The Cessation of Mind and Awareness
The Difference between the Conditioned and the Awakened Mind
Jhana and Nibbana
The Transition from View-Root to Experience-Root
The Basic Ground of Pure Awareness, Buddha Nature, The Clear Light
The ‘I-Maker’
[Discourse given on a 7 day Vipassana Retreat December 2019]
The Difference between the Conditioned and the Awakened Mind
A Brief Note on Mind.
Before we go further I want to clarify the terminology used throughout these discourses. The Buddha used a number of terms to denote various aspects of our conscious experience. Having separated reality out into the material and conscious aspect of the universe, he thereafter goes on to teach us to breakdown our perception of the compactness within both so we can see clearly how each is made up, how it functions and what it is conditioned by.
In his treatment of consciousness he sometimes separates out the process of direct cognition or conscious awareness by which the experience is simply known as it is, from the process by which we accumulate a conditioned personal perspective and perception that creates, over time, the illusory, though compelling sense or feeling that there is a self or 'me' at the heart of the experience. It is this aspect of consciousness that here will be called 'mind'. By mind I will be referring to the process of 'I-making' that conditions our perception of reality and stops us seeing it as it truly is.
One of the reasons I think that many Westerners may find it difficult to make deep progress with both Samatha and Vipassana is because initially we don't have a particularly clear understanding of the way that consciousness functions. We grow up learning the physiology of the brain and associate the mind with the processing that's going on in the brain.
But not only that, we tend to come to the assumption that the mind is the fundamental ground of our being. We assume that it is our mind that is having our experience, when in reality the experience itself is arising within Awareness and the mind is merely a process that we add to the experience, colouring, conditioning and distorting our perception of it. Now, the further we progress down the path of meditation, the more we come to realise that the mind itself neither enters into the culmination of our practice of Samatha (as genuine samadhi or unified concentration) nor does it experience cessation, which is the culmination of our practice of Vipassana. In fact it is the mind that comes to cessation in the process of awakening and in the absence of which our experience of awakening reveals itself.
Jhana and Nibbana
The state of genuine concentration that we call samadhi (or jhana or unification) is marked by the momentary non-arising of our ordinary conditioned mind together with the illusory sense of self that it generates. Later in this text we will look at the mechanics of what is happening within consciousness during these experiences of samadhi. Furthermore the process by which we come to see Nibbana (which is the end goal of Vipassana) is likewise marked by the coming to cessation of that very mind that we have erroneously identified as the ground of our being. Clearly we do not come to a state of annihilation with the realisation of Nibbana. Emerging from the experience of the unconditioned state, there comes a recognition that what was previously not known has been known. So the key question is: what comes to cessation in the experience of Nibbana and what knows the experience of coming to cessation?
Let us get this right at the beginning so we are not tap dancing around and thinking that we're looking for something we're not. The Buddha states that “All conditioned states are impermanent, all conditioned states are suffering.” He isn't saying that the experience, or even the awareness of the experience itself is suffering, he is pointing out that it is the appearing of the conditioned mind within the experience that makes it suffering or unsatisfactory. So what then does he mean by the conditioned mind? What is that mind that by coming to cessation brings to an end our suffering.
There are two aspects of mind that come to cessation in the awakened experience, which together create the various perceptions of self that the Buddha identifies as the root of our suffering and which his chief disciple Sariputta rather eloquently referred to as the 'I-maker'.
The first of these is the aspect of consciousness that thinks, reflects, imagines, reacts to and identifies with the experience as me or mine. It is important that we are clear from the beginning that this mind is not 'having' the experience but merely adding to or taking from the experience. As such this mind, if and when it arises, is merely a part of the experience, but is in no way innate within or fundamental to the experience. This mind is what creates the delusional ideas of self that we become so intoxicated with and identify erroneously as one aspect of 'me'.
The second aspect of consciousness that comes to cessation within the awakened experience is what the Buddha called 'bhavanga'1. It is this bhavanga consciousness that accumulates all of our conditioning tendencies and which creates the subtler but equally illusory 'sense of self' that we instinctively feel to be at the centre of our experience.
Within the experience of Nibbana both the mind and the material states it produces come to cessation and we know it. That is the experience that brings us to that point of Path Knowledge.
Similarly when we enter into a state of genuine fully absorbed concentration or samadhi, that experience is likewise marked by the momentary cessation of the ordinary conditioned mind together with the sense of self that it generates. The single flavour of both the momentary and causal cessation of suffering is the complete absence of any sense of 'me' or self within the experience.
So if the mind comes to cessation within the experience of both the momentary and the causal cessation of suffering, how then do we come to know these experiences?
As we practise our concentration and enter more and more deeply into absorption, we see ever more clearly as we emerge from these states of absorption that they are marked by the momentary non-arising of our ordinary mind, the one that creates the illusory sense of me. Likewise, when we practise Vipassana, the moment of awakening or Path Knowledge is marked by the coming to cessation of both the 'I- maker' and bhavanga.
Often our instinct, when we start meditating is to try to use the ordinary mechanism by which we instinctively or habitually have tended to apprehend our experience: I look at what's going on in front of me, and I think about it, and I generate a sense of what I think, how I feel about it and there's my subjective experience. I listen to what is being taught, I run it through my spreadsheet of pre-existing perceptions, ideas, views and tendencies, I put it up against everything else I think. I decide how I feel about it and there is my subjective experience.
We run our experiences through our mind. And in the process of running our experiences through our mind, we add our ideas to it, how we feel about it, whether I like it or whether I don't like it. All these ways that we are apprehending and reacting to the experience, we add to the nakedness of the experience itself, and in doing so we distort our perception of it and thus create an idea and sense of 'me' at the centre having experienced it.
As you learned on the foundation retreat, the conceptual mind is simply something we add to our experience. This is so key. If we don't see this at the beginning we are likely to get lost down the rabbit hole of unpicking the mind not recognising that it is the mind in its entirety that we have to free ourselves from. It's very key at the beginning when we're learning our meditation, that we come to a definitive experience by which we clearly see for ourselves, without doubt, that Awareness is one thing and that mind is another. If we can come to the categorical insight that the mind is merely something I've added to my experience, that my mind is not having this experience, then we can take this more direct approach to the path presented here. Such a path stands entirely on experience and not view.
I am not suggesting that everyone will come directly to this ground of understanding as soon as they are introduced to it. And so it may be the case that one may embark upon the path initially being a 'view-rooted' yogi, and at some point along the path have the definitive experience of Awareness as the ground of the experience and mind as merely the elaboration of it. At this point their practice goes beyond view to become 'experience-rooted'.
The Transition from View-Root to Experience-Root
It does need to be understood from the start however, that whether we start out as experience-rooted or view-rooted by nature, at some point each one of us will have to make the transition from view root to experience root. Why is this the case?
Because the process of actual awakening that constitutes Path Knowledge is entirely experiential. Any view we might add about what may have happened to us is merely added upon reflection afterwards. But let's be clear at this point. Awakening is a transformative experience that changes the nature of our being at a functional level.
It is not a view we reach or subscribe to. There is no liberation in the mind. There is only liberation from the mind.
And so having been introduced to the nature of mind, and reaching the definitive experience of the basic ground of pure awareness, we thereafter, in the early stages of our meditation, develop a gradually maturing relationship with that basic ground of Awareness, while we practise both Samatha and Vipassana2.
The Basic Ground of Pure Awareness, Buddha Nature, The Clear Light
This basic ground of pure awareness is called many things in various traditions. It is variously know as 'Rigpa', 'Buddha Nature', 'Basic Ground,' 'Clear Light of Awareness' and in the Abhidhamma it is referred to as 'bhavanga clear mind element'. It doesn't matter what we call it, but throughout this book we will refer to it simply as 'Awareness' or 'pure awareness' to avoid association with any particular tradition.
We thus go on to develop a relationship with Awareness as the basic ground of our experience, and learn to recognise the mind merely as an occasional addition to the experience. In the same way that now I am speaking to you and my voice is an occasional addition to your experience. But when I stop… you're just left with the experience in its nakedness which is that you're just sitting in this room with people you don't know. And that's the experience you're having and then within it, in the same way that I'm adding my voice right now, and now... I'm not. So too while you're sitting there, the experience you are having, in its nakedness and in its entirety is arising within Awareness. Your mind is merely a part of that experience that sometimes you add and sometimes you don't.
Effectively what the Buddha is asking us to do is to leave the experience alone so that it can reveal itself without distortion within the basic space of Awareness itself, as it truly is; free of the elaboration and distorting tendencies of the mind.
The ‘I-Maker’
So this 'I-maker', as the Buddha calls it, is adding to my experience or taking from my experience and it is this very mind that adds and takes that needs to come to cessation for the experience of awakening to happen.
In this way, the nakedness, the true nature of our experience can show itself to us as we learned on our first retreat where we were introduced to the true nature of mind as pure awareness as one thing, and the conditioned mind as another. Right at the beginning it was pointed out to you that it is only mind that accumulates conditioning, kamma and the perception of self, and that Awareness itself is free of all three of these; it is free of conditioning, free of kamma and free of the perception of self.
Thereafter, whenever we practise meditation, be it Samatha for the purposes of establishing concentration, or Vipassana for the purposes of establishing insight, from the very beginning we build our meditation upon Awareness, leaving the mind completely alone, recognising it for what it is; merely an occasional but conditioned and distorting process that arises as an aspect within the experience itself.
So our approach will always be thus; while abiding in Awareness, we investigate the mind as it arises, leaving it to reveal itself in its various ways of display. This is what the Buddha refers to as 'yoniso manasikara'; wise attention or direct perception.
In this approach we cannot begin our practice of Vipassana until we are thoroughly established in this faculty of direct perception. Otherwise we are merely conceptualising our experience within the mind itself. This is the closed loop of Samsara that fails to free itself. So whether at the beginning, in the middle or at the very end, it is an absolute prerequisite of the experience of awakening that we somehow develop this capacity of direct perception with Awareness itself as the ground.
Why is this the case? Because in the moment of awakening only Awareness remains as witness to the experience of cessation; the mind at this point has come to cessation without remainder. And this is the case with every stage of Path Knowledge, even if it is only the first stage of stream entry. Regardless of what conditioning tendencies are not cut off by that Path Knowledge, and regardless of what propensity for conditioned states remains thereafter, in the experience of cessation itself, all conditioned states of mind come to cessation in the moment of Path Knowledge.
When you start to practise Vipassana, you start to recognise the conditioning tendency of your mind, and how it distorts the experience that we have in every process of discerning things from the perspective of 'I': my experience of this, me experiencing that, and so on, together with all of our habit patterns and conditioned responses to such experiences that we have built up over a lifetime.
And if you use that investigative mind, that listens to what I say and then decides what you think about it, or looks out at the room and decides whether or not you should put the lights on because its getting a bit dull, or decides whether you even enjoyed your breakfast or not, you will remain lost in the delusion of mind as the ground of your experience. And you will fail to recognise that the mind is merely a process that arises within the experience, and that Awareness itself is the ground of it.
If you use that very mind to meditate, sending it out in search of your breath or using it to hold onto your breath while you try to concentrate, or if you use that mind to investigate the body, sending it into your body to try to feel your body while you are meditating, or using it to mull over and identify the characteristics of the four elements within the body, you are still stuck, entangled, wrapped up in the tangled knot of self; the 'I- maker.'
This makes for a very fraught and exhausting process when it comes to the process of letting go. We can end up in this tangled knot of self when it is the mind in its entirety that we must ultimately let go.
However, if you journey on the way to that point of final letting go, having learned to apprehend the experience with direct perception, from the ground of Awareness or having reached a place of natural rest within your experience, then you will have already started to break down your insistence on adding the sense and idea of self to your experience with the mind. And so from the beginning our meditation is built on our ever maturing willingness to simply leave the experience alone, without seeking to take anything from it or add anything to it. This attitude becomes absolutely crucial if you are going to get concentrated to the point of genuine absorption. It's similarly crucial if you are going to ever have the experience whereby the mind comes to cessation and that cessation is known.
So as we start to move from concentration practice into Vipassana and the process of investigating the nature of our experience by which liberating insight matures in us, it is absolutely fundamental to the success of our progress, that we have grounded our practice in this quality of yoniso manasikara, which is wise attention, or direct perception. We have to learn to rest within the experience and leave it to reveal itself, and avoid the instinctive tendency of taking into our meditation the same invasive quality of mind that we bring into our ordinary life.
This seems to me to have been the elephant in the room in most of the recent approaches to Vipassana that have made their way to us as Western audiences. However much 'investigation of states' we might have to do with the mind before we are prompted to let go, it remains a fact that it is that very investigative mind that must be relinquished. Why then make it the very basis and ground of our practice? We need to remember how the Buddha actually instructed us. As he said so often: “In the seeing there is only the seen. In the feeling there is only the felt.” There is no elaborating mind innate within the experience itself. That is the very basis of his whole teaching on the truth of No Self.
Now, if you succeed in developing this approach right at the beginning, your meditation will start to develop from the very beginning and will progress smoothly with a diminished sense of 'me as the meditator' rather than the wrong mindfulness that maintains the sense of 'me' constantly watching myself meditate from my mind. I see so many yogis coming on retreat with years and years of practice behind them, still lost in the state of 'mind as the meditator'. This only ever results in a reorganised idea and sense of self rather than a diminished one.
I'm saying this now; you've been on retreat before, you've done this many times but if you don't get this clear when you start to practise Vipassana, you can very easily get lost down the rabbit hole of the mind. You take your mind down the rabbit hole thinking the mind is going to find some solution at the bottom. The point is to realise that the mind is lost down a rabbit hole, the whole of the mind is the rabbit hole and the experience of awakening is the emergence out of that rabbit hole and nothing more. To practise Vipassana correctly we first must learn to skilfully turn up within the experience, learning to leave it exactly as it is. We absolutely have to recognise and realise “I have been lost down a rabbit hole of my mind.” That is the fundamental understanding that the entire process of awakening stands upon. Without it there may well be much refinement of character and polishing of the mind, but no experience of awakening.
Let me reiterate this: If you take your mind down the rabbit hole with you into your meditation to seek some resolution within the mind, you go further and further down the rabbit hole. So learn to leave both the experience and the mind that arises within the experience alone. Leave the whole experience completely alone. Rest in the nakedness of the experience, whatever it is, and then let that slowly reveal itself. That's the process by which insight emerges from within the experience. It is the experience that is our teacher, not our mind.
Insight is 'to see into'. It is not 'to think about' until I think I finally understand. Insight or Vipassana is the process by which we come to see, in stages, that the only thing that makes my experience afflictive, apart from when I am in physical pain, is what I add to my experience with my mind. We come to see that it is the mind and the 'I-maker' that arises within the mind, that creates this mass of suffering, this tangled knot of suffering. I reiterate this at the very beginning so you are completely clear before we go on.
1 The mechanisms by which bhavanga function are thoroughly explained in Vol.1 Flavour of Liberation.
2 I have discussed this approach in some depth in FoL Vol 1 and 2.
