How Inspiration Arises

Research has found that when facing a sudden life-threatening situation, the fear circuit instantly takes control of the brain, so many mammals (including humans) freeze in place—this is freezing. During freezing, the body's energy is concentrated, and it begins to fully receive all information present (pupils dilating, eyes widening, and so on). Therefore, when describing the event afterward, the person concerned will have an unusually clear and detailed memory of the very moment when the feeling of fear struck. However, the memories immediately following that moment may be blurred, or even completely forgotten.

Questions: 1. Who governs these phenomena of the body? 2. Is freezing the same as being settled in meditative concentration (samādhi)? 3. Why are memories of what happened during the freeze very clear, while afterward they become blurred and hard to recall?

Answers: 1. The manas, together with the tathāgatagarbha, can discern the condition of the physical body at any time, then regulate and control it accordingly, and it will also make use of the physical body to release psychological emotions. The series of habitual actions by which the manas holds onto the body is also called innate instinct.

2. Freezing is a brief, momentary state of meditative concentration, with attention highly concentrated; it is also called being settled. The body does not move, and the thoughts of the mind consciousness do not move, yet the manas can search very attentively for countermeasures, seeking an opportunity to escape danger, and often can summon wit in a crisis. This is precisely the characteristic and result of samādhi: samādhi can give rise to wisdom. In samādhi, the manas is extremely keen and quick-thinking, and can often turn peril into safety.

3. During the freeze, the manas can concentrate its attention to a high degree, observing more subtly and with better observational power; consequently, memory is better and more firmly established, so scenes from the freeze are remembered deeply. But once the freezing stage passes, the samādhi disappears and the mind becomes scattered, so memory becomes poor, and what happened afterward cannot be recalled clearly.

When Chan masters of the past awakened to the Way, quite a few of them, while their questioning doubt was at its most intense, encountered a sudden event that triggered an emergent inspiration, and thereby awakened to the Way. When a student's questioning doubt is very strong during Chan investigation, if the master suddenly gives a great shout or uses some other method, enlightenment may occur. In the past, during the intervals between sitting meditation in the Chan hall, practitioners would get down from their seats and walk or jog around the Chan hall; if the master suddenly called a halt, they might also awaken at the moment of that sudden stop. When caught off guard, inspiration easily arises. Such enlightenment is the result of genuine effort; it is always the manas that awakens directly and experiences directly—this is called personal realization (direct verification), not merely awakening of the mind consciousness. There is no time for you to think it over: if you are to awaken, you awaken; no thinking, no stirring of thoughts, no pondering—awakening happens directly. That is the manas awakening.