The Six Subjects of Conscious Awareness

How many subjects of conscious awareness are there, Ānanda?

‘There are, Venerable Sir, five subjects of conscious awareness.’

Good, good, Ānanda! Therefore, Ānanda, remember this sixth subject of conscious awareness, too.

Here, ever mindful a Monk goes forward,

ever mindful he returns,

ever mindful he stands,

ever mindful he sits,

ever mindful he lies down to sleep,

ever mindful he undertakes work.

This subject of conscious awareness, developed and cultivated in this way, leads to mindfulness and clear comprehension.

(Reference: AN 6.29)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares how a Practitioner will need to be constantly aware of the mind practicing “mindfulness”.

Mindfulness is to be aware of the mind in the present moment, not allowing the mind to dwell in the past or the future.

Cultivating mindfulness or awareness of mind is accomplished through meditation practices and carried into everyday life through implementing awareness of the mind in each moment of your normal activities along with all the other steps on The Eight Fold Path.

The Buddha describes to have full awareness of mind in all of our daily activities such as “going forward, returning, standing, siting, lying down to sleep, and undertaking work”.

It is not possible to meditate all day long as meditation is a technique to actively train the mind during dedicated, independent, purposeful training sessions to eliminate unwholesome qualities of the mind and/or cultivate wholesome qualities of the mind in the positions of seated, lying, standing, or walking.

But, it is through Breathing Mindfulness Meditation that a Practitioner develops awareness of mind (i.e. mindfulness) and will then need to practice awareness of mind throughout their day. It is not only in meditation that one needs to train the mind and develop wholesome qualities but also outside of meditation during daily life.

In this Teaching, The Buddha is reminding his close Student Ānanda of this important aspect of training the mind to attain Enlightenment. He shares that a Practitioner will need to be continuously aware of the mind throughout all daily activities.