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Guided Meditation: Aware or Not Aware

Hello everyone, welcome. As an introduction to today's meditation, it's as if we have two physical bodies: one that is the body we have when we're not mindful, and the other when we are mindful of the body. We have two thinking minds: one when we are not mindful or aware of what we're thinking, and one when we're aware and mindful. We have two emotional bodies: one when we're not aware of our emotions, and one when we're aware of our emotions. We have two faculties of intentionality, of motivation, of purpose, and of desire: there's one when we're aware, and one when we're not aware.

It's a world of difference. It's almost as if we live in two worlds. We live in one world when we're not aware of the world, lost in our thoughts. And we live in a different world when we are aware. This idea of being aware and not being aware is so radically different; it's like two different worlds. Different causes and conditions come into play when we're not aware than when we are aware. It's almost as if we have two selves: who we are and how we behave and exist when we're not aware, and when we are aware.

A huge part of Buddhist practice—of Satipaṭṭhāna^[1], the main part of it—is to live a life that is aware. As we do this meditation, see if you can see the difference between what's happening when you're not aware (maybe you realize it afterwards) and when you are aware. Let the awareness be, and not be something that you have to work at. Maybe you have to work at remembering to be aware. Maybe you have to work to come back to awareness. Maybe you have to work at hanging in there with it, letting go of the distractions. But don't let awareness be work. Let awareness be something you allow to be there.

Sometimes you're aware of the body, sometimes the feelings, sometimes mind states and emotions, sometimes the mental processes and purposes, desires, aversions, and aspirations, and sometimes sounds. There are all kinds of things. So see if you can see the difference between when you're aware in a relaxed, almost effortless way, and when you're not aware at all. In between that is the practice of coming back, of waking up, of letting go. But you're waking up and letting go into something which is easy and effortless: just knowing what's happening in the simplest possible way.

So we'll sit quietly, and I hope you enjoy the world of awareness.

[Silence]

When you come into awareness, how do things change? What's different if they don't come into awareness? Thinking when it comes into awareness, emotions, body experiences.

[Silence]

And as we come to the end of the sitting, there's a world of difference when we're with other people and we're aware—clearly, openly, with a sense of presence, really present for someone—versus not being aware. Or not being aware of how we're abiding in our thoughts, our judgments, our anxieties, our expectations. There are all kinds of ways in which simple awareness is complicated when we're with other people.

There is a world of difference between having all these complications in our relationship to other people present as we're with them and being away and not knowing it, and then being aware of it. Being aware of how we are and the unnecessary complications we make—not to judge it, but simply to be aware, to know that that's happening.

It's a different world when we trust awareness: the awareness that protects us from rushing ahead and believing and doing the things that maybe are not so healthy. What we learn in mindfulness meditation may be something we bring with us into the world of other people so that we know how to be present for others with real awareness, uncomplicated awareness. When the people we're with are distressed, we are not distressed, but we're there, present, understanding how they are, and empathic. When others are grieving, let us be present, aware, kindly, openly, and understandingly, and not be caught in the web of sadness and grief. To remember to be aware when the people we're with are dying. To have learned the ability to be present and aware in an uncomplicated way, fully there, is a gift.

May it be that this practice of Satipaṭṭhāna that we do, we bring into the world, so that we can love the world, care for the world, see the world wisely, and be protected from the inner tendencies we have that make things more difficult and harmful. May we, through the practice of awareness, be a source of welfare and happiness for the world.

Thank you.

Dharmette: Satipaṭṭhāna (71) Living in Awareness with Satipaṭṭhāna

Hello, and we come to the final talk now—over 70 talks on Satipaṭṭhāna. This is the practice of mindfulness by which we're cultivating and developing a heightened capacity for awareness. I myself like the language of "lucid awareness" or "clear awareness" that's available and present for us as we go through our life.

In this text, there are 13 exercises that we've gone through bit by bit. The relationship between the exercises and the awareness that's being developed is similar to the idea of running. If someone says, "I run," or "I'm running," it doesn't tell you much about what that's about. It's possible they're running for exercise, it's possible they're running to catch the bus, and it's possible they're running from the police. Just telling them they're running doesn't say much.

But if they tell you that they're training—they're running in training as their training program—then you get a clear sense of the running. Now it's an exercise; it's a protocol they're following. They're probably doing sprints and long distance, exercising, strengthening, and all kinds of things you might be doing if you're training to run for a race or something. There are a lot of things you do, but what you're learning is developing your capacity for running. Eventually, the running becomes effortless. At some point, if you're really in the flow of running, even though a lot of energy is being expended, we can feel like we're abiding in the running. It looks like we're being carried along with it, whereas in the beginning of training it was hard, and you had to apply yourself, and there was resistance to it.

It's the same thing with the 13 exercises. It is the training in awareness. They involve other kinds of training exercises we do and areas of practicing. A lot of that training has to do with knowing and recognition of what's there. As the recognition grows, awareness develops. That awareness can stay with you for a while. Sometimes it might stay for a few seconds, sometimes it might stay for a few minutes, sometimes a few hours, or sometimes longer. You really feel like the awareness is ever-present or continuously present for a period of time.

That awareness makes a world of difference. You might still have all kinds of inner challenges—you might have fear, desire, anger, and attachments of all kinds. But the art of awareness is like having a separate place to abide in. It's like your whole house is dirty, but the living room is clean, and from the living room, you can see all the rooms. You're not disturbed by it because you've learned that you can clean the living room, and there's no need to dirty the living room by being upset by what's in the other rooms. With time, you'll go there and clean them up and take care of it; you know how to do it now.

So we have this awareness, and there's actually a relaxed feeling about our shortcomings. It doesn't mean we indulge in them, it doesn't mean we celebrate them and just barrel ahead with them. It means that we don't criticize ourselves, get upset over ourselves, or are burdened by our shortcomings. Of course we have shortcomings! There are desires and attachments; that's what we're working with. That's where we're training and developing this capacity for awareness more and more.

As the awareness gets stronger, at some point it becomes clear that that is the best alternative. It's the better place to be: in awareness. Being aware of everything else tends to shift everything else towards health. It tends to shift things in a skillful, healthy way. It makes room for healthy mind states, motivations, and wisdom to occur. When awareness begins to be present in an open, relaxed way, we know how to be aware of what's happening.

At some point, doing this Satipaṭṭhāna practice, the awareness becomes so clear that it's kind of like an "aha" moment: Oh, now I know what this practice is about. Now I know something about freedom. Now I know about not getting caught in anything, including my shortcomings. I don't have to be drowned by them or upset with them; that's just what the mind is doing. And now I know there's this place of freedom, this place of open awareness, this place of lucid awareness. It really makes an impression for the first time: Wow, this is fantastic.

That is a confirmation of the practice of Satipaṭṭhāna. You say, Oh, this practice brought about this clear, lucid awareness, this freedom of awareness. And now that's what Satipaṭṭhāna is about: cultivating and developing this strong sense of awareness.

After that clarity, the tendency is that a person is more ethical. There's no guarantee, but the tendency is there because this field of awareness is so wholesome. It lets us see and feel the impact that our inner behavior and our external behavior have. We can feel how we're diminished by unethical behavior, and how we're enhanced by ethical behavior. So there's a tendency to start being more interested in being ethical and not causing harm in the world.

Once this clarity, this "aha" moment, happens, and we know what the practice is about, the practice of Satipaṭṭhāna doesn't change. It becomes the same practice. We do the same thing again and again. Though now there's a reference point for it: this clarity of awareness. It becomes easier to do. We can fall back into awareness more clearly, or some qualities and characteristics of this lucid awareness might be with us all the time, even though it's not always strongly there.

Then the practice develops, and at some point, this experience of freedom and awareness comes to full maturation. In this tradition, we talk about full awakening or full enlightenment. I've never met anyone that I know had full awakening. I've been around a lot of wonderful Buddhist teachers, but I know that that's a possibility; that's a direction we can go. Once you have enough practice and enough of the "aha, this works, this is what it's about," then you have a clear sense that it's just other rooms in the house, and it's possible to clean it all out. Someone can do that for themselves, no doubt about it. It's a big task, and whether there are people in the modern world that you can meet who've done that is an open question; it's hard to know. But it doesn't matter so much for oneself, because one knows this is the direction we're going. There's no other thing to do.

The Buddha said that once you become fully awakened, the practice of Satipaṭṭhāna remains the same. A person who is fully awakened continues to practice Satipaṭṭhāna. Maybe it isn't so much of an exercise anymore, but rather a way of being. Exactly the same instructions are given for people who are fully awakened.

So whether we're new to practice and developing the practice in Satipaṭṭhāna, or whether we know what the practice is about—which is when a person becomes a "trainee," sometimes referred to as Stream Entry^[2]—it's the same practice. If you become fully awakened, it's the same practice. Jack Kornfield^[3] has a book called After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. From what I'm teaching here today from the Buddha, his title for a book would be: Before Awakening: Satipaṭṭhāna. After Partial Awakening: Satipaṭṭhāna. After Full Awakening: Satipaṭṭhāna.

This is a practice for a lifetime. There's no end to it. We're always doing it, and it's not a burden. It doesn't feel like work; it just becomes more and more natural and becomes who we are. It becomes trusting living in awareness more than anything else, living and being present for experience. The alternative—to not be aware—is clearly not as good, not as wonderful, not as enjoyable, and not as helpful for the world.

To know something about freedom from attachments and clinging means we know what is possible for other people and what their potential is. Then we can somehow support that. If you follow this path to freedom from clinging, to lucid awareness, you are being supported fully. That's the most wonderful thing you can do for yourself. You become a model, an exemplar, and someone who can recognize and support the possibility for other people that they too can attain more and more freedom in a deep way, rather than having to accommodate suffering, put up with suffering, or assuage suffering with compassion and self-care. Which is a wonderful thing to do, but to be limited by that is to be limited. To open up into this world of freedom, of full awareness—everybody has that potential, and it's a game changer.

It doesn't change Satipaṭṭhāna. The Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the Satipaṭṭhāna practice, the training of it: before awakening and after awakening. After Satipaṭṭhāna, more Satipaṭṭhāna.

So thank you for this, and I hope that the joy of awareness, the joy of mindfulness, becomes your joy, and that it's contagious. Thank you for being part of this series. I'll be back here in about two weeks. The next two weeks we have guest teachers; I'm going off to teach a retreat at the Insight Retreat Center with Andrea Fella^[4]. So for next week, Matthew Brensilver^[5] will be back, and the following week Nikki Mirghafori^[6] will be here. They are wonderful teachers who have taught here before and are very much appreciated by the Sangha community here. So you'll be in good hands, and I'll be back somewhere around Monday the 22nd. I look forward to being together again.