Concentration versus Pure Awareness

When we begin practicing meditation, most of us start with a basic concentration exercise, like focusing on our breath or a candle or a mantra or some object. All these objects of meditation can work well to help us still our minds by first seeing how our minds get distracted. And this first step in meditation is critical to begin honing our ability to pay more raw attention to what is happening in any given moment. In Sanskrit, this is called Shamatha, and is usually translated as calm abiding. Concentration is an important part in beginning a meditation session.

Cultivating concentration is so important that it’s included as the eighth step on the eightfold path. It is about taming our mind, gently with pure intention of waking up from this distracted slumber that we have created to cope with our busy and sometimes frustrated world. You may have had that feeling at the end of difficult day, the feeling that you just need to shut off your brain for awhile, by watching TV, having a drink, any number of distractions. Yet, if we were to stop and think about it for a second, isn’t it strange that when we are frustrated or angry, we want to give up some of the precious moments of our lives by not being present. Imagine that you find out you will die in three months—most likely we wouldn’t want to waste those precious moments watching TV or numbing out in some way. Well, the truth is that we are all going to die—why not start preparing for it now versus waiting until the last minute? This is an essential Buddhist teaching, starting now to prepare for death and some might add going beyond death, by training our mind.

So, the practice of concentration is critical to start cultivating mindfulness, which grows out of concentration. And it’s important to note that concentration is not mindfulness. Concentration is a tool, like our minds are wild horses that need to first be reined in, and concentration practice has been proven to tame our minds in this way for the good. However, concentration is not the whole of meditation nor is it the goal of meditation. Concentration is only the door through which we walk to get to the place of mindfulness and pure awareness. Concentration gets us through the doorway, so we can leave behind the illusions that we have created in this world and go through the doorway to get beyond them. Going through the doorway of concentration brings us to the practice of mindfulness which is the seventh step in the eightfold path, First the mind is tamed, the illusions are peeled away, then mindfulness and pure awareness can be exposed and cultivated.

There’s a wonderful article this quarter in the Buddhadharma magazine by Andrew Olendzki about the practice of Mindfulness. In it, he describes mindfulness as a heightened attentiveness to objects …in the present moment. So mindfulness is often described as the heightened perception of all objects in any given situation. Mindfulness is leading to insights, or vipassana. Seeing beyond these forms that our minds have created to the impermanence of all things. Mindfulness is about clear seeing, not as our minds need things to be, but just seeing things as they are without judgments or preferences. A good example is when we discuss things with long time friends, spouses or family members. When there is a long history of assumptions and pre-conceived notions, then our current conversations can often have absolutely nothing to do with what is actually being said in the present moment. Pema Chodron says that when you begin to be more present, and you see yourself changing and interacting with others in more positive ways, your family will most likely be the last to recognize it. Why? Because your family, as we all often do to each other, has put you in a box with a certain label on it, and it will take a while for them to take your present action and decide it’s time to look at you in a whole new way. Sometimes they would rather you just stay in your box! But gradually, as you grow spiritually, you often find that you can’t go back to the old way of being, and that’s the benefit of these teachings.

So these practices are designed to enable the layers of our illusions of life to fall away and lay bare the pure essence of being. Eckhart Tolle, in an interview out at Unity Village several weeks ago, described this mindfulness far beyond the stillness we might find on the meditation cushion. Eckhart described the value, of letting go of our obsession with putting the world around us into neat little boxes, and the reward is the discovery of pure awareness in each and every moment, not just while we’re sitting and meditating, but in every moment of every interaction. Eckhart said,

“Underneath the form of the world, is the timeless time, the spirit.” “The mystery of the universe is surrounding you…Being present is experiencing a sense of aliveness of the universe.”

What if the most amazing energy lie just beyond your superficial thoughts? It’s so close, it’s like a birthday gift that we open anew each moment, and never look in the bottom of the package to find the best gift of all. Instead of spending so much time in the past and the future, we could try just hanging out in the present, finding a stillness as we interact with others. For instance, you might recall a past heated argument you had with someone, those times when we feel consumed with the need to have our opinion prevail. Imagine in that moment, stopping. Just stopping all words, stopping all activity. Just for a moment, pull your attention directly into the moment of your pain, of your suffering. Imagine in that moment, just letting go, letting go of our need to be right, of our need to be smarter, to be in control, to have our way. Just letting go of all our pre-conceived notions about how things are supposed to be. By staying present, the wisdom of each situation can be allowed to rise and be exposed. What is the right thing to say? What is the right thing to do? What if a fresh answer could be discovered in that very moment?

Mindfulness helps us recognize that we are not our thoughts, no matter how real they seem. We start with concentration, then move into mindfulness, which leads us to pure awareness. Lama Surya Das, in his book Awakening the Buddha Within, has a great quote by Kalu Rinpoche, who said,

“You are the Buddha. You are the truth. Then why do you not feel it? Why don’t you know it through and through? Because there is a veil in the way, which is attachment to appearances, such as a belief that you are not Buddha, that you are a separate individual, an ego. If you cannot remove this veil all at once, then it must be dissolved gradually.

If you have seen through it totally, even for one glimpse, then you can see through it at any time. Wherever you are, whatever presents itself, however things seem to be; simply refer to that ever-present, spacious openness and clarity.”

So, in this next week, look for opportunities to stop in the middle of whatever you doing, particularly any difficult interactions with another, practice stopping right then and bringing mindfulness to that moment, the moments when it’s most difficult to be present.

As kalu rinpoche encourages us,

. Wherever you are, whatever presents itself, however things seem to be; simply refer to that ever-present, spacious openness and clarity.

AND LET THE MAGIC OF THE UNIVERSE UNFOLD

Blessings,

Janet Taylor

The Four Obstacles

Last Sunday, I shared some thoughts on the Four Obstacles, the obstacles which keep us from recognizing our own true Buddha nature, the Christ spirit that is within each and every one of us here, right now and for all time. I had the privilege of hearing Dzogchen master, Wangdor Rinpoche, speak a few years ago, and he described our Buddha nature as a great treasure in our own home yet we often travel great distances to try and find it. He also emphasizes the universality of Buddha nature. Everyone has the same amount of Buddha nature—everyone. Great spiritual teachers don’t have big ones and sinners have little ones. Men don’t have different sizes than Women. We all have the same Buddha nature, like waves upon the ocean.

So, what is it that keeps us from realizing this incredibly powerful force that is always available, everywhere present? What are the obstacles in our lives that cause us pain and suffering? I’m sure each of us can bring to mind different issues in our own lives that get in the way of living an awakened life.

The teaching of the Four Obstacles is a way to help us recognize and let go of the obstacles in our lives. In Buddhism, they are described as Mara--Mara was the demon that attempted to keep Buddha from his enlightenment as he sat under the bodhi tree. So what are the Maras in our lives?

Wangdor Rinpoche explains these obstacles in his own special way: First, there are the outer obstacles that happen outside of us and cause us suffering. These obstacles could be natural disasters or other people’s actions. Things that come up in our lives that keep us from our practice, that keep us focused externally on overcoming these struggles. In some ways, these obstacles are the most visible, the easiest to see. We can clearly see that we’ve just had a car accident, and recognize the obstacles created from that event. It is easy to understand why our spiritual practice might be hindered by such external events.

The second and third obstacles are somewhat more difficult to see because they are our inner delusions. The second obstacle is the physical and emotional suffering that we all have in our lives. We get sick, we get angry, and these events cloud our ability to remember our true Buddha nature, our true Christ spirit. I’m sure each of you can bring to mind a time when you were physically ill or emotionally stressed, and the feeling accompanying those times would likely be one of frustration and difficulty and may not include being aware of your own divinity.

We have this body and this mind, and they are great tools for our awakening and yet sometimes our mind convinces us that thinking and feeling are the only way to solve a problem. Sometimes life can seem so difficult. Yet, in Buddhist teachings, being born into this world is considered a great gift. We’ve been given this life to wake up. Being born in this world is described as getting a ticket on the fastest train to enlightenment. Yahoo! Imagine that today you held in your hand a ticket that would bring you incredible happiness. Imagine your great fortune to have received this ticket today, at this time in your life. You have it, it’s here in the very moment. Take the ticket and get on the train to living an awakened life. If we can just get a glimpse of the incredible spaciousness and happiness in being full awake in this very moment, perhaps we could begin to see past our own suffering and emotional confusion. Letting go of these delusions of thoughts and feelings; accepting them as is, and moving beyond. This is what it would be to overcome this second type of obstacle we face.

The third obstacle gets trickier to discern. This obstacle is our conditioned responses. It might be a voice in your head holding you back from doing something different. It might be saying, I’m not good enough, I could never do that, I’m afraid—I’d rather just keep coping with my life as I have in the past. Our inner critic has the ability to surgically push just the right buttons that make us forget our ultimate goodness. Even harder to discern are those unconscious responses, the ones we do out of habit that often we don’t even realize why. For instance, some us want to go along to get along. On the surface, this seems quite normal. "I don't want to make a fuss, I don't want to inconvenience others, I just want to have everyone be happy." Maybe we even rationalize what good Buddhists we are to be so concerned with everyone else’s wellbeing. And yet, sometimes underneath that response, is perhaps a part of us not acknowledging when we truly needed something. In the past, If I truly needed some emotional support, I couldn’t ask for it. if I truly needed to express my perspective, I couldn’t always do it. Only after letting the frustration and resentment build up inside me do I finally resentfully blurt out my true needs, many weeks, months, sometimes years after the fact. This mara, this obstacle, is keeping us from staying present with out true reality, our Buddha nature, most importantly, keeping us from allowing and trusting my divine guidance. So, I can accept this reluctance to speak up, and by recognizing it, begin to stay connected to what is truly needed in each situation, which is probably not always the easiest response.

Can you think of habitual patterns in your life that keep you from seeing and acting from your Buddha Nature? Are there conditioned responses in your life that cause you to be separated from the divine spirit that exists within you always?

And lastly, the fourth obstacle is called the innermost obstacle, the most difficult to discern. This fourth obstacle is the misinformation that we are separate beings, that there is this clear separation between who I think I am, and everyone and everything else. Most of us hold onto this mental construct so tightly, it seems absurd to question it. Yet science is now proving that there is an energy underlying all beings and things. We have done ourselves and all others a disservice by creating this separation in our lives, between us and them, likes and dislikes, friends and enemies. We think that we are separate from those around us. For a moment, stop and be aware of how separate you feel from the people in your life. Be aware of how our minds make us think this physical and mental separation is so real. And yet imagine for the moment, that it’s just an illusion. Beyond the separation that our mind creates is the true reality—the truth that we are all connected and in fact, our buddha nature is merely a wave in the great ocean of buddha nature.

While our minds play tricks on us and make us think we’re separate, science is proving that this separation isn’t true. For instance, empirical data now exists that confirms the power of prayer. How can prayer by one individual for another individual work, if not for the fact that we are all connected in some way?

So, we have these four Maras, these four obstacles. First the outer obstacles of events and activities, Second and third, the inner obstacles of physical/emotional and our conditioned responses, and lastly the innermost obstacle--the delusion of separation. It’s no wonder we all seem to struggle with waking up!

How can we possibly overcome these obstacles? What complicated process must we follow to dissolve this struggles and live enlightened lives?

Well, here’s the really good news. The answer is quite simple.

I was reading an article about the Dalai Lama’s brother recently, and after giving a speech, several people ask him questions about various issues in their lives. To each, he gave the same answer, “Start with acceptance.” This simple practice serves us well because no matter where we are stuck—whether we’ve just had a car wreck or we’re struggling with feeling connected to others—the antidote is the same.

Imagine that everything you need is available to you in this present moment. Wangdor Rinpoche also reminds us to not be seduced by all the fancy spiritual practices and techniques that one can take on to find enlightenment. Yes, they are sometimes helpful, BUT there is no substitute for just being fully aware in the present moment, beyond our thoughts and emotions, beyond our conditioned responses, beyond our sense of separation, lies the simple answer. It is only in this present moment that you will find your buddha nature, that you will find the Christ Spirit that exists within you, that you will find God.

In each moment, you have a fresh opportunity to wake up. If you messed up the last moment and weren’t fully awake, there’s another moment just around the corner, fresh and new, ready to be experienced fully. You don’t have to wait until you turn a certain age, or until you get a new job, or until you change relationships or make more moeny. You have everything you need right now, and now, and now, to wake up, by accepting what is, and discovering the truth, and beginning to live your life in the awakened state, if even for a glimpse of time.

Life is not a test where you can copy off your neighbor. There are no right answers that work for everyone in every moment. Only by being present can you gain divine guidance on what is right FOR YOU at this moment right now.

When you allow yourself to be fully present, you begin to see the true nature of your own mind, you begin to see clearly the obstacles that you have placed in your path, and most importantly, you begin to create a space for your buddha nature, your Christ Spirit, to be experienced, to be the driving force in how you live your life. That’s it—to allow your Buddha Nature to be the driving force in how you live your life.

There’s no special equipment needed, no place to go, nothing to do. No matter what obstacles arise, just accept and be present, and you will find the door to the most amazing gift of all, your own buddha nature. This week, explore being present, not just on the cushion as you meditate, but allow yourself to be present in some of those other moments throughout the day, particularly when you become aware of what seems like an obstacle in your life. Accept and experience the delightful gift of innate buddha nature.