The Process of Cultivating Skeleton Contemplation

Question: Over the past few days, I have been imagining and comparing the image of the whole body's skeleton and viewing photographs of the full-body skeleton. The images of the bones in various parts of the body that appear in my mind are as clear as the various objects in my home. When the body moves, the image of the whole-body skeleton in my mind moves along with it. My mind feels very settled, and mental scatteredness has lightened considerably. Is my contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) in this way correct? 

Answer: This is the initial preparatory work of the white-bone contemplation, all of which is carried out by the mind consciousness. The mind consciousness must gather information, organize, categorize, and analyze it, and then infer and imagine the image of the white bones. But no matter how the mind consciousness infers and imagines, meditative absorption (samādhi) will not appear, because these methods are not direct perception. No matter how firmly the mind affirms that the white bones are like this, no samādhi state of direct perception will appear. Just as, no matter how one imagines the sixteen contemplations in the Contemplation of the Buddha of Infinite Life Sūtra, no samādhi state of direct perception of any of the sixteen contemplations will appear—even the simplest contemplation of the setting sun's samādhi will not appear—because the manas has not matured in the contemplation, or the manas has not yet begun the contemplation. 

The information-gathering work done by the mind consciousness is like the work of a little secretary: after organizing all this information completely and meticulously, it must be submitted to the leader, the manas, and then there is not much more to do—just wait for the leader's next instruction. After the manas has read through this information, if it considers the information important, it will set aside its other tasks and devote itself specifically to studying this material, concentrating its focus and deliberating (manasikāra) on the information. Gradually the mind comes to understand the specific content of the information, discovers the facts, wisdom arises, and samādhi appears. 

The preliminary work done by the mind consciousness described above is basically correct. When comparing and viewing diagrams of the skeletal structure and imagining the bones, one is transmitting information to the manas, perfuming the manas, and shifting the manas's attention to the visualization of the bones. Now there is some preliminary effect, but the mind consciousness's visualization still needs to be further strengthened; one needs to keep perfuming the manas so that the manas's grasping becomes less and less, its attention becomes more and more concentrated, and its power of meditative concentration grows stronger and stronger. When the mind consciousness's visualization is very clear and the power of concentration is also very strong, the mind consciousness no longer needs to exert much effort in visualization, and even less should it do such simple, elementary things as thinking, analyzing, organizing, and categorizing—there is no need for that anymore. Just remain unmoved, and the manas will deliberate with focus. This skill needs to be accumulated bit by bit, and gradually the samādhi state will appear naturally when conditions ripen. 

Those who take the mind consciousness's most elementary functions of inference, organizing, categorizing, analyzing, and so on as the ultimate method for realizing the fruits of the path are simply too shallow; the gap between these functions of the mind consciousness and the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and realization of the fruit is far too great. All methods that work on the mind consciousness are the emotional sentiments and intellectual understandings that were vigorously denounced by all the Chan patriarchs of the past; people with wisdom never take these as ultimate. If the mind consciousness's methods of thinking were to prevail, then whether in the Mahāyāna or the Hīnayāna, practitioners would inevitably go astray, and the Buddhist practice and realization would surely perish. Without practice and realization, only some views would remain, and gradually even those views would become incomplete, and Buddhism would be destroyed. 

Therefore, people today, lacking merit and wisdom, dig out the things the patriarchs threw into the garbage heap and revere them like treasures. But venerating the mind consciousness as the means to realize the fruits is an act of destroying the Buddha-dharma; one should promptly repent and correct this, and should not continue stepping onto the wrong path and into deviation—otherwise the consequences are unimaginable. A great man can naturally stand upright between heaven and earth; when wrong, one must promptly correct oneself, without seeking empty fame. Whether or not one has realized the fruit is not decided by anyone's word—it is all decided by the tathāgatagarbha. If it accords with the facts of fruit realization, the tathāgatagarbha will naturally manifest the retribution corresponding to a noble one, and no one's denial will be of any use. By the same token, if it does not accord with the facts of fruit realization, the tathāgatagarbha will only manifest the retribution of an ordinary being who has not realized the fruit; no matter what, it will not manifest the retribution of a noble one who has realized the fruit. No matter who certifies and seals the fruit stage, it is useless—and there is also the unlovely retribution of great false speech; in the end the loss outweighs the gain. Wise people, reflect carefully on this.