The Meditative Form Is the Direct Experiential State of the Manas

Bai Xuexiang's Experience Sharing on Skeleton Contemplation: During morning meditation (with eyes closed), I felt an itch at my right ankle bone. Then (with eyes still closed), I suddenly saw (through closed eyes) the itchy spot on the ankle bone festering. Upon further contemplating using a finger to sweep across it, all the flesh throughout my body fell away, leaving only a skeleton. However, dark red blood threads and flesh threads still clung to the bones, unlike the pristine white bones others achieve through skeleton contemplation.

I thought: Isn't this precisely an intermediate stage in the contemplation process? First, the skin falls away, then the flesh, followed by the tendons, and only then do the bones appear. Both the contemplation process and the result follow a sequence. One cannot suddenly perceive the white bones from nothing; progress is achieved step by step. This current state is an intermediate level of contemplation; deeper stages of contemplation will emerge later, culminating in the white bones.

Commentary: The states described above in skeleton contemplation are all phenomena manifested within meditative concentration (samādhi), known as "concentration-produced form" (dhyāna-nimitta). These states arise due to meditative concentration, representing a direct experiential reality (pratyakṣa-pramāṇa), an empirically verified state. They involve not the slightest function of conscious imagination or thought; they are the direct experiential contemplation of the manas (the seventh consciousness, the discerning mind). Whatever thoughts, concepts, or dharmas the manas holds and affirms, such states manifest accordingly. This cannot be falsified; the sovereign consciousness (the ālaya-vijñāna, or eighth consciousness, which stores karmic seeds) is indeed this powerful and influential. Within concentration, the flesh of the ankle bone festering and falling away, with bones clinging to blood and flesh threads – such phenomena manifest spontaneously. They are the direct experiential cognitive state of the manas, impossible to fabricate through conscious imagination.

If skeleton contemplation relied solely on conscious thought and conjecture, no matter how the conscious mind (mano-vijñāna, the sixth consciousness) believes the body should appear, the body remains unresponsive and never transforms accordingly. This is because the conscious mind lacks inherent power and is not the sovereign agent. Concentration-produced form arises from the manas, never from the conscious mind alone. However, the conscious mind plays a crucial role in the preliminary stages of skeleton contemplation by guiding the manas into the contemplative state. It exerts a guiding and influencing effect on the manas, thus its contribution is also indispensable.

The contemplation described above is indeed part of the process. The skeleton contemplation is not yet complete; the bones are not yet clean enough, and their color is not yet pure white. This indicates that the practitioner still has some karmic obstacles (karma-āvaraṇa) that have not been eliminated, the mind is not yet sufficiently pure, and the power of meditative concentration is not yet strong enough. Further, deeper contemplation is needed to complete the skeleton practice, eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), and attain the purity of the Dharma-eye (dharma-cakṣu-viśuddhi).

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