Why our current level of awareness is not sufficient?
As human beings we are also endowed with the five senses- smell, hearing, sight, taste and touch which helps us in being aware of the universe immediately available to us. Additionally, our mind keeps discerning the environment around us, so we know how to respond to a stimulus. For example, if someone we are talking to is angry with us, we may decide to become a bit defensive in our communication. Or if someone is asking for help, we may tap into our compassionate nature and offer help or we may also reject based on whether it is conflicting with another priority. We are also somewhat aware of our thoughts and feelings and if we are feeling pain, we might decide to do something about it by applying a lotion or if we feel hungry, we decide to eat.
Basically there is “sensing” going within us at all times.
However, this is awareness at a basic level. It lets us function well in our daily lives. But it is not enough to know whether a disease or disorder is developing in us.
To be able to detect disease or disorder, we have to tune our antennas to higher frequencies, aka subtler vibrations. What does that mean? Our current senses are tuned only to detect certain frequencies. For example, we can only see a range of colors in the light spectrum and UV or IR is not detectable by the human eye. Similarly, we cannot hear ultrasound. We have similar limitations in other senses as well. More importantly, it is our attention spans or level of attention that is getting affected by the constant flux of sensory input that is thrown at us on a daily basis. Our minds are often scattered with different things to pay attention to, hence our concentration or focus is average.
To be able to detect subtler vibrations, we have to improve our concentration. A highly concentrated mind can detect subtler frequencies. This is possible in today’s day and age and many are doing that. The mindfulness technique of Anapana meditation helps us achieve different levels of concentration called Jhanas in Buddhism.
Jhana is a Pali word which simply means concentration or Samadhi. To know more about Jhanas and levels of Jhanas, please read-
“Jhana:
jhana“, edited by Access to Insight.
Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 30 November 2013,
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/ptf/dhamma/sacca/sacca4/samma-samadhi/jhana.html .
Different levels of concentration can be developed by long term practice of Anapana meditation. Anapana meditation is a simple method of focusing attention to incoming and outgoing breath while remaining nonjudgmental towards any arising thoughts. It’s a very simple yet powerful technique.
The arising of a disease or a disorder
Why does any disease or disorder arise in the first place? There is one prime reason- lack of awareness of what is happening inside us. On a normal day, we are quite unaware of the various mental habit patterns developing within us due to ignorance. We are often erroneous in our perceptions of reality as our judgment is clouded by our feelings, thoughts and the burden of daily tasks we need to attend to. Hence we rarely look inside and even if we do, our clouded awareness is not able to see clearly. However we are continuously generating habitual patterns inside us which if left unattended can become disease or disorders over time. Our errors in perceptions are mainly due to our subjective or judgmental nature which is quick to label things as good or bad, right or wrong and resultantly generates craving or aversion inside us. We “like” things we identify as “good” and we “dislike” things we identify as “bad”. These cravings or aversions manifests in the form of feelings of greed, hate, anger etc which color or bias our perceptions further. Due to this our concentration or ability to see objectively, gets affected. And the cycle repeats. Due to bias in perception, our concentration becomes weak and makes us less aware of what is happening inside us.
Thoughts and feelings blind us and block us from seeing things as they are.
The way out is to sharpen the mind by improving our concentration which in turn improves our awareness. As our awareness improves, our mind can detect the various mental phenomena arising in us in the form of thoughts, feelings and as we observe them objectively as just vibrations without falling for their stories. Thus, our mind becomes free from our biases and judgments. A free mind is more aware and able to detect any disease or disorder arising in us early on. Thus, awareness of feelings and mental patterns is key to mental and physical wellness.
How the Vipassana technique of mindfulness can detect disease or disorders early on?
Vipassana (meditation), meaning Right View, which is observing our inner vibrations like thoughts and feelings with an objective mind, can help us detect disease and disorders early on. I
n Vipassana, we typically sit and observe various feelings arising in different parts of our body- without reaction- meaning objectively or nonjudgmentally. For example, if pain arises in us, we do not look at it as “pain” and cry or react. Instead, we look at it simply as a vibration arising and passing away. A vibration that has a certain quality and intensity. What it means is, we basically look at the characteristics and nature of the vibration instead of focusing on the emotion, thought or stories around it- “why is this not going away”, “how long is this pain going to bother me”, “why did God choose me for this distress” etc. We do not wail or cry anymore. Nor do we want it to end. We simply observe it’s nature of arising and passing away. Pain is impermanent, as are all mental and physical phenomena. The reason the pain lasts so long is because we “react”. Because we react, we develop an attachment to our ideas and stories and keep multiplying our cravings and aversions and hence multiply the pain.
Similarly, when we face anger or fear, we simply focus on the quality or nature of the vibrations. For example, we can observe the shaking or the heat or the pressure in our heart that we feel in anger. We do not react and get carried away in the stories of it like “I am going to take revenge on that guy!”. We simply see thoughts as vibrations. By doing this, their “potency” or “momentum” decreases, and they do not control us anymore. A concentrated mind is necessary to achieve all this, for which we practice Anapana meditation first. By doing this practice, our mind calms down and our cravings and aversions do not arise as much as before. We become more and more objective. Since this is a daily practice, our mind becomes very sharp and aware of our inner patterns and tendencies and hence we can get clues on any diseases or disorders developing inside. If we remain focused on the “outside” world of work, daily tasks and the stories of thoughts, we are not able to be aware of our “inner” patterns. And so one day, when we suddenly have pain in the heart attack or a panic attack we are fumbled about how it all came about.
Can Vipassana cure disease or mental disorders?
Yes, it can. To an extent. It depends upon how developed you are in awareness. And how early you catch your mental patterns which are causing you illness. As we discussed above, Vipassana meaning “Right view” trains our mind to see things as they are, objectively, nonjudgmentally. It is the subjective view revolving around “I” that gives us pain and sorrow. And pain and sorrow manifest as disease or disorders. In the practice of the Vipassana technique, we not only observe with an objective mind, we are also reversing the process of craving and aversion. It is like “re-viewing” something correctly. Like a teacher incorrectly did some calculation mistake and gave a student 92 marks out of 100. But on the student’s request to review, the teacher checked again correctly and found her mistake in judgment. Finally the student got 95/100 which was the correct evaluation. Just like this, in Vipassana, we review our mental tendencies and patterns and correct them with the right view of objective nonjudgmental observation. As we do that, our diseases and disorders start reversing. However the results are not easy to see because we have very deep rooted habit patterns that take time to reverse. And some changes in body are permanent.
In case of mental disorders, the challenge is slightly different. If one is already afflicted with a disorder like bipolar or
OCD, it means the mental pattern has become too strong. Also the side effect of this is that one often loses concentration when mind is affected and paying attention becomes a challenge. Since concentration is a fundamental pre-requisite of Vipassana meditation, one may not be able to benefit from the technique much. However one can still try to improve one’s concentration by practicing Anapana technique. Still, one can learn about what the philosophy of mindfulness is, so that one knows how to approach mental disorders with the right perspective. This would be very helpful.
