For a person who
chooses to practice Vipassana meditation in the tradition of S. N. Goenka and
teachers of his lineage, mindfulness is a central component of an integrated, well-rounded practice. Mindfulness is not utilized
as an isolated entity, but as
a guiding feature
of a full meditation that leads to wisdom and growth
on the path to liberation.
It is as if an outdoorsman were setting up his tent in
the White Mountains of New Hampshire. He must carefully loop every corner to a
stake, and snugly rope every flap to a firmly embedded tent peg. The tent
stands aloft and secure as an integrated whole. If one corner is loose, or one
flap pendulous, the wind will play upon it, rattle and loosen it, and in the
middle of the night the tent will begin to shimmy, flap wildly, and eventually
collapse. The tent is useful if the
outdoorsman understands and properly balances
the interconnections of its parts.
No single feature, no matter how tightly strung,
can hold aloft
a tent. Similarly, mindfulness strengthens a
meditator who properly understands its connections to the other features of
Vipassana, and who keeps them in balance.
It is as if an outdoorswoman were hiking the Appalachian
Trail from Georgia to Maine.
Only if she understands the nature
of the trail—its mud, rocks, streams, and steep inclines—will she select
the sturdy, water-repellent boots that the hike calls
for. To avoid the blisters or frozen feet that drive so many hikers off the
trail, she needs insight into what the long trek entails. Similarly, mindfulness without
insight will not outfit a meditator for the long journey of wisdom.
Mindfulness has
a specific meaning within the context of Vipassana meditation. It means
awareness and understanding of the arising and passing nature
of every sensation within us. This particular understanding of mindfulness will interconnect properly with the other practices that
constitute the Path, like one part of a well-constructed tent,
and will also allow long distance,
lifelong progress, like well-chosen hiking boots.
Mindfulness as
an aspect of Vipassana is different from focused attention on external
objects or tasks.
A criminal breaking into a first floor window is
focused and intensely concentrated, highly aware of every slightest movement and gesture,
but he is not practicing mindfulness.
A sniper on a rooftop in a war
torn city is alert, aware, intensely activated and keenly
attentive, but his activity
will not lead him forward on the path taught by the Buddha. Their attention
lacks moral intention, self-awareness, and insight into nature’s fundamental
laws.
Mindfulness for
progress in Vipassana means attention directed
inward towards sensations with the goal of understanding impermanence and
cultivating an ethical and loving life. Mindful apprehension of sensations
elevates into consciousness the basis of the previously unconsciously developed
false sense of self. Our bodies
and minds are constantly interacting. The mind is incessantly receiving myriad sensations from the body.
When this interaction is unconscious, the result is the common
human delusion that we inhabit, or consist of, an enduring
entity, a self. Many of the sensations, which
underlie this misperception, are subtle, and not easily available to our
consciousness awareness without practice.
Mindfulness as the active engine of Vipassana is the effort to
concentrate, to re-focus, to persevere, in establishing and re-establishing full awareness by the mind of bodily
sensations, gross and subtle, with which it is constantly interacting, and through this conscious, mindful awareness,
to realize that every sensation and the entire self is impermanent.
The
realization of impermanence that derives from right mindfulness reveals that
the self is a static concept imposed upon a dynamic
rising and passing,
vibrating and changing
field of atoms and molecules. Through this practice, meditators can
experience their own body and mind as part of the shifting
flow of the material
of the universe. Realizing there
is no essence, no self in this on-flowing process, the meditator
naturally cultivates
detachment from the fantasy of self. As detachment arises,
craving for and clinging to the self,
diminishes. As right
mindfulness on the sensation-based direct experience of impermanence and
no-self grows, it is spontaneously accompanied by release
from craving and from aversion for particular sensations. As objectivity
replaces craving and aversion, a sense of freedom and harmony takes their place. The increasingly peaceful and accepting meditator naturally cultivates
fewer negatives states, and finds himself generating love, compassion, and a
desire to serve and spread this helpful liberation.
Mindfulness is the compass
on the path from ignorance and reactivity towards the north pole of equanimity, generosity, and
freedom. The compass itself is incomplete without guidance, effort, commitment,
realization, insight, companions, practice, and experience—the whole path.