Only in a state of meditative concentration (samādhi) can one realize the Dharma

Weiru's experience of the four foundations of mindfulness contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā): Over the past two years, I have mainly been contemplating the four foundations of mindfulness, practicing the contemplation of impurity and the white-bone contemplation. In the last six months, my body has continuously shown various reactions. My grandmaster taught me some methods, such as tapping the head, and also taught me moxibustion and washing my hair with ginger water. Wearing the moxibustion cap has helped a lot, but I have not yet fully recovered. It feels as if wind is drilling into the crown of my head. Now there is still a small patch on the crown about the size of an egg that feels swollen and uncomfortable, as if my hair were being pulled, and it is somewhat hot, yet it feels tranquil and comfortable. My eyes have also improved a lot.

The house I lived in when I got married collapsed. At first I felt quite sad and regretful about it, but then I turned my thoughts around: a house is no different from the human body—both will be destroyed and perish. So I let go of my attachment. When I went to the hospital to visit my father-in-law, I saw that all the inpatients there were elderly people, each one relying on tubes to keep breathing. Since lately, whenever I see any physical body, questioning doubt arises in me, I immediately contemplated the impurity of the physical body and kept the doubt going. Suddenly I was stunned: my mind manifested these old people as skeletons, some lying down, some reclining. Then my mind manifested the crushed white bones of my father at his cremation, like dust, and afterward they disappeared.

Upon careful reflection, family members are only relatives of this one life, yet they become obstacles to our practice. After realizing this, my familial affection immediately grew thin, and my mind could settle down to diligent practice. Through contemplation, I realized that the nature of these things—relatives, the house—is also empty and unreal. Just by thinking this way, I can let go, without attachment or sorrow. The more I witness with my own eyes the impermanence of all people and affairs, the firmer my mind becomes and the stronger my faith grows; the mind becomes empty and the contemplation of Dharma meaning becomes more effortless, without wandering thoughts arising.

Around the time of the New Year, there were some things at home I was asked to help with. I would often forget as soon as I heard them, repeatedly misheard and did things wrong, and could not remember, feeling that my mind was becoming slower and duller, always delaying matters. Not only that, it also felt as if wind had entered the crown of my head; when my scalp touched water or met the wind, my head felt as if it would split open from the pain. My eyes and nose ran constantly; my eyes were dry and aching, and reading was tiring. My ears buzzed with ringing, and I thought my ear faculty had gone bad. But strangely enough, although my body was like this, my ears buzzing and other sounds becoming unclear, it seemed that inside and out, throughout body and mind, there was the sound of the Buddha's name. Before, only when the mind was pure could I hear the sound of the Buddha's name in my mind; recently, the more anxious I was, the more I could not recall it, the more I blanked out—and yet it felt as if a force were pushing the sound of the Buddha's name in my mind, making it clearer and louder, continuous and unbroken.

Assessment: These phenomena appearing in the body during practice indicate that through cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness, meditative concentration has become very deep, abiding in the samādhi of recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti) and a mild samādhi of the white-bone contemplation. The sound of the Buddha's name arises in the mind automatically and spontaneously—it would be hard to keep it from appearing. This is the manas abiding in the samādhi state of recollection of the Buddha, not controlled by the mind consciousness. Moreover, there is also very deep contemplative wisdom at the same time; samādhi and prajñā are equally cultivated. At this point, self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) can be eliminated very easily, or one may not even know when it was eliminated.

The reflections on the house and relatives belong to the understanding and analysis of the mind consciousness, not realization; the component of mind consciousness is greater than that of the manas, so it is not direct perception/valid direct cognition. The white-bone contemplation that appeared in the hospital had a greater component of the manas, with some component of mind consciousness as well; the samādhi state was relatively shallow and the power of meditative concentration not yet sufficient, so seeing the elderly still required generating questioning doubt on the spot, rather than the white bones manifesting immediately. If meditative concentration deepens further and the samādhi state deepens a bit more, the white bones will manifest automatically, and self-view will be very easily eliminated. Therefore, the elimination of self-view and seeing one's true mind/awakening to the true mind both occur within profound meditative concentration, within the samādhi state, where wisdom manifests automatically, without deliberate thinking or contemplative practice, not controlled by the mind consciousness. That is the direct perception/valid direct cognition state of realizing Dharma; states dominated by the mind consciousness are erroneous cognition/non-valid cognition or inference.

The phenomena in the head indicate that the qi channels/vessels are about to open through the entire head. Once they are opened, the body will have no obstructions. I just do not know whether this is the Conception Vessel (Ren Mai)/the Directing Vessel and the Governing Vessel (Du Mai) being opened, or whether the central channel (avadhūtī; in yogic contexts also suṣumṇā) is also about to open—without data, I cannot judge. But this is not far from the elimination of self-view. After self-view is eliminated, meditative concentration will deepen further, and more auspicious signs will appear.