How does a disciple dwell contemplating the mind in the mind? Here a disciple knows a mind with lust as a mind with lust, a mind without lust as a mind without lust, a mind with hatred as a mind with hatred, a mind without hatred as a mind without hatred, a mind with delusion as a mind with delusion, a mind without delusion as a mind without delusion, a contracted mind as a contracted mind, a distracted mind as a distracted mind, an exalted mind as an exalted mind, an unexalted mind as an unexalted mind, a surpassed mind as a surpassed mind, an unsurpassed mind as an unsurpassed mind, a concentrated mind as a concentrated mind, an unconcentrated mind as an unconcentrated mind, a liberated mind as a liberated mind, an unliberated mind as an unliberated mind.
Thus he dwells contemplating the mind in the mind internally, or he dwells contemplating the mind in the mind externally, or he dwells contemplating the mind in the mind both internally and externally. He dwells contemplating the nature of arising in the mind, or he dwells contemplating the nature of passing away in the mind, or he dwells contemplating the nature of both arising and passing away in the mind.
DN22
contemplating the mind in mind
To practice contemplating the mind in mind, after having subdued greed and aversion for the world, one abides fully mind in mind, aware of the constantly changing mind states as they arise, change and pass away.
By seeing the mind as it truly is in the present moment, you reduce the tendency to cling to it or identify with it as "Me" or "Mine."
At this stage in the Gradual Training, you simply notice the mental state without judgment, aversion, or clinging to them.
The main skill to be developed is recognizing the "sign of the mind", dwelling in that space where the mind is now completely impertuable, stable and still.
With this stable, still mind, we are aware of the various mind states as they arise, change and fall away.
For example, when you experience desire, aversion, or delusion, you don't resist or suppress them. Instead, you experience them clearly as transient mental events. Similarly, when the mind is free of these states, your are aware of those too, with equanimity.
By repeatedly observing these states, one gains direct insight into the impermanence and non-self nature of the mind. This leads to dispassion and liberation.
In DN 22, the Tathagata explains how one should abide, contemplating the mind, recognizing wholesome and unwholesome states, and how they arise and how they fall away:
A mind with lust Recognizing when the mind is driven by desire and when it is free from desire.
A mind with hatred Recognizing mind states that arise which have anger, ill will, aversion, or hostility and when the mind is free of them.
A mind with delusion This refers to a state of the mind clouded by ignorance, confusion, or wrong understanding. Delusion causes us to misperceive reality, leading to suffering and unwholesome actions. For example, when under delusion, we might see impermanent things as permanent, or we might cling to a false sense of self.
A contracted or distracted mind A contracted mind is often linked to dullness or lethargy (sloth and torpor). A distracted mind, on the other hand, is restless and unsettled.
An exalted mind The exalted mind is expansive,and uplifted state, what is often called the "higher mind".
When the mind is free from the hindrances and reflects deeply on the Dhamma or is in one of the Jhanas, or the Brahmavihāras, it experiences clarity and peace, it is uplifted by wisdom, which can also be described as exalted. When these qualities are developed, the mind becomes vast, expansive, and radiant.
A surpassed mind
An unsurpassed mind is one that is highly developed and free from limitations. This refers to states of the mind that are unexcelled, particularly those associated with the highest achievements on the path. Examples include:
When the mind is deeply concentrated, purified, and free from the five hindrances, it reaches unsurpassed levels of tranquility and wisdom.
A concentrated mind
A concentrated mind (samāhita citta) refers to a mind that is collected, steady, and unified. It is a mind free from distraction and restlessness, developed through right concentration (sammā samādhi), the eighth factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. Characteristics of a Concentrated Mind:
Stability: The mind does not wander and remains firmly anchored. Clarity: It is not clouded by the five hindrances (sensual desire, ill-will, sloth, restlessness, or doubt). Tranquility: It feels calm and serene, undisturbed by external or internal distractions.
A liberated mind A liberated mind is free from attachments and suffering.
This practice of observing the mind in its various states reveals the underlying delusion of "self" or "me and mine." By understanding how mental states arise and pass away, we gradually let go of attachment to this false sense of self. The Tathagata's instructions help us see the impermanent and conditioned nature of the mind, leading to profound insight and freedom.
“Whatever a desciple frequently thinks about and considers becomes their heart’s inclination.”
Upāsikā Kee Nanayon: Discernment vs. Self-deception
It’s important that we discuss the parts of the practice in training the mind, for the mind has all sorts of deceptions by which it fools itself. If you aren’t skillful in investigating and seeing through them, they are very difficult to overcome even if you are continually mindful to keep watch over the mind. You have to make an effort to contemplate these things at all times. Mindfulness on its own won’t be able to give rise to any real knowledge. At best, it can give you only a little protection against the effects of sensory contact. If you don’t contemplate, the mind won’t be able to give rise to any knowledge within itself at all.
This is why you have to train yourself to be constantly aware all around. When you come to know anything for what it really is, there’s nothing but letting go, letting go. On the beginning level, this means the mind won’t give rise to any unwise or unprofitable thoughts. It will simply stop to watch, stop to know within itself at all times. If there’s anything you have to think about, keep your thoughts on the themes of inconstancy, stress, and not-self. You have to keep the mind thinking and labeling solely in reference to these sorts of themes, for if your thinking and labeling are right, you’ll come to see things rightly. If you go the opposite way, you’ll have to think wrongly and label things wrongly, and that means you’ll have to see things wrongly as well. This is what keeps the mind completely hidden from itself.
Now, when thoughts or labels arise in the mind, then if you are intent on watching them closely, you’ll see that their sensations, sensations of arising and disbanding, changeable, unreliable, and illusory. If you don’t make an effort to keep a watch on them, you’ll fall for the deceptions of thought-fabrication. In other words, the mind gives rise to memories of the past and fashions issues dealing with the past, but if you’re aware of what’s going on in time, you’ll see that they’re all illusory. There’s no real truth to them at all. Even the meanings the mind gives to good and bad sensory contacts at the moment they occur: If you carefully observe and contemplate, you’ll see that they’re all deceptive. There’s no real truth to them.
But ignorance and delusion latch on to them all, and this drives the mind around in circles. In other words, it doesn’t know what’s what, how these things arise, persist, and disband, so it latches onto them and gets itself deceived on many, many levels. If you don’t stop to watch, there’s no way you can see through these things at all.
But if the mind keeps its balance or stops to watch and know within itself, it can come to realize these things for what they are. When it realizes them, it can let them go automatically without being attached to anything. This is the knowledge that comes with true mindfulness and discernment: It knows and lets go. It doesn’t cling. No matter what appears, good or bad, pleasure or pain, when the mind knows, it doesn’t cling. When it doesn’t cling, there’s no stress or suffering.
You have to keep hammering away at this point: When it doesn’t cling, the mind can stay stable. Empty. Undisturbed. Quiet and still. But if it doesn’t read itself in this way, doesn’t know itself in this way, it will fall for the deceits of defilement and craving. It will fashion up all sorts of complex and complicated things that it itself will have a hard time seeing through, for they will have their ways of playing up to the mind to keep it attached to them, all of which is simply a matter of the mind’s falling for the deceits of the defilements and cravings within itself. The fact that it isn’t acquainted with itself, doesn’t know how mental states arise and disband and take on objects, means that it loses itself in its many, many attachments.
There’s nothing as hard to keep watch of as the mind, because it’s so accustomed to wrong views and wrong opinions. This is what keeps it hidden from itself. But thanks to the teachings of the Buddha, we can gain knowledge into the mind, or into consciousness with its many layers and intricacies, which when you look into it deeply, you’ll find to be empty, empty of any meaning in and of itself.
This is an emptiness that can appear clearly within consciousness. Even though it’s hidden and profound, we can see into it by looking inward in a way that’s quiet and still. The mind stops to watch, to know within itself. As for sensory contacts, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and that sort of thing, it isn’t interested, because it’s intent on looking into consciousness pure and simple, to see what arises in there and how it generates issues. Sensations, thoughts, labels for pleasure and pain and so forth, are all natural phenomena that change as soon as they’re sensed, and they’re very refined. If you view them as being about this or that matter, you won’t be able to know them for what they are. The more intricate the meanings you give them, the more lost you become, lost in the whorls of the cycle of rebirth.
The cycle of rebirth and the processes of thought-fabrication are one and the same thing. As a result, we whirl around and around, lost in many, many levels of thought-fabrication, not just one. The knowledge that would read the heart can’t break through to know, for it whirls around and around in these very same thought-fabrications, giving them meanings in terms of this or that, and then latching onto them. If it labels them as good, it latches onto them as good. If it labels them as bad, it latches onto them as bad. This is why the mind stays entirely in the whorls of the cycle of rebirth, the cycle of thought-fabrication.
For this reason, to see these things clearly requires the effort to stop and watch, to stop and know in an appropriate way, in a way that’s just right. At the same time, you have to use your powers of observation. That’s what will enable you to read your own consciousness in a special way. Otherwise, if you latch onto the issues of thoughts and labels, they’ll keep you spinning around. So you have to stop and watch, stop and know clearly. That way your knowledge will become skillful.
Ultimately, you’ll see that there’s nothing at all, just the arising and disbanding occurring every moment in emptiness. If there’s no attachment, there are no issues. There’s simply the natural phenomenon of arising and disbanding. But since we don’t see things simply as natural phenomena, we see them as being true and latch onto them as our self, good, bad, and all sorts of other complicated things. This keeps us spinning around without knowing how to find a way out, what to let go of, we don’t know. When we don’t know, we’re like a person who wanders into a jungle and doesn’t know the way out, doesn’t know what to do.
Actually what we have to let go of lies right smack in front of us: where the mind fashions things and gives them meanings so that it doesn’t know the characteristics of arising and disbanding, pure and simple. If you can simply keep watching and knowing, without any need for meanings, thoughts, imaginings, simply watching the process of these things in and of itself, there won’t be any issues. There’s just the phenomenon of the present: arising, persisting, disbanding, arising, persisting, disbanding. There’s no special trick to this, but you have to stop and watch, stop and know within yourself every moment. Don’t let your awareness stream away from awareness to outside preoccupations. Gather it in so it can know itself clearly, that there’s nothing in there worth latching onto. It’s all a bunch of deceits.
To know just this much is very useful for seeing the truth inside yourself. You’ll see that consciousness is empty of any self. When you look at physical phenomena, you’ll see them as elements, as empty of any self. You’ll see mental phenomena as empty of any self, as elements of consciousness, and that if there’s no attachment, no latching on, there’s no suffering or stress.…
So even if there’s thinking going on in the mind, simply watch it, simply let it go, and its cycling will slow down. Fewer and fewer thought-fabrications will occur. Even if the mind doesn’t stop completely, it will form fewer and fewer thoughts. You’ll be able to stop to watch, stop to know more and more. And this way, you’ll come to see the tricks and deceits of thought-fabrication, mental labels, pleasure and pain, and so on. You’ll be able to know that there’s really nothing inside, that the reason you were deluded into latching on to things was because of ignorance, and that you made yourself suffer right there in that very ignorance.…
So you have to collect your attention at one point in the mind. Scattering the mind on many things won’t do. Keep mindfulness in place: stopping, knowing, seeing. Don’t let it run out after thoughts and labels. But knowing in this way requires that you make the effort to pay attention and to see clearly, not just intent on making the mind still. Intent on seeing clearly. Look on in for the sake of seeing clearly…and contemplate how to let go. The mind will become empty in line with its nature in a way that you’ll know exclusively within.
Feeling, perception, and consciousness, friend:
These states are conjoined, not disjoined. And it is not possible to distinguish between them to describe them separately.
What one feels, that one perceives; what one perceives, that one knows. Therefore, these states are conjoined, not disjoined. And it is not possible to distinguish between them to describe them separately.
MN43
And how should the nutriment mental volition be seen? Suppose there were a charcoal pit deeper than a mans height, full of glowing coals, without flame or smoke. Then a man would come along, desiring life, not desiring death, desiring pleasure and averse to pain. And two strong men would grab him by both arms and drag him towards the charcoal pit.
Then that man would twist his body this way and that. For what reason? Because he knows: If I fall into this charcoal pit, that will lead to my death or deadly suffering.
In the same way I say that the nutriment mental volition should be seen. When the nutriment mental volition is fully understood, the three cravings are fully understood. When the three cravings are fully understood, I say there is nothing further for a noble disciple to do.
SN12.63
Right Mindfulness of Mind:
Here a disciple knows a mind with lust as a mind with lust, a mind without lust as a mind without lust, a mind with hatred as a mind with hatred, a mind without hatred as a mind without hatred, a mind with delusion as a mind with delusion, a mind without delusion as a mind without delusion, a contracted mind as a contracted mind, a distracted mind as a distracted mind, an exalted mind as an exalted mind, an unexalted mind as an unexalted mind, a surpassed mind as a surpassed mind, an unsurpassed mind as an unsurpassed mind, a concentrated mind as a concentrated mind, an unconcentrated mind as an unconcentrated mind, a liberated mind as a liberated mind, an unliberated mind as an unliberated mind.
DN22
At this stage of the Gradual Training, we are only practicing as the Tathāgata suggests above, seeing our mind states. Practicing abiding "mind in mind" until the mind can rest in this awareness reliably. More subtle contemplation o "mind in mind," can only occur when the hindrances have been abandoned, and we are dwelling in Jhana.
Ajhan DTUN: Mindfullness of Mind and Dharmas
Be careful not to confuse mindfulness established in the mind in the article above and mindfulness of the mind and dharma's
Layperson: I’m still a little confused as to whether the practice of contemplating the mind is the same as the practice of cittanupassanā as taught in the four satipatthāna. If it is the same, shouldn't we all do it, because the practice of satipatthāna is the way to go beyond suffering?
Ajahn Dtun: Yes, contemplating the mind is what is called cittanupassanā. To practice cittanupassanā correctly one must see the characteristics of aniccā, dukkha, and anattā: the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness and absence of self in all one’s thoughts and emotions. In truth, cittanupassanā is the path of practice for an anagami practicing for the final breakthrough to arahantship. Anyone else can only contemplate the mind at a very gross or superficial level because their faculties of mindfulness and wisdom are not yet subtle enough to penetrate deeply and uproot the mental defilements. Hence, contemplating the last two satipatthāna, the mind and dhammas, in great detail or refinement requires one’s mindfulness and wisdom to be extremely subtle, so as to be aware of the subtle delusion still remaining in the mind. As I just said, this is the practice of an anagami developing arahattamagga, the path of practice that leads to full enlightenment.
The mindfulness and wisdom of ordinary, unenlightened beings are too slow and too coarse to penetrate to any real depth within the mind. Actually, their mindfulness and wisdom can't even stay abreast of all the emotions and thoughts arising within the mind. If we think in terms of percentages, they would be aware of no more than 10% of the mind’s thoughts and emotions. A sotāpanna (the first level of enlightenment) would be aware of perhaps 20%, a sakadagami (the second level of enlightenment) would be aware of about 30%, and an anāgāmī would be aware of about 50%. To destroy the mental defilements completely, 100%, by way of practicing cittanupassanā is solely the task of the anagami.
Those who like to practice of contemplating the mind always say that mental defilements exist within the mind, and so we must seek them out and deal with them at the level of the mind.
Their practice is all about watching thoughts and emotions, but no matter how many thoughts and emotions are watched, they will never cease. Every day new thoughts and emotions will arise. For example, as we experience sights, sounds, odors, flavors, and bodily sensations today, feelings of liking or disliking will arise. Tomorrow we will again meet with forms, hear sounds, smell odors, taste flavors, and experience bodily sensations, all of which will cause feelings of liking and disliking to arise. It’s never-ending.
No matter how much they watch their mind, those who like to practice the method of do jit cannot remove the mental defilements. The only way to do so is to go to the very source of the defilements, the body. It is our deluded attachment to and identification with the body as being ourselves that give rise to clinging and anger. The body and the mind are interrelated.
However, even though attaining the first three stages of enlightenment is dependent on body contemplation, we still have to stay aware of all our emotions and know them in line with the truth so that we can let them go. Letting go is a conditional thing; it happens due to causes. For us to let go of our emotions from the mind, we must see their impermanence and absence of self.
Or his mindfulness that ‘There is a body’ is maintained to the extent of knowledge & remembrance. And he remains independent, not clinging to anything in the world
MN10
Upāsikā Kee Nanayon: Going Out Cold
It’s important to realize how to pay attention to events in order to get special benefits from your practice. You have to pay attention so as to observe and contemplate, not simply to make the mind still. Pay attention how things arise, how they disband. Make your attention subtle and deep.
When you’re aware of the characteristics of your sensations, then, if it’s a physical sensation, contemplate that physical sensation. There will have to be a feeling of stress. Once there’s a feeling of stress, how will you be aware of it simply as a feeling so that it won’t lead to anything further? Once you can be aware of it simply as a feeling, it stops right there without producing any taste in terms of a desire for anything. The mind will disengage right there, right there at the feeling. If you don’t pay attention to it in this way, craving will arise on top of the feeling, craving to attain ease and be rid of the stress and pain. If you don’t pay attention to the feeling in the proper way right from the start, craving will arise before you’re aware of it, and if you then try to let go of it, it’ll be very tiring.
The way in which preoccupations take shape, the sensations of the mind as it’s aware of things coming with every moment, the way these things change and disband: These are all things you have to pay attention to see clearly. This is why we make the mind disengaged. We don’t disengage it so that it doesn’t know or amount to anything. That’s not the kind of disengagement we want. The more the mind is truly disengaged, the more it sees clearly into the characteristics of the arising and disbanding within itself. All I ask is that you observe things carefully, that your awareness be all-around at all times. Work at this as much as you can. If you can keep this sort of awareness going, you’ll find that the mind or consciousness under the supervision of mindfulness and discernment in this way is different from, is opposite from, unsupervised consciousness. It will be the opposite sort of thing continually.
If you keep the mind well supervised so that it’s sensitive in the proper way, it will yield enormous benefits, not just small ones. If you don’t make it properly sensitive and aware, what can you expect to gain from it?
When we say that we gain from the practice, we’re not talking about anything else: We’re talking about gaining disengagement. Freedom. Emptiness. Before, the mind was embroiled. Defilement and craving attacked and robbed it, leaving it completely entangled. Now it’s disengaged, freed from the defilements that used to gang up to burn it. Its desires for this or that thing, its concocting of this or that thought, have all fallen away. So now it’s empty and disengaged. It can be empty in this way right before your very eyes. Try to see it right now, before your eyes, right now as I’m speaking and you’re listening. Probe on in so as to know.
If you can be constantly aware in this way, you’re following in the footparts or taking within you the quality called “buddho,” which means one who knows, who is awake, who has blossomed in the Dhamma. Even if you haven’t fully blossomed, if you’ve blossomed only to the extent of disengaging from the blatant levels of craving and defilement, you still benefit a great deal, for when the mind really knows the defilements and can let them go, it feels cool and refreshed in and of itself. This is the exact opposite of the defilements that, as soon as they arise, make us burn and smolder inside. If we don’t have the mindfulness and discernment to help us know, the defilements will burn us. But as soon as mindfulness and discernment know, the fires go out, and they go out cold.
Observe how the defilements arise and take shape, they also disband in quick succession, but when they disband on their own in this way, go out on their own in this way, they go out hot. If we have mindfulness and discernment watching over them, they go out cold. Look so that you can see what the true knowledge of mindfulness and discernment is like: It goes out; it goes out cold. As for the defilements, even when they arise and disband in line with their nature, they go out hot, hot because we latch onto them, hot because of attachment. When they go out cold, look again, it’s because there’s no attachment. They’ve been let go, put out.
This is something really worth looking into: the fact that there’s something very special like this in the mind, special in that when it really knows the truth, it isn’t attached. It’s unentangled, empty, and free. This is how it’s special. It can grow empty of greed, anger, and delusion, part after part. It can be empty of desire, empty of mental processes. The important thing is that you really see for yourself that the true nature of the mind is that it can be empty. This is why I said this morning that nibbāna doesn’t lie anywhere else. It lies right here, right where things go out and are cool, go out and are cool. It’s staring us right in the face.
And, friend, by what is the knowable known?
The knowable, friend, is known by the eye of wisdom.
And, friend, for what purpose is wisdom?
Wisdom, friend, is for the purpose of direct knowledge, for full understanding, for abandonment.
MN43
And how should the nutriment consciousness be seen? Suppose a bandit were caught by the kings men, and they were to present him to the king, saying: This man is a bandit, a criminal. Punish him as you wish. Then the king would say: Go, in the morning, and strike him with a hundred spears. So they would strike him with a hundred spears in the morning.
Then at noon, the king would ask: How is that man? He is still alive, your majesty. Go, and strike him again with a hundred spears. So they would strike him again with a hundred spears at noon. Then in the evening, the king would ask: How is that man? He is still alive, your majesty. Go, and strike him again with a hundred spears. So they would strike him again with a hundred spears in the evening.
Go, friends, and kill that man at sunset with a hundred spears. They would kill him at sunset with a hundred spears. What do you think would that man, being killed with a hundred spears during the day, experience suffering and distress because of that? Even being killed with one spear, venerable sir, he would experience suffering and distress; what to speak of being killed with a hundred spears?
In the same way I say that consciousness is to be seen as nourishment. When consciousness as nourishment is fully understood, name and form are fully understood. When name and form are fully understood, I say there is nothing further for a noble disciple to do.
SN12.63
Linmu: The Illusion of Consciousness
Previously, it was mentioned that there are five types of human consciousness: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile. In addition to these, there is another type of consciousness that can be generated without the need for external real-time stimuli, which is the inner consciousness (mind) and the thoughts generated by events. We will temporarily call it the "consciousness of intention."
Therefore, humans have a total of six types of consciousness (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, consciousness of intention), each generated by six senses (eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, inner consciousness or mind) and corresponding six entities (light, sound, smell, taste, touch, events).
Let's start with the principle of a television set. As mentioned earlier, the light in a television picture is produced jointly by the television set and the electromagnetic waves. So, when light appears, it indicates that the television set and the electromagnetic waves have successfully interacted. Obviously, it is not the light that illuminates the television set and the electromagnetic waves, but rather the light depends on them for its existence. The television set and the electromagnetic waves are the prerequisites and causes for the light, while the light is the product and result of the television set and the electromagnetic waves.
The same goes for vision. Eyes and light produce vision. It is not that vision sees the eyes and light, or that the eyes see the light, but vision depends on the eyes and light for its existence. The eyes and light are the prerequisites and causes for vision, while vision is the product and result of the eyes and light.
Audition, olfaction, gustation, tactility, and consciousness of intention follow the same principle. It is not that consciousness perceives the senses and entities, or that the senses perceive the entities, but rather consciousness depends on the senses and entities for its existence. The senses and entities are the prerequisites and causes for consciousness, while consciousness is the product and result of the senses and entities.
However, people often understand that light cannot actively illuminate electromagnetic waves, yet they always believe that consciousness can actively perceive entities. Through the previous analysis, it is clear that when consciousness arises from the interaction of the senses and entities, consciousness is merely a result of their interaction, a new, independent, non-autonomous, non-living, passively arising natural product.
When consciousness arises, the fact of perception has already been achieved. At this point, the senses and entities have already interacted. This consciousness does not need to return to perceive the entity, nor does it need or even can perceive other entities. Because when other consciousness arises, it is also due to the conditions of other senses and entities.
The generation of these consciousnesses does not require an active perceiver or an object to be perceived. The whole process is just A + B = C. Whether people are willing or not, when the conditions of both senses and entities are present, this process will naturally occur, without the need to add anything else to actively see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or think.
Just like fuel and oxygen burning to produce flames, when flames appear, it indicates that the burning phenomenon has occurred. There is no need to add an active burner, as the flames are just the result of the interaction between the first two, and the entire burning phenomenon is just the process of fuel + oxygen = flames.
Therefore, whether within or outside consciousness or the body, there is nothing that has the function of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, or thinking. These consciousnesses are all newly generated, independent, non-autonomous, non-living, passively arising natural products that arise from the interaction of the senses and entities. When these consciousnesses arise, it is the act of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, or thinking.
The relationship between them is like that of a television or a movie. When light appears, it signifies the appearance of the program content; they are two sides of the same coin. Consciousness is the same. When visual consciousness arises, it is the arising of what is seen; when auditory consciousness arises, it is the arising of what is heard; when other consciousness arises, it is the arising of what is known. They are two sides of the same coin.
However, people are ignorant of this and mistakenly divide consciousness into two parts, believing that consciousness is one thing and its content is another, connected by the function of perception. This leads to the illusion that consciousness can perceive entities.
Based on this illusion, most people consider the perceived entities as real, while others believe that the perceived entities are false, illusory, and so on. Regardless of whether the perceived entities are considered real or false, these viewpoints are built on the illusion that consciousness or something else can perceive entities.
Upāsikā Kee Nanayon: The Pure Present
We have to catch sight of the sensation of knowing when the mind gains knowledge of anything and yet isn’t aware of itself, to see how it latches onto things: physical form, feeling, perceptions, thought-fabrications, and consciousness. We have to probe on in and look on our own. We can’t use the teachings we’ve memorized to catch sight of these things. That won’t get us anywhere at all. We may remember, “The body is inconstant,” but even though we can say it, we can’t see it.
We have to pay attention inside to see exactly how the body is inconstant, to see how it changes. And we have to pay attention to feelings, pleasant, painful, and neutral, to see how they change. The same holds true with perceptions, thought-fabrications, and so forth. We have to pay attention them, investigate them, contemplate them to see their characteristics as they actually are. Even if you can see these things for only a moment, it’ll do you a world of good. You’ll be able to catch yourself: The things you thought you knew, you didn’t really know at all.…This is why the knowledge we gain in the practice has to keep changing through many, many levels. It doesn’t stay on just one level.
So even when you’re able to know arising and disbanding with every moment right in the present: If your contemplation isn’t continuous, it won’t be very clear. You have to know how to contemplate the bare sensation of arising and disbanding, simply arising and disbanding, without any labels of “good” or “bad.” Just keep with the pure sensation of arising and disbanding. When you do this, other things will come to intrude, but no matter how they intrude, it’s still a matter of arising and disbanding, so you can keep your stance with arising and disbanding in this way.
If you start labeling things, it gets confusing. All you need to do is keep looking at the right spot: the bare sensation of arising and disbanding. Simply make sure that you really keep watch of it. Whether there’s awareness of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, or tactile sensations, just stay with the sensation of arising and disbanding. Don’t go labeling the sight, sound, smell, taste, or tactile sensation. If you can keep watch in this way, you’re with the pure present, and there won’t be any issues.
When you keep watch in this way, you’re keeping watch on inconstancy, on change, as it actually occurs, because even the arising and disbanding changes. It’s not the same thing arising and disbanding all the time. First this sort of sensation arises and disbands, then that sort arises and disbands. If you keep watch on bare arising and disbanding like this, you’re sure to arrive at insight. But if you keep watch with labels, “That’s the sound of a cow,” “That’s the bark of a dog”, you won’t be watching the bare sensation of sound, the bare sensation of arising and disbanding. As soon as there’s labeling, thought-fabrications come along with it. Your senses of touch, sight, hearing, and so forth will continue their bare arising and disbanding, but you won’t know it. Instead, you’ll label everything, sights, sounds, etc., and then there will be attachments, feelings of pleasure and displeasure, and you won’t know the truth.
The truth keeps going along on its own. Sensations keep arising and then disbanding. If we pay attention right here, at the consciousness of the bare sensation of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations, we’ll be able to gain insight quickly.…
If we know how to observe things in this way, we’ll be able to see easily when the mind is provoked by passion or greed, and even more easily when it’s provoked by anger. As for delusion, that’s something more subtle… something you have to take a great interest in and investigate carefully. You’ll come to see all sorts of hidden things, how the mind is covered with many, many layers of film. It’s really fascinating. But then that’s what insight meditation is for, to open your eyes so that you can know and see, so that you can destroy your delusion and ignorance.
Linmu: Conciousness and the Eight Fold Path
From the article above, we can determine the following:
- Regardless of the existence of the external world or the nature of external things, it is all meaningless to us because we lack the ability to explore external things, and we cannot even know if there is an external world. What we know is merely the consciousness arising from things and our senses. Our consciousness contains the entire world we know, or in other words, everything we know belongs to the realm of consciousness.
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Just as burning is a phenomenon produced by conditions, people often say fire burns wood, but in reality, fire and burning are just popular expressions for the intense reaction between wood and oxygen, and there is no factual truth that fire can burn wood. Awareness is similar; there is no factual truth that anything can be aware of something. Awareness itself is a phenomenon produced by senses and things.
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Consciousness is an instantaneous phenomenon, like light, sound, shadows, etc., it does not stay, cannot be preserved, constantly changes, and is inconsistent. Since everything we know belongs to the realm of consciousness, the world we know will also not stay, cannot be preserved, constantly changes, and is inconsistent, like light, sound, shadows, etc. If everyone understands these three points, we can move on.
First, let's look at an animated picture.
This animated picture has a characteristic where each word appears briefly and then disappears. Therefore, to understand what this picture is saying, one needs to focus attention on the picture and not miss any new word that appears. After reading the entire animated picture word by word without missing any, if we remember the words we saw and engage in some recall thinking, these words will connect in our minds to form a sentence, and we will understand the meaning of the whole sentence.
The arising of consciousness is like the appearance of these words; continuously arising consciousness is like these continuously appearing words; the consciousness produced within a period of time is like the words appearing within that period; people's understanding of a period of consciousness is like their understanding of a piece of text.
As we mentioned earlier, consciousness contains the entire world we know, so our understanding of the world is actually an understanding of consciousness. If we want to truly know the truth of the whole world, we should first truly know the truth of our consciousness internally.
If everyone can understand up to this point, then everything is simple. Just like truly knowing the animated picture earlier, to truly know consciousness or the world, we must first know every consciousness without missing any, which is called "Right Knowledge." Secondly, to understand the consciousness within a period of time, we must not forget any of the consciousness that occurred during that period, which is called "Right Mindfulness." Right Knowledge and Right Mindfulness together are called "Right Mindfulness." Not missing any consciousness arising internally, not forgetting any consciousness, fully and firmly and continuously intent on Right Knowledge and Right Mindfulness is called "Right Concentration."
The principles understood during Right Concentration, such as what is seen, understood, and grasped, represent true wisdom, called "Right View." The principles contained in Right View regarding the operation of consciousness, body, mind, and the whole world are known as "Dependent Origination."
The inclinations, plans, decisions, resolutions, aspirations, and willpower that arise from Right View are known as "Right Intention." The bodily and verbal actions driven by Right Intention are "Right Action," "Right Livelihood," and "Right Speech."
The internal actions that occur include Right Mindfulness and right concentration. The efforts made to generate all these good, true thoughts and actions, and to eliminate all unwholesome, wrong thoughts and actions, are known as "Right Effort." Through Right Effort, people continuously practice Right Knowledge and Right Mindfulness, leading to Right Concentration.
The complete and true understanding of the operational principles of consciousness seen during Right Concentration will continuously generate Right View. From Right View, Right Intention arises continuously, which leads to continually deciding to practice correct bodily and verbal actions and more Right Knowledge and Right Mindfulness. The continuous Right Knowledge and Right Mindfulness prolong Right Concentration, leading to more Right View... In this way, the eightfold path, like a snowball, enhances people's abilities of will, diligence, memory, intention, and wisdom.
When these five abilities are strong enough, one can be fully aware of every consciousness without missing any and completely eliminate ignorance of the operational principles of consciousness and even the entire world. If people can completely eliminate ignorance, all actions, including thoughts, will cease. In the previous article, we mentioned that thoughts are like heat and stimulate the production of consciousness from senses and things. When all thoughts cease, all consciousness ceases to arise.
Therefore, for those seeking liberation, they should possess right knowledge and right mindfulness, not be negligent, persist until personally verifying the cessation of all consciousness, knowing liberation, and realizing Nirvana.
Then to Moggallana the wanderer, as he heard this Dhamma exposition, there arose the dustless, stainless Dhamma eye: Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation.
Mv 123