What Is Direct Perception and Actual Realization

This morning I sat down to observe the breath. After a few breaths, the breathing became smooth, my chest and abdomen felt warm and comfortable, the qi channels ran clearly, and I could perceive the flow of qi reaching the soles of both feet, with the perineum point opening. A stream of heat flowed into my lower back. As the breathing deepened, the pressure of the breath increased, and my chin felt slightly numb, though noticeably less than in the previous period. There was a distinct sensation of swelling and blockage in the right chest and right ribs, radiating upward to the armpit, then extending further up to the right shoulder blade, connecting through the right side of the throat to the right lower lip, and faintly also reaching the root of the right ear. With each breath, I could feel the points along this line pulling on one another. The left armpit felt slightly swollen, with no other conditions. As the contemplative practice followed the breath, this line on the right side, centered on the armpit, gradually shifted from swelling and congestion to comfort and warmth, extending backward to the rear shoulder.

After contemplating the sensations throughout the whole body for a while, I focused my attention on the nose, contemplating the in-and-out breath at the nose. I attentively listened to the friction sound made by the airflow passing through the nasal cavity, and carefully felt the sensations of the airflow moving through the nasal cavity and throat. Gradually I perceived changes occurring in the brain with each breath: there was a comfortable, relaxed feeling of continuous unblocking inside the head; both shoulders and armpits had a cool, refreshing sensation. Besides the airflow at the nose, I could perceive airflow surrounding the front, back, left, and right of the neck. The chest cavity gradually opened, and I could perceive the area of skin participating in breathing expanding; body heat increased, and the sense of comfort throughout the whole body grew stronger. The right ear seemed to be on the verge of connecting with the nose and brain, but by the end of the sitting it had not fully opened.

In the sitting meditation of previous days, my chin, lower lip, and tongue had been severely numb and swollen, and my throat felt tight. So in the later part of the sitting, I often contemplated the Dharma principles, which strengthens meditative concentration and allows me to quickly move past the congested conditions described above. The Dharma principle I contemplated was still "the body is impermanent, form is not self." Later I made "not-self" the main subject of contemplation. After deliberating on it roughly, I let the brain empty out, and found that concentration then clearly strengthened, manifested in deeper breathing, the gradual dissolving of blocked areas, and increased bodily comfort.

A few days ago, during the later part of one sitting, after contemplating Dharma principles and then returning to observing the breath, I could no longer feel the body—only bundles of airflow interweaving together. When inhaling, a large stream of air merged into them; when exhaling, a stream of air departed and left.

Now I can faintly taste what it is like for the manas to observe in direct perception.

Assessment: If the mind becomes even more refined, you will feel that the physical body is just an illusory net woven from streams of qi. Later on, you will feel that even the streams of qi are not real, and the physical body even more illusory. When I say this, if you think about it over there, you will feel that it seems to be so, that it is indeed so. But no matter how much you feel it is so, no matter how you confirm it, it is not genuine perception or perception in direct cognition—it is not realization. What, then, is perception in direct cognition and realization?

Realization in direct perception is like Lantian's present observation: "My physical body is indeed like this right now; my perception is like this right now; these dharmas are operating right now"—being able to observe them as they truly are. This is observation in direct perception and realization in direct perception. Anything other than this is not realization in direct perception; it may be called imagination based on inference, which is inference and erroneous cognition.

Therefore, some people say, "I can enter contemplation while following the text; I contemplate while listening to the Dharma, so I have realized it." But if these dharmas have not yet occurred in your body and mind, and you cannot observe them presently as they truly are, then that is not entering contemplation while following the text—that is imagination based on inference, which is inference and erroneous cognition, not yet direct perception. Only when you observe something that is actually happening is it observation in direct perception and realization in direct perception.

Many people who lack meditative concentration and do not know how to practice contemplation listen to the Dharma, think it over a bit, and feel that these teachings are correct, that it is indeed so, and are very certain: "I have contemplated in direct perception; I have eliminated self-view." But this is merely conjecture and deduction, not observation in direct perception, and one still cannot eliminate self-view. The distance from eliminating self-view—no one knows how far it is. Perhaps in this lifetime one still cannot eliminate self-view; perhaps even after hundreds or tens of thousands of years, or even several kalpas, one still cannot eliminate self-view. Regarding what constitutes observation and realization in direct perception, everyone should carefully discern it and must not blindly trust themselves, lest it lead to grave false speech. That would be very bad indeed.