[Gem]

Wandering mind II

This post, like that previous, is about wandering mind.

We first need to understand how the Buddhist texts reference 'awareness' of the breath in 2 ways:

The first way is 'mere awareness'. This means just awareness or only awareness (without anything else). I have also heard it called 'pure awareness', 'pure observation', 'just observe', 'non-doing', 'see it as it is' and other things.

The second way is 'ardent awareness'. This means looking closely. Examining, so you know what it is like on a subtler level in more intricate detail.

In addition to 'mere-yet-ardent awareness' there is also 'understanding'. This means examining the feeling with a more nuanced understanding of its underlying/intrinsic nature of change (by being acutely conscious of the detailed way in which it changes).

In the discourses they say 'I know it is a long breath, I know it is a short breath, but that doesn't mean that is all you know. We can know if the breath is long, short, deep, shallow, faster, slower, which nostril it favours etc., and everything about the indescribable detail of its intricate array of subtle changing sensations.

In the discourse there is an analogy to illustrate that we need to observe in the same manner as a highly skilled woodturner (google satipatthana). To do his intricate work, the woodturner fondly devotes all of his attention to his task and takes a calm, confident, careful and familiar approach to his lathe. His attention is finely honed and extremely precise so he knows the exact length, grading and depth of his carves. He has a feel for it right down to the intricate grains of the wood, and his cuts are exactingly precise. That's the manner in which breath is observed. With complete attention and calm-yet-ardent conscious perception of the most intricate subtleties of the feeling which breath produces.

Approaching the breath in this way we find there is a subtle yet profound difference between 'focus on breath' with 'mere awareness' and honing in with 'ardent awareness' to discover as much as possible about what the sensation is like, while also gaining a more thorough and refined understanding of its underlying nature.

By honing in like this, you undertake a close examination that requires full ardent attention, and this is the best way to not only increase attention span, but to also enhance your sensitive perception and begin to penetrate through the physical and become aware of subtler and subtler levels.

Hence, Buddha summed up by defining the meditation as "ardent with awareness and constant thorough understanding of impermanence, observing sensations in sensations, having removed aversion and craving towards the world".