Seeing things as they truly are

I never quite understood what it meant to see things as they were until about a week ago. It was a beautiful revelation. A quite humbling experience for someone who thought knew quite a lot about things and understood quite a lot. It also made me realise that life is never what it presents itself to be as. Beyond the endless complexities and apparent turbulences there is a simplicity to it that we need to open up ourselves to and completely surrender to. Then Truth appears like the Sun that's been covered up by dark stormy clouds!

You know when the Buddha taught breath meditation, he taught to watch the breath and know the breath and its characteristics. I finally realised that SEEING the breath for what it is, NOT saying to myself "Oh this is a long breath" or "Oh this is a short breath" or saying "This is a hard breath", "This is a soft breath", "This breath is fluttering", or whatever the breath is or is not....is where we learn for the first time to see things as they truly are. I had never felt more joy than the moment I realised this.

You know how in life, when we see, hear, taste, touch, smell it is always followed by a story in our head. We always have something to say about it. If it is something we saw, "Oh it's ugly" or "I like it" or "I just don't care much about it"....and so it goes on for all other sense experiences. But hardly do we experience things or see things for what they are without a story or a commentary in our heads. Think about it for yourself. Even when you meditate isn't it why you find it so hard to meditate? Because there is this voice inside your head that gets you to go the kitchen and think of what food to cook for dinner, or say 'Oh the body is not comfortable" or it's too hot" or whatever it maybe....there is always a story related to a sense contact or a story related to future or past, isn't it?!

When that happens we can never experience anything for what it is. Of course that is why we cannot keep our attention on the breath. Because there are too many other things.

But let's say it's the breath. Then we have to tell stories about the breath as well. When we finally shut down that chatter in the head/in our minds only can we experience and see things for what they truly are. Then the pure experience of things happen...just like the Buddha said. At that moment, even if it is for a moment, the mind has let go of hindrances and you see the breath for what it is and it is a beautiful thing. Or if it is not the breath, if it is the pain in your leg, you see the sensations travelling, arising and ceasing instead of as a PAIN that you want to get rid of!!

I also realised how breath meditation leads and supports Vipassana meditation. When you learn to see the breath for what it is and when you learn to sustain that attention long enough, you can then channel that awareness to mind objects as they arise and cease. You can see the mind objects one by one in its purest form as they arise in consciousness without the presence of hindrances but also not going or coming out of deep states of Jhana. But still it requires deep continuous concentration on a string of objects one after the other unlike in Jhana where concentration is only on one object.

What a beautiful thing. Buddha truly was a scientist of the mind!

Anyway, this was what I realised about a week ago. It refuelled my practice in a way nothing had ever done before. It was almost like doing an experiment and seeing that the method does work. I realised that Buddha's method does work. It does open up the path the way he said it would (I mean I don't know much but I saw just a speck of light in a far distance which appeared and disappeared but that was good enough). So it makes me want to try harder now with renewed vigor.