The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching

Chapter 11

Right Mindfulness

Right Mindfulness traditionally is the seventh part of the Eightfold Path of Buddhism, but that doesn't mean it is seventh in importance. Each part of the path supports the other seven parts, and so they should be thought of as connected in a circle or woven into a web rather than stacked as if in an order of progression.

Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh says that Right Mindfulness is at the heart of the Buddha's teaching. "When Right Mindfulness is present, the Four Noble Truths and the other seven elements of the Eightfold Path are also present." (The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching, p. 59)

What Is Mindfulness?

The Pali word for "mindfulness" is sati (in Sanskrit,smriti). Sati can also mean "retention," "recollection," or "alertness." Mindfulness is a whole-body-and-mind awareness of the present moment. To be mindful is to be fully present, not lost in daydreams, anticipation, indulgences, or worry.

Mindfulness also means observing and releasing habits of mind that maintain the illusion of a separate self. This includes dropping the mental habit of judging everything according to whether we like it or not. Being fully mindful means being fully attentive to everything as-it-is, not filtering everything through our subjective opinions.

Why Mindfulness Is Important

It's important to understand Buddhism as a discipline or process rather than as a belief system. The Buddha did not teach doctrines about enlightenment, but rather taught people how to realize enlightenment themselves. And the way we realize enlightenment is through direct experience. It is through mindfulness that we experience directly, with no mental filters or psychological barriers between us and what is experienced.

The Ven. Henepola Gunaratana, a Theravada Buddhist monk and teacher, explains in the bookVoices of Insight (edited by Sharon Salzberg) that mindfulness is essential to help us see beyond symbols and concepts. "Mindfulness is pre-symbolic. It is not shackled to logic," he says. "The actual experi­ence lies beyond the words and above the symbols."

The first Miracle of Mindfulness: be present and be able to touch deeply the blue sky, the flower and the smile of our child. 

The second Miracle of Mindfulness: make the sky, the flower and the smile present also. 

The third Miracle of Mindfulness: nourish the object of your attention. 

The fourth Miracle of Mindfulness: relieve the other's suffering. 

The Fifth Miracle of Mindfulness: looking deeply, which is also the second aspect of meditation. 

The Sixth Miracle of Mindfulness is understanding.

The Seventh Miracle of Mindfulness is transformation. 

Mindfulness and Meditation

The sixth, seventh and eighth parts of the Eightfold Path -- Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration -- together are the mental development needed to release us from suffering.

Meditation is practiced in many schools of Buddhism as part of mental development. The Sanskrit word for meditation, bhavana, means "mental culture," and all forms of Buddhist meditation involve mindfulness. In particular, shamatha ("peaceful dwelling") meditation develops mindfulness; people sitting in shamatha train themselves to stay alert to the present moment, observing and then releasing thoughts instead of chasing them.Satipatthana vipassana meditation is a similar practice found in Theravada Buddhism that is primarily about developing mindfulness.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in mindfulness meditation as part of psychotherapy. Some psychotherapists find that mindfulness meditation as an adjunct to counseling and other treatments can help troubled people learn to release negative emotions and thought habits.

Four Frames of Reference

The Buddha said there are four frames of reference in mindfulness:

1. Mindfulness of body (kayasati).
2. Mindfulness of feelings or sensations (vedanasati).
3. Mindfulness of mind or mental processes (cittasati).
4. Mindfulness of mental objects or qualities (dhammasati).

Have you ever suddenly just noticed that you had a headache, or that your hands were cold, and realized you'd been feeling these things for a while but weren't paying attention? Mindfulness of body is just the opposite of that; being fully aware of your body, your extremities, your bones, your muscles. And the same thing goes for the other frames of reference -- being fully aware of sensations, aware of your mental processes, aware of the phenomena all around you.

The teachings of the Five Skandhas are related to this, and are worth reviewing as you begin to work with mindfulness.

Three Fundamental Activities

The Venerable Gunaratana says mindfulness comprises three fundamental activities.

1. Mindfulness reminds us of what we are supposed to be doing. If we are sitting in meditation, it brings us back to the focus of meditation. If we are washing dishes, it reminds us to pay full attention to washing the dishes.

2. In mindfulness, we see things as they really are. The Venerable Gunaratana writes that our thoughts have a way of pasting over reality, and concepts and ideas distort what we experience.

3. Mindfulness sees the true nature of phenomena. In particular, through mindfulness we directly see the three characteristics or marks of existence -- it is imperfect, temporary and egoless.

Practicing Mindfulness

Changing the mental habits and conditioning of a lifetime is not easy. And this training is not something that only happens during meditation, but throughout the day.

If you have a daily chanting practice, chanting in a focused, fully attentive way is mindfulness training. It can also be helpful to choose a particular activity such as preparing a meal, cleaning the floors, or taking a walk, and make an effort to be fully mindful of the task as you perform it. In time you will find yourself paying more attention to everything.

How do we work with thoughts and feelings throughout the day? Thich Nhat Hanh continued,

When a feeling or thought arises, your intention should not be to chase it away, even if by continuing to concentrate on the breath the feeling or thought passes naturally from the mind. The intention isn't to chase it away, hate it, worry about it, or be frightened by it. So what exactly should you be doing concerning such thoughts and feelings? Simply acknowledge their presence. For example, when a feeling of sadness arises, immediately recognize it: 'A feeling of sadness has just arisen in me.' If the feeling of sadness continues, continue to recognize 'A feeling of sadness is still in me.' If there is a thought like, "It's late but the neighbors are surely making a lot of noise," recognize that the thought has arisen. ... The essential thing is not to let any feeling or thought arise without recognizing it in mindfulness, like a palace guard who is aware of every face that passes through the front corridor.

Zen teachers say that if you miss the moment, you miss your life. How much of our lives have we missed? Be mindful!

The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching

Chapter Ten

Right Thinking

When Right View is solid in us, we have Right Thinking. We need this at the foundation of our thinking. Training ourselves will cause Right View to improve. Thinking is the speech of our mind. Right Thinking makes our speech clear and beneficial. Because thinking often leads to action, Right Thinking is needed to take us down the path to Right Action.

Right Thinking reflects the way things are. Wrong thinking causes us to think in an upside-down way. Practicing Right Thinking is not easy. Our mind takes us in one direction whilst our body wants to go in another. Mind and body are not unified. Conscious breathing is an important link. When we concentrate on our breathing, we bring body and mind back together again.

When Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am," he meant that we can prove our existence by the fact that our thinking exists. Because we think, we are really there. We exist. Or, you can conclude the opposite: "I think, therefore I am not." When mind and body are apart, we get lost and cannot really say that we are here. If we breathe mindfully and touch the healing and refreshing elements that are inside and surrounding us, we will find peace and solidity. It stops us being preoccupied by past sorrows and future anxieties. It helps us be in touch with life in the present moment. A lot of our thinking is unnecessary; thoughts that are limited and carry little understanding. Sometimes we have a tape always running in our head - day and night - unable to turn it off. We worry and become tense and have nightmares. Mindfulness can let us hear the tape and notice whether our thinking is useful or not.

Thinking has two parts: initial thought and developing thought. The first is "I have to turn in a report for history." The development is to wonder about the correctness of the assignment, do we need to proofread it again, whether the teacher will notice it is late, etc. This is Vitarka (original thought). Vichara is the development of that original thought. 

In dhyana (first meditative stage) both kinds of thinking are present. In the second stage, neither is there - we are actually in deeper contact with reality, free of words and concepts. While walking in the woods, Thich noticed a little girl deep in thought. "Grandfather monk, what colour is that tree's bark?" He told her, "It is the colour that you see." He wanted her to enter the wonderful world that was right in front of her. 

Four practices related to Right Thinking. 

1. "Are you sure?" -- if there is a rope in your path and you see it as a snake, you will have fear-based thinking. The more erroneous your perception, the more wrong your thinking will be. Ask yourself this question again and again. Incorrect perceptions cause wrong thinking and unnecessary suffering.
2. "What am I doing?" -- ask yourself this to help you release your thinking about the past or the future, and come back to the present moment. It will help you be right here, right now. Just smile in response. That will demonstrate your true presence. This will also help you overcome the habit of wanting to finish things quickly. Smile to yourself and tell yourself whatever you are doing at that moment is the most important job. If your thoughts are carrying you away, you need mindfulness to intervene. (To a point.)*  For example: Emperor Wu asked Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism in China, how much merit he had earned by building many temples. Bodhidharma said, "None whatsoever." Not wanting to be elsewhere and not caring about fame or recognitiion will give you boundless merit and you will be happy. When your thinking is concentrated, you do things in mindfulness and you will be happy and a resource for others.
3. "Hello, Habit Energy." -- We stick to our habits, even the ones that cause suffering. Workaholism for example. Our ancestors had to work all the time just to eat. But today, our way of working can be compulsive and prevent us from having contact with life. We think about work all the time and don't have time to breathe. Find time to contemplate the cherry blossom and drink our tea in mindfulness. How we act depends on how we think, and how we think depends on our habit energies. Make good friends with your habitual patterns of thinking and acting. Then you can accept these ingrained thoughts and not feel guilty about them. They will lose power over us. Right Thinking leads to Right Action.
4. Bodhichitta -- Our "mind of love! is the deep wish to cultivate understanding in order to bring happiness to many beings. It is the motivating force of mindful living. With that at the foundation of our thinking, everything we do or say will help others be liberated. Right Thinking also gives rise to Right Diligence. 

In a sutra the Buddha described the practice as "changing the peg." A carpenter can use a peg to connect two blocks of wood, and if he finds that the old peg is no good, he would like to change it with another peg. Just by driving the new peg into the old one, he can replace the old one with the new one. So if you have a state of being that you don’t like, you can change the peg. That peg is called a mental formation. We have fifty-one categories of mental formation. Fear is one, anger is another one, and jealousy is another one. If you don’t like it, change the peg: use another peg and change it. And since you have stored within yourself many wonderful pegs, it is very easy for you to take one of the pegs and just change it. Then, suddenly, you find yourself on the other shore. And by going back to the present moment, you will discover these pegs, these wonders that belong to life, that are available to you: the positive things that you can identify through your full presence. That is why it is said that our true home is in the here and the now; and if you practice going back to your true home, you’ll be able to meet, to touch, to identify these wonderful things, these miracles that will be available to you every time you need them. Crossing to the other shore is a matter of seconds or minutes if you are already capable of identifying the positive things that are still available to you. Among them I just mentioned one: the fact that you are still alive.

Right Thinking is thinking that is in accord with Right View, like a map that guides us. We we get there, we have to put the map down and fully enter reality.
"Think non-thinking" is a well-used statement in Zen. Dwell deeply in the present moment and touch the seeds of joy, peace and liberation  heal and transform your suffering, and be truly present for others. 

* Dan and I discussed this last evening and both felt that this is not not necessarily the case. I for one have to think of many things at one time. Standing washing 84,000 dishes without thinking or other things (or listening to music) would soon have me tearing my hair out from sheer brain-numbness. 

            

Daily Om

April 30, 2013 Enlightenment  Not everyone will feel the need to travel afar to become enlightened as that can happen right where you are. Many spiritual seekers feel called to far-flung places across the globe in the interest of pursuing the path of their enlightenment. This may indeed be the right course of action for certain people, but it is by no means necessary to attaining an enlightened consciousness. Enlightenment can take root anywhere on earth, as long as the seeker is an open and ready vessel for higher consciousness. All we need is a powerful intention, and a willingness to do the work necessary to moving forward on our path.  In terms of spiritual practice, at this moment, there are more tools available to more people than at any other time in history. We have access to so much wisdom through the vehicles of books, magazines, the Internet, television, and film. In addition, the time-honored practice of meditation is free, and sitting quietly everyday, listening to the universe, is a great way to start the journey within. There is further inspiration in the fact that the greatest teachers we have are our own life experiences, and they come to us every day with new lessons and new opportunities to learn. If we look at the people around us, we may realize that we have a spiritual community already intact, and if we don’t, we can find one, if not in our own neighborhood, then on-line.  Meanwhile, if we feel called to travel in search of teachers and experiences, then by all means, we should. But if we can’t go to India, or Burma, or Indonesia, or if we don’t have the desire, this is not an obstacle in terms of our spiritual development. In fact, we may simply be aware that our time and energy is best spent in our own homes, with our meditation practice and all the complications and joys of our own lives. We can confidently stay in one place, knowing that everything that we need to attain enlightenment is always available right where we are.