Basic prajña includes the three principal prajñas, which are the prajña of listening, the prajña of contemplating and the prajña of meditation. In the Mahayana tradition, mindfulness is regarded as wisdom, as transcendental knowledge, which is known as prajña in Sanskrit. The mindfulness practices we are about to discuss are the basic method of developing these three principal prajñas. A more clear and detailed expression of the three prajñas is found in the practices of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

The Four Foundations of Mindfulness, in the tradition of the Mahayana path, are explained in five basic points. These are the five basic stages we go through as we study, cultivate the wisdom of prajña, integrate that into our experience, and develop that experience into the full state of realization or prajña. We begin by looking at this mindfulness practice at the most fundamental starting point of hearing, or learning, and contemplating. There are five points to contemplate in order to understand this notion

The first point is the object of intention, or the object of our meditation. In the path of the Four Mindfulnesses, there are four objects of intention or meditation. The first of the four objects is the body. Feeling is the second, and the mind is the third. The fourth object is called phenomena or dharmas in Sanskrit.

When we relate with these four objects in a samsaric way, we are clinging to them, each in a different style. We have different samsaric relationships with each of these four objects. Because of clinging onto these four objects and because of the persistence of our basic tendencies to relate with these four objects in a most neurotic way, the whole universe, the whole world of samsara, is created. For that reason, in the practice of mindfulness we use these four objects as the objects of our meditation, as the objects of our intention, and by using them we develop a sane, a more profound relationship with these objects. We develop a more profound understanding of these four objects and more profound ways of dealing with them. Through the development of this deeper understanding and more skillful methods, we are trying to transcend our relationship with these four objects.

The four objects are referred to, in the ordinary samsaric sense, as body, feeling, mind, and phenomena. The object of body is related to as the basis of clinging to oneself as an entity, as an existent, permanent ego. The body serves as the basis of that clinging, to which we add feeling, which is seen as something to be experienced, something to be enjoyed by this self in the most basic sense. Then we have mind in the third stage, which we relate to as the real self. When we try to point to the self, the ego, we usually point to our consciousness, our basic stream of mind or basic sense of mind. That becomes the actual object of self-clinging, the actual object of ego-clinging, which cannot exist without body and feeling. Mind cannot really express itself without the existence of body (body here is referring to form), and the object of feeling. Therefore mind, as the third object, the third stage of mindfulness, is the basic notion of consciousness. It is the basic notion of awareness. Then we have the fourth object, the object of phenomena. Ordinarily, we relate to that object as the basis of all confusion. However, from this perspective, all confusion arises from these phenomena, and all aspects of liberation also arise in these phenomena as well. So phenomena is seen as the basis of confusion and liberation, or samsara and nirvana. Samsara or nirvana appears or is experienced on the basis of the fundamental phenomena, the basic sense of dharmas or existence.

These four unhealthy relationships, or misunderstandings of these four objects, lead us in a vicious circle of samsara. We are involved in a continual game of illusion. The game of illusion arises from a lack of prajña in our relationships with these four objects. Therefore, we're trying to develop the understanding of prajña in order to realize how we can relate with these four objects more profoundly, as well as more basically. The main point presented in the first stage of mindfulness practice is to recognize these four objects.

Point Two: Understanding the Essence

The second point of mindfulness practice is understanding the essence, understanding the true essence or true nature of mindfulness. What is mindfulness? What does it mean? This practice of mindfulness is actually the nature of prajña, as we discussed earlier. The essence or the nature of mindfulness here is the prajña of seeing, the prajña of understanding, the prajña of experiencing the true nature of form or the body, the true nature of feeling, the true nature of mind, and the true nature of phenomena. That prajña is the nature of mindfulness. This mindfulness is known as dran pa in Tibetan. It's called dran pa nye bar zhak pa (dren pa nye war bzhag pa). It's very simple. Dran pa literally means "recollection" or "mindful" or "being watchful." And that dran pa is the wisdom, the prajña of seeing, the prajña of simply experiencing without any labels. Zhak pa means "placing" and nye bar means "utterly or closely." And so it means closely placing your mind, closely focusing your mind, closely relating your mind with these situations and objects more directly. Dran pa nye bar zhak pa is basically the wisdom or the prajña of seeing and relating with these four objects closely. Relating with these four objects most directly with our prajña, with our mind, is what we call the practice of mindfulness. It is simply seeing what form is, simply experiencing what form is, simply being there with the form, simply going through these experiences with all of the four objects.

If you look at the nature or the essence of these mindfulness practices, you will see that their essence is simply the prajña of relating with these four objects very directly. It is the prajña of understanding or experiencing these four objects without any barrier between you as a knower, you as the experiencer, and the experienced object. The absence of any barrier is what prajña is here. The actual prajña is also without coloring. Therefore, we see the objects' most basic, fundamental state and relate with that. The fundamental state of simplicity of the object is the essence or nature of mindfulness.

Point Three: Assistant or Support

This leads us into the third stage, which is called the assistant or support. Mindfulness of the four objects of intention, body, feeling, mind, and dharmas, is practiced through the two supports of mindfulness and awareness. We must maintain these two supports, these two assistants. Without having these two disciplines developed in our practice, in our mundane experiences, there's no way we can really truly be mindful. There's no way we can really truly relate to the four objects with prajña. Therefore, the real tool or support, so to speak, is the development of the discipline of mindfulness and the discipline of awareness. These two disciplines are known as the assistants or the support for our practice of mindfulness and for the development of our relationship with the four objects.

This leads us to the fourth stage, which is the actual point of our discussion. The fourth stage is the method of practicing the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. That method begins with working with the mindfulness of body, working with the mindfulness of form. If you really examine these four mindfulnesses, you will recognize that they are in the nature of working with the five skandhas. The first mindfulness, which is the mindfulness of body, relates to the skandha of form. The second mindfulness, the mindfulness of feeling, relates to the skandha of feeling. That is very straightforward. The third mindfulness is also very straightforward. The mindfulness of mind relates to the skandha of consciousness, which is the fifth skandha. And the mindfulness of dharmas, or phenomena, relates to the other two skandhas, which are perception and concept or formation. So mindfulness of phenomena is working with these two skandhas. Keeping this in mind helps us to fully understand these four mindfulnesses.

First Foundation: Mindfulness of Body

We begin with the mindfulness of body. There are two ways of viewing the practice of mindfulness of body. The first is the general Buddhist approach, which is the most fundamental way of looking at this mindfulness. The second approach reflects the more specific Mahayana point of view. To begin with the most basic and general approach, the mindfulness of body or form relates to our fundamental sense of existence, which normally is not stable, not grounded, due to our samsaric pattern of tendencies. Our existence is very wild. It's very crazy, like the mad elephant that we talked about earlier. For that reason, we work with our form, the existence of form, at the first stage of mindfulness practice. In particular, we work with three different levels of form. These are the outer form of our physical existence, the inner form of our perceptions, and the innermost form, which is related to the Mahayana understanding of the selflessness of body.

The General Buddhist Approach: The Outer Form of Body

In the most basic sense of the general Buddhist approach, we're working with the outer form of our physical existence. With this method of mindfulness, we're trying to bring our mind to the realization and understanding of what this existence is, what this physical form is. We're trying to bring it to the state of mindfulness, bring it to the most physical level of our experience of body. Usually, we experience our physical body as existing "out there" somewhere. We generally feel that our body exists outside of our mind. We feel that the body exists in a definite form, in a very solid way, of our mind. That is our fundamental experience of body, and that experience of body goes wild in our usual situation of life. In this path of mindfulness, we're bringing the wildness of our physical existence down to a level of calmness, to a certain level of grounded-ness. By simply bringing it into the present, we're bringing it to what it actually is, rather than thinking about what it actually is.

What we are working towards, at this level of mindfulness, is to see the outer form, outer existence, outer nature of our body, regardless of whether it's matter or mind. Forget about such philosophical or theoretical divisions. We're simply relating with what it is, and that is the mindfulness of body. Simply being there with our body, with our physical sense of existence, is the mindfulness of body. If we approach this with too much philosophy, too much analysis, it becomes too complicated. Trying to see if body is mind or matter, if it's a projection or not, becomes an obstacle and prevents us from directly relating to what it is. The Buddha talks about this basic approach in the sutras when he says things like, "When you see, just see. When you smell, just smell. When you touch, simply touch. And when you feel, simply feel."

We are using very basic logic here in order to relate to the most fundamental level of our experience. For example, when we sit down on a meditation cushion, we have a basic sense of feeling, of the sensation of our body, of our existence, of this gravity. Just simply being there with that, just simply being there with our existence, is what we call mindfulness of body, in the most basic sense. That mindfulness is not just simply being there, but it also involves a certain prajña of understanding what it actually is.

General Buddhist Approach: The Inner Form of the Body

That experience takes us into the inner state of physical existence; which is seeing the true nature of our body, seeing the true reality of the relative existence of relative self. This begins with seeing the most fundamental level of the presence of our body. That is to say, we're experiencing the most fundamental existence of our presence. That is a very simple experience. We just simply sit and be with our body, not with our mind, so to speak. In that exercise, it's possible for us to have some sense of this profound existence, the profound presence of our body, the profound experience of just being whatever it is. Simply being that experience is the inner experience of the physical self, the physical existence. At this stage of the mindfulness of the inner form of body, we go further into the depth of experiencing that being, that presence. We're going into the subtlety of our physical nature. We're seeing our own impermanent nature, and seeing that is a very profound level of mindfulness.

Experiencing the impermanent nature of our body is the subtle experience of the mindfulness of body. That experience is a profound understanding and a profound realization. Buddha said that of all the footprints that the animals make in nature, the deepest imprint is the footprint of the elephant. And Buddha said, in a similar way, the most precious and the deepest impression that any thought can make in the progress of our path is the thought of impermanence. It leaves a very strong impression. It is a very strong and deep experience on our path. And therefore, the realization of the impermanence of our body is a very profound mindfulness practice.

Mahayana Approach: The Innermost Form of the Body

Through the practice of reflecting on our physical self, our physical existence, we develop the mindfulness of body, which is seeing with awareness. When we are working with that physical experience, then we are getting into the depth of the Mahayana approach of working with the mindfulness of body. At that level, we go beyond the simple physical presence of a body. At that point, we are relating with the way the body is experienced by an individual being. The way we experience the existence of our body is simply our perception, simply our reflection, our projection. There's nothing really solid beyond that; there's no real existence of a physical body outside, as far as the Mahayana path is concerned. At this point, we are seeing a much deeper level of physical self, physical presence of mindfulness. We're discovering that mindfulness is seeing the true nature of that experience. We're approaching the level of absolute reality, rather than remaining on the relative level, where we are seeing the relative nature of mind, the relative nature of our body, the relative nature of our mindfulness. We are going more into the depth of mindfulness, which is the absolute truth. Therefore, when we talk about this mindfulness, in the Mahayana sense, we are talking about the selflessness of the body, which is very different from the general Buddhist approach.

The Dream Example

At this level we are dealing with our projections. We are dealing with the understanding and mindfulness of our projections. We're seeing that the physical world that we experience here is not necessarily solid and real. This can be understood clearly through the example of the dream. When we are dreaming, we have subject, we have object, and we have the action between the subject and the object, which is the experience of the threefold situation. As long as we remain in the dream state, those three things equally exist. We experience these three things as solid. We experience a real world, real phenomena, real body. Our own physical existence is there, the physical existence of the object is there, and the physical existence of the action is there. All three are simply existing in the dream state.

But if you look at your dream from the point of view of waking up, of the awakened state, it does not exist, right? If you look back at last night's dream, and if you look back at yesterday's experience of life, which is not really a dream (like yesterday's experience of this shrine room, yesterday's experience of our sitting, yesterday's experience of our talking), if you look back, they both equally do not exist. Your experience of yesterday is not solid; your dream of last night is not solid, as far as today is concerned. If you look back from the point of view of today, which is the awakened state, relatively speaking, then both of those equally do not exist, you know. There's no solid reason to say yesterday was more solid than last night's dream. There's no solid logical reason, so to speak, except that we cling to our dream-like experience of yesterday more than to our experience of last night's dream.

Therefore, in the Mahayana path, our whole experience of the body, our entire experience of the physical world, is simply a projection of our mind, a projection or a production of our karmic mind, and that experience is simply existing as long as we remain in this dream of samsara.

Two Aspects of the Dream

For that reason, in the Mahayana path, we talk about two aspects of dream. We talk about the "real dream," and we talk about the "exemplary dream." So what is the real dream? Here, the real dream is our daily life experience, and the exemplary dream is the dream that we have at night when we are sleeping. These are the examples that show us which dream is the real dream. The real dream is this experience of our life, this experience of our body, this experience of our physical presence and existence. The real dream is this experience of a solid self, and therefore, our physical existence is simply regarded as a dream in the Mahayana Path. Maintaining the discipline of seeing the dream-like nature of our body and bringing our mind back to the awareness of that experience is the mindfulness of body in the Mahayana path. The Mahayana discipline of mindfulness of body is strongly related with the notion of selflessness, strongly related with the notion of the non-existence of body, rather than relating with the existence of body. Consequently, there's a very big difference between the Theravadin meditation of mindfulness of body and the Mahayana meditation of mindfulness of body. There's a big difference in its approach to its meditation technique.

The Four-Fold Emptiness

Thus, mindfulness of body in the Mahayana sense refers to the original vipashyana meditation on selflessness of form, emptiness of form. The mindfulness of body here is the practice of the four-fold emptiness in the Heart Sutra, which says, "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Form is no other than emptiness, emptiness is no other than form...." That four-fold emptiness of form taught in the Heart Sutra by Lord Buddha is the Mahayana discipline of mindfulness of body. It is simply relating with the dream-like nature of our physical existence, the physical world of body, and relating with the notion of emptiness of body, the notion of selflessness of form. That practice is what we call the mindfulness of body in the Mahayana tradition.

Method of Practice: Analytical Meditation

How do we practice this? The Mahayana path is strongly connected to the practice of analytical meditation. There's no way we can really practice mindfulness of body, in the Mahayana sense, without understanding and practicing analytical meditation. Because of this, the development of the three stages of prajña becomes extremely important for the Mahayana path. In order to really practice mindfulness of body, we must begin with the Theravadin approach of simply being there in the physical sense, experiencing the presence of our body, first. This begins with sitting in the meditation posture. It begins with meditation or reflection that focuses on every aspect of feeling, every sensation of the body (a more detailed description of the sensation of feeling will come with the next stage). For example, when we sit in the meditation posture with our hands resting on our knees, there's a sense of touching. There's a sensation, a feeling. There's an experience of body here, right here, in our hands. There's an experience of body when we touch our meditation cushion. There's an experience of our whole body-sitting upright in the Seven Point Posture, right? The Seven, or Eight Points of Posture, or the Five or Seven or Eight Points of Posture of the meditation technique. (laughs) Yes, there are different ways of counting, you know. Our legs are crossed, so there is the sensation of body there. Our backbone is straight and upright, and there is a strong sense of body there. Our shoulders are evenly stretched, and our hands are in the meditation mudra. Relating with that complete sense of being there is what we call mindfulness of body in the most basic sense.

That mindfulness of body does not happen if we are not participating fully in our sitting posture, with all of these Seven Points. Just being there, just simply breathing with your body, is the mindfulness of body. We don't have to acquire something new. Mindfulness of body is just simply being with your body, being aware and mindful. Going further into the experience of body is seeing the illusory nature, the dream-like nature of your body as a reflection of your mind. Then going into the depth of that experience, you are seeing it as the four-fold emptiness, and that is the complete practice of mindfulness of body in general. That is the practice of the first mindfulness. Practices such as sitting or walking meditation are situations where we can have strong experiences of this mindfulness. In contrast, we usually go mindless in our regular existence in the world, and we do not really experience our own presence on the physical level.

The Second Foundation: Mindfulness of Feeling

General Buddhist Approach: Fear and the Three Objects

The second stage of mindfulness is the mindfulness of feeling, which is simply relating to or working with our basic existence in the world as samsaric beings. In the general Buddhist approach, "feeling" refers to the feeling of working with our basic fear. That feeling is the fear of suffering, or the fear of fear. Actually, fear itself is not fear, but the fear of fear becomes the most troubling presence in the realm of our feeling. Therefore, the mindfulness of feeling relates with the three objects of our existence in the samsaric world, that is the pleasant object, the unpleasant object, and the neutral object. In relation to these three objects, we experience three different states or aspects of fear. Towards the pleasant object, we have a fear of attachment. We have a fear of desire. Towards the unpleasant object, we have a fear of hatred. We have a fear of aggression. We have a fear of anger. And towards the neutral object, we have a fear of neutral feeling. We have a fear of becoming numb, of getting into a state of numbness, a state of stupidity, so to speak. We regularly experience these three aspects of feeling in just surviving our daily existence in the samsaric world.

In relation to these three feelings, Buddha taught that we have to relate to the three objects properly, by understanding them and working with their nature. He said that when we examine the nature of these three feelings and their three objects, we discover that their fundamental nature is suffering. The pleasant object, the unpleasant object, and the neutral object all exist in the same nature of suffering, regardless of whether we're relating to attachment, aggression or a neutral state of mind, such as ignorance. Consequently, practicing mindfulness of suffering is the mindfulness of feeling. And relating with the three objects is the means of relating with the three levels of suffering that are so frequently talked about.

The Three Levels of Suffering

The mindfulness practice here is to contemplate or meditate on suffering and the three expressions of suffering, and to therefore experience their nature. So what is the nature of suffering here? Buddha said there is one word that can describe the meaning of suffering, and that is "fear." Fear is what suffering means. But what is this fear? It is the fear of losing something that is very pleasant, something that is very pleasurable, something that is very dear and loving, something to which you have become attached. It is the fear of losing that. Fear is also the fear of gaining something. That fear is the fear of gaining something that is unpleasant, something that you don't want. You always get what you don't want, and you don't get what you really want. That's what suffering here is. Fear is being expressed in these two manifestations, so to speak. The second manifestation of fear is gaining something that you don't want, that you don't expect. That begins with the flu and goes all the way up to whatever experiences we might go through. These three natures of suffering are connected with the nature of fear, basically, and therefore, we have three levels of suffering, which we call the suffering of suffering, the suffering of change, and the all pervasive suffering. These are the three sufferings.

All Pervasive Suffering

The nature of all pervasive suffering is this fundamental fear, which exists within every level of our feeling, whether we're feeling really high, really feeling happy, or whether we are really feeling down with suffering. All of our feelings are pervaded by this fundamental fear, and that's why it is called "all pervasive suffering." This is explained in the traditional Buddhist literature with various examples. First, it is similar to developing a fatal disease, which is not yet fully ripened. The disease is growing, but you haven't really seen it. You haven't really experienced it yet, but its presence is there all of the time. Every minute, every second, it's growing. It's developing. That kind of fundamental situation is known as all pervasive suffering, which grows into the suffering of change.

The Suffering of Change

The traditional example for the suffering of change is like having a very delicious cookie baked with poison. It's very delicious, but it's deadly poisonous. When you eat that cookie, it's still very pleasurable, very sweet, you know. In order to show that more dramatically, Shantideva, in the Bodhicaryavatara, gave this example: the suffering of change is like honey on a razor blade. He said that when you lick this honey on the razor blade, it's very pleasant, it's very sweet. It's honey, you know. And because of our desire, our attachment, we lick this honey harder. We want more and more and more all the time. Because of our poverty mentality, we lick the honey harder each time we experience its sweetness. The harder we lick the honey, the deeper we cut our tongue. So in a similar way, the suffering of change is experienced as perhaps a more pleasurable, more pleasant, more pleasing experience of feeling, but it leads us to the result of pain, the result of suffering. This is what we call the "suffering of change."

The Suffering of Suffering

The suffering of change leads us to the suffering of suffering, the most obvious suffering, which is noticing that our tongue is gone after experiencing the delicious honey. When we notice that our tongue is gone, we realize that we won't have to experience the honey again for many months (or lifetimes, I don't know).

As we work with and examine these three levels of experience, feelings of suffering, as well as pleasant feelings and neutral feelings, we can see that they are all related with the three sufferings. If you look at pleasurable feelings, they are connected to the suffering of change. If you look at feelings associated with unpleasant objects, they are connected to the suffering of suffering. If you look at the feelings of the neutral state of mind, they are connected to fundamental suffering, all-pervasive suffering. Therefore, we practice by observing these three feelings and working with our experience of them in a most mindful way. If we're truly experiencing these three states of suffering, three states of feeling, just as they arise, that is the mindfulness of feeling. So the mindfulness of feeling is being totally watchful, totally present with every level of our fear, and working with that in the most fundamental way. This is the mindfulness of feeling from the perspective of the general Buddhist approach.

Mahayana Approach: Fearlessness and Selflessness

The Mahayana tradition looks at mindfulness of feeling as seeing the selfless nature of suffering, the selfless nature of fear, which is seeing the true nature of fear as not being fear. This is how we originally began our discussion. We see that the fear of fear is simply a disturbing fear, and that relating to this fundamental fear without fear is the way to practice Mahayana mindfulness of feeling. Therefore, what we are doing here is simply looking at our fear. We are simply experiencing our suffering, our so-called suffering, nakedly, without any filters of fear. That's how the Mahayana mindfulness works. Through this method and through having more detailed instructions on how to work with this fear, we transcend our fear and becomes a fearless warrior on the Mahayana path. Without working with the second mindfulness, the mindfulness of feeling, which deals directly with our fear, it is very difficult to follow the path of Mahayana. Without it there's no way to become a fearless warrior.

This second mindfulness becomes very important, especially for the Mahayana path of transcending our fear and working with our basic suffering. On the most fundamental level, that basic suffering is just fear of being in the state of fear. Instead of being paranoid about fear, instead of being troubled by fear, and dragging ourselves into this endless pull of fear, we are looking at the fear itself in the state of Mahayana mindfulness. Through looking at the fear directly, most directly, face-to-face, we are transcending our fear. That is the path of the Mahayana mindfulness of feeling, which is the second stage of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness.

General Buddhist Approach

We have discussed the first two aspects of mindfulness briefly: the mindfulness of body and the mindfulness of feeling. Now we will look at the third mindfulness, which is known as the mindfulness of mind. At this point, the third stage of mindfulness is working directly with our basic state of mind, our consciousness or awareness.

"The mind" here in Buddhism refers to a detailed classification of mind. We're not speaking simply of one giant nature of mind. There's no such thing as one giant all-pervasive mind, so to speak. Our practice of mindfulness of mind here is working with every single, individual experience of our consciousness, which is divided into six different categories known as the six consciousnesses, in the general Buddhist approach. At the Mahayana level, it is divided into eight categories called the eight consciousnesses. And if you want to go into more detail (laughs), then the mind is further explained in the Abhidharma literature as having the basic mind and fifty-one mental factors. So we have a very detailed explanation of mind, generally speaking, in this path of spirituality. But what we are fundamentally dealing with, here, is developing the mindfulness of simply experiencing every individual movement of our mind, every individual fragment of our mind, and every individual living state of our consciousness. Accordingly, at this stage, we have the method of mindfulness of mind to help us relate to and simply be present with the momentary movement of mind, the momentary experience of every living, individual incident of our thoughts or perceptions or memories, which we call mind.

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