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Eightfold Path: Right Mindfulness (6 of 6)

Today is the last talk on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness^[1] as part of this series on the Eightfold Path. I think of these four different areas of cultivating greater awareness as both standing on their own as very significant practices, but also describing a path and unfolding as awareness becomes clearer and more settled.

It begins with mindfulness of breathing. As we become settled in our breathing, there tends to be an opening up into becoming aware of more of our body, which leads to mindfulness of the body. This body awareness doesn't just stay in our meditation practice; it goes into our daily lives. As we walk around and do things, there can be a growing sense of being an embodied presence, mindful of the body as we act. So, there is this path of developing greater attention to the body.

As we continue, we become more deeply aware of the subjective experience—what goes on within this body. We experience things as either pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. This subjective experience of liking and not liking, pleasant and unpleasant, becomes clearer and clearer. Not only that, but we also feel what is pleasant or unpleasant more deeply than just surface-level sensations. We connect to the deeper wellsprings of our inner life, what some people would call the spiritual life. What is pleasant or unpleasant there becomes more alive, and its quality becomes a powerful reference point. When we are truly connected to our inner life, the pleasant and unpleasant act as a guide to help us understand the way forward into greater well-being.

As we do this, we start becoming aware of something even deeper inside: the quality of our inner life, the state of the mind, and the state of the heart. We can become aware of whether we are more on the surface of things, caught up in the partial parts of the mind like greed, hatred, and delusion, or whether we are connecting to something deeper and fuller about the mind, the heart, and the inner life.

Sometimes, it can no longer even be called an "inner" life because awareness starts feeling expansive and open. It has no boundaries anymore. The state of mind, the inner life, starts feeling expansive, wonderful, and exalted. It can feel very settled, very much at peace, and can even start feeling liberated and free. This sense of what inner freedom feels like—where the heart and mind are no longer caught, trapped, and preoccupied—is a wonderful feeling. Feeling that becomes a reference point for the Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness.

The Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness

The Fourth Foundation is all about understanding how we lose that sense of freedom—that inner quality of being unoppressed, unburdened, uncontracted, just free, open, and expansive—and how we cultivate it. If that awakening, that freedom, is kind of a light, then what is it that dims that light? And what is it that brightens that light even more and brings greater freedom?

The Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness is really about starting to notice this for ourselves. It’s not about reading a book about what freedom and loss of freedom are, but really reading the book inside of ourselves. It is about having the inner reference point and feeling the distinction between the dimming of the light and the growing of the light, or between contracting and expanding—being caught and limited in our awareness, thoughts, and actions, versus becoming more unlimited, expansive, and free.

The most classic features of this Fourth Foundation of Mindfulness are the Five Hindrances^[2] on one hand, which represent the places that dim the light, and the Seven Factors of Awakening^[3] on the other, which are about opening and expanding the light. The Buddha talks about this in terms of the light of wisdom: the Five Hindrances dim the light of wisdom, and the Seven Factors of Awakening brighten it and allow for more wisdom to be there. So, starting the practice of mindfulness in a non-reactive way, with openness and clear mindfulness, allows us to start seeing and tuning into how these deep forces inside of us work.

It is a journey from the body, into the inner life deeper and deeper, to the place where we start seeing that there is some choice. The operating of freedom and the loss of it really goes on in the mind. Connecting deeply with that deep operating system of the mind is where the deeper work of practice begins to truly benefit us.

The Greenhouse Analogy

It is remarkable that just being aware of the hindrances and just being aware of the Seven Factors of Awakening has a powerful effect on them. If we really see the hindrances clearly, it diminishes them; they tend to go away and become less strong. If we are clearly aware of the factors of awakening, it tends to strengthen them up to a point, until they are complete.

An analogy I use for this is a greenhouse. Maybe there are curtains over the greenhouse blocking the light from really getting to the plants. It still gets hot and humid inside, so when the curtains are pulled, what grows is mold. Lots of mold can grow, and it just gets kind of stinky in the greenhouse. But if you pull the curtains apart and the sunlight comes in, then the plants in the greenhouse can begin growing. In a way, the lack of light promotes mold; with strong light, the mold recedes and the plants grow. When the curtains are pulled, the plants don't grow—they might even get weak, thin, and fall over.

The same thing happens when there is very little light of awareness. There is a tendency for things like the hindrances and attachments to grow and develop. They are kind of like mold—maybe not so desirable, with a moldy quality. But when the light of awareness shines, the Seven Factors of Awakening grow, and the hindrances recede. It's a remarkable thing that happens simply in the field of awareness.

However, it does require that we recognize the hindrances and know what they are, and that we recognize the Seven Factors and know what they are. That is why in this class I've led guided meditations on the Seven Factors of Awakening. They are amazingly wonderful qualities that can themselves sometimes be seen as a path. So much of this Dharma practice is unfolding, maturing, and evolving in a beneficial way. To really feel the onward-leading nature of this practice is to allow the gravitational pull of awakening, to respond to it, and allow it to grow.

The Seven Factors of Awakening

The first factor is mindfulness. The second one is usually called investigation, but that sounds too analytical and involved. The literal meaning of the word is closer to "distinguishing experiences." Some translators will call it "discriminating awareness" because it highlights the differences between things—not through effort, but just because the mind gets clearer and clearer, making the details obvious. The clear distinction of details is a delight. This kind of investigation is joyful because of the wonderfulness of clarity.

As this kind of mindfulness and clarity becomes stronger, it just feels like a delight; it's joyful. Joy arises simply because it's wonderful to have this quality of awareness. Joy also arises because there's a tendency to get concentrated and engagingly, delightfully absorbed in the experience of meditation with this clarity. Anytime we are fully engaged in something, it tends to produce a sense of well-being.

Then there is tranquility: a sense of relaxation, serenity, and peacefulness. Next is concentration, which I like to call "unification." Everything becomes unified and working together in a concentrated way. Finally, there is equanimity—equipoise. It is an ability to be aware clearly and wisely, but to do it without the mind getting activated in reactivity. There's no leaning into or pulling away, no grabbing on or pushing. We can still be wise and respond to the world effectively, but there is a steadiness, a peacefulness, and an undisturbed calmness in the mind.

This is the direction that mindfulness is going. Cultivating the Four Foundations of Mindfulness is like cultivating a capacity like light. It is like the morning dawn that grows stronger, brighter, and brighter over the course of the morning until we no longer call it the dawn, but the full sunlight of the day. In that full sunlight, the light of awareness is freeing. It gives us these qualities of freedom, which serve as the teacher on the Eightfold Path. Sooner or later, the primary way of finding our way on the Eightfold Path is not by reading about it, but by getting a personal, experiential sense of what the Buddha might talk about as liberation, freedom, or the heart's release. We then keep using that as a guide and support for greater mindfulness and awareness.

This mindfulness that we're talking about here tends to come to maturity when concentration is strong, which is also the sixth factor of the Seven Factors of Awakening. That will be our topic starting tomorrow: Right Concentration. Right Concentration brings things into maturity for the purposes of awakening and freedom.

Thanksgiving Reflections

So, thank you. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow. May all of you, no matter where you are in the world, be thanked. I thank you all. I encourage you to express your thanks and offer a thanksgiving for all the things that are wonderful in this world—usually much more than we realize. Thank you.