A question on open, spacious awareness

[vanbui]

Hi Jundo,

I have a question on open, spacious awareness. I’m sorry if you have answered this countless times before, but I'm having trouble actualising this concept. I have also watched the entire beginner series. My understanding of open, spacious awareness is not to be attached to anything and focused on everything and nothing in particular. In one of your posts, you teach “the “object of attention” is any one thing or everything in your surroundings.” When I sit, I try to maintain an open awareness but sometimes my awareness is in my hearing, and at other time it is in my vision, although I try not to be attached to any thoughts. I understand that we should just sit and not judge on the quality of our sitting. However, I wonder whether my awareness in my six senses is the same as the open, spacious awareness? I would be grateful for your clarification.

Gassho,

Van

satToday + LAH

[Jundo]

Hi Van,

In sitting, some folks follow the breath as a center point of focus. Some folks bring attention to the posture. It is also possible to center attention on the hearing or any other sense, although this is not so common in the Zen world.

Open Spacious Awareness is simply to have the place of attention on everything, and nothing in particular, with equanimity. The mind can move from and to anything in experience or the field of awareness, or it can take in the entire field of awareness at once (or a slice) ... but the key is equanimity. Observing without judging, thinking about, getting tangled in chains of thoughts about what one is experiencing.

It's really not so complicated.

Really, it is just an exercise in developing the ability to access equanimity, and to drop analysis and pondering about things. Everything "just as it is," and a flowing wholeness about all life events results. The frictions and division, opposition and the resulting mental reactions drop away.

I don't see anything wrong in bringing attention to hearing or vision. However, why do I emphasize "open awareness" as more powerful? It makes it easier to bring that equanimity and wholeness off the cushion into actual daily life. One cannot be going about one's day, always focused on breath or posture or hearing. However, one can access equanimity and non-judgement in any situation ... when the dog eats your homework, when you crash the car, when the soup boils over on the stove, when the doctor gives you a cancer diagnosis, when ....

Gassho, Jundo

STLah

[vanbui]

Hi Jundo,

I'm very grateful for this teaching.

Deep bows,

Van
satToday _/\_

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

Hi Jundo,

I'm very grateful for this teaching.

Deep bows,

Van
satToday _/\_

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk

Thank you for feeling gratitude. Also, at the same time, know equanimity.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Beakon]

Jundo, is open spacious Awareness the same as innate awareness?


Sean

[Jundo]

Jundo, is open spacious Awareness the same as innate awareness?


Sean

Boy, hmmm. I am not sure. I had to look up what "innate awareness" means. I found some yoga folks who wrote this ...

Relaxing in Innate Awareness

Develop a mind that is vast like space, where both pleasant and unpleasant experiences can appear and disappear without conflict, struggle or harm. Rest in a mind like vast sky.

If that is the meaning of "innate awareness," it sounds about right.

"Open awareness" also means a mind that is not too intensively focused on one object, like the breath, a Mantra, a Koan phrase or the like. It is spacious, and just takes in the whole environment and experience as it "object of focus."

But recall my talk from last week, where I said that the entire cycle of having thoughts and letting them go, returning to open awareness ... having thoughts and letting them go, having thoughts and letting go ... is actually important in my view. It is not to always stay in the "vast sky," considering the "clouds" as obstacles. Some kinds of meditation try to be the "vast sky" and just stay there, or consider that the point is to be thoroughly beyond the clouds. Thoughts and emotions are "innate" too, and not to always be considered just as obstructions to the "vast sky."

SIT-A-LONG with JUNDO: THOUGHTS and EMOTIONS are GOOD ZAZEN too!
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...D-ZAZEN-too%21


Gassho, Jundo

STLah

[Kokuu]

Hi Vanbui!

As usual, Jundo has answered your questions perfectly, however I thought I could add something.

When we sit in open awareness I think that it can be a misconception to think we are aware of everythng equally all at once.

This can happen but, in my experience, it is more usual for the attention to shift between senses. If there is a noise outside, the ear consciousness becomes more active, if a waft of incense passes our nose, there is a shift to smell consciousness. If there is nothing in particular happening then we can have more of an experience of different senses.

I find it interesting watching this happen as each sense comes to the party. Normally this happens automatically but we do not notice it so much.

Gassho
Kokuu
-sattoday/lah-

[Nengei]

Really, it is just an exercise in developing the ability to access equanimity, and to drop analysis and pondering about things. Everything "just as it is," and a flowing wholeness about all life events results. The frictions and division, opposition and the resulting mental reactions drop away.

I don't see anything wrong in bringing attention to hearing or vision. However, why do I emphasize "open awareness" as more powerful? It makes it easier to bring that equanimity and wholeness off the cushion into actual daily life. One cannot be going about one's day, always focused on breath or posture or hearing.

Thank you, Van, for asking about this, and thank you, Jundo, for your teaching. This rings true for me, this concept of equanimity in open awareness. I think that in my sitting I have been practicing not being disrupted emotionally by what my senses perceive - primarily by what I hear. For example, a couple of days ago while I was sitting, someone in the neighborhood was running a chainsaw. Gotta stay warm. Another: my dog likes to sit with me, alongside my zabuton, but on the way there she frequently breaks my line of sight, brushes against me, or sticks her nose in my mudra. And then there is that great distractor from awareness, the human voice.

It seems like this is not the same thing. Kokuu, I ‘m not sure whether this is what you are writing about with shifting of the senses, however, the way that you describe this fits with my experience, as well. But it does give me a place to work from. If I am understanding you correctly, Jundo, open awareness is not reaching out with all of the senses, per se, but allowing them to be receptive to what is.

However, one can access equanimity and non-judgement in any situation ... when the dog eats your homework, when you crash the car, when the soup boils over on the stove, when the doctor gives you a cancer diagnosis, when ....

I struggle with this; with not boiling over when the soup boils over. In health research we talk a lot these days about translation, being able to use in clinical practice the knowledge we gain or expect to gain from research. I have a health and wellness coaching business, and one of my driving, take-home messages is What do you practice? Because whatever you practice, you will become good at. I do not wish to practice boiling over. I wish to practice equanimity, to “bring that equanimity and wholeness off the cushion into actual daily life.”

Gassho,
然芸 Nengei
Sat today. LAH.
You deserve to be happy.
You deserve to be loved.

[vanbui]

Hi Kobuu,

Thank you for your explanation. That is precisely my experience, so I wanted to make sure that I'm going down the right path. My open awareness often shifts from my vision to hearing despite maintaining a non-judgemental attitude to my thoughts.

Jundo's teaching on equanimity in open awareness is important when we get off the cushion and get back to our daily life. I think this concept is important to grasp.

Gassho

Van
satToday

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

Hi Vanbui!

As usual, Jundo has answered your questions perfectly, however I thought I could add something.

When we sit in open awareness I think that it can be a misconception to think we are aware of everythng equally all at once.ah-

Yes, yes, this is exactly right.

To describe, sometimes I am sitting there, just looking out and not thinking anything at all. Sometimes I notice this or that object in sight or sound or taste.

I describe the experience as something like driving a car, radio off, down an empty highway or quiet country road, not particularly thinking anything. I sometimes see everything out in front of me, or maybe notice this or that as it passes. I am not particularly thinking anything, and the mind is clear, alert, just watching the road. I may notice briefly some things as I pass ... mail box, cow, pretty house, laundry on a line ... but I don't really think about them, let them pass from view and keep going with eyes observing everything and nothing. Just like driving, it is okay to see objects that are sometimes appearing through the windshield, just don't get lost in trains of thought about them that will distract you from attention to the road ("Oh a mail box, I wish I had a mail box like that, it is a beautiful mailbox compared to my ugly mailbox at home, stamps are too expensive, it reminds me that I need to write my dad a birthday card, I wonder where I can buy a birthday card, I will buy eggs too ... "). If seeing the mailbox ... it is just a mailbox, and don't particularly think about it or judge it ... neither beautiful or ugly mailbox ... it is just a mailbox. Maybe don't even think about its "mailbox" name after that, and let it just be some thing in view. Repeat as other things and sounds etc. come to the attention. Return your attention to the road.

If I find myself lost in thoughts, I let them go and return to observing the road and keep going.

However, as I say in my talk above (THOUGHTS and EMOTIONS are GOOD ZAZEN too!), it is natural to think things during Zazen, as we do while driving without our full attention on the road. So, mailbox comes, think about mailbox, bring attention back to the road and "pass" the mailbox and let it fade back into the scene, returning to open minded attention to the road ... next a cow comes, repeat ... next a silo comes, repeat ... this is the natural process of Zazen. Just return to open eyes driving, not particularly thinking anything, head clear and alert, focused on the road ahead, taking in the whole scene out the wind screen ...

Actually, we sit with "equanimity," but it is not completely neutral and dull. Why? My teacher, Nishijima, says that our experience is that there is something subtly positive and beautiful about this world. So, it is "equanimity" but with a sense that there is something nice, pleasant, beautiful and peaceful about the drive and the world one sees. Even when we pass the ugly scenes of the road ... the garbage dump, the crash, the road kill, the flat tires of life ... our heart can still know this equanimity that is also someway subtly okay somehow. Even the ugly and painful, frightening and tragic ... are just more cows and mailboxes and laundry on the line for the heart in Zazen.

Does that convey the experience a bit?

Zazen is "Zen driving" except that we do not move, do not have any "destination" but right here, do not need a seatbelt on our Zafu ... and no gas is required.

Further (and this is where I get all "Dogen" on ya ... Driving Dogen) one may soon realize that driver and road and car and wind and sun and cow and mailbox and path ahead and present and beyond are all ONE! You drive the road as the road drives you, as the sun and silo drives the road and the driving drives driving ... the whole universe driving. Even trash and crash and coming on the onramp of birth and leaving on the exit of death and flat tires and bumps ... all Buddha Highway. All Buddha driving Buddha, the whole trip Buddha all Along!

Oh, and one point about equanimity. This is also a little tricky in Zazen:

Usually equanimity feels like equanimity ... peaceful, accepting all, allowing what is, relaxed.

However, suppose you are having a day when your dog died and your boss fired you and you read something upsetting in the news? You are feeling that day sad, shaken and a bit mad. You sit down to Zazen, and the sad/shaken/mad is filling your heart and you can't seem to let it go. What do you do? Maybe you focus on the breath for awhile to distract the mind, but the sad/shaken/mad emotion has too big a hold on you even then. What to do?

Know equanimity (acceptance, allowing) of the fact that one is flooded with sad/shaken/mad feeling in that moment. Equanimity about not feeling "equanimious" in that moment! Peace with not being peaceful right then, being "okay" with not being "okay" today.

Strange as it sounds, the sad/shaken/mad is treated by you as just another fact, another thing, like a passing mailbox or cow! It just is.

By doing so, you may find that the "sad/shaken/mad" is still there, but loses some of its fire because some fuel is removed. By not feeling "sad about feeling sad," even more "mad about being mad" some of the resistance to the fact is removed, and the sad or mad loses some of its hold on us.

In all likelihood, tomorrow, you won't feel the sad/shaken/mad and will feel something else another day, maybe heartburn or happy or amused or bored or sleepy or awake or feverish or peaceful or .... more cows and mailboxes.

Gassho, J

STLah

[vanbui]

Hi Jundo,

Wonderful teaching. Thank you for your clear and comprehensive answer. It has removed all my doubts.

I sat this morning with no doubts in open awareness and with a non-judgemental attitude. I just sat in equanimity and let the clouds pass by. Today I had a relatively clear sky day.

Gassho
Deep bows

Van
satToday LAH _/|\_





Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

tomorrow may rain or snow. All the same road.

[vanbui]

Thank you for the reminder but tomorrow is not here yet. But yes, it is all the same.

Gassho,

Van

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[Tairin]

Wonderful discussion. Thank you for the question Van and thank you for the teachings.


Tairin
Sat today and lah

[Seibu]

Wisdom is found in this thread . Thank you for asking and for the teachings.



Kakedashi

SatToday

[Hoseki]

Lovely!

Gassho
Satoday/LAH

[Onkai]

Thank you, Van, Jundo, and others who answered. I was never sure if I had the "spacious awareness" right. This thread is helpful to me.

Gassho,
Onkai
Sat

[moyomoy]

Hi Jundo,

Many thanks for sharing this. I’m very new in this topic and very keen to explore “Open awareness” during sitting.

Gassho

Moy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Shinshou]

My experience is like that described by Kokuu. Sometimes, there is awareness of everything all at once, but that is rare. When it happens, I don't celebrate it or mourn it. Usually, there is a switching between senses...I may hear the clock ticking, or see the wall in front of me, or feel the pressure on my ankles, or a transient emotion. When those experiences happen, I don't celebrate or mourn them. My experience has been that equanimity and open awareness come not from focusing, restricting, or controlling the mind's activity, but instead just allowing it without judgment. Just my view.

Shinshou (Dan)
Sat Today

[Jundo]

My experience has been that equanimity and open awareness come not from focusing, restricting, or controlling the mind's activity, but instead just allowing it without judgment. Just my view.

Yes, I believe that is a good description. I would add just that we allow the mind's activity without grabbing on or wallowing in it too. For example, if a negative or angry thought comes (or even a positive and happy one) during Shikantaza Zazen time, we don't grab on, get taken for a wide, wallow in the emotion, get tied up in the resulting trains of thoughts. Let it come, let it be, let it go.

If finding oneself nonetheless having gotten taken for a ride or wallowing ... release, return to breath or posture or open awareness ... again and again.

That, and sitting with the wholeness and completeness, sacredness, of "not one other place to be, not one more thing to do in this time of sitting but sitting" attitude of Shikantaza, with sitting itself being sat with a sense in the bones of the pinnacle of all life's goals and desires being just to sit for sitting's sake, and one has a pretty good handle on Shikantaza. I speak of this last vital aspect here:

WHAT's OFTEN MISSING in SHIKANTAZA EXPLANATIONS ....
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...A-EXPLANATIONS

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jakuden]

What an awesome thread, thanks to all.

Gassho
Jakuden
SatToday/LAH

[Suuko]

Indeed. Great thread. Good to be back.

Gassho, Guish.