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Sati (3 of 5) Observation

Good morning, and to continue the series of talks for this week on mindfulness as part of the five faculties. I've given five talks on the first faculty of faith, five talks on the second faculty of effort, and now we're doing the third faculty.

Those of you listening to this series might have understood that these Monday through Friday talks for each faculty are offered somewhat progressively. That goes along with the notion that Dharma^[1] practice is onward leading. There is a way that it evolves, moves, and develops over time. Certainly, it goes in spirals; we come back to the same place again. Sometimes it goes back and forth, up and down. It's not linear, but overall, the pattern of practice is to move along a certain direction to greater and greater freedom.

For mindfulness, Monday was the initial establishment of mindfulness—the effort it takes to begin the practice, to show up. If we're lost in thought, to wake up from that, be mindful, and begin again and again.

Once we're able to begin and start being more present, mindfulness has another quality that can come into play: not only are we present and aware of what's happening, but we can also begin recognizing what's happening. Recognizing allows us to be a little more anchored in the present moment, with a little more clarity about what's happening. It begins to have its own momentum to keep us in the present moment.

Over time, as we're more rooted in the present and have more clarity about what's going on, the practice can open up to a capacity to observe what's happening. When we settle, we're not trying to make an effort so much anymore. The effort is more to stay observing, stay present, and let go of the things that interfere, so we can settle back and just observe whatever is happening.

This is the sequence in which the Buddha teaches mindfulness as well. He talks about establishing mindfulness first. Then, a lot of the exercises that the Buddha gave for developing mindfulness have to do with recognition—understanding what's happening. Once that's been established, he talks about observing the body in the body, feelings in the feelings, mind in the mind, and dharmas in dharmas^[2].

This ability to observe has some characteristics. One is that when you look at something, the looking itself does not interfere with what's being seen. Certainly, if you touch something, your hands might change it; you might pick it up and do things with it. But seeing, in and of itself, doesn't change anything that's being seen.

In the same way, this ability of the mind to perceive, to see, to observe—to settle back and just allow it to be there, just to know it or see it—is a knowing without interference with what is known. We don't physically interfere with it, but we also don't interfere with the perception or the seeing with judgments, stories, commentary, or attitudes of being for and against it. These are all like pulling curtains across a window. They obscure or make it a little cloudy, so it's not so clear what we're seeing. We add all these things on top of just simply sitting back and watching.

It's certainly not easy just to watch without interference. That's why it can be useful to have the watching be 360 degrees. What that means is that everything can be included, including our interference. We include the way we judge it, our wants and not-wants. We don't condemn any of that, but in a sense, just keep opening up the awareness, the field of observing. We say, "This too, I get to observe. This too, I observe." Now just hold it all. It's just one more thing to observe.

Over time, this simple observation of experience is a radical act. Because human minds are so involved with fixing, doing, commenting, planning, and all kinds of things, it's a radical act to be simple. It begins to loosen, dissolve, and unravel all these complex worlds of reactivity, judgments, ideas, and stories through which we see ourselves and our world.

The River Analogy

The analogy I like for this settling back to observe is to imagine you're leaning against a tree on the edge of a river, just watching the river go by. As the river goes by, all kinds of things are seen. Driftwood comes by, leaves go by. It's very nice just to watch the current, the waves, the driftwood. It's very relaxing.

Then along comes a wonderful recreational riverboat with a band, a dance show, theater, and lots of partying going on. The next thing you know, you are involved. You're on the boat! It takes a few weeks to realize that you're on the boat partying. Then you get off the boat and think, "Well, that was a long trip." You finally make your way back upriver to where that tree is. You sit down and just watch the river. It's so nice to still watch the river. It's calm, relaxing, peaceful, and content.

But then down the river comes a warboat fighting the great, right war, shooting its guns in all directions. It's for a good cause, so you jump on the warboat and you're fighting the war. It takes you a few months to realize that you've been fighting a war. So you get off, and it takes a long time to walk back up and find that tree again.

You sit there under the tree, just watching the river go by. It's peaceful, calm, and nice. Then along comes a decrepit raft^[3] that's so ruined, barely able to stay afloat. You feel so much pity for this raft. Before you know it, you don't know how it happened, but you're on the raft. You've been on this poor raft for years thinking, "Poor me, it's so hard." Finally, you're able to get off the raft, and you go back up the river.

The next time something comes along—a very alluring, interesting, fascinating boat—you just stay by the river. You just watch it go by, and you don't get on. Another one comes by, and you just watch it go by. All kinds of boats go by, and you just watch them go by. You realize after a while, "I don't have to get on those boats. The boats are doing their thing, going to their place. They come and they go. There are endless boats, and I can just stay here, observe, watch, and stay peaceful."

This example is kind of how we watch ourselves in meditation. All kinds of thoughts and boats come along. All kinds of stories and ideas come down the river of time, the river of experience. All too often, we find ourselves on the boat—on the thoughts, entertaining ourselves, fighting the good fight, caught up in self-pity, or focused on our great purpose in life, a great fantasy, or whatever it might be.

It might not be wrong to be involved and get on boats, but sooner or later, we realize that there are other options. There are other possibilities for inner growth and development, and a real discovery of freedom that's not possible if we keep getting on the thoughts, keep getting on the boats.

Settling Back to Observe

So there is this idea of settling back: just watch things go by. Watch feelings go by. Watch sensations in the body go by. Watch thoughts go by, watch the breathing go by. One of the great things about breathing is that it just has this wonderful rhythm and flow of waves. You can just settle back and watch, observing.

To observe, to establish mindfulness, to have a clear recognition of what's happening in the moment, means the mind begins to step back a little bit. It's not so entangled and caught in the experience. "This is an in-breath. This is an out-breath. This is a thought. This is anger. This is contentment. This is a sound coming." Whatever it might be, clearly recognizing it begins to change the flow of the mind and what the mind is involved in.

It's the beginning of movement or freedom: to recognize rather than being caught up. As the recognition becomes clearer and clearer, there comes a time when it's possible to lean back, settle in, and just observe the experience in a peaceful and calm way. This creates the foundation for the next possibility—how the mindfulness faculty is used and how this practice unfolds, which will be the topic for tomorrow.

In this intermediate time between now and tomorrow, you might be curious about this human capacity to observe experience. You might even go sit someplace quiet and just watch things go by. Watch nature, watch the squirrels playing in the trees, or the cars go by, or whatever your situation is like. Just watch the clouds go by and see what you can learn about what it's like just to observe.

Just observe and don't interfere. Don't be reactive, don't make stories about things. Gently let things flow by. Stand in the middle of your river and let all things flow and go by, until there is such a time that everything is just observed, and there's no observer—even the observer is flowing by.

Thank you very much for being part of this and sharing in this now very wide community of people meditating together. Thank you for sharing and appreciating the Dharma, and maybe spreading goodwill together into the world as we go through the next day. Thank you very, very much.