How to Practice Contemplation and Deliberation

When contemplating the five aggregates, if one has very deep meditative concentration (samādhi), one's deliberation will be very deep and subtle, able to penetrate ever deeper into the meaning of the Dharma, thereby unraveling the mysteries of the Dharma layer by layer. When engaging in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation, one must proceed slowly, finely, and deeply, comparing against one's own body, speech, and mind in the present moment, investigating and gathering evidence within the widest possible range to prove that the five aggregates are not the self. One must investigate why this aspect is not the self, why that aspect is not the self, trying to find evidence one by one, asking "why," and resolving this question of "why." One must deliberate deeply and subtly. If it is merely a formal understanding and intellectual clarity, without truly being implemented in the mind, then all theoretical knowledge is hollow and cannot solve the fundamental or practical problems.

How does one engage in contemplative practice and deliberation? For example, in contemplating that the physical body is not the self—"not the self" is a conclusion, but it is the Buddha's conclusion, not our own; therefore this conclusion has nothing to do with us. Only after contemplative practice, when we ourselves have genuinely and truly arrived at this conclusion, does the conclusion become our own, the crystallization of our own wisdom, and only then does it yield the merit and benefit of liberation. The Buddha's conclusion is merely a lead-in, serving as a reference for developing our own wisdom. We can follow this conclusion and contemplate in reverse: why is the physical body not the self? Because the physical body is empty. Why is the physical body empty? Because the physical body is suffering. Why is the physical body suffering? This is the starting point of our initial contemplative practice, requiring us to slowly deliberate and seek various kinds of evidence.

Finally, one arrives at the conclusion that the physical body is indeed not the self, and this eradicates the view of the body and the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi). After contemplative practice, the fruit each person attains is not necessarily the same, because the degree to which the view of the body is eradicated differs, with certain variations—it depends on the degree of realization, on the degree to which one has cultivated and practiced. Even attaining the first fruit, srotāpanna, is divided into different degrees, and the degree of benefit and transformation of body and mind also differs. For example, children all enter the first grade, yet their level of learning within the same class also differs. Attaining the fruit is graduation, so at graduation each person's level also differs, and there are those who graduate early and those who graduate late. Each practitioner's level of realizing the Dharma differs, because the scope, angle, and depth of their investigation differ, their power of deliberation differs, and the depth and strength of their evidence also differ; thus the wisdom they obtain differs. When wisdom differs, the degree of change in one's conduct also differs. The deeper and more subtle the deliberation, the better the power of meditative concentration; the better the power of concentration, the deeper and more subtle the deliberation; and thus the deeper and more ultimate the degree of realization, and the more thorough the transformation of one's mental conduct.