Found something related by Jack Kornfield:
May,
2003
A Mind Like Sky
Meditation comes alive through a growing capacity to
release our habitual entanglement in the stories and plans,
conflicts and worries that make up the small sense of self, and to
rest in awareness. In meditation we do this simply by acknowledging
the moment-to-moment changing conditions—the pleasure and pain, the
praise and blame, the litany of ideas and expectations that arise.
Without identifying with them, we can rest in the awareness itself,
beyond conditions, and experience what my teacher Ajahn Chah called
jai pongsai, our natural lightness of heart. Developing this
capacity to rest in awareness nourishes samadhi (concentration),
which stabilizes and clarifies the mind, and prajna (wisdom), that
sees things as they are.
We can employ this awareness or wise attention from the
very start. When we first sit down to meditate, the best strategy
is to simply notice whatever state of our body and mind is present.
To establish the foundation of mindfulness, the Buddha instructs
his followers "to observe whether the body and mind are distracted
or steady, angry or peaceful, excited or worried, contracted or
released, bound or free." Observing what is so, we can take a few
deep breaths and relax, making space for whatever situation we
find.
From this ground of acceptance we can learn to use the
transformative power of attention in a flexible and malleable way.
Wise attention—mindfulness—can function like a zoom lens. Often it
is most helpful to steady our practice with close-up attention. In
this, we bring a careful attention and a very close focus to our
breath or a sensation, or to the precise movement of feeling or
thought. Over time we can eventually become so absorbed that
subject and object disappear. We become the breath, we become the
tingling in our foot, we become the sadness or joy. In this we
sense ourself being born and dying with each breath, each
experience. Entanglement in our ordinary sense of self dissolves;
our troubles and fears drop away. Our entire experience of the
world shows itself to be impermanent, ungraspable and selfless.
Wisdom is born.
But sometimes in meditation such close focus of
attention can create an unnecessary sense of tightness and
struggle. So we must find a more open way to pay attention. Or
perhaps when we are mindfully walking down the street we realize it
is not helpful to focus only on our breath or our feet. We will
miss the traffic signals, the morning light and the faces of the
passersby. So we open the lens of awareness to a middle range. When
we do this as we sit, instead of focusing on the breath alone, we
can feel the energy of our whole body. As we walk we can feel the
rhythm of our whole movement and the circumstances through which we
move. From this perspective it is almost as if awareness "sits on
our shoulder" and respectfully acknowledges a breath, a pain in our
legs, a thought about dinner, a feeling of sadness, a shop window
we pass. Here wise attention has a gracious witnessing quality,
acknowledging each event—whether boredom or jealousy, plans or
excitement, gain or loss, pleasure or pain—with a slight bow.
Moment by moment we release the illusion of getting "somewhere" and
rest in the timeless present, witnessing with easy awareness all
that passes by. As we let go, our innate freedom and wisdom
manifest. Nothing to have, nothing to be. Ajahn Chah called this
"resting in the One Who Knows."
Yet at times this middle level of attention does not
serve our practice best. We may find ourself caught in the grip of
some repetitive thought pattern or painful situation, or lost in
great physical or emotional suffering. Perhaps there is chaos and
noise around us. We sit and our heart is tight, our body and mind
are neither relaxed nor gracious, and even the witnessing can seem
tedious, forced, effortful.
In this circumstance we can open the lens of attention
to its widest angle and let our awareness become like space or the
sky. As the Buddha instructs in the Majjhima Nikaya, "Develop a
mind that is vast like space, where experiences both pleasant and
unpleasant can appear and disappear without conflict, struggle or
harm. Rest in a mind like vast sky."
From this broad perspective, when we sit or walk in
meditation, we open our attention like space, letting experiences
arise without any boundaries, without inside or outside. Instead of
the ordinary orientation where our mind is felt to be inside our
head, we can let go and experience the mind's awareness as open,
boundless and vast. We allow awareness to experience consciousness
that is not entangled in the particular conditions of sight, sound
and feelings, but consciousness that is independent of changing
conditions—the unconditioned. Ajahn Jumnien, a Thai forest elder,
speaks of this form of practice as Maha Vipassana, resting in pure
awareness itself, timeless and unborn. For the meditator, this is
not an ideal or a distant experience. It is always immediate, ever
present, liberating; it becomes the resting place of the wise
heart.
Fully absorbed, graciously witnessing, or open and
spacious—which of these lenses is the best way to practice
awareness? Is there an optimal way to pay attention? The answer is
"all of the above." Awareness is infinitely malleable, and it is
important not to fixate on any one form as best. Mistakenly, some
traditions teach that losing the self and dissolving into a breath
or absorbing into an experience is the optimal form of attention.
Other traditions erroneously believe that resting in the widest
angle, the open consciousness of space, is the highest teaching.
Still others say that the middle ground—an ordinary, free and
relaxed awareness of whatever arises here and now, "nothing
special"—is the highest attainment. Yet in its true nature
awareness cannot be limited. Consciousness itself is both large and
small, particular and universal. At different times our practice
will require that we embrace all these perspectives.
Every form of genuine awareness is liberating. Each
moment we release entanglement and identification is selfless and
free. But remember too that every practice of awareness can create
a shadow when we mistakenly cling to it. A misuse of space can
easily lead us to become spaced-out and unfocused. A misuse of
absorption can lead to denial, the ignoring of other experiences,
and a misuse of ordinary awareness can create a false sense of
"self" as a witness. These shadows are subtle veils of meditative
clinging. See them for what they are and let them go. And learn to
work with all the lenses of awareness to serve your wise
attention.
The more you experience the power of wise attention,
the more your trust in the ground of awareness itself will grow.
You will learn to relax and let go. In any moment of being caught,
awareness will step in, a presence without judging or resisting.
Close-in or vast, near or far, awareness illuminates the
ungraspable nature of the universe. It returns the heart and mind
to its birthright, naturally luminous and free.
To amplify and deepen an understanding of how to
practice with awareness as space, the following instructions can be
helpful. One of the most accessible ways to open to spacious
awareness is through the ear door, listening to the sounds of the
universe around us. Because the river of sound comes and goes so
naturally, and is so obviously out of our control, listening brings
the mind to a naturally balanced state of openness and attention. I
learned this particular practice of sound as a gateway to space
from my colleague Joseph Goldstein more than 25 years ago and have
used it ever since. Awareness of sound in space can be an excellent
way to begin practice because it initiates the sitting period with
the flavor of wakeful ease and spacious letting go. Or it can be
used after a period of focused attention.
Whenever you begin, sit comfortably and at ease. Let
your body be at rest and your breathing be natural. Close your
eyes. Take several full breaths and let each release gently. Allow
yourself to be still.
Now shift awareness away from the breath. Begin to
listen to the play of sounds around you. Notice those that are loud
and soft, far and near. Just listen. Notice how all sounds arise
and vanish, leaving no trace. Listen for a time in a relaxed, open
way.
As you listen, let yourself sense or imagine that your
mind is not limited to your head. Sense that your mind is expanding
to be like the sky-open, clear, vast like space. There is no inside
or outside. Let the awareness of your mind extend in every
direction like the sky.
Now the sounds you hear will arise and pass away in the
open space of your own mind. Relax in this openness and just
listen. Let the sounds that come and go, whether far or near, be
like clouds in the vast sky of your own awareness. The play of
sounds moves through the sky, appearing and disappearing without
resistance.
As you rest in this open awareness, notice how thoughts
and images also arise and vanish like sounds. Let the thoughts and
images come and go without struggle or resistance. Pleasant and
unpleasant thoughts, pictures, words and feelings move unrestricted
in the space of mind. Problems, possibilities, joys and sorrows
come and go like clouds in the clear sky of mind.
After a time, let this spacious awareness notice the
body. Become aware of how the sensations of breath and body float
and change in the same open sky of awareness. The breath breathes
itself, it moves like a breeze. The body is not solid. It is felt
as areas of hardness and softness, pressure and tingling, warm and
cool sensation, all floating in the space of the mind's
awareness.
Let the breath move like a breeze. Rest in this
openness. Let sensations float and change. Allow all thoughts and
images, feelings and sounds to come and go like clouds in the clear
open space of awareness.
Finally, pay attention to the awareness itself. Notice
how the open space of awareness is naturally clear, transparent,
timeless and without conflict—allowing all things, but not limited
by them.
The Buddha said, "O Nobly Born, remember the pure open
sky of your own true nature. Return to it. Trust it. It is
home."
May the blessings of these practices awaken your own
inner wisdom and inspire your compassion. And through the blessing
of your heart may the world find peace.
This meditation is one of a variety of practices
offered in Jack Kornfield's The Art of Forgiveness, Lovingkindness
and Peace (Bantam Books).
Jack Kornfield, who spent many years studying Buddhism
in Burma, Thailand and India, is co-founder of the Insight
Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and the Spirit Rock
Center in Woodacre, California. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical
psychology.
A Mind Like Sky:Wise Attention Open Awareness, Jack
Kornfield, Shambhala Sun, May 2003.
