Initial Experience of Bodily Emptiness

Ruchun: This morning, as soon as I sat down, my entire body felt rigid, like an iron box, with only the breath shuttling back and forth through the central channel. After getting up in the evening, I relaxed my numb feet, lay down in a very comfortable position, and began a dialogue with myself: "Your Honor the Mind, what do you think breath is? What is the body?" A phrase suddenly arose in my mind: "It is nothing; there is nothing."

Then I started observing the breath. As I continued observing, I began to feel somewhat drowsy, in a half-asleep, half-awake state. Gradually, the room seemed to grow taller and larger, as if I were placed in an immensely spacious void. Slowly, I felt my body disappearing layer by layer, bit by bit. Then, I seemed to see myself floating down to the garden below, without a physical body. The body felt like a shadow, or perhaps nothing at all—like emptiness, or as if I were using an invisibility spell. I’m not sure how to describe it, but this distinct sensation of weightlessness was quite apparent.

Commentary: This primarily reflects a meditative state, a manifestation of the energy channels circulating within the body. Such phenomena do not arise from meditative concentration alone; they are also interwoven with the wisdom of contemplative insight. It is the integration of meditative concentration and wisdom, mutually enhancing each other, that gives rise to these states. These states also reveal the cognitive wisdom of the mind. The state represents the mind; whatever the mind perceives, such a state appears. As the mind grows increasingly empty, the body also becomes increasingly empty. When the mind perceives the body as empty, these states emerge. The mind can transform all things, and it can also transform the body. If one clings to the body, the body exists; if one empties the body, the body vanishes. Existence and non-existence depend on the mind’s perception.

The state indicates that your body has currently become empty, suggesting you are approaching the first fruition and are not far from attaining it.