Page 163 - The Buddha‘s Noble Eightfold Path

enough to learn by listening to the teacher's instruction. One

must also be aware of the teacher as a spiritual person. Without
that kind of awareness, very little will be gained from the

teacher. One may gain intellectually, but one will not gain
spiritually.

(4) Awareness of Reality
Awareness of Reality does not mean 'thinking about Reality', not

even 'thinking about being aware of Reality'. The best way that
we can describe it is by saying that Awareness of Reality is a sort
of direct, non-discursive contemplation. It has, of course, many

forms, only one or two of which I am going to mention.
One of the best known and most widely practised of these is that

known as the recollection — or awareness — of the Buddha, the
Enlightened One. By this is meant awareness of the person of the
Buddha in the sense of awareness of Reality as embodied in the

form of the Enlightened human teacher. When practising this as
a regular exercise one usually begins by being aware, inwardly, of

the external appearance of the Buddha, i.e. what he might have
looked like as he trod the roads of India two thousand five
hundred years ago. One sees, or tries to see, the tall serene

figure in the yellow robe as he walked from one end of Northern
India to another, preaching and teaching. Then one sees — tries

to be inwardly aware of — the Buddha at certain important
moments in his career, especially when he sat beneath the Bodhi
tree, repulsed the armies of Mara within his own mind and

gained Enlightenment. Various other episodes can also be
imagined.

164