Page 160 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

points certain peaks in meditation practice, completely silent.
All discursive thoughts, all ideas and concepts, will just be

wiped out, and the mind will be left silent and empty but, at
the same time, full. This sort of silence or emptiness of the
mind is much more difficult to achieve, or to experience, than

any mere silence of the tongue. But it is at this point, when as a
result of awareness the mind becomes silent and thoughts

vanish, leaving only the pure, clear awareness or consciousness
behind, that real meditation begins.

These three kinds of awareness of oneself, i.e. awareness of
the body and its movements, awareness of feelings and

emotions, and awareness of thoughts, should be practised, we
are told, all the time, whatever we are doing. All through the
day and even, with practice, at night — even in the midst of

dreams — we should continue to be aware. If we are aware in
this way all the time: aware of how our body is disposed, how

we put down our foot or raise our arm; aware of what we are
saying; aware of our feelings, whether happy, sad, or neutral,
and aware of what we are thinking; and of whether that

thinking is directed or undirected — if we are aware in this way
all the time, even for the whole of our lives if possible, then we

shall find that gradually and imperceptibly, but none the less
surely, this awareness will transmute and transform our whole
being, our whole character. Psychologically speaking,

awareness is the most powerful transforming agent that we
know. If we apply heat to water then the water is at once

transformed into steam. In the same way, if we apply
awareness to any psychic content, the content is at once
refined and sublimated.

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