Finally, we have
reached the fourth foundation of awareness. I always wondered what precisely we
needed to focus on as far as the fourth foundation was concerned. Whilst the
focus points of the first three levels of awareness are obvious and
distinctive, I could never fully comprehend the focus point of the fourth
foundation. What was the very “dhamma” I needed to focus on? I often asked
myself as well as teachers but I never had an answer which could pacify my
doubt. I just knew that the fourth foundation could not have anything to do
with thinking or contemplating the different topics of dhamma which is indeed
necessary at one stage but not when the automatic state has happened. Sekha persons
who have reached the automatic state would know that the task they are supposed
to undergo seems complete in the sense that there is the path and the fruit. As
for entering Nirvana, it is not a matter that anyone can ask for, this is the
final automation; it will happen on its own. As long as there is the path and
the fruit, entering Nirvana is a natural event just like the sun rising in the
east and setting in the west. No one can rush or prolong entering Nirvana. So,
what else does one have to do?
The day I knew the answer
The question about the fourth foundation
of awareness was answered one day about two years ago when I was leading my Tai
chi class. I was indeed explaining the four foundations of awareness to my
advanced class and wrote down the details on the white board. Whilst I was
walking away from the board and looking back at it, a flash of thought sparked
up in my head. It was very much like someone throwing a beam of light or wisdom
into my heart. My doubt about the forth foundation of awareness became clear on
its own and I even knew that it was the right answer. When this kind of
experience happens, one can never forget it. Unlike the knowledge gained from
hearsay and reading which we’ll soon forget, self-knowledge or intuitive wisdom
cannot be wiped out; it stays in our bones and soul forever. The answer I had
in my head on that day was not totally new but it was somehow very new for me
and was put forward to me in the way that I had not heard from any teachers in
my generation. Maybe there are indeed some teachers who talk about it, but I do
not read extensively so I couldn’t have known.
With that spontaneous
knowledge, the first thing I realised was that the four foundations of
awareness are placed in the order of natural progression. They start from
knowing something rough and easy, and climb to something much more refined and
difficult. The next thing I understood was the true meaning of “dhamma” as the
focus point of the fourth foundation of awareness. As a matter of fact, the term
“dhamma” is not unfamiliar to the Buddhist. All keen Buddhists know that it
means everything. But how this “dhamma’ or “everything” becomes the focus point
of the fourth level is intriguing and not a straightforward matter. My
intuitive knowledge on that day just confirmed and made clearer what I knew
before. In fact, to understand the fourth level was the same process as to
understand the third level of awareness. We need to come further away from it
before we can see the clearer picture. It is like looking at the view of
Bangkok. We can see what Bangkok looks like from the third storey of a
building, but we can see a clearer connection of different roads when we climb
up to a higher storey of the building. Likewise, the experience of engaging in
the four foundations of awareness is the same. When I started my first
meditation session some 25 years ago, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I
just followed what my teacher told me to do e.g. watching my breath, being
aware of my footsteps and so on. I didn’t even know that I was in the process
of practising the four foundations of awareness. At that time, we just knew
ourselves to be “doing meditation”. In fact, within those first few years of my
so called “doing meditation”, I could notice the coming and going of thoughts
but I did not know that it was the early stage of the third foundation of
self-awareness. It was very much like going into a slow labour. To me, I
thought I was still struggling to understand the fundamental skill of
meditation. I only realised that I was literally practising the third
foundation of self-awareness when at least ten years had gone past. This was
the time when I began to notice the automation of my mental state. To notice
the automation of my mental state was a giant leap for me at that time, it made
me understand life more deeply. I had kept that experience a secret and never
talked about it until recently. Then, after another 12 years had gone by (two
years ago) from the point of noticing the automation, I experienced yet another
essential knowledge which is yet another great leap forward. Since then, my
knowledge about life in general has been rooting even deeper. That intuitive
experience gives me the courage to talk about the subject of this section
extensively.
Squeezing from a narrow hole to an open end
As I said that the process
of understanding the forth foundation of awareness was the same as that by
which I understood the third level. Whilst I was struggling on the third level
of awareness, I had seen what was supposed to be the focus point of the fourth
foundation of awareness but somehow I could not put my finger on it. My unique
experience on that day in my Tai chi class confirmed what I saw. The third and
the fourth level of awareness are in fact leaning against each other. If
practitioners have reached the third level, they cannot miss the fourth level,
but they are not sure about it, not until they have their own intuitive wisdom
to confirm them like I had mine. When the mind is free from thought, there is a
void or blank moment before the next thought arises. That void moment is the
focus point of the fourth foundation of awareness. We can see that the void
moment is the direct result of the third foundation of self-awareness.
Let’s imagine ourselves
squeezing through a narrow tunnel as wide as the size of our bodies, we
struggle to get ourselves through that hole; once we are through, we reach a
vast and unlimited piece of land where there is no boundary. Likewise, the
third foundation of awareness is very much like squeezing ourselves through a
narrow tunnel in the face of great difficulty. The fourth foundation of
awareness is the moment when we get through that narrow tunnel and face the
vast piece of land where we can experience unlimited freedom. We can see that
these two stages are the cause and effect of each other or it is called
“dependent origination” (patichasamupada). It means that every time we can snap
away from our thought, we’ll see the voidness which is the focus point of the
fourth foundation of awareness. However, it was the knowing which is in between
or in the twilight zone. It is as if we know that this is the voidness, nonself
or anatta that the Buddha and all the spiritual teachers talked about, but
somehow there is also something else that is not clear and that we are unsure
about. This is what I mean by being in the twilight zone. I can clearly
recognise the feeling of that twilight zone now that I have passed it, but I
could not understand while I was in it. However, the twilight zone will
disappear when wisdom arises.
How can we
use Nirvana as a focus point if we don’t know what it looks like?
All vipassana
practitioners hear their teacher saying “use the voidness or use Nirvana as the
focus point”. I tried to reason with it in the past wondering how we could
possibly do that if we didn’t know what voidness or Nirvana was. Now, I can
fully understand that it means the focus point of the fourth foundation of
awareness or dhamma-nu-passana. This is the connection I put together myself. No
teacher has confirmed it to me like this before, not the teachers I know of
anyway. The traditional way of teaching meditation can confuse people
especially if the teachers have not reached the different stages themselves but
follow the traditional way of teaching meditation. As I said, the foundations
of awareness are a natural progression. If practitioners do not practise the
first three levels and witness the experience accordingly, it is impossible to
use the voidness or Nirvana as the focus point. We cannot jump the queue.
As a result, it can easily
cause a false voidness or Nirvana. I mean that practitioners can create their
own concept or image of voidness and Nirvana by thinking. This is totally wrong
because to witness the true voidness, there is no thought involved whatsoever.
If that false concept becomes a fixation and the person is a teacher guiding
people, it will be very damaging. It can be even more dangerous if the teachers
become famous and are led astray by fame and power. This kind of problem
happens not only within the Buddhist tradition but also in other religious
traditions. Cult movements are certainly one example. This is something that
all practitioners have to be extremely careful about whenever a spiritual path
is taken.
So the voidness or Nirvana
is indeed the blank moment when we are free from thought. This is the moment
where no language can penetrate because language is the direct result of
thought. Where there is no thought, there is no word and no language. As a
result, that moment is universal. This is the moment when this life form
returns to the embrace of mother nature where the mental-self no longer exists.
This final focus point or dhamma does not require any effort like the previous
three foundations of awareness. It is a matter of just being. It is the moment when one sees all or nothing or a single being and this fits in
perfectly with the term dhamma-nu-passana.
Although there is no more work and effort required in the forth foundation of
awareness, the Buddha still places it as the focus point of the final stage of
practice. The simple reason is that as long as the person is still a learner or
a Sekha person, he or she still needs to be aware of this focus point but it is
the kind of awareness that requires no more work. Not until that person is a
Phra-Arahant or Asekha person, then, that same dhamma experienced by the Sekha person will become natural and
permanent. There is no more talk about any focus point.
At this point, I can only
surrender to the wisdom of the Buddha and his ingenious ability to be able to
come out with the four foundations of awareness, which are a unique strategy in
helping people to the final exit from conditioned life. There is no doubt that
the four foundations of awareness are the most detailed life map apart from
being the shortest route to spiritual freedom. There is no teacher in the world
who could match up to the Buddha’s ability as far as the path to the ultimate
goal of life is concerned. As a matter of fact, the Buddha could have left out
the fourth foundation of awareness but he did not. He put it there until he
could make sure that the Sekha person reaches the final exit permanently and
becomes a Phra Arahant before they can let go of the practice.
Life is a
pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces
The best analogy, which
can help us to understand life is by looking at a pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces.
If we represent every single thing both material and abstract in the universe
including every single thought[1]
as the different pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, we can imagine that we are
literally standing in the midst of an uncountable pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces.
Our job is to piece all these jigsaw puzzle pieces together to form a perfect
picture. The trouble is we do not know what the outcome of this whole picture
should be. To understand our life in relation with the universe is exactly the
knowledge that all intellectuals especially scientists try to find out. The
revelation of scientific research is about piecing together the jigsaw puzzle
but scientists can only manage to do it in patches, a bit here and there. The
universe along with its mystery is far too enormous for our precious intellect
(thought) to cope with. We need wisdom to deal with such a huge scale of
comprehension. The enlightenment of the Buddha means that he can piece together
this gigantic pile of jigsaw puzzle pieces and that he can see the finished
picture. Consequently, he knows exactly where our standing point is within this
gigantic and mysterious cosmos. This is really an understatement for people who
do not have a belief in re-incarnation. As a matter of fact, the Buddha’s
wisdom penetrates much further away. He can see the whole picture of the realm
of samsara or re-incarnation; he can see that all lives are subjected to
endless rebirth which is a horrifying and frightening matter. His enlightenment
has brought an end to that vicious circle of rebirth. People who have never
heard about the ultimate goal of life and never practised meditation can be
compared to someone standing in the midst of this gigantic pile of jigsaw puzzles pieces. That’s why we
feel so confused, in doubt and unable to understand a lot of things that are
happening both to ourselves, our loved ones and to the world right now. While I
am writing this chapter, the British people are trying to understand why their
favorite TV presenter Jill Dando was murdered. No one can understand. We can
say the same of Diana, the princess of Wales. Not to mention wars and the
suffering of people affected by them. Do we understand anything at all?
All this confusion can
cause uncertainty and insecurity and is enough to make our lives miserable at
times. However, they are the direct result of not knowing the full picture of
life. Buddhist meditation, to be more precise the four foundations of
awareness, is the direct action of piecing the real life jigsaw puzzles
together. By engaging in the
practice of the four foundations of awareness, we are literally picking up pieces
of puzzle and placing them down in the right places. Provided that they are
walking on the right track, all vipassana-practitioners share the similar
experience that they are less confused and that their lives are more stable.
They begin to understand what is what. When practitioners reach the third level
of self-awareness, their understanding of life will become much clearer. They
gradually find themselves.
There are
two different stages to piecing together a jigsaw puzzle.
We initially have to pick
up a piece of jigsaw puzzle from the pile, examine it and then we find a proper
place for it. Having advanced to the automatic stage of the third foundation of
self-awareness until witnessing the state of voidness or non-self can be
compared to having found an essential piece of real life jigsaw puzzle hidden
within the gigantic pile. This is merely the first stage but it is the most
important stage. Compared to others who do not have a clue of what life is all
about, having found this essential piece of the puzzle (witnessing the
voidness) is indeed a giant leap for the individual. This is the stage which I
mentioned earlier that is as if we are in the twilight zone. On the one hand,
we kind of know what non-self, voidness or Nirvana is about; on the other hand,
there is something that we are not really certain about, of which we are unsure
and cannot lay our fingers on. This uncertainty causes our understanding to be
fragmented.
The uncertainty is due to
the inability to find the right place for this piece of jigsaw puzzle, which is
the second stage. How long Sekha persons hold this piece of puzzle depends on
different factors. I just realised that I had been holding this essential piece
of real life jigsaw puzzle and examining it for as long as twenty years. I had
been able to see the state of voidness since the early years of my practice
when I was at Suan Mokkh, the Forest monastry in the south of Thailand. This is
the state, which gives people a profound sense of peace and calmness, and
encourages people to pursue the path. However, what happened to me two years
ago in my Tai chi class was the day I could finally find the right place for
this significant piece of jigsaw puzzle, which is the second stage. Then, I
fully realised that this is the last piece of the puzzle, which has to be
placed right in the middle of the picture to form a perfect outcome. This is
the piece, which enables every other piece of the puzzle to link up. That most
crucial intuitive wisdom I experienced gave me the most distinctive standing
point of myself as a human being within this gigantic mysterious universe, and
its powerful light has been shining as time goes by. This wisdom enables me to
connect the minute details of our life form such as the formation of thought to
the vast scale of the universe so that I will no longer lose my way. As a
result, I no longer have doubts about re-incarnation. I cannot explain in too
many words but I just know that as long as we have not put in the right cause
to end all our karma (action), there is no doubt that we have to be subjected to
endless and horrifying rebirth. Life has only one exit – to enter Nirvana.
If practitioners have
reached the state of holding the essential piece of real life puzzle but have
not yet found the right place for it, and if they are also spiritual teachers,
their teaching will still be somehow fragmented.[2]
They cannot be completely free from the holy book. This was exactly what
happened to me before. I talked about the different topics of dhamma in a
fragmented way. The connection between the different topics of dhamma was not
as clear as what I can do now. Sharing this experience is just to give
practitioners a better picture of where they are on this extremely obscure path
to our final destination because we do need some signposts to guide us along.
Listening to those who have a bit more experience along this difficult path is
one of the most essential factors of this practice.
[1] The
Buddha refers to everything in the above sense by the one word “dhamma”.
[2]
There is no formula of how to bring forward quicker the essential wisdom. There
are still a lot of mystery. I suppose we just have to stick with what the
Buddha told us about not to be complacent and heedless as far as the practice
is concerned. As long as we can consistently keep up with the practice, the
result will come.