Ru Tao's Contemplative Practice Diary 2021-10-04

The qi channels in my legs are becoming more and more unobstructed, and sitting cross-legged is very easy now. When I get onto the cushion, hardly any effort is needed; with just a slight adjustment of the breath, I can enter a state of emptiness, lucidity, and softness. Then I suspend the contemplation of the non-self of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) in my mind to investigate it. After getting off the cushion, my legs are suffused with bliss, extremely comfortable. In the morning, as soon as I wake up, my whole body is filled with joy and bliss—my waist, hands and feet, chest, and throat are all brimming with energy; every cell of the body is blissful, and the qi and blood are so abundant that there is a feeling of swelling. When the energy is too abundant, it feels like a burden; at such times I usually get up and walk around to dissipate the accumulated energy. My head also feels very light and clear, as if a stream of pure qi is rushing up toward the crown of my head. 

I will continue to maintain my state of eating less. From today until the end of the holiday, I will not eat foods like rice and wheat flour, so as to clear out my intestines a bit more. I feel that the reason meditation has encountered obstacles is mainly the obscuration of the five aggregates—that is, causes on both the physical and mental sides. First, the body's qi channels are not sufficiently unobstructed, so energy cannot be effectively accumulated and elevated; second, the mind is not pure enough—thoughts are tangled and chaotic, making it impossible to single-mindedly contemplate the meaning of the Dharma, so progress in practice is slow. Therefore, I must remove the obscurations from both body and mind. As long as one truly applies effort, there will surely be results; the only fear is being swept up by everyday affairs in ordinary times, remaining oblivious and unaware, and then one's practice cannot advance. So the vigilance of the mind consciousness is very important. Before the manas has been successfully nurtured by immersion, the mind consciousness must repeatedly remind and urge the manas to place its energy on the right path, and must never let it run loose like an unattended flock of sheep.

Making the body more tranquil and clarifying the mind's thoughts are, relatively speaking, not too difficult. But the elimination of self-view (ahaṃkāra-mamakāra-parityāga) is truly difficult, because the manas is simply too stubborn. This can be observed from ordinary dreams: in dreams, various mental states and emotions of self-protection sometimes still arise. During the day one can deceive oneself and others, and the mind may appear especially tranquil, but when dreaming at night, one discovers that the manas's petty calculating has not ceased. So the practice still remains at a superficial level and must continue to deepen—the road is still long. 

Assessment: This is cultivation that has reached the stage of the joy factor (pīti). The seven factors of enlightenment are aids to the path: the mindfulness factor, the investigation-of-dharmas factor, the effort factor, the joy factor, the pliancy factor, the samādhi factor, and the equanimity factor. The seven factors of enlightenment are linked one to another—without the preceding factors, there are no subsequent factors. When the joy factor arises, the mind rejoices and the body feels bliss. Later there are still the pliancy and awareness factor and the samādhi factor, and finally the equanimity factor.

If you are at the initial stage of bodily bliss, maintain it and do not rush to dissipate it. Let the practice turn and advance on its own; do not intervene too much artificially—naturalness is best. Just do not become attached to or preoccupied with these meditative experiences, to the point of obstructing the progress of the practice. When the pliancy factor and the samādhi factor have not yet arisen, these experiences cannot be emptied away or relinquished. At this time one should still maintain a natural state, going along with the body's blissful contact and experiences; otherwise the subsequent factors of enlightenment will not appear either. When one is young, the body's conditions are good and cultivation of the Path is very fast; the older one gets, the more difficult cultivation becomes. Therefore, the earlier one cultivates the Path, the better.

Furthermore, when contemplating the non-self of the five aggregates within meditative concentration, the Dharma meaning suspended in the mind should not be too much or too complex; try to keep it relatively simple and singular, deepening bit by bit—being greedy for too much means you cannot chew or digest it. In contemplating non-self, break apart all the components of the five aggregates and start contemplating from one aspect, suspending in the mind a relatively concrete piece of Dharma meaning; in this way the contemplation will not be too difficult. At the beginning, do not suspend in the mind such a large contemplation as "the five aggregates are non-self," because at that stage, whether it is the mind consciousness or the manas, one's capacity is still limited and one cannot chew through such an enormous thing. Only when capacity has improved and the ability for macro-level contemplation has strengthened should one contemplate the non-self nature of the five aggregates and eighteen elements (dhātus) as a whole or in totality—only then can one digest it. 

I ask those who claim to have realized the fruits through the mind consciousness: have you ever experienced such meditative experiences? Have you had such experiences? I reckon you have not even dreamed of them in your dreams, let alone had personal experience of them. You have probably never even given rise to the first of the seven factors of enlightenment, let alone seen the shadow of the samādhi factor or the equanimity factor. Skipping over the seven factors of enlightenment and yet attaining the fruit? Even skipping over the eightfold noble path and attaining the fruit? Even skipping over the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment and attaining the fruit? Without any shadow of actual practice, how could one sever the three fetters? How could there be any realization? Without severing the three fetters, how could one awaken to the true mind and attain enlightenment? Every group and every individual slaps the label of "actual practice and realization" on themselves, skipping over the cultivation of the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment—how could there be actual practice? Caring only for reputation and disregarding the consequences—this is the current mentality of Buddhist learners.