VIPASSANA AND ATTENTION
Vipassana has nothing directly to do with what is happening to you every day. It deals with what has since your birth, and even before in part, been stored in memory as a set of debilitating viruses. It works upon past stored memory traces and uses the operations of Cognition, Perception, Consciousness and Memory itself.
If we were to take a look at what is happening during any type of sensing (including thinking) then we would find that there is a continual chain of attention taking place. That chain, starting from a state of REPOSE, consists of ALERT leading to CAPTURE and then the important state of ONE- POINTEDNESS. When that one-pointedness occurs there is a yoking to the apparent target and we say that there is first APPLIED ATTENTION and then SUSTAINED ATTENTION.
THE PATH OF THE PROCESSES
The flow of processing is from the IRRITATION (stimulus) to the Screen of Consciousness.
The Mirror of Consciousness, which represents the sense doors, includes three parts:
1. The sense door irritation (Stimulus)
2. The substance of the mirror
3. The essence of sensing (Pure Sensation)
The essence of sensing is like the reflective coating on the mirror's back.
ATTENTION
This mirror is not a static thing at all and it represents not just the visual sense but all the sense doors (vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch and thought.) It is operated by physical orientation so that it can be directed to a suspected irritation:
1. Repose
2. Alert: a search is required
3. Orientation: Find (Becoming)
Once the target has been detected, then there is an operation of detailed penetration on the object found. Within meditation it is the DEVICE, and the normal process of repeated captures is delayed.
4. Capture of the Device
5. Uni-directional operation (Concentration)
6. Applied Attention
7. Sustained Attention
It is that state of the SUSTAINED ATTENTION which follows the APPLIED ATTENTION, after normal one-pointedness towards an object takes place, that is important for us in Vipassana. That sustained attention we call MINDFULNESS. That Mindfulness is normally applied but not sustained for more than a moment and moves from concept to concept and object to object.
We must be careful here not to confuse that term "Mindfulness" in its sustained state with the Mindfulness which is very important within Chan and Dao Contemplations, for this Pure Mindfulness within the Chan and Dao Contemplations has no object.
We can speak then of Pure Mindfulness, Full Sustained Mindfulness and Sustained Mindfulness. In Vipassana we use a Full Sustained Mindfulness upon the Contemplation Device, without entering into the Uni-directional operation of One-Pointedness.
It is as though the Vipassana Meditation eliminates the One-Pointedness of daily concentration. The meditation then takes place at some moment in the Orientation towards the Meditation Device and continues through with sustained attention.
THE MEDITATION SERIES:
1. Repose
2. Alert and an establishment of Mindfulness of Breathing and Defensive Qi
3. Orientation: Find (Becoming) the Totality of Mind and Body as one
Once established the target is automatically detected with a detailed unconscious penetration on the Device.
4. Capture of the Device
5. Applied attention: Reflection upon the Device
6. Sustained Attention: Absorption of the Device
The processes of 3, 4 and 5 we consider as taking place within the Becoming of Consciousness and the Sustained Attention as the actual Contemplation of Absorption of Vipassana. But remember that this is just a model and within nature there are no arbitrary divisions, just the unfolding of processes.
If that becoming of Consciousness is maintained then an unnatural stress or tension is developed (because normally in normal waking operation there is a rapid One-Pointedness).
This tension becomes intolerable for the system, so it searches for something to Capture.
The DEVICE, through the pre-programming, is available and so the Reflection and Absorption take place. Furthermore, the DISCERNMENTS then begin.
AN IMPORTANT UNDERSTANDING
In everyday apparent existence irritations (stimuli) impinge upon our senses. The information-gathering operations begin and we believe that we are in direct contact with that external world with our minds.
That is not the case. Every conscious impression is derived from what is stored in Memory. Thus we only at best manage to capture what is stored as previous experiences. Thus we can say that there really is no PRESENT, but only REFLECTIONS of past events which are only illusions.
The Reflections rise from the mind, are sustained and then fall away.
In the Patisambhida magga the rising (udaya) and the falling away (vaya) are explained, and we see that prior to the arising of the aggregate of mind that we believe exists there was no original. There are no objects of the senses stored in a new-born child, only undifferentiated light is detected.
There is no arising from an original accumulation and what falls away does not return to an original accumultion. There is available a memory of experiences together with applied names and concepts, which is modified when new experiences occur.
Thus, in Vipassana we are interested only in what has been previously stored and not in the new external experiences of the moment.
Thus, Reflections are drawn from conscious experiences and Absorptions reveal the unconscious related experiences.
REFLECTION
The entry of the Contemplation DEVICE within the Becoming of Consciousness takes place within Orientation and the first task of all forms of meditation is to use this zone, establishing the meditation there without permitting the normal stream of associations to take place.
In the meditation called CONCENTRATION, for example, a target is previously selected and one-pointed attention directed upon it and sustained. REFLECTION is established by way of COGNITIVE DIRECTION and takes place within this zone of the Becoming of Consciousness.
This REFLECTION influences the subconscious processes, memory and what is loosely termed "intuition."
Nyanaponika Thera declared, "insight will be nourished not only through external experience (retrievable conscious experiences from memory, REFLECTIONS) but also from the underground subliminal resources of the mind, by memories, other subconscious material, and by the strengthened faculty of intuition (ABSORPTIONS)."
He further described the process as being like "the mountain lake that is fed not only from without by the rains, but also by springs welling up from its own depth."
In many Vipassana courses, they only teach REFLECTIONS upon the first of the FOUR FOUNDATIONS OF MINDFULNESS, but we recomend reaching further into the mind of higher consciousness using a true ABSORPTION upon these FOUR FOUNDATIONS, which are the BODY, SENSATIONS, DISCRIMINATIONS, THE MIND and THE CONTENTS OF MIND.
ABSORPTION
However, with the addition of ABSORPTION, we attain a greater clarity in three ways:
1. Operations within absorption that through sustained application sink into the unconscious and have a stronger impact upon the mental processes by reason of their characteristic features having great strength.
2. The impressions or ideas will not be easily pulled into a stained subconscious maze or joined in error into inappropriate subconscious associations with only superficial association bonds.
3. The correct comprehension of the information retrieved from memory and placed into Cognition will have greater resistance to any form of merging with previous stained traces, by virtue of the certain knowledge that all thoughts and apparently material phenomena arise not from the external world, but from within.
RISING FROM EMPTINESS AND FALLING AWAY
During both the REFLECTION and ABSORPTION meditations of VIPASSANA the principal task is to note that every element retrieved from memory is "known" to have been generated by the mind and comes into being within this Becoming of Consciousness when its Form and Name (nama rupa) are present within CONSCIOUSNESS.
When REFLECTION is the task then that "knowing" is cognitive. When ABSORPTION is the task then that "knowing" is subliminal and more indelible. We can say that these Names and Forms arising from memory appear to arise from EMPTINESS. This is not the EMPTINESS which we attribute cognitively to the absence of CHARACTERISTICS, nor the EMPTINESS which is the experience of higher states of consciousness.
The important factor here is that when phenomena are "seen" as arising from an apparent emptiness (one truth) then that phenomenon which is an illusion appearing to be real (the second truth) no longer has the cognitive or conscious label of being real and separate from all other phenomena.
In the Reflective Meditations this takes place within the Becoming of Consciousness (which is the base state of the meditation). It is Cognition which controls the sustained application. In the Absorption of Vipassana, during the Becoming of Consciousness there is no direct Cognitive sustained attention. This difference will become clear as we pass to the teachings of the various meditation stages.
THE BECOMING OF CONSCIOUSNESS
THIS BECOMING OF CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE DEPARTURE POINT FOR ALL TRADITIONAL MEDITATIONS AND CONTEMPLATIONS OF BUDDHA DHARMA AND DAO.
The Becoming of Consciousness is best known as that point immediately experienced as Identity as it comes into being but it is also known as that moment when Consciousness first comes into being.
But the becoming of consciousness is not a single event, for Identity is continually being reshaped, so as far as Identity is concerned it is that moment when a change of Identity takes place. Similarly, it is the moment when consciousness of any cognitive trace or event, natural or stained, comes into being.
You can see then that this point of "becoming" is, in and of itself, neither stained nor can it be said to be unstained. It simply is what it is and the maturing of that state determines its later evolution (sensation, discrimination and perception) as being stained or not.
The Becoming then of Consciouness is actually related to the penultimate point in the chain of unstainable attention.
From a passive state the series is:
Alertness... detection of an Irritation... moving the detecting senses to that area in space... detecting the specific irritation and finally fixating on that point.
As a young child my Grandfather presented me with a problem. He drew a line upon the floor and told me to jump over it. After I had done so he asked where I was when I jumped.
I pointed to one side of the line. "No," he replied, "that was where you were before you jumped." That was clear, so I pointed to the other side. "No," was the reply, "that was where you were after you jumped".
The solution was clear. It had to be when I was in the air. I said so and was informed, "No, that was where you were during the jumping."
The "Becoming of Consciousness" is that almost undefinable point which cannot be observed until it is extended for a moment. It is only when it is sustained for that moment that you really know it is there.
It is in that area that the topic of Concentration is applied so that Concentration proceeds in the meditative direction. It is also the point where the topics of Contemplation are applied, which direct the processes to an even higher level of consciousness.
Developing, stabilizing and extending in time that are of the "Becoming of Consciousness" is important for all concentrations and contemplations for a higher state of experience. We call that "Dwelling in the State of Becoming."
But the human system is not used to this dwelling in the becoming of consciousness because his/her mind is agitated and is always seeking the objects of desire to satisfy the Identities of Confusion, Acquisitiveness, Aversion and Anxiety about future outcomes.
SLOWING AND STOPPING THE IMPEDIMENTS TO MEDITATION
There are Buddha Dharma ways to combat these events when they arise as impediments to meditation or contemplation, but here we are concerned with preventive medicine.
So what we do is allow the most simple concentration on a body function that requires sufficient concentration without leading to chains of thought.
We then must diligently maintain that concentration in the far background with just sufficient strength to be maintained without being lost or falling away. It is not easy, but it can be accomplished with patience, calmness, determination and perseverance. All without striving... let it happen.
The physiological event that is perfect for this is the act of breathing.
We cannot avoid BREATHING because it is there and we do not need to form it, for nature does that nicely. So that point of concentration that makes it impossible for distractions to enter is the Concentration upon Breathing...
Actually, it is the concentration upon the Qi Defense of tact, which occurs at the nostrils when breathing takes place, or alternatively on the Qi Defence of Tactile detection of movements of the diaphragm.
Too much concentration does not work, nor too little. The attention must be directed like the alighting of a butterfly and then maintained.
That is how the "becoming of Consciousness" is attained and sustained so that the concentrations and contemplations can automatically be initiated.
AUTOMATIC INITIATION OF MEDITATION TASKS
Now how are CONCENTRATION, ABSORPTION, PENETRATION and CONTEMPLATION tasks automatically initiated?
We must pre-program the path which the system will elect after being held in a suspended state for some time.
This pre-programming requires:
1. A clear understanding of the task and may be considered like a DVD of instructions which can be inserted into the "time-space" of the Becoming of Consciousness.
2. A form of pre-preparation which may be considered as an imaginative reproduction of the perfect meditation in which you are a "virtual" participant.
WHY DOES THIS WORK?
It works because the sustaining process is extended for a long period. The normal process allows a chain of sustained moments. When this chain is stopped (except for the breathing awareness sustained as a background) there arises tension within the system which finally erupts and directs the system to follow what has been set out in the labelled and prepared CD (Contemplation Device).
This Becoming of Consciouness is not in and of itself an EMPTINESS, for as well as the breathing task in the background a "whole body sensory awareness" is maintained. This whole body sensory awareness is known as DEFENSIVE QI and it prevents the particularization of any of the body senses.
THE MEDITATION SERIES
The meditation series then consists in the following:
1. Preparing the DEVICE
2. Establishing Pre-preparation in sessions apart from the actual meditation.
3. The Pre Meditation:
a. Breathing task
b. Establishing the Defensive Qi
c. Sustaining the Attention thus generating an extended Becoming of Consciousness
d. Generating the REFLECTION series which is cognitively directed
or
Generating the ABSORPTION series which is automatically directed by the pre-preparation and the unconscious DEVICE application.
VIPASSANA AND THE CHAN ADEPT
Why are the Vipassana teachings so important to a Chan adept? It is because we are now living in an age where the Dharma teachings are being debilitated on one hand and the temptations of our new civilization are increasing day by day.
In the early days of Dao and Chan those attracted were not impulsed by a wish to reduce or eliminate their suffering, nor were they trying to find a better life or a Great Awakening. They saw the hollowness of all human life, just as Buddha himself saw his life as repulsive. These first Buddha Dharma followers wanted to grasp and understand the Truth, whatever that was. They left their homes and palaces (few were middle-class or poor) to follow the Dharma Path as presented by Buddha.
Few today take a homeless path and few are simply searching for some truth. Today, the majority want to find a way to use what is apparently transcendental and apply it to their normal lives like an elixir. They stand with one foot in the stained Samsara fooling themselves into believing that the spiritual delusions in their heads will bring "healthy living," solving worldly problems.
For the ealy Buddha Dharma followers, following the Dharma Path was the most important thing in their lives. Dharma Path students today do not apply the teachings in a manner which reflects this attitude.
As a result, the majority that attempt to capture the way of Dao and Chan are unprepared, for their Identity is too strong. Where the early Dao and Chan followers succeeded, they fail. The important task then is to at least teach those who wish to follow the Dao and Chan path how to vanquish the Identity symptoms.
That then becomes our task here in this VIPASSANA JIVITINDRIYA section.
The intention is to give general guidelines that may assist in a fuller understanding of true Vipassana.