Samādhi Is the Direct Perception Realm of the Manas (II)

White Bone Contemplation Practice Journal (2): In the morning, while sitting in meditation with eyes closed, I felt a slight itch on my right ankle bone, and suddenly I saw (with eyes closed) that the itchy spot on the ankle bone had become ulcerated. In contemplation, I drew a stroke with my finger, and all the flesh on my body fell away, leaving only a skeleton—but it was covered with dark-red blood threads and shreds of flesh, not the snow-white bones that appear at the final stage of the white bone contemplation. I feel this is merely an intermediate stage of the white bone contemplation: first the skin falls away, then the flesh, leaving tendons and bones—it appears in a sequential order. You cannot suddenly contemplate the white bones out of nothing; the practice progresses step by step. This is an intermediate level; further, more advanced states will appear later, and only then will the white bones manifest. At that point, the white bone contemplation will be accomplished, and one will have realized the fruit. 

Assessment: In the initial stage of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) can gradually enter through non-valid cognition, or use non-valid methods to seek verification. The eye consciousness and mind consciousness cannot see the white bones; it is the solitary consciousness that imagines the body as white bones—this is non-valid cognition. Using this non-valid cognition to perfume the manas, although rather difficult, because the final result is a fact, the manas will sooner or later see the fact. When the perfuming succeeds, the manas will regard the body as white bones, and the white bone state will manifest as direct perception—this is what the manas directly perceives. In contemplating the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), there is likewise a transition from the solitary consciousness's non-valid cognition to states directly realized by the manas. For example, contemplating the physical body of past lives and the physical body of future lives both belong to the mind consciousness's non-valid imagination, but in the end, when the manas has been successfully perfumed, it witnesses that the five aggregates of past and future are all empty, accepts that the five aggregates are without self, and realizes the fruit. 

Why is it that what the manas manifests are all states of direct perception? Because all cognition of the manas is presented by the tathāgatagarbha. Whatever dharma the tathāgatagarbha presents, the manas personally contacts it; whatever it is, the manas knows it and recognizes it as such. Therefore, what the manas discerns is a state of direct perception—there is no inference and no non-valid cognition. At this time, the solitary consciousness also cognizes through direct perception. When the mind consciousness engages in contemplative practice, there may be no direct perception—there may be inference and non-valid cognition—but after the manas has been perfumed, its cognition is certainly of direct-perception states. 

Observing from the manifested white bone contemplation state, observing from the meditative absorption (samādhi) state, one should know who realizes the Dharma first—it is certainly the manas that realizes the Dharma first, and the solitary consciousness discerns it through direct perception afterward. The manas's realization is an instantaneous sudden enlightenment; after the sudden enlightenment, wisdom arises, completely different from its previous cognitive wisdom. At this moment, one may slap one's thigh and say: "So that's how it is!" Slapping the thigh or the forehead expresses shock—knowing matters and principles one did not know before, overturning one's previous cognition. This is called sudden enlightenment: understanding suddenly. The realization of all dharmas is accompanied by a meditative absorption state; at the moment of sudden enlightenment, the samādhi state is present. If it is not sudden enlightenment but gradual understanding—understood bit by bit through the mind consciousness's deliberation (manasikāra/manana)—then even so, the understanding will not be exhaustive; the mysteries within the Dharma remain unclear. But when the manas realizes it, it is clear-cut at a glance: if it is, it is; if it is not, it is not—very real, without falsity.

The samādhi state of the white bone contemplation, as well as all samādhi states, cannot be seen by the five consciousnesses no matter how hard they try; the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) also cannot see them; only the solitary consciousness can see them. What is discerned through direct perception is certainly a direct-perception state. The white bones cannot be seen by the five consciousnesses, nor by the consciousness accompanied by the five senses; only when the solitary consciousness and the manas possess the wisdom of direct perception can they be seen. When the six consciousnesses cannot see the white bones, the white bone contemplation is a practice of non-valid cognition—imagining the white bones. When the white bones truly manifest, the solitary consciousness and the manas together discern them through direct perception, showing that all realization is a direct-perception state. If the state is one of inference or conjured up by non-valid cognition, there is no realization and no samādhi state. Realizing the fruit and seeing the mind—realizing all dharmas follows this same principle. The relationship between actual realization and inferential deliberation should now be very clear to us, and how to apply effort going forward should likewise be very clear.