Seven Factors of Awakening
Eleanor Rachel Luger
Lists, lists, lists. To make the most of every minute and to keep myself on course, I made lists. To-do lists for work, to-do lists for home, even to-do lists for weekends and vacations. I loved crossing off what I had accomplished and reveled in the satisfaction of tossing lists that had turned from “to-do” to “all done.” Then I started to practice, and my transformation began. My drive to do as much as I could every moment of every day, to harness every moment to a task, softened into an intention to let the contents of each moment unfold, let life itself be my listmaker. So, it was with some amusement--and satisfaction--that I realized the Buddha himself found merit in list making. He assembled several to guide us in our practice: the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Three Characteristics of Existence…and the list goes on.
While Susan O’Brien concurs that some people are much more list appreciative than others, she characterizes The Seven Factors of Awakening, a group that she has studied, as “just one of the classic Buddhist lists” that provide us with the tools to delve deeper into our practice. Susan, who co-leads retreats at IMS in Barre, will lead the November 10 program, titled The Seven Factors of Awakening. Because these powerful qualities are said to be present and fully developed in an awakened being, they are considered “comparable to strong and effective medicine,” says Susan. The retreat will center around recognizing the presence or absence of the factors in our practice and in our lives, and the causes and conditions that encourage or block them.
The seven factors are mindfulness, investigation, effort, rapture, calm, concentration and equanimity. The factors are grouped in terms of their energetic qualities. Effort, investigation and rapture are the arousing forces, and calm, concentration and equanimity are the stabilizing forces. “Mindfulness” says Susan, “contributes to the development of each of the other qualities and helps to bring them into balance.” Susan points out that these qualities manifest within us in two ways: “They are both the fruit of our practice and the qualities of mind from which enlightenment arises.”
While mindfulness may be the factor we are most used to cultivating, Susan encourages us to “use the list as a point of reference, as way to explore both our practice and our engagement with the world.” Such examination, she says, “supports our practice and enables us to come into a balanced presence in our lives.”
For some of us, the meanings of words such as enlightenment, rapture and equanimity may be as fuzzy as our experience of them. Susan realizes this and offers definitions we can work with to enrich our practice. She prefers the word awakened to the word enlightenment, which may be inspiring for some but a bit daunting for many others. She defines being awakened in terms of a wholehearted presence, free from the forces of greed, hatred and delusion — something we can know very powerfully in our own experience, if only in fleeting moments.
She describes rapture as “the joyful interest that comes when we are fully connected in the present moment, when we are very present with what we are doing, whether it’s being with our breath, or sounds, or the process of taking a step.” When we make an effort to be present, to be mindful, to investigate our moment to moment experience, the mind settles and becomes concentrated, she explains, and joyful interest arises from a clear experience of the moment.
“Equanimity also can be confusing,” Susan concedes. “We might think of equanimity as withdrawal or indifference. But equanimity is not about spacing out or disconnecting. When equanimity is present, the mind and heart are open, balanced, and fully connected. We are in touch with what is happening, open to the whole range of experience, both pleasant and painful. Equanimity is essential for being skillfully engaged in the world. It gives us the balance of mind to make wise choices, wise responses. We are able to be with different feelings, to be with a whole range of experiences. We are not shut down or swept away by reactivity.”
Perhaps mindfulness is the shining star in the constellation of these bright elements. It is mindfulness that links all of the factors. “With mindfulness, we recognize where we are out of balance. Mindfulness directs us to ask, ‘What is my experience of this moment? Which factor do I need to pay attention to?’” Mindfulness helps us become aware of our mental states and feelings and gives us the confidence to be with them, rather than avoid them. “If we are not aware of our mental states,” Susan warns us, “they color our experience—like seeing through a kind of filter” which distorts our view of the world, rather than brings it into focus. She continues, “Mindfulness allows us to go into difficult or painful feelings. We learn to open to them with courage and see them clearly.” It is through this process that the mind becomes more spacious.
“Ordinarily our energy is quite diffuse. We are involved in so many different things,” Susan points out. In our meditation practice, it is important to cultivate the quality of concentration, which she describes as “collected energy.” To help gather our energy in this way, Susan says, “we need to go inward. It is easier to access concentration when sitting quietly.” For this reason, the day will include periods of sitting and walking meditation, as well as a dharma talk. “We need to learn to trust the stillness,” and Susan says this stillness is supported through our meditation practice. “The only way the teachings really come alive for us is through our own direct meditative experience.”
Susan promises, “Over time we learn to cultivate the conditions where the seven factors will arise. These qualities help the mind to withstand the ups and downs of life. When we are in a tangle, it can help to reflect upon which factors are present, and which are not. Through our practice we learn to untangle the tangles, and we are motivated to continue to deepen our understanding.”
