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Guided Meditation: Just Knowing; Dharmette: Buddha Before Buddhism (5 of 5) Training - Gil Fronsdal

The following talk was given by Gil Fronsdal at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on December 06, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Guided Meditation: Just Knowing

Welcome, everyone. We are here at the Insight Retreat Center (IRC)¹. Today the hall is being claimed for a training we are doing, so it doesn't look exactly like a meditation hall, but there are a couple of people here meditating with us in person—which is unusual for me when I am doing this YouTube teaching—so I am very happy.

This week in the mornings, I have been offering little snippets of sayings that you can use in your meditation practice. Sometimes we can say "yes" as a way of enhancing our awareness, to just be present for what is happening. Sometimes there is a wonderful "no" to what is happening—a "no" to being distracted that puts us into the present moment. Yesterday I talked about the little saying "no comment": just being aware of what is there without adding any comments. That is not necessarily appropriate in everyday life, but in meditation, there is something very profound about not getting involved, not judging, and not talking about what is happening in your experience. It is allowing everything to arise in meditation and just being there without any comment.

Today is the culmination of these mantras. It could be another one, but it is what they are all leading to. I mentioned this a little bit on Tuesday as well: the word "know," spelled K-N-O-W. All the others were meant to lead us to a very radical, simple state that simply knows what is happening as it is being known.

Yes, it can be "yes" to what arises, as long as it is known. We can get out of our own way in the knowing. There is something very profound about this. It is like one of those children's toys, a Jack-in-the-box, where you take the lid off and the Jack springs out. It finally releases its tension because it has space. There is something about releasing tension that allows whatever needs to unfold to unfold.

So today: know. Just know. Maybe that could be the two words: "Just know." Keep it that simple. What is happening? Just know it. If it is not obvious how to recognize it or label it, it is okay to just know it as "something." Something is being known. Or confusion is known. Not knowing is known.

In the back of the meditation practice, as we settle in on mindfulness of breathing and being here, stay close to just knowing.

Assume a meditation posture. There is a kind of knowing that happens through the body—embodied knowing. It is not just the body feeling and sensing, but the body recognizing a posture, a way of composing the body that feels right and appropriate for whatever conditions we have in our life.

Gently close your eyes.

There is a kind of knowing in how the body experiences breathing. It is not commentary, it is not judgment, but there is a knowing that the body has of a breathing that is pleasant or unpleasant, comfortable or uncomfortable. It is recognizing a breathing which is tense with resistance or holding, or recognizing a breathing with its fluid breathing.

Easily, with no judgment and no comment, just know. Know what breathing knows. What breathing feels, the body feels, recognizes as you breathe.

And then as you exhale, you relax, let go, and settle in.

In the practice of just knowing, it is knowing what is obvious without any need to search, figure out, or analyze. Sometimes that means knowing you don't know, or just knowing that something is happening—or confusion, or chaos. Keep the knowing radically simple. Just know.

As we come to the end of this sitting, I would like to evoke a little truism or aphorism that I have learned from the field of psychotherapy: "Adults need to be heard; children need to be seen." The combination of those for me is: "People need to be known."

There is something about seeing, hearing, and knowing that can carry love, can carry care, respect, and appreciation. We can offer our capacity to know someone else. That knowing comes along with these wonderful capacities we have to see with love, care, and kindness.

May it be that this practice that we do supports us not just to be mindful in the world, but supports us so that our mindfulness is carried along with kindness, with good will, and with the social emotions where we care for each other and appreciate each other.

May we know others so they feel valued and appreciated.

May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings be peaceful. May all beings be free.

Dharmette: Buddha Before Buddhism (5 of 5) Training

This is the concluding talk on the themes from this ancient Buddhist text, the Atthakavagga, or "The Book of Eights."² Some scholars believe it is the oldest teaching in Buddhism, perhaps the Buddha's first teachings. In the appendix of the book Buddha Before Buddhism, I go into some of the reasons people think this and the evidence for that.

I have selected four themes out of this text. Perhaps these themes are subjective to me, especially this last one we are going to do today.

The first theme is really clear in the text; it is repeated over and over again. It is the idea of not clinging to any kind of views and not holding some religious views as being better than others, or more superior or ultimate. It is just not getting involved in that comparison at all, and not depending on any religious doctrine or beliefs, but rather depending on what we can know and see directly for ourselves.

In doing so, the second theme is not clinging to sensual desires. We know and see the downside of that. We know and see for ourselves how we are limited by the attachment to sensual desires. Again, it is not because someone tells us, or because there is a rule that you should let go of sensual desires. It is to really have understood for oneself—seen and known for oneself—that being caught in sensual desires is not beneficial, and it is actually better not to be caught in them. It is not a doctrine presenting authority, like "this is what you should do." It is a teaching about developing your own capacity to know and see for yourself. Those two verbs, "knowing" and "seeing," are the most common descriptions of the practice in this text.

The third theme was the descriptions of the Sage. Those descriptions, like not clinging to anything or not craving anything, might seem far advanced or impossible to do. However, it is naturalistic; it is humanistic. We can understand that we have craving, and we can understand those times when it is not there. It is not tied to some kind of supernatural belief or some ultimate altered state of consciousness. Again, it is dependent on what can be seen and known for oneself, even though it might seem pretty distant to have no craving or clinging at all.

The last theme, the fourth one, is training: cultivating and developing oneself. The remarkable thing about this is that in this text, it isn't so much that training is a training to get anywhere. It is not so much about getting somewhere, but it is a training to be the goal.

What I mean by this is that if the goal is non-craving, then the training to that goal is to stop craving—maybe in small pieces, gradually over time—so that the non-craving grows and develops until the full non-craving is experienced. We are actually practicing the whole goal that we are going towards in each moment. If the goal is to be peaceful, to have a deep abiding sense of peace in our hearts, then the way to train for that is to begin finding peace here. Knowing peace here. Letting go into peace here.

There is not a sharp distinction between the training and the goal of the training. It is like exercising to become stronger; you become stronger by doing the things that make you strong. If you need to become a strong walker so you can walk well, you begin walking. Walking is the way to become a good walker.

The goal is not such a distant one in this way. It is not like we have to try for years to develop high levels of concentration or really sharp mindfulness, or go into deep states of meditation. Those can all happen, and they might have their role at times, but here in this text, the idea is to find the goal in the means. To practice the goal until the goal becomes perfected, in a sense.

Not clinging to views and beliefs—maybe it is hard to do that, but we practice that the best we can. How do we practice this? Through this knowing and seeing. We know and see as we practice, as we train, as we engage in our life. We can know and feel, "Oh, this does not feel peaceful. This feels like a lot of clinging going on here." It is in that direct knowing of the downside of clinging and agitation that we understand the value of not continuing that which leads to more of that. The Sage, the wise one, has all the information they need for doing this practice in themselves, through their own abilities to know and see.

The "Book of Eights" focuses on fundamental personal and psychological transformations for which individuals are personally responsible.

"Train fully in your own release. Train fully in your own liberation."

Elsewhere it says a monastic should not seek peace from others. The text provides no help from gods or external forces. To many modern readers, this will be a less revolutionary message than it probably was in the Buddha's time. In focusing on cultivating behaviors and virtues, the "Book of Eights" rarely mentions specific techniques or practices. Stated differently, the text doesn't emphasize religious practices that can be seen as steps towards attaining the qualities of an ideal person. Furthermore, it explicitly and provocatively says that religious observances and practices in themselves are not adequate for becoming a person at peace. Rather, it encourages people to simply behave like an ideal Sage. Not to pretend, not to act it out, but in the knowing and seeing, to understand how in the moment we can act like a Sage without clinging, even if the clinging is close by or keeps reappearing.

I will read a couple of verses from Chapter 13³:

Those who say virtue is ultimate dedicate themselves to purity and religious observances. "Only by training in this will there be purity," they say. Claiming to be skillful, they are faced with further becoming, further building up themselves and attachment.

One who falls away from virtue and observances trembles at having failed at the task and hopes for, longs for purity as a poor, far-off traveler hopes for, longs for home.

But whoever has let go of all virtuous conduct and observances as well as all actions, blamable and blameless, and who has no wishes for purity or impurity, lives without indulging, not even taking up peace.

That is just a radical message. You don't find the peace that the Buddha is looking for through virtuous conduct or religious practices, but also not without them. You don't find it by being blameless in your actions, but you also don't find it by doing things which are blamable. Neither are the way there. This is not a teaching to just be free to do whatever you want independent of whether you harm others or not, but it is to not find your peace in all those things. There is another possibility. "Don't even take up peace"—don't hold on to it, don't make it. There is something else.

Also problematic, it says:

Whoever depends on austerities wails for purity, not free from craving for becoming and not becoming. Longing comes from wanting, and with planning there is fear. But with no death and rebirth as a concern, how could one fear? What could one long for?

Someone asked the Buddha:

"Some say that doctrine is best; others say it is inferior. As they all claim to be experts, which statement is true?"

The Buddha says:

"They say their own doctrine is perfect; they say the doctrine of others is inferior. Quarreling, so they dispute, everyone saying their own opinion is true. But the true Brahman⁴ are not led by others when considering doctrines. Believed, they have therefore gone beyond disputes. Indeed, they see none of these doctrines as the best."

"They who are entrenched in teachings, who revere preconceived views, are not easy to train. Whatever they depend on, they say is beautiful, is purity, is where they see truth. However, the true Sages don't make things up. They don't follow views, religious views, doctrine, or bind themselves to knowledge. Knowing the many commonplace opinions, they are equanimous, thinking, 'This is what others hold on to.'

Free of worldly ties, Sages here don't follow any faction in a dispute. Peaceful among those not at peace, equanimous, thinking, 'That is what others hold on to.' They don't hold on to anything. Having given up old attachments without forming new ones, they neither pursue desires nor get entrenched in doctrines. Free from viewpoints, not clinging to the world, wise ones have no self-reproach. They are not an enemy to any doctrine. Not forming opinions, not closed down, and not desirous, they are Sages, wise ones who have laid down their burden."

That is Chapter 13 in Buddha Before Buddhism. This has been an important book for me. I spent about 20 years on and off translating it. I first started translating it when I was in graduate school doing Buddhist studies. I had some extra time during a summer break and I was so fascinated by this book that, just for my own sake to understand it better, I started translating it. I did a few of the chapters, and then came back to it over time and spent a lot of time reflecting on it.

I read a wonderful book by a scholar named Grace Burford⁵. Her doctoral dissertation was on this book, and that made a big impact on me and added to my love of this particular text.

Now I share it with you. Thank you very much for being part of this week, and that I could share something that has been valuable for me. I feel very fortunate to be able to share something that is so dear and deeply loved by me. I hope that it supports you in being a Sage. I hope it supports you in relying on what you can know and see directly for yourself, without recourse to holding on to religious beliefs—including Buddhist ones, and including what I teach.

Thank you very much.