The faculty and strength of mindfulness is the third set of Faculties and Strengths. They are the core of all practices and cultivation. Their importance and magnitude cannot be over emphasized.
The faculty and strength of mindfulness balances and coordinates all other faculties and strengths. Mindfulness is essential at all times in order to balance faith with wisdom, effort with concentration, and concentration with wisdom. It is related in particular to the following Aids of Enlightenment:
1) The Four Bases of Mindfulness (The Four Frames of Reference): Contemplation on the Body, Feelings, Mind and Dharma.
2) The Third Miraculous Power of Intense Concentration (Intent)
3) Mindfulness as a Factor of Awakening
4) Right Mindfulness of the Eightfold Path.
In the beginning stage, we cultivate the faculty of mindfulness by practicing “The Four Bases of Mindfulness”. We contemplate the body, then the feelings, then the mind and then the dharma. As we progress, our contemplation moves from the physical, to the emotional, to the mental and, finally, to the abstract. Our mindfulness increases in terms of our awareness of our ability, quality, intensity and diversity. The faculties and strengths of Faith and Persistence help to build up the faculty and strength of Mindfulness. The faculty of strength of Mindfulness, in turn, facilitates the cultivation of the faculties and strengths of Concentration and Discernment.
Generally speaking, the strength of persistence can be developed through:
(i) Physical attributes
(i.e. reciting of the mantras, prostrations, sitting)
-being mindful of what one is doing, the act, the body, and the physical world.
(ii) Abstract and mental attributes
(i.e. the counting of the breathing, the Four Right Efforts, the Six Paramitas, the Four Great Vows)
- being mindful of one’s thought, one’s mental stages, one’s feelings.
(iii) Internal attributes
(i.e. raising awareness, realizing one’s natural ability, understanding all
phenomena, attaining concentration, compassion to all)
- being mindful of one’s motivation, transformation and realization.
Mindfulness in the physical attributes is easy to start with. One can, without difficulty, count how many mantras one has recited, how many prostrations one has performed. They are of a physical substance that we can take hold of or grasp onto. Difficulties ensue with the mindfulness of the mental and abstract attributes. They require much more concentration and skillfulness. Where does one’s intake of breathing start or end? How long is one’s concentration span? Can one be aware of the rise and falling of one’s thoughts? How often is one mindful? Can one be mindful in every moment? Mindfulness associated with internal attributes (attributes of the Dharma Life) is something we set our goals on and try to conquer. Is one mindful of one’s motivation? Is one aware of one’s Dharma Life?
With the strength of mindfulness, one can lessen or discard the external attributes that affect one’s feeling/perception/mind. With a strong mind, one can influence or re-organize the Causes and Effects that dominate one’s life. For example, if someone slanders you, instead of developing hatred and seeking revenge, you are thankful that this person is setting an example for you not to follow. You realize how slander can cause harm and determine not to make the same mistake. So a negative reaction is being transformed into a positive reaction. Causes and effects have been transformed.
The strength of mindfulness is particularly important for the transformation of the perception elements of the Five Aggregates. The Five Aggregates (or Five Skandhas) are the five components of an intelligent being, especially a human being. The Five Aggregates are: 1) Matter (Rupa); 2) Feeling (Vedana); 3) Perception (Sanjna); 4) Volition, (Samskara); 5) Consciousness (Vijnana).
Perception or conception is the functioning of the mind in distinguishing appearance. It refers to images that surface in the mind – the symbolic function. The strength of mindfulness assists one to transform the perception element of the Five Aggregates into Discriminating Primordial Awareness. As is stated in the Ahbiddrama, the Aggregate of Perception and the Aggregate of Feeling both involve only one Mental Factor, the mental factor of perception and the mental factor of feeling respectively. Therefore it is less difficult to transform the aggregate of perception and the aggregate of feeling than the other three aggregates. “Mind leads the World.”
The key to Hua Yen Ch’an is:
Focus the mind on a single point
Let your thoughts settle, free from disturbances
If the mind wanders,
Bring it back to the object of your attention
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