7.0 Instruction: Awareness of the Breath 2

Part 7.0 of 10. A progression of brief sessions of instruction for developing stable attention, still awareness, and global compassion. Recorded live.

Transcript

As a prelude to where we are going today into the taking the mind as our object,

Switching from breath to the mind,

Let's do this one meditation again,

The bridge meditation,

The awareness of the breath.

So we are switching from attention focused on the breath to awareness of the breath.

And the reason that I think of this as a bridge technique is that this allows us to develop that stand-alone skill of the fusion of stillness and motion.

This is what is absolutely crucial for being able to successfully be aware of mental appearances without being carried off by them,

Without that just becoming our everyday ruminating mind because this is,

We have a lot of experience with that.

We don't need any more practice and there's no benefit in cultivating just more of the same experience of mind,

Just chatter,

Chatter,

Chatter.

What we are trying to do with the practice that is coming is to be aware of what is going on in our mind without becoming it,

Without being absorbed into it,

Without identifying with it,

Without being shanghaied by it.

So our mental,

What is it that usually captures our mind or when we are focused on tactile sensations of the breath and everything is going well and then you wake up ten minutes later basically,

That's what it feels like,

Right?

And you are,

I don't know,

At the concert that you saw last week or the Yankees game or wherever and you go,

How did I get here?

You have gone default wandering and it's a train of association.

Can you remember what the thought was that distracted you?

No,

Why not?

Because you are non-lucid.

You became it.

You entered a non-lucid state of mind just like non-lucid dreaming.

So in order to be able to do that,

We have to,

In order to be aware of mental appearances or the flow of mental appearances in our mind without becoming them,

Without becoming shanghaied by them,

We have to develop that skill of maintaining the stillness of our awareness while that awareness illuminates a parade of moving appearances.

And so we know that our mental appearances,

The reason that they shanghaied us is oftentimes because they have a strong emotional valence.

Not always.

We can think about food when we're hungry and there's not a great emotional charge but there's a desire,

Craving,

Etc.

That goes in there.

There's a need that needs to be filled.

But especially the ones that have a strong emotional charge,

Those are the ones that really shanghaied us.

And maybe that is your specialty.

Anxiety.

Depression.

Those are the ones that really,

Really trouble us.

Joy is not such a big problem.

Because these are the ones,

When these mental appearances arise,

We are just habitually shanghaied by them.

In order to not become them,

In order to just be able to develop that meta-awareness that can stand back and watch them and know them for what they are,

What are they?

Their mental appearances.

But what happens is that we become transfixed,

We become seduced,

We become shanghaied by the referent of the mental image.

When your mother,

Right now,

Because your mother as an image comes to mind,

Because I have just suggested that,

And what is your experience of that?

It is a mental image.

But what can happen is,

Oh my mother,

God I haven't talked to her for a while.

I wonder if she's wearing those hearing aids that I got her.

On and on and on,

What's happened?

I got shanghaied by,

What,

A mental image of my mother and I forgot that it was a mental image.

And all of a sudden I became absorbed with this train of associations,

Became transfixed by it.

So in order to,

Especially once we enter this world of taking mental appearances as the object,

Wouldn't it be nice if we had already developed the stand-alone skill of fusion of stillness and motion?

And what better object to develop that with than our old familiar breath?

So now we are going to do that meditation again of the fusion of stillness and motion with awareness focused on the breath.

And the way that we are going to do that,

So remember that awareness is aware not only of everything in this room right now,

The visual field.

So I am aware of a myriad of things right now.

How many?

Ten things?

A hundred things?

A thousand things just in the visual field?

I mean what has the potential to capture my attention?

Let's just say a myriad.

A lot of things,

Potential things to capture attention,

Which is singular,

Exclusive,

Selective.

What about sounds?

How many sounds are there in this room now that could capture my attention?

A lot.

So how do we,

We are going to maintain again our peripheral awareness which is aware not only of the five sense fields but that is the one that also can give us real time reports.

That is also the peripheral awareness is also the source of our introspective awareness.

And what we are trying to do is to develop continuous introspective awareness.

So when we develop that,

This is when we can then,

Even when we are focused with attention on the tactile sensations of the breath,

That is when we can then do what Tsongkhapa says in the Lamrim Chenmo,

We can then not only notice quickly when we are distracted or quickly when we are falling asleep or feeling lax but even before while the excitation or laxity is incipient as Alan Wallace translates the Tibetan.

So before the camel enters the tent because once the camel steps into the tent and you say,

Get the hell out of here,

There goes the tent.

So when the camel just has his nose in the tent or the hair of the nose of the camel in the tent,

Can you notice that?

And then if you can,

Then you don't bring the tent down.

The camel leaves the tent and then everything is cool.

You just carry on without being distracted,

Without becoming lax.

So that's what we are trying to do is to develop continuous introspective awareness.

And so the introspective awareness then is,

That is what we are trying to do then,

The report that we are most interested in is introspective awareness telling us,

Is my awareness still?

So we are getting continuous reports about the stillness of my awareness.

So the fusion of stillness and motion.

And then that's our primary concern because we are really just wanting to know is my awareness still?

And that is our meditation basically.

Stillness is my awareness still.

But because this is the fusion of stillness and motion,

We are still interested in a select group of appearances.

And that group of appearances is the breath.

So the stillness of fusion and motion,

Get continuous introspective awareness is reporting on the stillness of your awareness and it is also aware of the continuous fluctuation of the breath,

The inhalation and the exhalation.

And now we are leaving the tactile domain completely of knowing the breath via tactile sensations.

Now we are going to know the breath directly.

As the Buddha said,

Know the breath is long or short just as the potter knows.

The length of his,

The revolution of his wheel is long or short.

So find a comfortable position.

And we will do that meditation for 12 minutes.

Reviews

This part is only the instructions for the 7.01 meditation! Interesting