|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
THE WAY OF NON-ATTACHMENT
One of our difficulties is how to make the mind or consciousness fresh. Is it possible for you to keep your mind fresh all the time? If not, why not? Or, if it is possible, how? You must observe yourself very closely and deeply, so that you can see, when your mind becomes fresh, why this is so. Also when it becomes gloomy or unhappy, note the reason for this and what are the factors working upon the mind. Does meditation help you to be alert, to have fresh consciousness? Or do you, when you meditate, become more depressed, dreamy, clumsy? You must take notice.The Practice of Insight Meditation by DHIRAVAMSA Excerpt - Chapter 21 THE FRESH MIND To meditate is not just to be calm outwardly while the inward state becomes more complicated, even chaotic. We should be able to manage our lives effectively and happily, because nobody else can teach us happiness. This is our own work. The work of life is very important; it cannot exclude the necessary aspects of living or involvement in the progress of society. The work of life is all-inclusive and should not be confined to anything in particular. However, there are predominant aspects of this work of life which can lead us in the right direction towards our goal. Life is burdensome and needs a great deal of care from us. We cannot give our part of life to the Buddha to look after, or to God to protect, or to any external power. It must be within our capacity to cope with all aspects of the work of life. It is entirely up to us. Being human and living in a society, we are influenced and conditioned by the group or community in which there are deeply rooted traditions. This is one reason for the difficulty in having a fresh mind all the time. First of all, we have to understand how we are conditioned. We have to wake up fully from sleep, and emerge completely from our original state of being. Harmony without awareness is the original state of being which we were born with. It is not suitable for us as human beings to remain in, or to return to, that original state, because we are not stupid beings. We have intelligence and potentiality, and the capacity to find something new through which harmony can reign, complete and perfect. This is the harmony of awareness and wisdom. This state is the real goal for all kinds of life. How is it possible to reach that goal? To begin with, we have to decide whether we are fully awake and completely emerged from our original state, or whether we are still living in some kind of sleep. This sleep does not mean lying in bed with the eyes closed, but being insensitive to what is really going on in the world outside and within us. To be sensitive is to be aware so everything we encounter, and to have sympathy with it: with objects, friends, people, places. A sensitive person is one who is awake to his own states of being. One may be able to feel for people, but it is very rare to feel for every little thing. Walking along the road, do you feel for the grass, the stones? This is usually impossible because the mind is so heavily occupied by ideas, imagination and associative thinking. The mind is never free, being continually caught up and confused to some extent. So there is no newness. The mind remains the old mind all the time, caught up in the memories of yesterday, last week, last year, and so on. Past experiences occupy it, making it think in an effort to escape or to seek satisfaction. But when the mind cannot get what it wants, it becomes frustrated and depressed. Such a mind cannot be fresh, or free. It lives in prison or, in religious terms, in hell. Hell is not somewhere down below; it arises in your mind, in your life. A mind with fresh consciousness is clearly of enormous importance in life, yet people find its attainment very difficult. Some may question whether there can be such a thing as a fresh mind, but it can be found at any moment. If we seek it externally through studies or religious beliefs, it becomes clouded. It will only be found when there is quietness, alone and within. Otherwise the mind will repeat itself throughout its lifetime, occupied by what is superficial, tied to what it accumulates, exhausted by what it desires and experiences, and driven by its unconscious contents. Such a mind is overburdened, which is why so many people find it hard either to act freely or to relax. Because there is insufficient awareness and freedom, there is no tranquillity. It is then essential to look at the mind and its burden, seeing it very clearly so as to penetrate what lies and works underneath. Gradually the mind will become lighter and fresher, and you will perceive the beauty of things without becoming attached to beauty. Yet there must be no effort at non-attachment, because in a sense this would be like running away instead of meeting what is presenting itself, whether pleasant or unpleasant. The possibility of clarity of mind gives us the potential for freedom in all situations, and it can be achieved by meditation without any resistance to what may arise. Also, there should be no expectation about what will happen, or anticipation of a wonderful experience. With such ideas, any other result engenders disappointment, dismay and impatience, and attention is distracted from what is actually happening. There is a tendency to exclude or fear what arises unexpectedly, and it is then resisted instead of observed. The mind is wrongly engaged in a battle, fighting and trying to push away what arises instead of just looking at it. If you do not look for results, you are free to see what is there; which is what meditation really is. What matters is to be aware of the present, to be constantly watchful of what is going on within the present, to be constantly watchful of what is going on within you. When your attention is used for this, and not distracted by thoughts about results, the mind cannot build up resistance. The mind is clever and it knows how to create protective barriers in order to maintain its own "progress". You have to understand its tricks, but nobody can show these to you ‚ you have to know your own mind. You must not become ashamed or horrified through looking at what goes on. As one becomes sensitive to undesirable aspects of the mind and of one's life, suffering will arise. But one must not hold the idea of being free from suffering. Such an idea hinders the work of facing and living through what is there. If there is no resistance to what arises, whether painful or pleasurable, gradually the cause of suffering will be extinguished. Until that point, suffering has a central part to play in our path. Without the lessons it teaches us, equanimity would have no meaning and we should never gain in profound wisdom. However, we must know how to benefit from suffering instead of being destroyed by experiences of misery. Suffering can only be used constructively through observing its processes as they occur. We watch everything passing by, the impermanence, the significance and the insignificance of all experiences and events. There is no rejection, no attachment, just the regarding and noting of their nature. You do not need to act or react; let the right action take place through you. Such true action is paradoxical to the superficial mind, which depends upon thinking and attempts to use logical reasoning to see the truth. Profound truth cannot be reached in this way. The logical mind is limited, but when it breaks through its limitations it can know what is profound. The truly logical mind forms the basis for seeing beyond itself, because, if it is not arrogant, it is aware of something further and can form assumptions about a higher nature although it is not equipped to experience it. Its logicality may possess a certain clarity through not being swayed by superstitions and fixed beliefs, but in order to go beyond itself it must leave behind any idea that its own logic will take it to the truth. The new cannot co-exist with the old, but must proceed anew. This is why it is essential for us to "die" to the past and to be unafraid of this death. When we know we die every moment, we are renewed all the time and are freed from old patterns. When we become something very different, becoming also disappears. We are awakened to being, which is rebirth. In order to be reborn, we have to die -not physically, but in the mind. When we no longer carry the "dead" mind, we travel lightly. Then the goal comes nearer and nearer. We are not going towards it, but it comes to us. The goal is true living and moving. Free yourself from old, dead things and you will have new, fresh consciousness, which leads not to more conditioning but to a completely new dimension. Colveyco Reading Room Purchase this book through Amazon.com: The Way of Non-Attachment: The Practice of Insight Meditation |