Three Awarezen Mantras

At Awarezen, we approach contemplative practice creatively but seek to remain faithful to tradition. We recognize that there is much truth and efficacy in the treasures of tradition, treasures not to be treated in a cavalier fashion. As such, we receive tradition in the light of reflexive wisdom that learns from the past and gazes towards the future, imbued with practical wisdom for the emerging present.

Hence, we make good use of three mantras to illuminate and guide our contemplative practice. These mantras come from the Thai Forest and Chinese Chan traditions:

• Mantra 1: "It is like this."

• Mantra 2: "Stay with this as just this."

• Mantra 3: "Stay with that as just that."

  
  

These mantras guide our contemplative practices, fostering a deep connection to both tradition and contemporary understanding. The first mantra follows the instructions of Ajahn Sumedho of the Thai Forest tradition of the venerable Luangpor Chah (1918-92). The second and third mantras are derived from a 12th century Chinese Chan master Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157). the renowned pioneer of silent illumination in the Chan tradition.

Understanding Mantras

Mantras are tools that help liberate the mind from distractions, afflictions, or vexations. At a deeper level, they can even address the roots of these vexations. Vexations are defiling and disturbing tendencies of the mind that upset the mind's natural equilibrium and sense of wellbeing. When present, they incite turmoil in the mind thus underpinning the ubiquitous suffering we all experience. The three main classes of vexations are craving, aversion, and delusion. We can see these vexations as distorted operational modes of the mind that conduce to suffering. Of the three, delusion is the root vexation that accompanies and drives craving and aversion. Delusion is the darkness of mind that misapprehends how things truly exist. It is closely linked to a trance-like mode of mind, where nothing seems clear and we function like zombies on automatic pilot. Like mindless zombies, we react to events in experience without wisdom and erroneously.

Mantras help us deal with and go beyond vexations. They can be powerful means of directing the mind to pierce through the fog of delusion and undercut craving and aversion. It is important to note that mantras are not magical formulae; rather, they serve as pedagogical aids for purifying and freeing the mind. For mantra practice to be effective and enjoyable, one needs to employ them skillfully with clear wisdom and sensitivity. I will outline three methods of mantra practice that can help towards that aim.

When used effectively, mantras can:

• Direct the contemplative's attention to the naked reality of each emerging present moment.

• Assist in navigating inner mental activity.

• Help work wisely with outer environmental disturbances.

  
  

Benefits of Using Mantras

By employing mantras in a clear and insightful way, contemplatives can:

• Meet challenges with clarity.

• See situations without the interference of distractions.

• Enhance their ability to focus on the present moment.

• Deepen their insight into how things really are.

  
  

This means that we are not using mantras simply as a soothing device to lull us into sleepy relaxation. This is a common error that many contemplatives make unsuspectingly. We feel such a strong desire to be calm and tranquil that we forget to sustain vividness and clarity of attention. We simply collapse into the oblivion of relaxation without awareness. Hence, we must learn to relax "brightly" and "clearly" rather than merely relax "deeply." We learn to relax while remaining grounded and without losing our vividness of attention. Gradually, we heighten our sense of vivid clarity so that all three qualities of relaxation, stability, and vividness are simultaneously present.

Practicing the Mantras

Often, especially in Dharma circles, we hear the repeated message that there is only one way or trajectory to cultivate meditation: first develop serene stillness (shamatha) and then develop deep insight (vipassana). That is one possible pathway. But the Buddha in his early discourses did mention multiple options for cultivating the meditative mind: (1) serene stillness followed by deep insight; (2) deep insight followed by serene stillness; (3) simultaneous fostering of serene stillness and deep insight; and several others. My point here is this: let us not be dogmatic about how one should develop meditation! We need to be flexible and responsive to the unique needs and circumstances of each person.

First Method

In our practice of Awarezen mantras, we can skillfully employ either one of the three options for cultivating meditation. For some, we use the mantra to still and centre the mind, as we attend mindfully to the mantra's resonance from moment to moment without distraction or at least without unnoticed interruption. Gradually, one's attention begins to settle and place itself on the mantra without wandering off. Stillness ensues. The mind becomes serene and still, more able to see things clearly. Then, the mantra can shift to being a pointer to reality - seeing the moment by moment happenings of experience without superimposing added layers of interpretation. We can start using the mantra to observe what is arising, what is dissolving, and how they do so in a clear and spacious way. We become more able to see and know the actuality of each moment of experience, seeing its transitory and interdependent nature. When we grasp and freeze reality with our craving or aversion, suffering inevitably arises. There is no joy in getting misaligned with the way things are! Thus, this approach of using the mantra is stillness followed by insight.

Second Method

Another approach is to foster insight followed by stillness. Here, the contemplative may choose to simply observe everything that emerges in each moment with a bare non-reactive attention. This sounds simple but is not easy. Why? Because we are so used to reacting and striving, adding onto and subtracting from bare experience. But if we can overcome this hurdle, we will be able to enter into a flow of simply seeing and knowing the changing events of experience without getting fused with them. We sit meditating and breathing comfortably, eliciting a sense of ease: "It is like this." Suddenly, a pesky thought pops up from nowhere: "It is like this." A gnawing sense of back pain erupts from prolonged sitting: "It is like this." A traumatic memory from decades past invades your sense of peace: "It is like this." We continue sitting and settling into relaxed stillness, allowing a greater sense of blissful ease to emerge: "It is like this." Nothing important or catchy seems to be happening and you start to feel a little bored: "It is like this." You get the idea. As our flow of attention becomes brightly smooth and vividly relaxed, we start to experience a deeper serenity and stillness of the heart. This is insight followed by serenity.

Third Method

Apart from these two, we can also cultivate stillness and insight together, in a dynamically balanced and nondual way. What happens here is that the contemplative makes us of the mantra in a spacious and non-separative way, embodying the whole field of experience without localizing or focusing at any specific point. Each time we silently repeat the mantra, we expand our awareness to encompass the whole field of experience without separating "body" from "mind," without dividing "self" from the "world." We silently illuminate the experiencing mind and experienced content of mind nondually.

Whichever mantra we use, we can apply it in a gentle and bright way that draws our attention away from the objective content of experience to the subjective space within which all experience occurs. Even that space of experience is quietly and clearly seen for what it is: not a "thing" or a "self" but a vast empty expanse that is luminous and aware without identity. There is no separation between "inside" and "outside" and all phenomenal appearances (what we call objective content of consciousness) are seen as ephemeral displays of awareness itself. They are the luminosity of the mind's innate emptiness. Here, both serene stillness and deep insight grow and mature together in a simultaneous dance of unfolding reality. This is quite exquisite.

Skillful Mantra Deployment

Whichever mantra we use, these three approaches can be employed. For the second and third mantras derived from Chan master Hongzhi, I parse them in a provisionally efficacious way like so: the mantra "Stay with this as just this" can be applied to all events and operations of the mind within itself. For example, whatever thought, feeling, sensation, perception, volition, memory, fantasy, decision, choice, and the whole gamut of mental operations that happens in each emerging moment can be non-reactively seen and known with the mantra "Stay with this as just this." Likewise, the mantra "Stay with that as just that" can be applied to all external events in one's environment. For example, a barking dog, a screaming child, a noisy motorcycle, a humid blast of hot air, a buzzing biting mosquito, and more. Either way, we use the mantras as skillful means to meet and welcome each moment of experience without indulging and without resisting. Rather, we encounter each moment of reality with equanimity and awareness, serene and cool.

Why Mantras?

In conclusion, mantras serve as an essential practice for those seeking to cultivate mindfulness, awareness, and love in their daily lives. When done skillfully and wisely, in a spirit of love, mantras can help contemplatives hone their attention, balance their minds, open their hearts, sharpen their insight, and liberate themselves from the grip of vexations and delusions. We can unlearn old habits of reactivity and relearn the art of living as fully human as possible, in touch with life as it is in each moment.

In a profoundly mysterious way, we can say that the serenity and insight that we "cultivate" are not really "things" we acquire or achieve through long-term self-effort. What I am saying here may seem contrarian to much of what is taught within "self-help" schools of spirituality, as is the case in much of Buddhadharma. I do not endorse that "self-help" view. For if one claims that grasping at "self" is the main problem of the human condition, how can "self-effort" be the solution? What I see in the mystery of spiritual growth and transformation is this: serenity and insight are gifts. They are gifts of grace and mercy selflessly poured out on us, infused in us, percolating as emergences of wisdom that catalyze our deepest transformation and freedom. We do not deserve them, We cannot merit them. We have no say in how or when they should arise in us. We simply cannot achieve, acquire, or possess them as "ours."

Beyond all that I've said above, we can through mantra practice enter into deeper realms of contemplative awareness that take us home to our primordial freedom in Christ. The eternal logos, Christ Jesus, Son of the Father by nature became the Son of Man by grace so that we who are sons of man by nature can become sons of God in the Son of Man by grace. By grace, we come to enjoy the blessings of serenity and insight. By grace, we receive the fullness of serenity and insight that breaks down ignorance, destroys sinfulness, nourishes our love and service, and unleashes genuine freedom in Christ. By grace, we realize the nonduality of serenity and insight in each moment of seeing reality with and through God's eyes, instead of with our eyes of dark ignorance and prejudices. In a sense, we can say that perfect insight is viewing all of reality with and through the eyes of God, in and through the living Christ who indwells us in the Spirit for those who have opened our hearts to him. How marvellous! How wonderful! All burdens effortlessly released and all liberation selflessly received!

Fourth Method as Non-Method

One final note. There is another approach we can use with mantra practice. This is the path of wonderment and inquiry. In Chan or Zen, we call this the "critical phrase inspection" method or huatou in Chinese. Here, we make use of the mantra to evoke a deep and robust sense of curiosity and wonderment, totally open and intensively seeking to know, to see, to fathom what the mantra really points us to. The words of the mantra sound simple enough but if we adopt a beginner's mind that is fresh and curious, we may begin to realize that these words are not as simple as they sound or look. We embark on a continuous and unremitting inquiry into the mantra, like a puzzling paradox that draws all of our attention and knowing into itself. In this process, we may come to a point of a immensity of wonderment that traditions calls "great doubt" - a big ball of questioning energy that is resolute on fathoming this "great matter of life and death" in this very moment! Then, in one unforgettable and unexpected instant of grace, the self dissolves into the ball of "doubt" leaving no trace. Time and space implode into emptiness without borders. Even emptiness shatters into a million pieces. The ball of doubt is no more. Peace prevails. Bliss dances. Freedom dawns. The contemplative enters a new dimension, attracted by the magnetic force of a love beyond all conceptuality and separation but is yet personal and triune at the core. God in Christ breaks through. Enough said for now.

Let us joyfully enter this path of self-forgetfulness via the way of mantra. And bask in the sweet presence and power of Christ Jesus that refreshes all that has withered and redeems all that is broken.