What Is the Result of Maintaining One Awareness and Abiding in Clear Comprehension?

Maintaining an awareness at every moment of every day is the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) method taught by the Buddha in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sūtra. Maintaining an awareness is the self-cognition (svasaṃvitti) of the mind consciousness. Knowing dharmas, continuously observing and continuously knowing, means confining the mind consciousness to the single object being observed; the mind does not scatter, and remains in a state of meditative concentration (samādhi). Because the mind consciousness does not scatter and is concentrated on one dharma, the manas, unable to drag the mind consciousness away, has no choice but to also concentrate on that one dharma and can no longer scatteredly attend to many dharmas. Then the manas will know the dharma that the mind consciousness observes and knows, and the manas will deliberate (manasikāra) on this dharma. Over time, one can come to understand what the essence of this dharma actually is, thereby discovering the truth and comprehending reality. This is the process from the mind consciousness's knowing to the manas's knowing, and it is also the process of realizing dharmas. The mind consciousness's knowing is understanding; the manas's knowing is realization. Therefore, the realization of dharmas is necessarily the realization by the manas. 

Only when the manas knows and realizes dharmas does the effect have real force. For example, regarding one's own mistakes: if the manas does not know, and only the mind consciousness knows, then this situation will occur—the mind consciousness knows the mistake, yet one repeatedly commits it without correcting it. But if the manas knows the mistake, one will earnestly reform. Another example: when dealing with people, it is easy to discover whether one's kindness toward them is genuine or false. When the mind consciousness deals with people, it is insincere; only when the manas deals with people is it genuinely heartfelt.

If we truly want to correct our mistakes and subdue the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, we must maintain awareness at all times, examining our bodily, verbal, and mental actions, observing calmly and objectively over the long term, observing from outside the situation, observing from a high vantage point looking down. Then we will observe our own mistakes and the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and we will feel that they are very much contrary to the Dharma, and we will know that the consequences of acting contrary to the Dharma are very bad. When the manas also becomes aware of its own afflictive habits, it will deliberate; after deliberating, it will weigh; after weighing, it will know the advantages and disadvantages as well as cause and effect; then it will decide to eliminate greed, hatred, and delusion, and no longer be as it was before. 

If one does not observe consistently over the long term, one cannot fix the manas on the object being observed; the manas will still chase after objects everywhere in a scattered manner, unaware of its own afflictions, and thus cannot subdue them. This is the result of maintaining right awareness and right mindfulness: it can awaken the manas's enlightenment and enable the manas to realize dharmas. 

Some people, without even cultivating meditative concentration, shout about contemplation every day—what can such contemplation produce? For example, how much difference in meticulousness is there between one person looking after ten children and one person attentively looking after a single child? How much difference in meticulousness is there between one person observing enemies in ten directions and one person attentively observing enemies in one direction, in one place? How much difference in meticulousness is there between one person considering ten problems at the same time and one person single-mindedly considering one problem? Without meditative concentration, the manas chases after all kinds of dharmas everywhere, and He has no mind to focus on thinking about a question of relatively great value. Without such focus, there can be no observation and deliberation (manasikāra) of that valuable question in accordance with reality, one cannot correctly and reasonably come to know it, one cannot deal with it reasonably and in accordance with the Dharma, one easily overlooks certain problems, mistakes will occur in one's choices, and the results will be wrong. Therefore, if the mind constantly maintains an awareness, wise cognition will gradually arise, and thereby one can transform oneself.