Steps on the path of the Four Foundations of Establishing Awareness (FFOEA)
Introduction
The FFOEA meditation practice is a method of training the skill of establishing the continual presence of the bare awareness in the mind.
What is the purpose of establishing the continual presence of bare awareness in the mind?
This boundless marvelous nature carries signals to transfer the awareness from one creature to another. Awareness in nature is bare as it is: it will be named as bare awareness. Upon encountering a sense organ of a creature, the signal becomes an object of the sense organ and the being aware of the object occurs (consciousness). Signals from sense organs will activate different parts of the brain controlling thoughts, memories, and feelings. The arising of these brain activities exert influence on the knowing process and season it with the sense of self. The outcome of this process is called mental formation awareness. Based on this mental formation awareness, all the mental activities will be going on on the worldly eightfold paths: gain and loss, praise and criticism, fame and disrepute, happiness and unhappiness. In the process of FFOEA meditation practice, an object is chosen and continually recognized and observed during the meditation time: Being aware of the coming of the chosen object is called right mindfulness; the intention to keep being aware and observing of the chosen object continually is called right effort. Right mindfulness and right effort will induce the establishment of the permanent presence of the bare awareness that has the ability to recognize and observe the rising thoughts, memories, feelings. Bare awareness will navigate the mind and becomes the standpoint for all mental activities which follow the Noble Eightfold Paths: right mindfulness, right effort, right contemplation, right view, right concentration, right attitude …. Everything is right. With its nonself characteristic as an observer, bare awareness will uncover the nonself characteristic of the coming objects.
What are the four foundations? The four foundations are the body foundation, the feeling foundation, the mind foundation, and the dharma foundation.
What are the five aggregates?
The five aggregates are the body, feeling, memory, thinking, and consciousness that unite together to form a human being.
The body stands for one of the four foundations: body foundation.
the feelings stand for one foundation: feeling foundation.
Consciousness, memories, and thinkings stand for one foundation: mind foundation.
These three foundations encompass everything related to a human being's body, human being's body activities, and mental activities.
The fourth foundation: the dharma foundation. The term "dharma" describes all phenomena, cosmic laws, and orders. as well as all the teachings of the Buddha.
Recognize, observe, contemplate objects from the four foundations, over time, will shed the light to the darkness of ignorance of the self and nature.
Ideass
*It will be a great thing if the bare awareness is present in the young people
*So recognize, observe and contemplate objects from the four foundations will help to clarify the ultimate characteristics of everything that happens in nature, give the observer the key to open the gate to the path of liberation