Emptiness by Guy Armstrong

Author:Guy Armstrong
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

GIVING NO ATTENTION TO SIGNS

In the next discourse in that text, the Buddha explains the essence of this abiding: “to enter and abide in emptiness internally by giving no attention to all signs.”12 Sign (Pali: nimitta) can mean a sense object (like the sight of a bird), something being perceived about an object (the bird’s red wing), or the characteristic of an object by which we notice it (the bird’s speed in flight). In all these cases it points to a sense experience that can become the focus of our attention. But the Buddha’s instruction here for abiding in emptiness is not to give attention to any signs that appear. We can abide in emptiness, he teaches, by withdrawing our mental energy and attention away from sense objects.

Why is this important? Because every form of suffering arises from an over-involved relationship with sense objects. When we examined the chain of dependent origination in chapter 5, we saw how attachment is born from the sequence contact-feeling-craving-clinging. That attachment, which we’ve also described as selfing, leads inevitably to suffering, whether subtle or gross. The root of suffering, then, is a kind of “overreaction” to the experience of sense contact. When we deliberately refrain from giving added attention to sense objects, we take away the ground that supports suffering.

When we stop focusing attention on signs, we acknowledge that sense doors and objects cannot bring lasting happiness. If we withdraw our fixation on signs during meditation, moment by moment, we turn away from constantly seeking gratification from sense objects. We make this shift not because sense objects are “bad” or unwholesome, but because we acknowledge their limitations — they cannot satisfy us deeply. We turn away from them out of wisdom. Letting go of the habit of looking for happiness in pleasurable sense experiences is a powerful act of renunciation. Shifting our attention this way is a karmic action that leads in only one direction: to the end of karma, or liberation. This practice has a powerful and onward-leading effect.

If you cease giving attention to sense objects during meditation, what would you then be aware of? That’s best left to each meditator’s own discovery, though we will revisit this question in the section on awareness. It does not, however, mean you’ve retreated from the world or into the oblivion of unawareness. In this same discourse, the Buddha points out that while abiding in emptiness, he was still able to meet and talk with people — monks, nuns, lay followers, kings, and kings’ ministers. One time Ajahn Jumnien, a forest master from Thailand, was visiting Spirit Rock in California. Although he was in his sixties, he taught enthusiastically all day and didn’t seem tired in the evening. Someone asked how he did this, and he replied, “I live in emptiness, so I don’t get tired.” Ajahn Jumnien had found that abiding described by the Buddha so that he could rest inwardly while still interacting with students and the world.

There are many references from modern masters to the importance of this approach.

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