When I entered Weepasa's room the next morning, he asked me to sit down. He
wasted no time, and immediately began talking about insight: "Insight results
from a concentrated mind that is aware of everything it comes in contact with,
but it clings to nothing. Insight is not a focused concentration centered the
breath in the nose or the breath in the solar plexus. Insight is an open
awareness that is bright and expansive, where you will notice everything that
enters your consciousness, but you will hold onto nothing. Insight is an
intense, open concentration of the sense fields where you will wait in eager
anticipation of anything that might appear.
When something does make
contact, your awareness will be so refined that whatever emerges is immediately
reflected back to where it arose, as if your mind is a clear looking glass
retaining nothing. Nothing, absolutely nothing is held in the mind. Pay close
attention to these instructions, because without insight, you will be as
defenseless as a rabbit when you meet the dragon."
"But why have I spent
years concentrating on my nose and solar plexus," I asked, confused. "Why didn't
I just start with this open awareness you talk about in the beginning?"
"Because the breath is one of only a handful of special concentration
objects that lead to the mastering of the Great Calms," he replied.
"Concentrating on a tree, a candle, or the moon will never develop the Calms,
and if your goal is the key, these Calms must be mastered first before going on
to investigation and insight practice. You could never maintain your mind as a
clear mirror without them, and if the calms are not mastered, then the
investigation and insight will be weak instead of profound, and total liberation
will be impossible."
I had to admit that exceptional changes had
occurred within me that could have never taken place without the calms. The
calms, as well as investigation, were incredibly powerful.
"Therefore,"
he continued, "the training you will receive here is a refinement of the
preliminary powers of concentration and investigation which had to be developed
first. Now I will move you to insight where your object of concentration will be
whatever freely comes into your consciousness. Here, you will open your mind and
let everything and anything flow in, not choosing, rejecting or desiring
anything. Can you see the difference between insight and concentration?"
"I am a bit confused," I admitted.
"Yes, I know." Weepasa
responded, Allow me put it this way; Concentration involves focusing your mind
on a narrow, single object. Insight involves an expansion of your mind. When
practicing insight, your mind will remain a clear, bright mirror with no agenda,
there is no choosing of what to narrowly consider; everything is welcomed. You
will be aware of what you are thinking and know every thought, but beyond that,
you will know the knower who is watching all the thoughts, emotions, and
feelings. You will sense the slightest movement of mind - each and every
thought, and the depth of every emotion, but you won't hold them.
"A
delicate balance is involved here, for the mind must think, just as the heart
must beat, but now you will see every moment of the mind. Likewise, all physical
feelings of emotion - the pain, the joy, the contentment - these will be
permitted to continue until they exhaust themselves as they always will, but
they will be monitored as well. Watch them dispassionately, with no judgment
against or desire for.
You are now free to allow the mind and emotions
to drift where they may, but you will be aware of every little tug and pull.
Make no analyses of the thoughts or emotions that appear, merely watch and wait,
and if nothing is there, just abide in that silent place that occurs between all
the activity; the place from which everything arises. Don't make the beginner's
mistake of thinking; What am I feeling right now?" Questioning yourself like
this involves conscious thinking and is incorrect practice. Concentration and
investigation practice involved somebody' doing something; somebody going
to an object and staying concentrated on it, or somebody investigating
something. In insight practice, that somebody disappears. There is no going or
looking, there is only what arises. There is just being.'
What was he
saying? "That I shouldn't try to think nor try not to think? Just sit?" This
seemed too simple, not much different from normal thinking, but was it really
the same? No, as I thought about it, it wasn't. I could now see that it was far
beyond that.
"What I am explaining is sustained, uninterrupted, and
non-discriminatory mindfulness," said the master. "If the mindfulness is broken,
you will never attain insight. Only this sustained, unbroken awareness will
bring about the penetrating, non-discriminating concentration required to reveal
the no self,' or the emptiness of the mental and physical processes. This is
what we do here.
Unfortunately, the things of which I speak are
unintelligible to those who have not experienced the inner work. How could they
begin to understand the immensity of the Great Source within us?"
He was
certainly correct. If someone would have stopped me in the streets of my kingdom
before the wars and said, "You are not mindful!" I would have called them a fool
and thrown them in the dungeons. I of course always thought that I was extremely
mindful. But that kind of mindfulness was different, entirely a product of my
intellect, and now I understood the difference. For some reason, it had taken me
a long time to grasp all of this, for I could never comprehend spiritual things
quickly and had to plod along. Fortunately, I was endowed with a certain amount
of stubbornness that apparently is required in the beginning of this work for
people like me, that saw me through, but I could already see that at some point,
surrender was inevitable and the stubbornness had to go. ( To be
continued)
E. Raymond Rock of Fort Myers, Florida is cofounder and principal teacher at
the Southwest Florida Insight Center, http://www.SouthwestFloridaInsightCenter.comHis twenty-nine years of meditation experience has taken him across four
continents, including two stopovers in Thailand where he practiced in the remote
northeast forests as an ordained Theravada Buddhist monk. His book, A Year to
Enlightenment (Career Press/New Page Books) is now available at major bookstores
and online retailers. Visit http://www.AYearToEnlightenment.com
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
