The four spheres of the teachings of the Buddha (which we explored in the previous weeks) misses two crucial elements; our environment and other people. These will be the topic of this week and the next, respectively.
We are often so engrossed in our own internal narrative that the external world is only at the periphery of our awareness. We should (re-)learn to see with complete clarity and feeling. We should be wholly attending to what is around us. With this true seeing, the division between the self and the world begins to dissolve. Both are experienced as more meaningful and alive.
Vidya can be translated as ‘analytic appreciative understanding,’ or as ‘wisdom implicit in true appreciation.’ When we see with vidya we see that everything partakes in everything else, that everything is interconnected.
Our aim should be to appreciate life, to stand back and enjoy it all. Yes, we need to work, grow, do uncomfortable things, plan, be responsible… But this is only a necessity of life, not life itself. If all we do has to have a reason, it will take all the joy and spontaneity out of life—it will take the life out of living.
Appreciation, vidya, needs quietude to blossom. It needs speciousness and freedom to emerge. When we are absorbed in appreciation, we forget ourselves and, by doing so, we transcend ourselves. Instead of being the character we have always played, we become open-ended, spontaneous, fluid, and creative. We are no longer bound by who we perceive ourselves to be.
When we see things without relating everything back to ourselves, we see with vidya. When we see with vidya, the world starts to shine. There seems to be more in everything we look at.
Nature
The best place to cultivate interest in, and appreciative awareness of, what is right in front of us, is nature. As we cultivate life with full attention, we appreciate nature as something valuable in and of itself. Appreciation of this kind is not ‘forced’ outward. Rather, it is an appreciation that invites inward.
Art
We can cultivate appreciation of nature by developing our appreciation of art. Artists can help us notice patterns and connections, affinities and ambiguities, subtleties, and nuances. Poetry is a rich source of metaphors that do just that.
We need a counterbalance to the world of work and reason. We need a world where life flows freely. Nature and art help us create such a world.
Sixth practice week
Consciously shifting our attention onto something more constructive is a valuable skill. We should, however, not use it as a distraction when there is something—some negative feeling—that demands our attention.
Unwise attention is the attention giving rise to negative mind-states or making them worse. Wise attention is giving attention to things that brings us forward. This applies to our thoughts and feelings, but also to what we see around us: advertisements, social media, pornography…
There are several things we can do to start cultivating wise attention of our environment.
Take an ‘environmental week‘ where you pay particular attention to reducing your impact on the environment.
Revise your cultural diet. What do you usually watch or listen to? Try to increase the nutritional value. This happens when things leave you satisfied, enlarged, and uplifted. Not bloated, narrowed, or coarsened. Additionally, you can visit an art gallery and try to experience fully what you see.
Take one evening where you sit for at least an hour to just read. No music, television, phone. Do not get up for at least an hour. Give the thing you are reading your full attention.
Go on a mindful daytrip. Think of a place that communicates value to you. Bring your journal and take in the experience of going there just as much as the experience of being there. Make it a day of full attention.
Besides, you can integrate environmental awareness into your daily walk. Try to see things as they really are, without reacting to them. See if you can notice to what extent your environment affects your mental states. See if you can feel how your body responds to them. See what things you can see that you have not noticed before.
The instructions for this week’s meditation are as follows:
- Day 1: connect to the body by scanning it from head to toe. Once you have established a connection, integrate sounds into the same field of awareness as well. Try not to make sense of what you hear, just listen to what comes.
- Day 2: start with your eyes open and soften your gaze. Let things ‘fall into the back of your eyes.’ Then close your eyes and become aware of the sounds as before.
- Day 3: start the same way as in day two but try to catch how you are perceiving things. Does it feel like something is entering your awareness, or is it already there?
- Day 4: take this day to explore the subtle changes throughout your body that emanate from the breath. Where do you feel movement?
- Day 5: try to add the awareness of breath from day four into the first three sessions. Cultivate an open awareness.
- Day 6: same as day five but try to become and stay aware of one particular experience as a consequence of the breath.
- Day 7: same as day six but try to really notice the moment when you bring back your awareness from being distracted.
