The Reliances of Sentient Beings Are Impermanent

The subtle sense faculty is located at the back of the brain, serving as the point where mental dharmas connect with material dharmas. When the four great elements within the subtle sense faculty become imbalanced, conditions such as cerebellar atrophy and degenerative brain diseases arise, leading to movement disorders, cognitive impairments, and memory deficits—all resulting from the aging and pathological changes of the subtle sense faculty. Consequently, the mental dharmas and the six consciousnesses cannot function or arise normally, making sentient beings highly susceptible to death. Both cerebral hypoxia and cerebellar atrophy can damage the subtle sense faculty, obstructing the arising of the six consciousnesses and various cognitive activities. Human life is exceedingly fragile; a single breath failing to come can lead to cerebral hypoxia and brain death, ending life altogether.

Why does practicing deep breathing facilitate meditative absorption? Deep breathing ensures an adequate supply of oxygen to the brain, benefiting physical health. When the brain functions smoothly, the six consciousnesses feel at ease, eliminating the need to resist or alter the material body, thus making it easier to attain meditative absorption.

From this, it is evident that the functions of the five aggregates are dependent-arising in nature—they cannot exist autonomously. They lack independence and are profoundly illusory and unreal. The normal activities of the five aggregates rely on numerous external conditions; lacking even one renders them dysfunctional. Such a body composed of the five aggregates is utterly unreliable and insubstantial; therefore, it is not the self. Everything that sentient beings depend upon is ultimately insecure. If one can attain a state of depending on nothing, then one becomes fearless. It would be ideal if, in the future, we could cultivate to the point of relying on no external environmental conditions whatsoever—where arising and ceasing phenomena no longer affect us. At that stage, one would approach virtual immortality, likely attained at the eighth bhūmi or higher. We should strive for the eternal, unchanging, and reliable dharma—that which requires no external conditions—and take refuge in it.