Selected Lectures from the Sūtra of the Gathering of Father and Son (19)

O King. What are the characteristics of lightness and movement within the body's wind element? This internal wind may sometimes rise upward, sometimes descend downward, sometimes dwell in the abdomen, sometimes at the flanks or back, sometimes causing eczema, sometimes gathering into lumps, sometimes producing sensations like knife-cuts or needle pricks. The winds of inhalation and exhalation, and others like them, pervade all the limbs of the body.

Explanation: O King, what are the characteristics of lightness and subtle movement within the body's wind element? It refers to the wind within the body that moves from below to above; or from above to below; or from left to right and right to left; or wind dwelling in the abdomen, waist, flanks, or back; or wind that triggers eczema or swells into lumps; or wind causing the body to feel pain like being cut by a knife or pricked by needles; and also the wind of inhalation and exhalation entering and leaving the body. These kinds of wind pervade all the limbs of the body.

The characteristic of wind is lightness. When propelled by wind, walking and cycling become swift; when wind blows, some light objects are carried aloft. Another characteristic of wind is movement; wind can make objects unstable, causing them to shift and turn. Why can our body function? Because there is the nature of wind within the body. Without this wind nature, our limbs could not move, nor could we speak.

How is speech produced? When there is perception and sensation within the mind, we wish to express it through speech. Then a current of wind arises within the body; the wind touches the navel, then rises upward, touching the heart and lungs, then further up to the trachea, throat, mouth, then the tongue, teeth, and lips—after which speech is produced. Without the wind element, speech cannot arise. The nature of wind is movement, and speech is also movement. Without this wind nature, sound cannot be produced. No matter how many thoughts we have within, without the function of wind, ideas and concepts cannot be expressed, speech cannot be produced. This shows that there must be the wind nature within the body. When wind moves, touching the internal organs, speech is expressed.

Speech is also illusory. Where is each sound of speech stored? There is no place to store it. After we finish speaking, where does the speech go when it ceases? There is no place of cessation. Thus, all phenomena are like this—illusory, utterly unobtainable, without any inherent reason, going from nothingness back to nothingness. Analyzing and inferring all principles and phenomena, everything we encounter is similarly illusory and unreal. By frequently engaging in such contemplation and reflection, one can realize the emptiness of all phenomena, sever the view of self, and attain the first fruition (Sotāpanna). After that, there is nothing one cannot let go of.

Inability to let go stems from our lack of thorough understanding of the principle, or having some comprehension but not penetrating it deeply. Once the principle is thoroughly penetrated, sitting here and contemplating—from our physical body to the entire universe, mountains, rivers, the great earth, the trichiliocosm, and the buddha-lands in the ten directions—if you infer according to this principle, you will see it all goes from nothingness back to nothingness, with nothing being real. This requires deep immersion in concentration, profoundly and subtly contemplating this principle until one genuinely accepts it. Without the genuine process of contemplative realization, spiritual practice remains ineffective and lacks the power to subdue afflictions. When encountering specific situations, one still regards all contacted phenomena as real, leading to attachment and distress. With insufficient concentration, inadequate merit, insufficient wisdom, and insufficient contemplation, one cannot attain the fruition of selflessness (anātman).

The wind within the body may rise from the lower body upward, or descend from above, or move from left to right, or right to left—this is the dynamic nature of wind. When we sit in meditation, we can perceive it; as the energy channels (nāḍī) move, we can feel it. The energy channels are wind; wherever the energy channels go, bodily sensations arise there. When you sit, your body may be slightly bent, but once the energy flows to the back of the body, the back immediately straightens up. Without deliberately sitting straight, the body naturally becomes erect. This is the dynamic nature of wind, its governing effect on the body.