Introduction
We learn meditation as a tool but often forget what the Buddha taught us to use it for. Furthermore, in this generation, especially in western Buddhism, we often use meditation terms loosely without quite knowing what they mean. A case in point would be the terms “bare awareness” and “bare attention,” which even long-time meditators, depending on how or by whom they have been taught, sometimes interchange.
To begin with “bare awareness,” some will say that it means focused attention on perception in the moment, empty and free of any arising-associations. This, at first, appears sound, but, some others would say that bare awareness is better designated by “bare attention”—getting in-between bare arising sense-feeling and mental reaction to it—“attention” being a more specific and active word than the more general term “awareness.” Yet others will say that as long as the human-consciousness element is present in sensuous and mental awareness, the mind will not be able to see wholly clearly.
There are also those who would say the problem arises out confusion between Pali-English translation terms* and should not be seen as a problem—but a problem it is, indeed, at least for some meditators, so let’s take a more investigative approach towards these two English translation words.
