The Basis of the Six Faculties' Mutual Interpenetration and Mutual Use

Lantian's Contemplative Practice Diary, November 21

This morning I sat in meditation observing the breath. The airways were clear and unobstructed; my chest, abdomen, shoulders, and back felt warm and comfortable. After several breaths, a stream of heat surged into my head. Today there was no obvious blockage in the head or face, and the breathing pressure was not great. My mind perceived the changes in the body's qi channels and the various sensations, and later I focused my attention on the area before my eyes.

Occasionally I contemplated the Dharma principles, and suddenly I recalled the master's instruction from the day before yesterday: one should attentively perceive the breath without the mind consciousness's reasoning and guidance, observing the breath's movement and its arising and ceasing through direct perception. So I attentively observed the breath before my eyes. Before long, during an inhalation, there was suddenly a "click" sound, and I felt that my right eye and right ear faculty had become connected; immediately afterward they also connected with the brain, and the right side of my head felt somewhat empty and luminous. I continued observing the breath for a while, and then the left eye and left ear also became connected. The entire head became empty and luminous, the area before my eyes became clear, and the ears' sensitivity to external sounds decreased. I could clearly feel that my power of concentration had further improved. Since all my attention was on the head, I did not feel sensations in other parts of the body. The head underwent some changes during the subsequent breaths, but they are hard to describe. This continued until the end of the meditation session.

Assessment: During the meditation, he felt that the eye faculty, the ear faculty, and the brain had all become connected. This is because meditative concentration caused the four great elements to change and become subtle, so the various supreme faculties (indriya) became somewhat interpenetrating. In the future, when meditative concentration deepens further and all five faculties become connected, their functions will be able to substitute for one another. In particular, the manas can substitute for part or all of the functions of the five faculties. With the interfunctioning of the six faculties, the six sense objects can be discerned by a single faculty: the eye faculty will not only be able to see forms, but will also have the ear faculty's function of hearing sounds, the nose faculty's function of smelling scents, the tongue faculty's function of tasting flavors, and the body faculty's function of feeling tangibles; likewise for the other faculties. In this way, the wondrous supernatural powers of the six faculties will manifest. Sentient beings originally all could have such wondrous supernatural powers, but because the mind has obstructions, the five-aggregate body is divided into six faculties, each governing a portion of the functions, so their functions are obstructed and no longer so wondrous in their operation. To return to the original state and be restored, one must open up the mind's capacity and unblock the functions of each faculty; then the wondrous functions will appear.

He felt that his brain had become clear and transparent. This is a reaction that occurs after the mind has attained purity and the thoughts are concentrated: the qi channels run from the front Ren meridian to the rear Du meridian, and the reaction appears when they reach the brain region at the end of the Du meridian. The qi channels, at the rear of the head in the region of the supreme faculty (indriya), reach the crown of the head, then descend to the entire face. At the Yintang acupoint, where the Ren and Du meridians meet, a small heavenly circuit is nearly complete. Because attention is concentrated and the power of meditative concentration is strengthened, the mind's intentional function is also strong, and the body will change in accordance with the intention. This is the functional operation of the three transformative agencies of consciousness (parināma); the transformative agency (parināma) of the manas is evident, showing a somewhat proactive transformative function. If the manas's intentional function becomes very great, then whatever one thinks of will transform, whatever one wishes for will come, and everything one contemplates in the mind will be fulfilled as wished. At a certain point, even turning stone into gold becomes possible, and manifesting certain realms also becomes possible.