Questions and Answers on the Contemplative Practice of the Four Establishments of Mindfulness (22)

Question: When sitting in meditation and breathing naturally, who is controlling the body? 

Answer: When breathing naturally, there is no manas directing it, much less the mind consciousness directing it. Unnatural breathing is controlled by the mind consciousness and the manas, and autonomous breathing is controlled and led by the mind consciousness. Many of the body's own life activities are operated single-handedly by the tathāgatagarbha; sometimes the manas will take control, and sometimes the mind consciousness will take control—though of course the mind consciousness's control actually works by influencing the manas, causing the manas to control it. As for natural operations that we cannot perceive, the manas does not necessarily participate in them. 

Question: After meditating, one can make life more splendid, right?  

Answer: If there is a thought of making life more splendid, isn't this a very heavy view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi)? Isn't the thought of "self" precisely the suffering of birth and death? If one takes the life of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) as self, delights in the body of the five aggregates, clings to and cherishes the body of the five aggregates, and wishes to prolong the body of the five aggregates, giving rise to a mind of grasping (upādāna), then one cannot eradicate the origin of suffering and end suffering, and the anguish of birth and death will become even heavier, running counter to cultivation. One should study the Four Noble Truths of suffering, its origin, cessation, and the path thoroughly, beginning with contemplating suffering. Only by knowing suffering can one give rise to the aspiration to cultivate the path and enter the Way. In fact, once contemplation of the breath gets on track, one can already arrive at the conclusion that the five aggregates are suffering—whatever involves fabrication is suffering. Nearly every thought of an ordinary being contains a "self" and manifests a "self"; not knowing that having a self is suffering. 

Question: When contemplating the breath, which consciousness is manipulating the breathing? How many consciousnesses are contemplating the breath? 

Answer: In autonomous breathing, the mind consciousness and the manas regulate the breathing; under ordinary circumstances, the mind consciousness does not regulate the breathing. In the fourth dhyāna, the phenomenon of breathing ceases, which shows that meditative concentration is very deep: the manas no longer regulates the breathing, and so the breathing stops. If breathing did not involve the manas, then the state of breathing should remain forever the same and would not change.

When contemplating the breath, it is the mind consciousness that contemplates it; there is the awareness of the body consciousness, so there is the awareness of the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna). If one's attention is focused, the manas contemplates together with the mind consciousness simultaneously; if attention is not focused, the manas only lightly attends to it, and because it is not concentrated, there will be no particular feelings or thoughts. When contemplating the breath, if the mind follows the breath down to the dantian, the dantian will grow warm, the heat will radiate outward, and one may even sweat spontaneously. If one can move the qi to the dantian and produce the phenomenon of sweating, it shows that the manas's attention has reached the dantian, and only then does the qi follow and arrive there; the mind consciousness alone does not have this power.