Buddha Is as Buddha Does by Surya Das

Author:Surya Das
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

WHAT BUDDHISTS BELIEVE: VARIETIES OF MINDFULNESS AND LEVELS OF MEDITATION

Basically, meditation means the intentional use of attention as applied to this very moment: to whatever is arising in the body-mind field of consciousness. According to Tibetan Buddhist tradition, there are four kinds of mindfulness. First comes average mindfulness—the attention that springs naturally and spontaneously through our own interest in a particular person, situation, or phenomenon. For the most part, it’s concerned with worldly matters and lasts as long as the interest itself. The second kind is cultivated or generated mindfulness—the type that we intentionally apply to particular objects of awareness in order to stabilize or deepen our understanding of them. This can be considered the general practice of mindfulness: a highly focused and alert presence of mind free from judgment, evaluation, reactivity. The third kind is abiding mindfulness: the well-trained mind is sufficiently tamed to rest naturally, without wavering, wherever it is focused. Accomplished meditation masters can sustain this kind of concentrated or one-pointed mindfulness for hours, days, or even longer, uninterrupted by distractions. The fourth is Dharmakaya mindfulness, or innate wakefulness, where awareness itself remains undistracted from its own nature. In other words, there is no observer “I” noticing awareness within our consciousness, nor can anything within or outside our consciousness diffuse its energy. My teacher said that there are “no arisings, alterations, or conditioning in this pristine state of innate awareness. All is luminously clear and serene.”

This fourth and ultimate kind of mindfulness is not acquired through practice. Instead, it is already present within us, and we come to realize it as a result of cultivating the other three kinds of mindfulness. As the true essential nature of the mind, it is regarded as being the ground as well as the fruit of practice. The other parts are the growth or the pathway connecting the ground and the fruit. The catalyst for this growth, the force that moves us along the way, is meditation.

In the paramita wisdom literature of Buddhism, it is said that dhyana paramita, the transformative practice of meditation, has three levels. The first level involves meditative concentration on an object, without regard to purpose, motivation, or any moral issues. This level is called worldly concentration, and it’s not unlike the concentration developed by a sharpshooter or the focus demonstrated by a watchful cat perched in silence near a mouse hole. Buddhists might cultivate it, for example, by concentrating on a candle flame, a mantra, or the breath. The second level is called altruistic concentration. Here the intention and attention are directed toward benefiting others through compassion and selfless service. Buddhists cultivate it not only through being simply mindful of other people’s welfare but also through focusing on acting mindfully and compassionately to help others. The third and most profound level of meditation is called wisdom meditation: at this level, the mind sees both the unconditioned, unconditional emptiness of everything (sunyata) and the vividly apparent, dreamlike nature of reality, the true nature of things. This is the naked awareness that brings with it pure presence.

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