Knowingness

Our ultimate refuge in Buddhist practice we can call “the one who knows.”

Sati-Paññā is the Pāli term, mindfulness and wisdom. In Buddhist terms, this is the ultimate cure for suffering, the end of suffering. Mindfulness and wisdom together, not just mindfulness but wise mindfulness, the right kind of mindfulness, not just awareness in the present, but the right kind of awareness in the present, how do we develop this?

It’s not a complicated but a very natural thing. It’s knowingness, which arises out of staying with what we know. What we know is the state of our own minds. It’s what we know directly. All the things we know through our senses we know indirectly. They change and are rather uncertain. We know about these things but we don’t know anything for sure. Whereas the state of our minds, we know this also changes, but we know this for sure.

If we are meditating and notice something arising in our minds, say anxiety is arising, and we notice correctly “Oh, this is anxiety,” then there will be a little brightening of the mind, right there. If we practice this a while, there will be a little brightening of the mind, a little knowingness arising, right there. Then that’s right; it is anxiety.

The Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta, the most important of all the suttas, lists all these things that we can know. The body, feeling – pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, physical and mental – and then the mind: the mind itself, the state of the mind itself, contents of the mind, thoughts. These are things that we can know directly, without any doubt. If these are the main things we direct our minds at, then we would naturally develop this knowingness.

If our minds are centered on these things, on the things of the mind, then we will develop this kind of knowingness. This happens gradually over the years of practice – we develop a knowingness in our minds that we can become aware of.

This reflection by Ajahn Kalyāno is from the book, The Thread, (pdf) p. 46. Other teachings of Ajahn Kalyāno can be found at the Buddha Bodhivana Monastery website.