Today, in a hotel ballroom in Boston, the Dalai Lama discussed mind, body and mindful awareness. The discussion took place at the Harvard Medical School conference on cultivating compassion and wisdom. Richard Davidson, the University of Wisconsin neuroscientist, kicked things off. He pointed out that in American culture, serious physical training through regular exercise is a good thing. Why not mental training?
The Dalai Lama paused for more than a few seconds. Scratching his forehead, he took up the comparison between exercise and mindfulness. There are, he said, two components to mindful awareness. First, there is the ability to maintain focused awareness. This is really just the ability to maintain a stable mental focus on an object without wavering in one's attention.
Underneath this simple ability to maintain focus, there is a deeper form of wisdom which comes from cultivating awareness of subtle mind states. To truly know onesself is to recognize these subtle mind states. But, he said (as he smiled) these mind states are actually subtle physical energies that we feel as body feelings. They are nearly formless but still physical feelings.
So, he said, concluding his reflection, our basic capacity for deep awareness is dependent on the ability to sense subtle body feelings
... and a sense of peace came over William James as he lay quietly in the Mt Auburn cemetery.
