Introductory Note: The term “meditation” has been applied to many different practices engaged in by members of many different traditions. Likewise the term “Mindfulness” has come to refer to many different meditation practices. Each practice has its own purpose. This chapter explains only one kind of meditation practice, with its own unique relation to the goals of early Buddhist transformational spirituality. I first learned this practice in two intensive meditation retreats under the direction of an ex-monk from Thailand, Dhiravamsa. The entire emphasis of this teacher was on practice. I don’t recall him saying much about the purpose of the practice, which puzzled me at the time. Ideas about its purpose stated in the following essay are the result of my subsequent study of other Buddhist meditation teachers from Southeast Asia, who belonged to a movement responsible for reviving this practice in modern times, and my own study of the Satipatthana Sutta on which these teachers claimed to base their practice. It’s also the result of my own attempts to practice this method, and to teach it to university students.)
Meditation exercises play an essential part in the transformative spirituality taught in the Pali suttas. This is because the inner transformation that Buddhism aims for involves not just changing one’s behavior, or occasionally calling to mind some simple maxims. This involves long-term efforts to bring about a change in a person’s internal psychological dynamics at a very fundamental level – gradually lessening the force of Craving and Clinging that are very deeply rooted in normal human psychology. I think meditation exercises of a certain kind are probably essential to anyone who wants to make substantial progress in bringing about this transformation.
There are several different kinds of meditation-exercises taught in the suttas. In this chapter I focus only on one kind, taught in some key portions of the Satipatthana Sutta (discussed in more detail in another essay. It is commonly called “Mindfulness” meditation, except that today the word “Mindfulness” has been applied to many different kinds of meditation practices. In this essay I try to stick to the description of this practice given in the Satipatthana Sutta, focusing especially on what this sutta suggests as to the purpose of this practice as it relates to other core Buddhist teachings described in the two “Overview” essays. While I think modern Mindfulness teachers have often correctly understood the practice itself, my study has led me to an account of the original purpose of this practice different from modern accounts that I am familiar with. (I find myself in particular disagreement with accounts which claim that the purpose of this practice is to directly experience the truth of Buddhist teachings, to gain direct “insight” into the truth of these teachings. This seems the likely basis for another name often given to Mindfulness today, Vipassana or “Insight” meditation.)
There are two main reasons for my choice to devote a special chapter to Mindfulness meditation. First, this is a uniquely Buddhist kind of meditation-exercise, bearing a unique relation to some specifically Buddhist teachings described in the previous essays. Explaining how Mindfulness meditation is related to these teachings will also help illustrate how these teachings are related to concrete practice.
Secondly, I think Mindfulness is the sort of meditation exercise that is today most relevant to individuals wanting to practice today the transformative spirituality taught in the Pali suttas outside the context of monastic life.
The Basic Practice
The basic practice of Mindfulness meditation is not hard to understand. Sit still with eyes closed. Sit in an alert posture, with back straight. It is important to maintain an alert state of mind, and an alert bodily posture helps maintain an alert mental state.
Further ideas more specific to Mindfulness practice are well explained in the following excerpt from a book by Nyanaponika Thera, one of the modern pioneers in spreading knowledge of this practice to a Western audience. He describes Mindfulness as the practice of “bare attention.”
Bare Attention is the clear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us, at the successive moments of perception. It is called ‘bare’ because it attends just to the bare facts of perception as presented either through the five physical senses or through the mind which, for Buddhist thought, constitutes the sixth sense. When attending to that sixfold sense impression, attention or mindfulness is kept to a bare registering of the facts observed, without reacting to them by deed, speech, or by mental comment which may be one of self-reference (like, dislike, etc.), judgement or reflection. If during the time, short or long, given to Bare Attention, any such comments arise in one’s mind, they themselves are made objects of Bare Attention, and are neither repudiated nor pursued, but are dismissed, after a brief mental note has been made of them. (P. 30)
I want to call special attention to Nyanponika’s mention of “bare registering of the facts observed, without reacting to them.” Along these lines, I speak of “non-reactive awareness,” or “disengaged awareness,” as the essence of Mindfulness practice. Non-reactive awareness is the practice of being aware of some X–any X–while as much as possible refraining from any reaction to what one is a aware of. “X” here might include sounds heard in the external world. For practical reasons to be explained below, it can be most useful for beginners to gain skill in non-reactive awareness by paying attention to very concrete bodily sensations – especially breathing sensations, but also focusing awareness on places where the meditator’s body makes contact with a chair or a cushion the meditator is sitting on. It potentially includes also any mental/emotional phenomena the meditator might become aware of, as for example thoughts or mental images going through the mind, or feelings, emotional states or moods a person might be aware of (elation, excitement, depression, anxiety, anger, annoyance, pleasant mental peace and calm, etc.)
In terms of the most ultimate goals of Mindfulness, it is actually of no importance what a meditator is aware of. What is important is that the meditator refrain as much as possible from any kind of reaction to, or engagement with, whatever she is aware of. This can be described as “bare awareness,” “non-reactive awareness,” “disengaged awareness,” “non-involved awareness.
What is the purpose of this?
The above rather simple description of what is most basic to Mindfulness practice does not differ substantially from descriptions given by modern Buddhist teachers. The explanation I offer of the purpose of this practice may be more unique, relying as it does on situating this practice in the context of explanations of core Buddhist teachings presented in previous essays.
I think there are two main core concepts relevant here: (1) A “contrastive mentality” associated with Clinging or Attachment, and (2) the psychological aspect of the doctrine of Conditioned Arising (explained in Early Buddhism Overview (2))
Clinging and a contrastive mentality.
Suppose I am a wealthy person and my wealth is an important source of my sense of self-worth and meaning in life. Suddenly I lose most of my wealth. I could still live comfortably, but what my mind remains obsessively focused on is the contrast between my present state and the wealthy state I used to enjoy. To put this in Buddhist terms, I am now experiencing “aversion” toward the new situation I am in. Aversion is just a negative manifestation of upadana, “Clinging” or “Attachment.” My Attachment to my previous wealthy condition shows itself in my aversion to the situation I now find myself in, contrasting so strongly as it does with the situation I was used to and became Attached to. Progress toward the Buddhist ideal (the “cessation of Clinging”) would manifest itself in an increased ability to rather quickly shift my focus, fully accepting any new situation that comes my way for what it is, and focusing on making the best of the possibilities any new situation presents to me.
Apply this to meditation. Here, by sitting still and closing my eyes, I cease paying attention to external conditions and events taking place in the external world. What I will be mostly aware of are various bodily sensations, various thoughts and images going through my mind, and the mood I am in. Still, Clinging and a contrastive mentality might show itself here. For example, I might be aware of so-called “negative” emotions: anger, jealousy, upsetness, anxiety, feeling hurt or frustrated. I’m uncomfortable feeling this way. I experience an aversion to unpleasant feelings. I wish unpleasant feelings would go away, contrasting as they do with pleasant feelings that I wish were there. My initial attitude is a strong desire to change these feelings.
This aversion to unpleasant feelings might also be a manifestation of a possible problem with dedication to the Buddhist path itself. That is, it might occur to me: The anger or hurt that I am now feeling is probably itself a manifestation of Craving and Clinging. If I had made more progress toward eliminating Craving and Clinging, I would not be feeling so angry or hurt now. Such thoughts might increase my aversion to these feelings.
A better and deeper understanding of Buddhist teaching would make me realize that what is made manifest here is a more subtle form of Clinging. This added aversion I feel toward unpleasant feelings might seem a result of my dedication toward the Buddhist ideal. But in reality, what is happening is that I am Attached to a particular identity or self-image of myself as “a good Buddhist.” What distresses me about feeling angry or hurt is that it contrasts so strongly with a self-image that I am attached to, of myself as a good Buddhist who never feels such “negative” feelings.
Indeed it may be true that, if had made more progress toward the Buddhist ideal, I would not now be feeling angry or hurt. But the question is: Given that I am now in the grip of unpleasant feelings that I would not be feeling if I were Enlightened, what is the best way I can handle the present situation as it is, so has to make more progress toward Enlightenment?
This is where the ideas explained above become relevant. Focus your attention on the unpleasant feelings, but resist any aversive reactions to them, and resist the desire to try to change them and make them go away. Trying to change them manifests an “aversion” to them. The Buddhist ideal relevant here is not to try directly to bring about some very positive emotional state that I imagine nibbana to be. In the present situation as it actually exists, what will bring me closer to nibbana is to try to overcome my aversion to the unpleasant feeling that I am now unavoidably experiencing.
This is the meaning of “non-reactive awareness” which is the essence of Mindfulness meditation. Non-reactive awareness in this situation is perhaps better described more positively as “fully accepting awareness.” Accepting awareness is the opposite of aversive awareness, awareness accompanied by a dislike of these feelings and direct attempts to try to make them go away and be replaced by more pleasant, “positive” feelings.
One implication here: The way to bring about the Buddhist ideal of “the cessation of Clinging” is not to locate and try to directly repress Clinging as itself a particular mental state. Clinging is a pervasive driving force driving most people’s instinctive reactions to life-situations. While I might think that my desire to change my feeling-state is driven by my desire to cease Clinging, this desire might well itself be actually driven by a subtle form of Clinging.
This then I think is one important clue to the purpose of non-reactive awareness: Since most human reactions are driven in one way or another by Craving Clinging, one of the best ways to overcome these deeply rooted underlying tendencies is simply to learn the skill of not reacting at all.
Dependent Arising.
Thus the doctrine of Dependent Arising (explained in Early Buddhism Overview (2) is a second early Buddhist idea helpful in understanding the purpose of non-reactive awareness. In its psychological aspect, this doctrine has to do with the involuntary, unfree character of many human responses to stimuli. We are less free than we think. We react the way we are psychologically “programmed” to react. The “program” in this case consists in underlying tendencies to Craving and Clinging – Craving for tangible signs confirming our sense of self-worth and meaning in life, and Clinging to particular conditions in the world we have become dependent on to fulfill this Craving. So long as a person is still in the grip of underlying tendencies to Craving and Clinging, every stimulus coming in from the world calls forth an automatic and involuntary response driven by these same psychological forces.
But in earlier treatments of this idea I noted that, while calling attention to the involuntary, unfree character of so much of our reaction to the world, Buddhism also holds out the possibility of becoming free. This again can be seen as the purpose of non-reactive awareness in Mindfulness meditation. If most of our spontaneous reactions to the world are involuntary, driven by Craving and Clinging, the way to become free is simply to learn the skill of not-reacting.
These ideas have special relevance to the occurrence of mental and emotional processes a meditator might become aware of. Thoughts going through one’s mind are an especially good illustration of the involuntary character of much that goes on in our inner life. I might be under the impression that I am thinking because I freely choose to think. If I wanted to stop thinking, I could just choose to stop thinking. The difficulty most people have with this shows the illusory character of this impression of free choice to think or not think. One thought occurs, say a bill I have to pay that worries me. This stimulates more thoughts in a purposive train of thoughts that has a life of its own. Even if I want to stop my worried thinking about how to pay the bill, I cannot.
Purposive trains of thought going on in one’s mind present one of the most difficult problems in Mindfulness meditation. In the ideal case, the practice of non-reactive awareness would mean not being actively engaged in thinking about the thoughts occurring. But it would also mean not trying to stop this train of thoughts from happening – another form of reactive engagement with these thinking processes.
It is in this context that I think it is helpful to imagine two layers of conscious reality. One layer is the layer in which involuntary mental and emotional processes are happening. But “I” might exist on a deeper layer. Ordinarily, whenever I am aware of mental-emotional processes going on in my own inner life, I feel drawn into active engagement with what is going on. If thinking is going on, I am drawn into active engagement with the thinking. feel anger or depression, then “I” become an angry or depressed person. The practice of non-reactive awareness envisions a different possibility: I can exist at a different layer, observing these mental-emotional processes from a distance, so to speak. I can regard them as happening on their own, due to impersonal forces and causes other than me, having nothing to do with me.
This can be seen as one version of achieving “the stopping of the mind” (an idea discussed in Metaphors for Nibbana in the Pali suttas.) Not stopping all mental/emotional activity, which is allowed to go on as it goes. But stopping “my” active response, by resisting being drawn into active engagement with anything going on in my being.
I think one of the best ways of conceiving of this practice is to think of it in terms of the subject-object character of all human experience – the relation between the perceiving human subject that “I” am, and some objects-perceived by me-as-perceiving subject. In the case of observing thought-processes, I am an aware human subject, aware of these thought-processes as objects-of-awareness for me as aware subject. In the more normal case, I am not only aware of these thought-processes. I connect myself to these thought-processes by becoming actively involved in thinking about the thoughts. The very act of paying attention, if it is disengaged attention, achieves a greater “object”-ification of these objects-of-awareness, withdrawing myself as aware subject from this thinking that I am aware of going on in my mind. Mindfulness meditation is the process of creating more separation between me-as-aware-subject and these thinking processes that I am aware of.
More Notes on Practice.
The explanations above describe the ultimate goals of Mindfulness meditation, as they relate to core Buddhist teachings. I think it is important to keep these in mind, because engagement in any goal-oriented activity is more effective if it is guided by careful understanding of the relation between practice, and the goals aimed at by practice.
On the other hand, the goal described above, completely disengaged awareness, is surprisingly difficult to achieve in its completeness. From a Buddhist point of view, this illustrates the unfree and involuntary character of so much that goes on in our own inner life.
So I think one of the first things that needs to be said, especially for beginners, is: Don’t expect to be able to do this. Realistically, expect that you will be able to be less engaged than you would ordinarily be, and probably less engaged for only very short stretches, perhaps only a few seconds at a time. So expect short periods of disengaged awareness, followed by longer periods of involvement in some train of thought that is of concern or interest to you. This is like building up muscle by lifting weights – start with easy-lifting of lighter weights and build up to harder lifting of heavier weights. Patience with yourself is part of Mindfulness practice itself. That is, frustration at not being able to do this is itself a manifestation of aversion and a contrastive mentality – contrasting your present state of rather weak ability with the advanced ability you wish you possessed instead. Fully accepting the present weak state of your ability is part of the practice itself. Try not to get frustrated with your lack of ability, and focus instead on the task, trying to be as disengaged as you can, for periods as short or long as you are able.
Attention to Breathing
Instructions in Mindfulness meditation often place some emphasis on attention to breathing. This indeed is given some emphasis in the Satipatthana Sutta from which this practice is derived. Although I think the ultimate goal is to be able to pay non-reactive attention to anything one is aware of, there are a number of advantages to taking breathing as a special focus of awareness.
The main issue relevant here is something noted above: the fact that thinking processes present one of the main difficulties standing in the way of non-reactive attention. Thoughts are interesting. One interesting thought occurs, drawing forth an interested response, setting off a continuous train of purposive thinking on some interesting topic. Even though the ultimate goal would be to be able to pay disengaged attention to this train of thoughts going on all by themselves, this I think is one of the most difficult skills to develop. This is especially true when it comes to compulsive thinking about things that are especially worrying.
By contrast, one big advantage of breathing sensations is the fact that they are relatively uninteresting, making it much easier to pay attention to them without becoming actively engaged in thinking about them or trying to change the physical processes being observed. As in any kind of skill-building exercise, it is best to start building up any particular skill by practicing on easier tasks and gradually building up to the more difficult ones.
It is also true that encountering specially difficult life-circumstances might make it very difficult for even an advanced meditator to be able to pay disengaged attention to thoughts and feelings, in which case it is much better to fall back on attention to breathing.
Another advantage of breathing as a meditation-object has to do with the fact that physical breathing sensations are relatively concrete and easier to concentrate on than are thoughts and emotional states. Forcing the mind to restrict its attention and concentrate on some single meditation-object is not itself the ultimate goal in Mindfulness meditation. Any kind of attempt to control the mind’s activities are antithetical to the ultimate goal of letting mental activities go as they go, and pay disengaged attention to them. Still, this is a skill to be gradually developed. And in its initial stages, one of the main obstacles consists in the mental fragmentation that occurs when the mind responds to one different stimulus after another, being thus uncontrollably drawn to and fro in response to different stimuli. (“Attention Deficit Disorder” can be an extreme example of this.) Consequently, just learning to concentrate can be an important skill to learn in the beginning, to overcome the tendency to be involuntarily drawn into involuntary responses to varying stimuli.
In this context, the very concreteness of physical breathing sensations makes them an easier object of concentration. An additional advantage is that, unlike static concentration-objects, breathing sensations are constantly moving and changing. Learning to concentrate on constantly changing breathing sensations is good practice for learning to pay accepting attention to constantly changing life-circumstances. In this respect, it is important to pay attention to breathing without trying to control it, as for example trying to breathe slower or faster.
One final advantage of attention to breathing lies in the fact that for most people, attending to one’s breathing seems to have a calming effect. Again it is important in the Buddhist context not to think of mental calmness as part of the goal of Mindfulness meditation – that one is meditating in order to become more calm. The desire for calmness can be one of the main obstacles to achieving the goal of Mindfulness meditation, if it involves feeling a contrast between one’s present un-calm state, and a calm state that might exist somewhere else in the future. This would obviously be an obstacle to paying fully accepting attention to one’s present (un-calm) state.
Nonetheless, even though advanced skill in disengaged awareness should allow a person to pay disengaged attention to a state of frantic mental activity, it is much easier develop this kind of skill when one’s mind is relatively calm.
Attention to Bodily Energy
I have found particularly helpful another kind of meditation-object which I have not seen mentioned much by Mindfulness teachers. That is, I think it is helpful to pay attention to the particular character of what might be called bodily “energy” at any given time. Nervousness can be felt as a certain kind of bodily sensation, as can depression, excitement, or calmness. Often when I begin to meditate my initial feeling is one of discomfort. I find the general bodily sensations that I feel to be unpleasant. I dislike them and wish they would go away. But this sets a particularly challenging task for Mindfulness. Not trying to change these sensations so they would become more pleasant, or trying to ignore them and pay attention to something else. But paying concentrated attention to these unpleasant sensations, but also trying to pay completely accepting attention to them.
This brings up another aspect of Mindfulness meditation that is the opposite of what one might expect. That is, I spoke earlier of achieving greater separation between myself as aware subject, and processes going on in my being that objects-of-awareness for me. But, paradoxically perhaps, achieving this separation can at the same time being about more unification.
Consider again for example the case of my discomfort with “nervous energy” pervading my body. My discomfort is a sign of some conflict, between the way my body actually feels, and some contrasting way I want it to feel. I do not really want to be in my body as it actually exists. Giving up this desire in one way creates a distance and separation. But in other way, paying fully accepting attention to the energy in my body puts me more in touch with it and allows me to be more fully at home in it.
Preparation for everyday life.
Thus Mindfulness meditation is a skill-building exercise, building up a certain kind of skill or mental “muscle.” Ultimately, the purpose is to bring about a fundamental change in one’s internal psychological dynamics, which would in turn change our spontaneous reactions to the world in everyday life. Here I would like to add what are perhaps some more personal thoughts, concerning what I think is one of the best ways of conceiving how Mindfulness practice can be expected to change a person’s way of dealing with everyday life-situations.
As I explained earlier, Clinging gives us a “needy” relation to the world, a need for the world to be a certain way to serve as an essential basis our sense of self-worth and meaning in life. This gives the world a certain power over us. It is what gives conditions in the world the power to be deeply threatening. Building up the mental skill of non-reactive awareness enables us to resist giving in to immediate responses driven by Clinging. This in turn is a way of blocking this power of the world to deeply affect us.
But ultimately, it is obviously not possible or desirable to go through life never having any reaction at all to situations one is in. Everyday life requires active engagement of some kind with life-situations, precluding the meditator from practicing in everyday life the complete non-reactive awareness practiced in Mindfulness meditation.
Here I think another idea introduced earlier is very helpful: This is the idea of replacing a “needy” relation to the world with an “expressive” relationship. Ultimately, the goal of building up the skill of non-reactive awareness is to free a person from knee-jerk reactions to situations in the world involving desires and aversions based on involuntary Clinging and neediness. This frees a person for, first, a readiness to fully accept every new situation for what it is, lessening desires one might have that the situation be other than it is. Secondly, it frees a person for a different kind of “expressive” reaction, engaging with the situation in the best way one can just for its own sake, with no need to get something back from reacting this way. No matter what the situation, there is always something that is the best thing one can do in the situation as it is. At its best, Buddhist practice frees a person to focus attention on thinking what is this best thing, and do it for its own sake.
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