrating fixedly on the breathing
while saying to yourself, „I mustn’t lose the movement, I must stay
concentrated...". If we start this kind of discursive thinking, it
will create a level of mental agitation which will disturb the
natural movement of the breathing and of the meditation. We are no
longer meditating, we are commenting on the meditation. We lose our
sense of being absorbed in the meditation.
What we
have to do is simply be aware of the breathing, feel it, experience
it physically and mentally. We should follow it without doing
anything else, without comment, without trying to change it or
modify it in any way. For that we have to be very relaxed, very
quiet, and practice gently, regularly. Doing this, we wait for the
calm that will allow us to penetrate more deeply into the
meditation to develop."
Do I want to dream or do I
want to be present?
If we
summarise Trungpa Rinpoche's teaching on the mindfulness of body,
we should ask ourselves: "Do I want to dream or do I want to be
present?" If you want to dream, don’t practise mindfulness of body,
it might wake you up. However, if you want to be present, practise
mindfulness of body. Being mindful of the body means to really come
in contact and establish a direct connection with our body. It
means to sit on the earth and walk on the earth instead of being in
our clouds of imagination.
There is a
certain simplicity of physical presence which installs itself and
lets us find the way out of our concepts. Our complex, conceptual,
always thinking mind is calmed down by feeling the simple presence
of walking or of being here on the cushion. It means to relax into
the body and to just sit or walk or breathe without wanting
anything special, without wanting to go anywhere. It is not the
destination that counts but being or walking itself. That's enough.
Buddha gives us the permission to just be.
Here, on
the first level of mindfulness, there is not yet an intention to
analyse or understand something, there is just this basic presence
which gives rise to an openness. And this is very helpful! It can
also be helpful when you cannot fall asleep at night. You practise
a bit of mindfulness of breathing – and relaxation is coming,
openness, and it will be more easy to fall asleep, because the
agitated subtle energies calm down due to the mindfulness of
breathing.
So,
Chögyam Trungpa says: When we contact this feeling of having a very
stable ground, our practice becomes linked to what and where we
really are. Then, on this very stable ground of being in contact
with what really happens, we can open up – we can open up to the
surroundings, and also to other practices. But first we need this
stability, a feeling of coming home. Thich Nhat Hanh compares it to
a child coming home after a long time of absence. To find back home
is already a big step ahead on our path.
Continuing our practice of
mindfulness of body in the vajrayana...
Also in
our vajrayana practices we work a lot on mindfulness of body. The
aim here is to lead us to a complete integration of body, speech
and mind, and to come to an understanding of the deeper reality of
these three. The training begins with mindfully turning a mala in
synchronisation with our mantra recitation. We prostrate with our
body at full length being fully aware of the outer movement, doing
it just the way it should be, and develop at the same time the
mindfulness of its inner meaning of going for refuge etc. The body
is used as a support to always find back into a virtuous state of
mind or into contemplation or meditation. We offer mandalas or
perform mudras at the same time as we are reciting and visualising.
In meditation we train in the correct posture and we are using
mantras and doing recitations. (In this fourfold classification
mindfulness of speech also belongs to mindfulness of body, because
it is an outer act.)
Mindfulness
of the body also means to be in tune with our body, not to abuse
it, but to remark when we are tired, stiff or cold etc., and to
adjust our practice accordingly through changes of position, food,
drink, clothes, heating, cooling, rest, sleep, exercise, and so on.
To be a yogi actually also means to know what our body wants to
tell us. We should generate an attitude of sensitivity,
warm-heartedness and non-violence towards our body while not
falling into laxity and self-cherishing attitudes. Our body is not
simply the slave of our practice but actually a very subtle tool to
develop awareness. In vajrayana we even say that is the seat of
enlightenment.
When
visualising ourselves as a Buddhaform (yidam) we practise
mindfulness of body on a still more subtle level. We refer to a
deeper reality of "body" in order to bring us to an awareness of
the transparent, non-substantial nature of body and form, and to
let go of identifications with this normal physical body. Here, our
mindfulness is directed to reality as a Buddha sees it, and it will
extend our practice of mindfulness beyond all limiting concepts of
what we usually consider as "body". All of this is the integration
of basic body awareness into the heightened awareness of vajrayana.
It is the natural continuation of the experiences of down-to-earth
body mindfulness which becomes more and more tuned in to the
subtleties of being. When Body is experienced as the subtle
reflection of all that happens within and around, it is perceived
as the mirror of the whole universe, it reveals its truly sacred
dimension. Everything and everyone is seen as contained in that
supreme Body of the yidam-divinity.
Mindfulness
of body finally leads us to the understanding that all phenomena,
all forms, all ‘bodies’, are free of inherent existence, empty,
completely pure, interdependent and transparent – just like
reflections on a pure mirror or on clear, unmoving water. This is
the true, final simplicity of "just being", which is the key to
mindfulness of body right from the very beginning.
Question:
Can we also apply this teaching on mindfulness of body to
thoughts?
Answer:
Yes. There is actually no difference between outer, physical form
and inner form, mental representations or thoughts. As you meditate
on the body, you realise that the body is not outside of the mind.
And as you meditate on form, you realise that form is not outside,
but that there is no difference between thoughts which are purely
mental and thoughts which seemingly have an outer support. This is
one of the understandings arising due to meditation on mindfulness
of the body: the separation line between thoughts, body and outer
surrounding dissolves. We can find no more limits to this
constantly changing, completely inter-related phenomenon which we
call body. Inside–outside becomes completely transparent and
indistinguishable. That’s why meditating on the body can be the
source of all realisations.
II. Establishing
mindfulness of feelings
The second
foundation of mindfulness is the meditation on feelings or
sensations. And here the Buddha’s instruction is again very simple:
"Regard feelings as feelings". These are just simple feelings, not
my feelings. This has given rise to the instruction to
mentally say, when there is an agreeable sensation arising:
"agreeable sensation", and if disagreeable, to just say:
"disagreeable" – end of the story, no further comments.
According
to the Buddha what we call mindfulness of feeling is a simple,
non-judging awareness of agreeable and disagreeable (even sometimes
painful) feelings and of "neutral" feelings, which refers to
meditative absorption states (samadhis). And also he instructed us
to cultivate the awareness of "worldly" and "spiritual" feelings
and of their combinations as agreeable worldly feelings,
disagreeable worldly feelings and so on. The instruction can be
condensed into the question: "What is felt inwardly when a
sense impression arises?" The idea here is to just feel, in a
direct way, without any commentary – and to see the reactions of
immediately judging any experience as agreeable or disagreeable, to
become aware of these judgements which are constantly happening in
our mind. To become aware of them gives us the possibility to stop
the chain.
Our
feelings will be accompanied by awareness, and as we are aware of
them and the connected judging process, we can find ways to let go
of them, one after the other. Due to mindfulness we can avoid
further chain reactions with all the connected emotional trouble.
Mindfulness of feelings also has the effect that we get to know
ourselves better and do not run away from our feelings anymore.
They become familiar experiences of great variety but without any
special importance. In spite of their great variety they are all
the same in one respect: they come and go without leaving traces.
This meditation gradually leads to non-identification with the
second skandha: feelings or sensations. Feelings will then arise
without secondary thoughts that create a connection to an imaginary
I or self. They are simply what they are: feelings, a flow of
experiences, ever-changing. Do you see any self in this?
You can
look on your feelings from within, as a personal experience, or
from without, as if someone else was experiencing them, as if
looking on yourself from the point of view of an outer observer.
Both ways of practising are taught and both are ok. But according
to the Buddha we should look also what gives rise to feelings and
what causes their dissolution. We investigate into impermanence and
the conditioned nature of feelings. We take an intelligent look
into feelings. It is non-judging, and because this creates a
certain space, the non-judging allows for an understanding to
arise. We see how pleasure is arising and how suffering is arising.
We see how pleasure goes away and how suffering goes
away.
So this is
one way of practising with feelings, using our intelligence and our
curiosity to investigate, and the other way is to be simply aware
of what is happening: only being aware, no need for an effort to
understand something, just as in the basic mindfulness of body: a
very simple mind, nothing more. First one should establish basic
mindfulness of feelings, becoming aware of their coming and going,
and then occasionally one investigates into the causes and factors
of the arising and disappearing of feelings, judgements etc. One
can, if one wishes, take each of the different senses as a support
for the mindfulness of feeling and see how mind immediately judges
these feelings. We take sounds as our support, odours, tastes,
physical sensations, the moving wind, an itching sensation – all
kinds of supports, and each time we look what this does in
mind.
We notice
all the thousands and millions of judgements going on in our mind,
and what usually happens is that we become thoroughly disgusted
with ourselves, with all this liking and disliking. But what to do?
It has been going on for a long time already. Now we become aware
of it, that's great!, and soon we will be able to relax with it,
and then actually we will be able to let go of it from time to
time, until we come to truly enjoy the non-judging mind. Then there
is no more struggling to let go. It becomes our preferred mode of
being.
Question:
Is this being mindful of judgements or still mindfulness of
feelings?
Answer:
They are interconnected. If you can just remain on the level of
feelings, you are already an advanced practitioner. Normally we are
caught in judging before we even realise it. You will for example
see that as soon as you hear the sound of a tractor, there will be
a naming "tractor". You think that the naming is the thought
immediately after the sense perception. But before this rather
complex naming has happened, you have already, more or less
unconsciously, judged the sound as being agreeable or disagreeable.
In meditation you will see all of this. Mindfulness of feelings is
actually in the beginning a mindfulness of how every feeling
triggers off a chain of reactions. Later then, as a more simple
awareness installs itself, you will come to the level of simply
feeling feelings, without further comments, and the difference
between the sound of a tractor and the lovely voice of a woman
becomes less and less.
Question:
Agreeable – disagreeable comes before the naming?
Answer:
Yes, long before. A name is already a complex concept. You have
already made the difference between this sound and all the other
sounds, car sounds, animal sounds and so on, which you know. You
have already zoomed in. You’ve gone back to your memory, compared
with similar sounds which you knew and heard in the past. You
compared and, while taking into account still more factors of the
situation, you said: "This is probably a tractor." So there is a
lot, which has gone on. Agreeable – disagreeable is the first,
immediate reaction of the mind to the sense-perception. It is the
reaction which will decide whether we take a protective or open
attitude towards the situation.
How can survival come
alive?
Summarising
Trungpa Rinpoche's teaching, the central question of this
mindfulness would be: "How can the basic survival instinct become
mindfulness of life?" Normally, all our actions (breathing, eating,
clothing...) are motivated by our basic instinct to survive, and
all our interpretations of feelings are done in relation to wanting
to survive. I judge all of what I hear, feel and so on as either
being dangerous or not dangerous. "Can this be a help to me, can I
profit from this, or might it trouble me, take something away from
me, make me poorer?" This survival trip continues all the time
unconsciously in our mind.
Mindfulness
of feelings teaches us to simply be aware and to notice that we are
already surviving. Every feeling, every sensation signals
us that we are alive! And we notice that life just continues from
instant to instant without any effort from our side. In this way we
get out of these constant worries connected to sensations. There is
a little hunger arising, but one doesn’t have to react immediately.
We just observe this lively feeling of hunger come and go, and then
of course we can also do something about it. When there is a bang
somewhere, we do not need to tense up, we can just observe. There
is no need to always tense up when something is
happening.
Some
quotes from Chögyam Trungpa, Rinpoche: "Survival instinct is
transmuted into a sense of being... and mindfulness becomes a basic
acknowledgement of existing. Meditation becomes inseparable from
the instinct to live... and that instinct can be seen as containing
awareness, meditation, mindfulness. The life force that keeps us
alive and that manifests continually in our stream of consciousness
itself becomes the practice of mindfulness. ... We can simply tune
in to our process of life... Just living is enough without
reassuring yourself that you are living. If you don't stop [the
process] to make sure, living becomes very clear-cut, very alive
and very precise. ...Meditation is the total experience of any
living being which has the instinct to survive!"
Living
fully means being fully present in the moment without worrying
thoughts that prevent direct contact. Trungpa Rinpoche advises us
to simply remark what is, to shortly zoom into it and immediately
let go. Touch and let go! This means that we touch, we get to know,
we see, but we let go quick enough to always be in the freshness of
the moment. And it is this freshness, which opens up to the flow of
life. Life is a flow of sensations, a flow of feelings. Life is a
constant flow of perceptions, feelings and sensations. Instead of
falling into fear we develop a basic confidence that we do not need
to control all these sensations. We don’t need to hold on to some
and push away others. We can allow ourselves to let the flow happen
in our mind. This is the basic notion of relaxing into mindfulness
of feelings.
For this
there has to be a giving up of wanting to manipulate the world on
this very basic level. Our ordinary survival trip makes us want to
manipulate the situation: "This I want, this I don’t want." In
basic mindfulness there are no such second thoughts, there is no
personal, ego-centred interest in our contact with life. It is a
very simple presence.
Ego-centred
mindfulness however is exactly the opposite: the watchman on the
tower who is always on the lookout for opportunities or enemies.
This is ‘survival mindfulness’ in which there is no equanimity and
letting go. We should not cultivate mindfulness as a further
elaboration of our survival skills, but I suspect that this is
offered in some of those meditation seminaries for managers. We do
not practise meditation in order to become more performing so that
we can better snatch away opportunities from others.
Chögyam
Trungpa says, to hold on to feelings of life brings the feeling of
death. If we grasp onto life we are already half dead. That is the
motor of depression. Grasping onto live kills live. The holding on
to some aspect of our life due to our urge to survive takes us far
away from what is actually happening. We are in our personal dark
room of clinging. And this darkness we are holding onto. When we
let go of this clinging we immediately get the feeling: "Oh, as if
I hadn’t seen the sky for a long time. Oh, the freshness of the
wind!" Suddenly simple, fresh presence begins to re-enter our
awareness. When this happens it is the sign that our depression is
coming to an end. When the freshness of the moment comes back, this
is the end of death and the beginning of joy.
Actually,
we grasp because we are afraid of death. But if we manage to just
be there and relax, mindful of one breath after the other, we will
know that we have survived yet another moment and that we can
permit ourselves to relax the next moment as well. No need to
grasp. Thich Nhat Hanh says: "Working mindfully with disagreeable
feelings grants us insight and wisdom." Yes, the wisdom of no fear
to die, the insight into the truth of non-self, and the courage to
patiently face one feeling after the other knowing that due to
mindfulness there is no need to fear that we will be overwhelmed by
them.
For
mahayana practice it is very important to open up to feelings,
because every contact with another person brings feelings,
agreeable and disagreeable ones, emotions. You cannot be a
bodhisattva without opening up to feelings. How will we be able to
help others, if we are not open to feelings and willing to let them
pass through? How will we be able to face all the problems of
beings to liberate, if we cling to experiences? It is also
important that our mindfulness is not a cold observer, but rather,
to quote again Thich Nhat Hanh: "like a lamp shedding light – not a
judge", and: "like an older sister lovingly taking care of her
younger brother or sister". A lamp does not only give light but
also warmth. In the same way our mindfulness is not only an
expression of wisdom but also of compassion and love. We smile at
ourselves and occasionally give ourselves a hug: a compassionate
approach to samsara; bodhicitta applied to all beings,
including ourselves!
Continuing our practice of
mindfulness of feelings in the vajrayana...
In the
vajrayana we consciously open up to feelings, we invite them as
part of many practices. For example, when we celebrate a feast
offering (tsok) together, this gives rise to intense feelings of
all kinds and related to all senses. There is an opening up to
sense-impressions, an entering into life. Also the practice of
setting up a shrine and making it very beautiful is an expression
of appreciating feelings, visual forms in that case. Music,
incense, singing, playing instruments... – actually, in the tantra
we are encouraging feelings to become stronger in order to see
better there true nature. We see them as messengers of
wisdom.
True
mindfulness of feelings is to see their true nature. On the first
level of mindfulness of feelings we simply realise the presence of
a feeling: Anger is there. Then we see its impermanence:
Anger is already gone! Then we see its interdependent
origination, the fact that it is not just arising out of the blue,
but in chains of cause and effect: Anger arose when clinging to
an experience judged as disagreeable etc. And due to seeing
the interdependence of feelings we also see that they are illusory,
devoid of a lasting essence: if they are gone, they are gone, they
don’t leave any traces, they do not occupy any space anymore.
Anger is gone and seems like a bad dream which has passed. I
cannot even find it any more. And then we understand from
within that this can be called emptiness, the emptiness of
feelings: In all of this anger there is no self. Looking into
it as it arises, there is nothing to see. When looking into it, it
is seen no more, as if a bubble was pierced.
On the
vajrayana path we see all of these feelings as the experiences of
the meditation Buddhaform (yidam) or of the lama. We meditate on
these feelings not as being our own feelings, but the
feelings of the yidam in the space of primordial awareness. There
is no more need to worry: feelings arise as the play of awareness
in endless space. We come in touch with the true nature of
feelings: constantly changing, just like the wind in constant
movement; constant activity without any substance – and, if not
clung to, this movement is seen as the expression of joy, of great
bliss, the perfection of whatever is appearing. It is the
expression of the great compassion of non-clinging enlightened mind
without self, without any reference point, which is constantly
active for sentient beings. It is the spontaneously creative aspect
of mind's nature. When there are no dualistic reactions to these
movements, these feelings, they are understood to be perfect by
nature. There is nothing to be changed in these feelings, since
they are the spontaneous, unceasing creativity of mind itself. This
is truly "being alive", fully open, without any
clinging.
III. Establishing
mindfulness of mind
Again, the
instruction of the Buddha for mindfulness of mind is simple: "Look
at mind as mind". Not as my mind! The Buddha was very
simple in his teaching, very straightforward, but when putting his
advice into practice one quickly sees how profound his teaching is.
The instructions to this third mindfulness could be condensed into
the question: How is the mind right now?
The Buddha
asks: Is there desire, is there hatred, is there ignorance? Is this
mind of the present moment normal (narrow) or wide? Is it
concentrated or distracted? Is it a noble or a samsaric mind? Is it
surpassable (limited) or unsurpassable? Is it liberated or not
liberated? Tensed or relaxed?
The Buddha
taught the first level of mindfulness of mind as being a simple,
non-judging mindfulness of the present mental state. Look into the
mind as if looking into a mirror, and you will see: "Ah, quite
tense" or "Oh, quite open" or whatever: desire, hatred and so on –
simply note what is present.
Then
mindfulness goes a step further to examine the causes for the
appearance and dissolution of the various states of mind. To learn
in this way about mental states and their conditioned nature will
then help to quicken our letting go of a given situation. We will
know how we can encourage wholesome states of mind to arise and
what will be favourable to the quick disappearance of unwholesome
states. Due to this mindfulness of mind we also begin to know the
qualities and capacities of mind. Emotional wounds begin to heal
and knots in our mind are loosening.
Basically,
mindfulness of mind always remains a simple mindful presence
without investigation. The investigation we talk of is not a
conceptual thinking about mind. It means to be present in such a
way that you notice the arising of an emotion, you notice the
thoughts just before its arising which trigger the emotional
reaction, you notice your body sensations, images etc. before the
emotion, during, and afterwards. Because we are aware of the mind
we notice how a mental state disappears, what thought precede its
disappearance. We see for example for desire that it disappears at
the time when we contemplate impermanence or generosity, or that it
simply disappeared when we had another thought which was stronger,
more interesting. We notice many things about how the mind works,
and this is what stimulates wisdom and understanding. There is a
trace of understanding which rests after having witnessed the
mind's working. We do not search for this understanding, it is
enough to be mindful, the rest is automatic.
Mindfulness
of mind is already quite subtle, we have to be increasingly relaxed
to notice these workings of our mind. This is not a gross level
mindfulness anymore. Going from mindfulness of body to feelings and
then to mind, we need more experience in not interfering with what
we observe. Normal practitioners cannot start with their
mindfulness training directly on the level of mind; they have to
start on the level of the body and feelings. In the beginning it
might already be difficult enough to just watch the breath without
manipulating its rhythm and depth.
Remaining indifferent or
becoming interested?
If we
condense Trungpa Rinpoche's teaching on this point into a headline,
it could be: Do I remain indifferent or do I become
interested? What attitude do I take towards my life, towards
my mind? Am I interested to know the mind and to get out of
samsara? Or am I indifferent to these questions and prefer
ignorance and stupidity? Stupidity means to be indifferent to what
is happening, not to care about one's own future or about others
etc. To Trungpa Rinpoche the whole teaching about mindfulness of
mind is about "mindfulness of effort".
The point
here is to practise with balanced and determined effort, and such
right effort is based on right motivation. According to Gendun
Rinpoche, when we develop the motivation of bodhicitta – a truly
selfless, compassionate, and most profound dedication to
enlightenment – right effort and right mindfulness will come
naturally, and meditation will be easy. Bodhicitta is the key to
mindfulness and insight.
In order
to reach enlightenment, true awakening, we need this true
mindfulness, which is an intelligent mindfulness combined with the
unwavering, authentic effort of compassion. This effort is free of
the over-enthusiasm of ambitions and without the heaviness of
pressure and the feelings of duty. We do not practise out of duty
nor out of ambition. True effort will not arise due to an order, an
obligation or just because one wants to get somewhere.
In the
scriptures right effort is compared to an elephant: an elephant who
walks steadily and cannot be stopped. He walks with confidence and
certainty, and his mindfulness is completely balanced. With
panoramic awareness he walks through the jungle. He is interested
in the jungle, not absent-minded, his senses are very keen. This
open-minded interest, however, does not make him lose his inner
balance. This image is not used only because the elephant is very
tall, you could also take a turtle as an example. What is pointed
out here is this certainty without hurry and wanting. The movement
within space is itself what one is interested in. Mindfulness in
tune with movement is what leads to liberation. It is a sure
movement that cannot be stopped, full of dignity, not agitated,
with a panoramic view, and it has a playful lightness and
intelligence to it. It is sensitive, but not hesitating. It is
serious, but not too serious. It is decisive, but not tense. This
gets the mind out of its dream world. We look into the mind's
working, and we look into the reality of mind.
At first
we use our observer, the abstract, non-emotional observer to know
the mind. We use dualistic functioning in order to better know the
mind. There is nothing wrong with using dualistic mind processes:
we can use this observer to get out of emotions instead of
entangling us more and more. Observing will help us to get out of
the emotional jungle into a non-judging presence, from moment to
moment, without comments.
Trungpa
Rinpoche describes sudden moments of direct seeing which then
appear, little gaps that open up to a deeper insight. These moments
only happen on the basis of discipline, a disciplined elephant-like
mind which is not distracted. While walking as the elephant through
the forest of our mind, being continuously in touch with what is
happening, there will naturally be these moments of insight, just
as when the light is coming through the little openings in the
forest. Suddenly we see very clearly. In the middle of darkness and
confusion there are moments of direct seeing. There can be a
non-conceptual understanding of