The Dharma Treasure

... It's not being distracted. Actually this "being here now" is one
of two key aspects of mindfulness, and it's called [1]sati[1] . As in the
Sati patthana Sutta.
But it wouldn't be correct to say that this sati is only "being here now".
Let's look at our own experience - is being in touch with what's happening
simply a matter of being in the present? Surely the past comes in somewhere
too, even though perhaps we don't want to be dwelling on the past in a
distracted sort of way, constantly replaying thoughts and emotions connected
with the past. Of course we don't want that, and that's what the "be here
now" idea is about. But surely we do need to recollect the past. Surely our
history is what has made us what we are. Surely there have been lessons
learned which we need to recall from our past experience. If our experience
of life was really only the present moment, it would be a very narrow, very
one dimensional affair. For a start, we would have no recollection of what we
had just done, said, or thought. We would forget who we are - we would never,
ever, know who we are at all. No - mindfulness, or sati, clearly includes a
kind of 'background awareness' of the past. And not only that, it also
includes anticipating what might happen, what is likely to happen, in the
future. But again, this awareness of the future isn't a kind of obsessive
anxiety about what might happen, or - on the other hand - a set of blind
assumptions about what will happen. And it isn't in the foreground of our
awareness. It is a subtle 'background' sense that actions have results, that
there are going to be other experiences in the future.
This sense of the future brings our attention to the second principle
aspect of mindfulness. This is awareness of purpose. The Pali term for this
is [1]sampajanna[1] . In the suttas it is often translated as "clear
comprehension", or "clear consciousness". Here is the passsage where it is
first mentioned:
.-
[1] "And again, monks, a monk, when he is setting out or returning
[1] is one acting in a clearly conscious way; when he is looking in
[1] front or looking around, when he has bent in or stretched out
[1] his arm, when he is carrying his outer cloak, bowl and robe,
[1] when he is eating, drinking, chewing, tasting; when he is
[1] obeying the calls of nature; when he is walking, standing,
[1] sitting, asleep, awake, talking, silent - he is one acting in a
[1] clearly conscious way."
.+
In other words, in whatever we do we need to be conscious of why we are
acting in that way, what it's all for. So as well as our general awareness of
what is going on, as well as sati , mindfulness is our sense of purpose, our
knowing why we are doing whatever we are doing. These two together make up
creativity. Creativity is an increasing clarity about what we are trying to
achieve, when we are so aware of what is happening that we don't miss the
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THE DHARMA TREASURE
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opportunities which are presented to us. We use our opportunities to create
whatever we want to create. Whether we want to create a friendship, or a
source of income, or a better atmosphere, or a good meal, or our own mental
state in meditation.
There are said to be three kinds of awareness of purpose: awareness of
what we are trying to do in a practical way, awareness of the suitability of
our present actions for achieving our purpose, and awareness of our spiritual
practice. Just to expand on those three briefly, let's say we are talking to
that mother in the shop. In that situation, our awareness of what we are
trying to do is actually a very complex thing - as it often is. Even if our
job, or our life generally, is a very simple one, we are, in fact, always
engaged on a number of different fronts, and also at different levels. Looked
at from a very broad perspective, the whole of our life has culminated in the
present moment. The present moment is the result of everything we have tried
to create, every thing we have desired, and striven for, and avoided, and
worried about, and thought about. Not that we've got everything we always
wanted, not that, but all those years of wanting have formed the way we are,
have accumulated like the lines and wrinkles on our face, and moulded the
present moment. In other words purpose is not just the conscious decisions we
make. We are often quite unconscious of why we do things. We are a driven by
a mass of habitual motivations that we have built up over our whole life,
patterns of desires and aversions that probably started when we were children,
and no doubt include hang-overs from previous existences. So awareness of
purpose includes this deeper sense of purpose - it includes learning about
what we are driven by unconsciously, making the unconscious more conscious.
But for us in the shop, talking to that mother in the wholefood shop about
babies eating muesli, no doubt it simply means being aware that we are here to
do a particular job, that we are there to help the customers coming in. Even
though it's a rush and we are tending to lose our mindfulness.
Then, second kind of awareness of purpose - awareness of the suitability
of our present actions for achieving our purpose - probably means asking
ourselves "here I am, pretending that I know something about infant diet,
fobbing this woman off with a pat answer to her question. Is this the best
way?" - and perhaps concluding that it would be better to suggest she asks
someone who actually knows. That would really be more in accordance with our
overall purpose. That would be more useful to her.
Then, thirdly, awareness of our spiritual practice, or of the domain of
our spiritual practice as the commentary says - this is a point from the
traditional commentary to the Satipatthana Sutta - awareness of our spiritual
practice in that shop would perhaps mean trying to remain in a clear state of
consciousness. Or perhaps it would mean trying to act in accordance with the
precepts. Or perhaps it would mean remembering to be mindful. It could be
all these, and more. So from this we can see that sampajanna , mindfulness of
purpose, has many dimensions: it is so to speak the dimensional aspect of
mindfulness practice, the background aspect, whereas sati is the focus, the
directed aspect.
OK, so now we have the basis. We know what mindfulness is, that it's
awareness of what is happening, and awareness of what we are trying to
achieve. But when we say, 'awareness of what is happening', what do we
actually mean? What are we really referring to? What is "what is happening"?
For our experience is so vast, there are so many things going on, so many
things to be aware of. In his lecture on Perfect Mindfulness Sangharakshita
speaks of four aspects of awareness. Firstly there's awareness of the
environment, the world outside. Then, secondly, there's awareness of ourself,
the world inside. Then thirdly there's awareness of other people - who also,
of course, have an inner life. Then fourthly there's awareness of reality, in
other words the overall context, the overall truth of things. This approach
really covers everything that we can possibly be aware of. Though you'll find
each of these four aspects mentioned, implicitly or explicitly, in the
Satipatthana Sutta, the sutta concentrates its attention upon the second of
these four aspects, that is awareness of self. So why is that, do you think?
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Why is it that the Buddha doesn't bother particularly to mention awareness of
the environment, even of other people, even of reality, even though those
aspects are mentioned? It isn't because those aspects are not considered
important. It's obviously because awareness of self is considered to be of
supreme importance. And why is that? It is because that self-awareness is
the whole message of Buddhism, the whole basis of Buddhism. "Know thyself",
as the maxim goes. If we can be aware of our own part in things, we can
change ourselves. By changing ourselves, we begin to change the world.
The title of our sutta treasure, our dharma treasure, is the Satipatthana
Sutta. The word sati has already been explained. Thich Nhat Hanh translates
the word patthana, a foundation, as 'establishment', to indicate that there
are four aspects of ourself, four points at which we need to establish our
awareness. I have often explained these four points as first of all our body,
then our feelings, then our emotions, and finally our thoughts.
This is not quite the terminology used in the Satipatthana Sutta, though
body, feeling, emotion and thought is a useful simplification. Tonight, let's
look at what the sutta actually says. The four foundations as explained in
the Satipatthana Sutta are first body and secondly feeling, in exactly the
same way. Then the third foundation is states of mind. The Pali word is
citta. Citta means mind or heart and mostly consists of what we usually call
emotional responses. ...