The Self-Repair of the Physical Body Is the Function of the First Consciousness of Transformative Agency (parināma)

The physical body possesses a self-repairing function: when the body is damaged, it repairs itself automatically; when internal organs fail, they mend themselves; when the body is exhausted, a period of rest restores its energy; after surgery, the incision heals on its own, and missing muscle, skin, and so forth are automatically replenished. When blood is lost, it can be regenerated; when there is no food or drink in the stomach and intestines, the body can automatically replenish energy—bigu fasting to regulate the physical body makes use of this marvelous mechanism. What mechanisms are all of these? Whose functions and operations are they? When did this marvelous source of life first appear?

Master Kuiji, in a former life, entered meditative concentration and waited several thousand years for Śākyamuni Buddha to appear in the world, but missed it while in samādhi, and so wished to enter concentration again to await the arising of Maitreya Buddha. A human body that relies on the four great elements of food and drink to sustain life, going without food and water for thousands or even tens of thousands of years in samādhi, yet without the slightest discomfort, and able to remain in concentration for tens of millions of years without dying—by what mechanism do Master Kuiji and others who attain longevity through concentration sustain their lives? There is said to be an experiment showing that thin people live longer than fat people, and those who eat less live longer than those with big appetites—what is the principle behind this?

Modern medicine and health regimens hold that one must sleep between eleven o'clock and one o'clock at midnight (the hour of zi); otherwise staying up late deprives the internal organs of rest and repair, and the body will be depleted—yet sitting in meditation and entering samādhi at midnight causes no harm. In his day, the Buddha encouraged his disciples to cultivate diligently, exerting themselves unremittingly through the first, middle, and last watches of the night, yet the monks were never heard to suffer any physical discomfort; on the contrary, their energy was more abundant and their minds more acute. Modern medicine also says that skipping breakfast makes one prone to gallstones; yet in the Buddha's time, the monastics ate only one meal a day at noon, and no one was ever heard to develop gallstones. By what mechanisms do all these operate?

When you bask in the sun, the body automatically replenishes yang energy and vitality; if you can contemplate with single-minded focus, the replenishment will be greater and the body's regulation will be better. Except for the devas of the formless realm, who have no body and do not require nourishment from the material four great elements, all sentient beings with bodies need nourishment from the four great elements. The higher the realm of a sentient being, the fewer material elements it needs, and the more subtle and refined those materials are. Sentient beings in lower realms, because of their meager merit (alpa-puṇya), must partake of extremely coarse and inferior material elements.

Humans dwell in the middle stratum of the desire realm and are not among its most advanced beings; the material elements they partake of are rather coarse, yet they believe that what they enjoy are high-grade substances and superior food and drink—when in reality these are very crude. Only the devas of the form realm partake of the highest and most refined four great elements; next come the devas of the desire realm, and then the immortals. All humans fall short of the enjoyment of the devas: their food is not only coarse but also extremely filthy, with poor color, fragrance, and taste. Because their karmic conditions are such, they do not perceive anything wrong with it, and are in fact deeply attached to it—just as dogs delight in feces and worms delight in dung pits.

All the material elements partaken of by the repair mechanisms of the physical body are the functions and operations of the tathāgatagarbha, produced by the tathāgatagarbha in accordance with sentient beings' karmic seeds and merit. Because sentient beings have affinities with the human world of the desire realm, possessing karmic seeds and karmic conditions pertaining to humans and animals, if the five-aggregate body is to survive normally in the desire realm, the physical body must be endowed with a sufficient supply of nutrients from the four great elements. If the four great elements in the physical body are deficient, the normal functioning of the five-aggregate body will be affected, and the tathāgatagarbha will automatically replenish the missing material elements according to karmic seeds and karmic conditions. If karmic obstructions do not permit replenishment, then the five-aggregate body continues to function imperfectly with an incomplete physical body—this reveals the sentient being's evil karmic conditions. For sentient beings whose wholesome karma is complete, whatever the physical body lacks, the tathāgatagarbha will automatically replenish; if it cannot be replenished, this manifests the evil karmic retribution of a mutilated and incomplete physical body.