..续本文上一页mental reaction of ego. Ego is only there, it only exists because it has something to hold on to. In the Buddhist time they had various philosophers and they were saying, what does this ego look like

　　 Or you can use a spiritual term like the soul, what does a soul look like

　　 There were all kinds of theories about it – it is a little seed in the middle of the brain, or behind the heart. The Buddha was using meditation practice, not philosophizing, but using meditation to see clearly – "Okay, what is the soul

　　 Let”s look at this! Lets investigate!" Not believe any theory about it or any philosophy, but look, investigate it with clarity. And while he was investigating that nature of soul, of ego, he found no thing. That is called "enlightenment". Simple. Let”s do it again, the course is over!

　　But how many of us can really look very clearly at the nature of the sense of self and not stop anywhere

　　 You say, "Well, OK, I”m not my body. Yes, sure, but I”m an intelligent mind!" Oops, can”t give that one up.

　　It is easy to think about, to theorize about: well, the body, yes. But then: who is it who is thinking about the body

　　 There is this little mind back there saying: "Yes, yes, it is all very reasonable, yes." But the rational mind goes too. Because it is just a creation, a conditioned thing; conditioned by our rules of logic and our education. And with the practice of insight meditation we are trying to awaken this new way of seeing. The way of seeing which comes from direct experience. It is awareness now, awareness-seeing, not the reasoning, not the logic, not the concepts, but the awareness seeing what is really happening.

　　Awareness

　　Of course, for many people, even this awareness is part and parcel of their ego. Because we only allow ourselves to see what we want to see -- which will make me comfortable. This is not really awareness, it is awareness with a small "a", awareness which is a slave of my ego. But with meditation exercises we can increase this awareness, we can give it more power of its own. We start off with "Okay, I am developing my awareness." This is the little awareness. And actually this word which I translate as awareness, you know what it means "awareness"

　　 After all one needs to experience it for oneself. In Pali it is called "sati". And there are many different kinds of this "sati". Its root is "to remember". At its very simplest it is just to remember. For example, to remember to come back to the breathing, to remember to come back to the body. Than there is – you would say - a little bit more developed level to recollect yourself. Not only to remember to come back but actually doing it. It can happen sometimes quite spontaneously. As soon as your mind gets a bit clearer you come back to the breathing. You do not have to remember, "Oh yes, what am I doing here, yes 1993, yes this is Kandersteg, yes meditation, oh yes!, of course, yes, breathing right." You got it! Ting! – the bell goes. Then recollection is: you can come back much more quicker.

　　And then there is the level of what I call "awareness". Awareness is much more flexible. Because we all have some degree of awareness. To some degree we can walk up the stairs, down the stairs, to find the toilet and things like this, some degree of awareness, even if the lights aren”t on. And it can be developed, can”t it

　　 Besides having awareness of where the stairs are, you can have awareness of the physical sensations in the body. And over a period of a few days perhaps you can significantly develop this. There is an increase in awareness.

　　Me & My Control

　　We say "increase in self-awareness", which in Buddhism is awareness of the body, mind, feelings. And if we put some effort into it; first of all from a selfish level (I am developing my awareness), onc…

《The Practice of Metta in Insight Meditation》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…