by Tang Huyen

"Mindfulness is building down, whereas exercises of the imagination are building up. It is true that by such building up, which is doing, one can arrive at building down, which is non-doing."

The Buddha's teaching of mindfulness reaches all the way to awakening inclusively. It is a one-size-fits-all approach to mental culture, and encompasses all that is needed for awakening. The famous methods (dharmas) of Chan, like silent contemplation and public case, are mere variations of it. Without it no Buddhist cultivation is possible. To be precise, without it some forms of cultivation are possible, but they are worldly cultivation, with worldly aims (like energy, charm and charisma, supernatural powers, etc.) and devoid of Buddhist goals (the ending of suffering). Any time the cultivators engage in self-deception and self-splitting, it is blocked and becomes impossible, and worldly goals are possible, but Buddhist goals are impossible.

"And how, monks, is mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing developed? How is it made much of? How is it of great fruit, of great advantage? Herein, monks, a monk who is forest-gone or gone to the root of a tree or gone to an empty space, sits down cross-legged, holding his back erect, arousing mindfulness in front of him. Mindful he breathes in, mindful he breathes out. Whether he is breathing in a long breath he comprehends, 'I am breathing a long breath'; or whether he is breathing out a long breath he comprehends 'I am breathing out a long breath.' He trains himself, thinking, 'I will breathe in experiencing the whole body.' He trains himself, thinking, 'I will breathe in tranquillising the compositions of body (kāya-saṅkhāra).' He trains himself, thinking, 'I will breathe in experiencing joy (pīti)... happiness (sukha).' He trains himself, thinking, 'I will breathe in experiencing the compositions of mind (citta-saṅkhāra).' He trains himself, thinking, 'I will breathe in tranquillising the compositions of mind (citta-saṅkhāra).' He trains himself, thinking, 'I will breathe in experiencing thought... rejoicing in thought... concentrating thought... freeing thought.' He trains himself, thinking, 'I will breathe in contemplating impermanence (anicca)... detachment (virāga)... cessation (nirodha)... forsaking (paṭinissagga).' Monks, mindfulness of in-breathing and out-breathing, when developed thus, made much of, is of great fruit, of great advantage." (MN, III, 82–83, §118; MLS, III, 124–125)

The whole spectrum, or near there, of topics of meditation is included. The compositions of body (kāya-saṅkhāra) are in-breathing and out-breathing (they are completely stopped at the fourth form meditation), and the compositions of mind (citta-saṅkhāra) are the third aggregate (notion, idea, concept) and the fourth aggregate (the compositions, also known as volitions). The tranquillising of the compositions of mind is the same as the tranquillising of the whole of mentation, and it is fully accomplished in the attainment of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti), which is the ninth attainment, after the four form meditations (dhyāna/jhāna) and the four formless attainments. Full awakening (arhat-ship) occurs there, in the attainment of cessation, if not already attained. There both calming (samatha) and insight/penetration (vipassanā) are accomplished at the same time. Here one is concentrating thought (samādahan cittam) and at the same time freeing thought (vimocayam cittam).

The experiencing of the whole body is a way of binding the experiencing to something non-mental, and thus of bypassing mentation, which serves the same purpose as the tranquillising of the whole of mentation, as above.

The contemplation of impermanence (anicca), detachment (virāga), cessation (nirodha), forsaking (paṭinissagga) is the standard package in letting go. Buddhism is in letting go, not in accumulating. Here one is concentrating thought (samādahan cittam) and at the same time freeing thought (vimocayam cittam).

In Buddhist practice in general, joy (pīti) and happiness (sukha) are often inherent. You don't aim at them, but they just happen. They help with the whole exercise. One hand washes the other. The whole exercise is a train of events that reinforces itself and feeds on itself. It leads to non-activity, non-doing (an-abhisaṃskāra, same stem kr- as in kamma/karma "act, deed" and saṅkhāra/saṃskāra "composition", the fourth aggregate, which is in the plural: the compositions). The Buddha defines Nirvana as the calming of all the compositions (sabba-saṅkhāra-samatho), also as non-activity, non-doing (an-abhisaṃskāra) and non-volition (an-abhisaṃcetanā). That night, he calmed himself all the way, gave up all will and volition, didn't do anything, and awoke. He was merely mindful, as opposed to the massive imposition and blocking that he perpetrated on himself in the previous six years.

It is to be noticed that mindfulness is building down, whereas exercises of the imagination are building up. Exercises of the imagination are exercises in voluntary adhesion, in voluntary "making believe", such as the contemplation of the unclean and the totalisations, this latter including the Four Divine Abodes but also any exercise that imagines the whole world to be some specific substance or quality, like air or earth or green or blue or friendliness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity (the Four Divine Abodes). It is true that by such building up, which is doing, one can arrive at building down, which is non-doing. The public case method is a strange combination of building down (mindfulness) and building up (one concentrates and pulls oneself together to crack a public case, by sheer effort). It is an exacerbation of the combination of building up and building down, as the exercises of the imagination also need to combine mindfulness in them to produce Buddhist results. Contrariwise if they are pure exercises of the imagination without mindfulness in them, they are worldly and do not produce Buddhist results. On the other hand, the contemplation of impermanence (which is part of mindfulness, as above) is already imposition, building up.

Colophon

Posted to talk.religion.buddhism on 12 September 2008, in the "just a little chemical pin prick" thread. Author: Tang Huyen. Message-ID: <[email protected]>.

TH's most systematic treatment of the distinction between mindfulness (building down) and exercises of the imagination (building up). The full Ānāpānasati passage from MN §118 anchors the analysis: the text shows mindfulness of the breath encompasses the entire range of topics — body, feeling, mind, dhamma — up to and including the contemplation of impermanence, detachment, cessation, forsaking. The Buddha's awakening under the Bodhi tree is interpreted as the ultimate building-down event: six years of extreme penance (maximal building-up) followed by a single night of simply being mindful. This is the most technically detailed post in the TH corpus on meditation method. Read alongside "Building Up and Down — Gelling and Ungelling" (July 2008) and "Where It Is At" (July 2008).

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.

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