When I’m aware of objects, is that enough? Am I meditating? That’s not enough because we have to know what we’re knowing; what is it?
We need to know how to regard the objects; how to have the right view of the objects and know how to think about them in the right way.
We can do either one of these. We can remember that the objects are just nature; or that the objects are just that – they are things that are being known by us. The experiences, the phenomena, anything that is being known because of its position as that which is being known, it becomes an object.
Whenever we experience something, we have to remind ourselves that this is an object; I’m knowing this; it’s not ‘This is a bad experience, or this is a good experience’. This experience is being known, this experience is an object.
You hear a sound, is that good or bad? Hearing is just hearing. So, we want to see things as they are; we want to regard things as they are.
So, what is being known is just to be known, not to be loved or hated; not to be desired or pushed away.
It is only when we remind ourselves that what is happening - what we’re experiencing, the things that we’re observing, the objects - are nature that we’re meditating. They are their nature; they’re doing what they’re doing, they’re being experienced. We have to remind ourselves because if we don’t do that, then the mind goes into desiring and resisting; and then that lens of desiring and resisting distorts the view.
The difference between one who is meditating and one who is not, the one who is not meditating, every experience is then accompanied by desiring or resisting, or delusion; whereas for a meditator, the effort is being made to regard all this with the right view so that in every moment it is not greed, anger and delusion that are growing but awareness and wisdom are growing.
If you just look around ordinarily, don’t you notice that everybody is constantly pulling and pushing, loving and hating, desiring and resisting.
But if we recognize that there is hearing, we have heard something, and hearing is hearing; then, there is all there is; there is not the push or pull; liking and disliking - then, it is just an experience.