What is escapism? It is the avoidance of reality by absorption of the mind in entertainment or in an imaginative situation, activity, etcetera. In a sense, it is the opposite of mindfulness (being here now with awareness) of our moment to moment experience without reacting or getting caught up in thoughts about it. But does mindfulness have the power liberate us from all forms of suffering? Yes, if we develop it on a foundation of meditative-absorption to directly see Dependent Origination.
The Power of Mindfulness: An Inquiry into the Scope of Bare Attention and the Principal Sources of its Strength
Introduction
Is mindfulness actually a power as claimed by the
title?
- [DEFINITION: Mindfulness is "present moment bare-awareness," which means being here NOW without evaluating, judging, commenting, or discursively thinking about data presented to the six senses, which includes the mind and mental objects such as thoughts, memories, and imagination, but instead being awake-and-aware and equanimous about just what is happening right now.]
Seen from the viewpoint of the ordinary pursuits of
life, it does not seem so. From that angle mindfulness, or bare attention,
has a rather modest place among many other seemingly more important
mental faculties serving the purpose of variegated wish-fulfillment.
Here, mindfulness means just "to watch one's steps" so that one may not
stumble or miss a chance in the pursuit of one's aims. Only in the case
of specific tasks and skills is mindfulness sometimes cultivated more
deliberately, but here too it is still regarded as a subservient
function, and its wider scope and possibilities are not recognized.
Even if one turns to the Buddha's Doctrine, the Dharma, taking only a surface
view of the various classifications and
lists of mental factors in which
mindfulness appears, one may be inclined to regard this faculty just as
"one among many."
Again one may get the impression that it has a rather
subordinate place and is easily surpassed in significance by other
faculties.
Mindfulness in fact has, if we may personify it, a rather unassuming
character. Compared with it, mental factors such as energy,
devotion, imagination, and intelligence are certainly more colorful
personalities, making an immediate and strong impact on people and
situations. Their conquests are sometimes rapid and vast, though often
insecure.
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| Mindfulness can be practiced all the time. For insight, it is best applied in peace and silence. |
.
Mindfulness, on the other hand, is of an unobtrusive nature.
Its virtues shine inwardly, and in ordinary life most of its merits are
passed on to other mental faculties which generally receive all the
credit.
One must know mindfulness well and cultivate its acquaintance
before one can appreciate its value and its silent penetrative
influence.
Mindfulness walks slowly and deliberately, and its daily task
is of a rather humdrum nature. Yet, where it places its feet it cannot
easily be dislodged, and it acquires and bestows true mastery of the
ground it covers.
Mental faculties of such a nature, like actual personalities of a
similar type, are often overlooked or underrated. In the case of
mindfulness, it required a genius like the Buddha to discover the
"hidden talent" in the modest garb and to develop the vast inherent
power of that potent seed.
It is, indeed, the mark of a genius to
perceive and to harness the power of the seemingly small. Here, truly,
it happens that "what is little becomes much." A revaluation of values
takes place.
The standards of greatness and smallness change. Through
the master mind of the Buddha, mindfulness is finally revealed as the
Archimedean point where the vast revolving mass of world suffering is
levered out of its twofold anchorage in ignorance and craving.
The Buddha spoke of the power of mindfulness in a very emphatic way:
"Mindfulness, I declare, is all-helpful" (SN 46:59).
"All things can be mastered by mindfulness" (AN 8:83).
Further, there is that solemn and weighty utterance opening and
concluding the Discourse on the Setting up of the
Four Foundations of Mindfulness (
Satipatthana Sutra):
"This is the only [or the one straight] way, meditators, for the purification of beings, for the
overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of pain and
grief, for reaching the right path, for the attainment of nirvana,
namely the four foundations of mindfulness."
In ordinary life, if mindfulness, or bare attention, is directed to any
object, it is rarely sustained long enough for the purpose of careful
and factual observation. Generally, it is followed immediately by
emotional reaction, discriminative thought, reflection, or purposeful
action.
In a life and thought governed by the Buddha's Teachings, too,
mindfulness (
sati) is mostly linked with
clear comprehension (
sampajañña, "clear awareness of what one is currently doing")
of the right purpose or suitability of an action and other
considerations.
Bare attention
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| Escapism is fun! Who needs bare attention? |
So again it is not viewed in itself. But to tap the
actual and potential
power of mindfulness it is necessary to understand and deliberately cultivate it in its basic, unalloyed form, which we shall call
bare attention.
By bare attention we understand 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 to the bare facts of a perception
without reacting to
them by deed, speech, or mental comment.
Ordinarily, that purely
receptive state of mind is, as was said, just a very brief phase of the
thought process of which one is often scarcely aware.
But in the
methodical development of mindfulness aimed at the unfolding of its
latent powers, bare attention is sustained for as long a time as one's
strength of concentration permits.
Bare attention then becomes the key
to the systematic meditative practice of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, opening the door to mind's
mastery and final liberation.
Bare attention is developed in two ways, as (1) a methodical
meditative practice with selected objects and (2) applied, as far as
practicable, to the normal events of the day, together with a general
attitude of "mindfulness and clear comprehension."
The details of the
practice have been described elsewhere, and need not be repeated here.*
The primary purpose of this essay is to demonstrate and explain the
efficacy of this method, that is, to show the actual power of
mindfulness.
Particularly in an age like ours, with its superstitious
worship of
ceaseless external activity, there will be those who ask:
"How can such a passive attitude of mind as that of bare attention
possibly lead to the great results claimed for it?"
In reply, one may be
inclined to suggest to the questioner not to rely on the words of
others, but to put these assertions of the Buddha to the test of
personal experience.
But those who do not yet know the Buddha's teaching
well enough to accept it as a reliable guide may hesitate to take up,
without good reasons, a practice that just on account of its radical
simplicity may appear strange to them.
In the following a number of such
"good reasons" are therefore proffered for the reader's scrutiny. They
are also meant as an introduction to the general spirit of cultivating the Four Foundations of Mindfulness and as pointers to its wide and significant perspectives.
Furthermore,
it is hoped that he who has taken up the methodical training will
recognize in the following observations certain features of his own
practice and be encouraged to cultivate them deliberately.
Four Sources of Power in Bare Attention
What are the four aspects of bare attention, which are the
mainsprings of the power of mindfulness? They are not the only sources
of its strength, but they are the principal ones to which the efficacy
of this method of mental development is due. The four are:
- the functions of "tidying-up" and "naming" exercised by bare attention,
- its non-violent, non-coercive procedure,
- the capacity of stopping and slowing down,
- the directness of vision bestowed by bare attention.
1. The Functions of "Tidying" and "Naming"
Tidying Up the Mental Household
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| Tidying and naming has to do an inner cleaning up not more busy-ness (Bankrate). |
If anyone whose mind is not harmonized and controlled through
methodical meditative training should take a close look at his own
everyday thoughts and activities, that person will meet with a rather
disconcerting sight.
Apart from the few main channels of his purposeful
thoughts and activities, one will everywhere be faced with a tangled mass
of perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and casual bodily movements showing
a disorderliness and confusion which one would certainly not tolerate in one's living-room.
Yet this is the state of affairs that we take for
granted within a considerable portion of our waking life and our normal
mental activity. Let us look at the details of this rather untidy
picture:
First we meet a vast number of casual sense-impressions such as
sights and sounds, passing constantly through our mind. Most of them
remain vague and fragmentary; some are even based on faulty perceptions
and misjudgments. Carrying these inherent weaknesses, they often form
the untested basis for judgments and decisions on a higher level of
consciousness.
True, all these casual sense impressions need not and
cannot be objects of focused attention. A stone on the road that happens
to meet our glance will have a claim on our attention only if it
obstructs our progress or is of interest to us for some reason. Yet if
we neglect these casual impressions too often, we may stumble over many
stones lying on our road and also overlook many gems.
Besides the casual sense impressions, there are those more
significant and definite perceptions, thoughts, feelings (sensations), and volitions
(intentions, acts of will) which have a closer connection with our purposeful life. Here, too, we
find that a very high proportion of them are in a state of utter
confusion. Hundreds of cross-currents flash through the mind, and
everywhere there are "bits and ends" of unfinished thoughts, stifled
emotions, and passing moods. ...
In concluding this section, we briefly point out that the tidying-up and naming of mental processes is the indispensable preparation for fully understanding them in their true nature, the task of insight (vipassana).
These functions, exercised by bare attention, will help dispel the
illusion that the mental processes are compact. They will also help us
to discern their specific nature or characteristics, and to notice their
momentary rise and fall.
2. The Non-coercive Procedure
Obstacles to Meditation
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| Great elder Ven. Nyanaponika, BPS Editor, Sri Lanka |
Both the world surrounding us and the world of our own minds are full
of hostile and conflicting forces causing us pain and frustration.
We
know from our own bitter experience that we are not strong enough to
meet and conquer all these antagonistic forces in open combat. In the
external world we cannot have everything exactly as we want it, while in
the inner world of the mind, our passions, impulses, and whims often
override the demands of duty, reason and our higher aspirations.
We further learn that often an undesirable situation will only worsen
if excessive pressure is used against it. Passionate desires may grow
in intensity if one tries to silence them by sheer force of will.
Disputes and quarrels will go on endlessly and grow fiercer if they are
fanned again and again by angry retorts or by vain attempts to crush the
other man's position.
A disturbance during work, rest or meditation
will be felt more strongly and will have a longer-lasting impact if one
reacts to it by resentment and anger and attempts to suppress it.
Thus, again and again, we meet with situations in life where we cannot
force issues. But there are ways...
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CONTENTS
