Four Mindfulness Foundations Observational Practice Experience
Chapter Two: Contemplative Practice Journal
I. Skillful Means in Contemplative Practice
Lan Tian's contemplative practice journal: Upon sitting, I did ten deep breaths and felt the airway was long and unobstructed, with heat in the dantian. Afterwards I silently recited the Heart Sutra, reciting the sutra text from the beginning down to "ultimate nirvāṇa." My attention gradually concentrated on the sutra text, wandering thoughts diminished, and abdominal breathing deepened. Then I contemplated the breath, shifting my attention from silently reciting the sutra to contemplating the breath, placing the object of meditation on the breathing. While inhaling, I knew I was taking a long inhalation; while exhaling, I knew I was taking a long exhalation. At this time my power of meditative concentration was stronger than before, and I was already able to hold onto the breath. Following the breathing, I slowly felt my ears swelling outward a little; this later disappeared naturally. The breathing became natural and relaxed, and grew long and drawn out; the abdomen was warm, soft, and spacious; the mind was at ease. After rising from the seat, body and mind felt joyful.
July 6, 2021
Assessment: Contemplative practice of the Buddha's Dharma can only be carried out when meditative concentration is stable and the power of concentration for contemplative practice is complete; one cannot simply contemplate all the time. If meditative concentration is not yet stable, one must first cultivate body and mind and accumulate the power of concentration. In the meantime, one may employ all sorts of methods suited to one's current state in order to stabilize body and mind and strengthen the power of concentration. Only when the power of concentration is complete and one then engages in contemplative practice is it correct contemplation; otherwise it is chaotic contemplation, a waste of time with no results.
II. What Is Actual Practice and Realization?
Ru Ben's contemplative practice journal: This morning when I sat down and adjusted my breathing for a while, it did not feel very smooth, and I was not focused. Then I slowly and silently recited the Heart Sutra and entered a state of śamatha-vipaśyanā, and the mind became fairly settled. Then I tried contemplating the in-and-out breath; when my legs went numb and swollen, a sense of restlessness was about to arise in the mind, or wandering thoughts were about to emerge, so I stopped contemplating the breath and again slowly recited the Heart Sutra, once more entering a state of śamatha-vipaśyanā, and the mind became fairly settled.
When I got off the seat and went to the toilet, I felt this body was just a "flowing" thing—where was there an unchanging body-image? At mealtime, looking at my family member sitting across from me, I felt she was merely a dummy composed of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and the five viscera and six bowels assembled on a skeleton. Yet she did not know she was such a dummy. I could not tell her about this feeling of mine, for fear she would be displeased. While eating, looking at the rice and vegetables in the bowl, composed of the four great elements, I felt that after they entered my body they became part of the body; the material body and the material rice were no different—both were just the four great elements, just like the flowers on the balcony, which absorb soil and water and grow into various plants.
Why then do I not consider the flowers to be myself? Why do I grasp (upādāna) a material body of the four great elements as self? Why does everyone's body grow differently? What does this have to do with my mind consciousness? When I thought to this point I stopped, not thinking further, not wanting to force my previous learning into analysis and deliberation; I should hand this question over to the manas to deliberate (manasikāra)—only through continuous observation, examination (vitarka-vicāra), and chewing does "mana～～s-deliberation" arise. Only with questioning doubt does the desire for deep investigation arise.
Today when I went out and saw people approaching on the opposite side of the street, I felt their figures, movements, and speech were also moving dummies, yet they did not know they were dummies. At the doorway I greeted an acquaintance I knew; staring at his forehead, I thought that beneath the forehead was a pile of white bones, with the same stuff packed inside. It truly felt rather meaningless. Watching others speak, I felt the sounds of speech they emitted were merely collisions of airflow with the material lips, tongue, throat, and windpipe—not much different from a person beating a drum or ringing a bell. The right and wrong, disputes, beauty and ugliness that people usually speak of or argue about were all quite meaningless; I did not want to talk, and settled into the breath.
Assessment: The above is one process of cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness. In this process, contemplative practice grows ever deeper and ever broader, gradually extending into every corner and every aspect of life, from morning to night to sleep, reaching uninterrupted continuity. The mind gradually detaches from worldly marks, becoming ever emptier, gradually exchanging the bones of an ordinary person and shedding the embryonic shell of an ordinary person. If one keeps up this effort without cease, sooner or later one day one will leap over the Dragon Gate and the carp will become a dragon.
When contemplative practice extends into every aspect of daily living and reaches uninterrupted continuity, that is the initial stage of meditative absorption (samādhi). Within this samādhi there is both meditative concentration and wisdom, only not yet perfect and ultimate. The perfect and ultimate samādhi is the samādhi at the time of realizing the Way, the samādhi of the pure dharma eye, the samādhi of severing the three fetters, the samādhi of not entering the three evil paths. Such contemplative practice is merely a process, a process of transformation of body and mind. In this process, the five faculties, five powers, four right efforts, four bases of supernatural powers, seven factors of enlightenment, eightfold noble path, and four foundations of mindfulness gradually become complete and perfect. Only when the conditions for realizing the Way are complete will one eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), enter the stage of realizing the Way, and attain the pure dharma eye.
This is what is called actual practice—actual down to every corner and aspect of life, actual down to every mental thought, every conduct, every discipline, actual down to every step, actual into all the stages of practice and necessary conditions taught by the Buddha, meticulous and without impatience, actual to the point that afflictions do not arise and mental thoughts cease. Of course, what ceases are the mental thoughts of the mind consciousness; the manas's deliberation (manasikāra) upon dharmas never ceases, mind-moment after mind-moment without interruption. Therefore, final seeing of the Way must be the manas seeing the Way and realizing the Way. After realizing the fruit, its mental thoughts are also uninterrupted; its transformed mental activities and associated mental factors are also uninterrupted and continuous; the five grades of dausthulya afflictions are also uninterruptedly extinguished. It cannot be a back-and-forth switching between being a sage one moment and an ordinary person the next, requiring the mind consciousness to restrain the manas back into the recognition of emptiness and no-self.
The mind consciousness realizing the fruit is just the opposite: when the mind consciousness is clear, one is a good person; but when circumstances arise, the manas gives rise to defiled intent along with the afflictions, and the six consciousnesses, unaware, follow along and create defiled karma. Afterwards the mind consciousness feels it was improper, and supervises the manas to suppress the afflictions—but by suppressing again, the afflictions have already arisen, the fault has already been committed, the evil karma has already formed, the seeds have already been left behind—what to do about the future? Greedy thoughts appear at every turn; hateful thoughts appear at every turn; from time to time an affliction arises, a precept is violated, an evil karma is created—what kind of sage is this? Although one afterwards recognizes the error and corrects it, cycling round and round like this—what Way has been seen? How unreliable is that? How exhausting? When the mind consciousness feels fatigued, it will no longer endlessly supervise the manas; then the brakes will fail—what will the consequences be then?
Since every Dharma practitioner has already encountered the dharma of liberation, all should practice honestly, steadfastly, and down-to-earth, without a mentality of opportunism and shortcut-taking, deceiving themselves and then deceiving others. Paper cannot ultimately wrap up fire; a paper house cannot ultimately withstand wind and rain and will sooner or later be destroyed. Better to find, as early as possible, a permanent place of peaceful bliss and cessation—this is the wise person.
III. How to Drive the Chariot of the Five Aggregates
Ru Tao's contemplative practice journal: In the initial stage of my training in the four foundations of mindfulness, wandering thoughts during sitting were very severe, making contemplative practice laborious. Now this hurdle has passed; upon sitting, without needing to exert effort to deal with gross wandering thoughts, I can settle into the breath, and can even enter shallow meditative concentration, producing a slight sense of separation of body and mind.
But I find that the powers of concentration and wisdom of my manas and mind consciousness are still quite meager. To make an analogy: it is like springtime, when the mountain streams have just passed the dry season—the water babbles along, but can only float a small bamboo raft, not enough to bear a wooden boat, let alone like the great rivers, deep in water and surging with waves, able to carry huge ships and great vessels—far from having that strength. Now I seem better able to appreciate the meaning of the term "dry wisdom" often mentioned in the Buddha's Dharma. For a beginner in Buddhism like me, an ordinary person whose mind consciousness slightly understands some principles of prajñā but whose power of concentration is still very shallow, the so-called "wisdom" is merely the sentiments and intellectual understanding of surface-level consciousness—there is not the slightest merit or benefit in it. As Master said, such so-called "enlightenment" (悟) is only the "mistake" (误) of misunderstanding. I should sincerely repent for my former self-righteousness and empty boasting.
In the current training, the gross wandering thoughts have been subdued, which only means the bull of the manas is no longer as wild as before and its temperament has become a bit more docile—but He is still very lively and active. When sitting and wholeheartedly contemplating the breath, it is using the rope of the breath to tether Him more securely, so that He clings to objects less.
The reason the bull of the manas is so restless is, in the final analysis, the ignorance of beginningless kalpas: taking all the realms of the six sense-objects as real, and taking them as His own food, eating them with relish. So whenever the mind-consciousness cowherd has free time, He must constantly remind the bull of the manas: the realms of the six sense-objects are false; the six faculties are illusory, the six sense-objects are illusory; when faculties and objects contact, the six consciousnesses that discern the object-realms are merely a series of consciousness seeds. Material form is empty, and mental dharmas are also empty; the mountains, rivers, and the great earth, the self, body, and mind that the mind consciousness discerns are nothing but complex electrical signals in the brain of the inner six sense-objects; the layers upon layers of wandering thoughts are nothing but the illusory subjectively imagined dharma sense-objects the mind consciousness plays with itself—not a single dharma has any reality to it... Bury this message deep in the depths of the mind, let the bull of the manas chew and ruminate on it well, hoping that one day He too will suddenly see clearly!
Assessment: All gross wandering thoughts and subtle wandering thoughts are nothing but the habitual tendencies and inertial forces formed by the manas, from beginningless kalpas, taking objects as real and persistently clinging to them. It is like a car driven at full speed, not easy to brake; the mind consciousness struggles greatly to control it. Moreover, many people do not even want to control it, but instead indulge it unrestrained, driving with full horsepower—everyone can imagine the consequences. How to control this car so that it can slowly decelerate and run safely and smoothly is an important topic we should ponder deeply.
It just so happens that there is now the contemplative practice target of the four foundations of mindfulness, which can lead the manas to gradually transfer its energy over and gradually settle into it; the car's speed slowly decreases and no longer jolts. Drawing attention away from afflictive trifles and facing the single matter of the breath, the mind quiets, afflictions settle, and the clear surface water will reflect the true countenance of the five aggregates. One may then discover that the five aggregates are actually not so real and reliable—that all along they were mistakenly recognized and mistakenly grasped. From then on, ignorance and afflictions will gradually be peeled away from the mind; light and at ease, suffering and pain are reduced and extinguished.
The four foundations of mindfulness are precisely the good medicinal prescription the Buddha issued for treating the diseases of body and mind. As long as one takes it with confidence, bodily illness and mental illness will both be eliminated, and one gains liberation through wisdom. Do not doubt: the Buddha is the Great King of Medicine, able to rescue sentient beings from fire and water. Following the Buddha's guidance, one will surely reach the oasis on the other shore to rest and settle.
Throughout the entire process of practice, the mind consciousness, like a guide, points out the direction for the manas. Once the manas understands the direction and walks the right path, He must rely on His own mental strength and wisdom to face all realms, to ponder, to explore, to discover the truth, and to reverse former mistaken cognitions—only thus can one gain new life. The mind consciousness, this co-pilot, only needs to keep watch and assist from the side; everything still depends on the manas Himself, for the chariot of the five aggregates must, after all, be driven by Him personally—the mind consciousness cannot substitute for His position.
IV. What Exactly Are Thoughts and Mental Ideas?
Ru Ben's contemplative practice journal: These days when sitting, in the process of subduing body and mind, I have used methods such as contemplative recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), silently reciting the Heart Sutra, silently reciting the Buddha's name, reciting the Śūraṅgama Mantra, contemplating the thirty-two bodily constituents, and contemplating the arising, ceasing, and change of the dharma sense-objects to make the mind focused and no longer restless and unsettled. It is like subduing a wild horse: one needs to use various methods to observe what it likes, what it wants, and why it likes it, find out the cause, and then resolve that cause; only then will there be no desires and thoughts of that kind.
Personally I feel that, after sitting, contemplating one by one the arising and ceasing and change of the thirty-two constituents of the body is very effective. As soon as I begin to direct attention (manaskāra) to the "hair" of "hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin"... the mind begins to quiet down. After roughly contemplating through the thirty-two constituents once, I then introspect on this mind that can feel, can observe, and can discriminate: what is it like, where is it, what does it depend on and take as object, what is its scope of function, and how does it differ from the mind consciousness?
During contemplative practice, as long as I maintain one questioning thought—"Who am I?"—and then, within the physical body and the mind consciousness, repeatedly experience and discern, dharma by dharma, the state, characteristics, scope of function, conditions, and differences of each dharma, then at some unknown moment it suddenly coincides with the dharma principles I have studied. Then I understand that the intellectual understanding of learned knowledge and the feeling after the experience of contemplative practice are different, even though the conclusion is the same.
Sometimes when wandering thoughts suddenly come, instead of suppressing them, my method is to contemplate the causes of these dharma sense-objects surfacing, to contemplate the essence, origin, and basis and object of the dharma sense-objects. Later I discovered that I had attached a label to all of them: you, I, he—and then measured them for right and wrong, disputes, good and bad; following that came emotions that could not be let go—joy and anger, agitation, gloom and discontent, anxiety and craving—like dust covering, oppressing, binding, and tying up the originally pure mind—truly binding oneself like a silkworm in its own cocoon. It turns out these are merely dharma sense-objects left by past memories; they are not the mind, yet do not exist apart from the mind; they inherently have no self-nature—they are merely the remembered names and concepts in one's own mind-field.
Having resolved the dharma sense-objects, I then came to know the essence, origin, and basis and object of the five sense-objects of form, sound, and touch as well. This is the cause of the arising of wandering thoughts. At the beginning one must repeatedly and frequently recognize and discern the dharma sense-objects; only then can one let go of the mind's grasping (upādāna); only after letting go can there be relief and gathering in. The method of suppression cannot solve the root—like knowing that it is so but not knowing why it is so—then wandering thoughts are hard to subdue.
Secondly, before contemplative practice one must have mature hearing and contemplation (śruta-cintā); otherwise wisdom cannot arise, one does not know how to contemplate and discern, and there is only śamatha without the wisdom of vipaśyanā. For example, every doctor has a certain degree of direct perception of the body's birth, change, aging, and death, but the notion that the body is self does not change; there is no wisdom, and they do not know to investigate the essence of life. So personally I feel that mature hearing and contemplation before contemplative practice is the foundation.
Then contemplate the mutual influence of the physical body and the mind consciousness, and then deeply believe that every stirring of mind and thought has karmic retribution, all being self-created and self-received; the mind grows ever more peaceful. Finally settle on the breath at the nostrils; sometimes when the breath is faint, I only feel the entire physical body is breathing, with no boundary between inside and outside the body. When the power of concentration is good, I feel body and mind are in a state of no-self and no-master, gradually no longer having the concept of a body. At present, in half-lotus posture I can basically hold for an hour without changing legs, and after rising I feel full of energy. However, when the legs become numb, swollen, and painful, mental strength weakens, and I must change legs to continue.
After rising and going out to move about, practicing Taiji Quan, I feel it is the same as sitting in meditation contemplating: very quietly, very slowly, very easily I enter the state of contemplative practice; body and mind are in a state of no-self and no-master; the breath is even; there is no one there—only arms and only legs slowly moving through the air, only birdsong rising and falling in the empty stillness, only the formless, unlocated mind aware—no one is there. In daily life, I try to keep in mind the physical body of the thirty-two constituents and its mental thoughts, not looking at the body as a whole, thus observing the body's impermanence and lack of a master. At present I cannot yet form uninterrupted attention (manaskāra). June 2, 2021
Assessment: All thoughts, ideas, and concepts come from ignorance, and ignorance has no place of origin and no place of destination—it is a illusory dharma. Since wandering thoughts, ideas, and concepts come from ignorance that has no origin, there is no need to take them as real; see through them, see them thoroughly, do not follow the wandering thoughts as they rise and fall—suchness is immovable (tathatā-acalita). Slowly these ignorant thoughts will disappear on their own, and the mind will be pure and peaceful. Then contemplate the object again—bright and clear—and ignorance turns thin. Human ideas and concepts come and go; even if you want to keep them you cannot; they always keep changing and cannot be fixed. See through them, ignore them, do not move along with them, and the mind is naturally cool and refreshed.
V. With Mild Afflictive Obstruction, Meditative Concentration Arises Easily
Lan Tian's contemplative practice journal: In the evening I sat down, did ten deep breaths, then contemplated the breath at the nose, slowly entering abdominal breathing. During this period, in the initial stage of abdominal breathing, the contraction of the abdominal muscles when inhaling was no longer so intense, but today on exhaling the abdomen contracted very strongly, and during breathing the dantian was very hot. I contemplated the breath at the nose throughout, never moving the thought elsewhere.
After about half an hour of sitting, I felt the qi mechanism was about to stir upward. Having heard Master's teaching, I let it take its natural course and did not stop it; I felt the qi mechanism instantly reached the chest and did not rise further; the entire area below the chest felt like an electric shock, and it vanished in an instant. I continued contemplating the breath at the nose; it was still abdominal breathing. After another ten or so minutes, the qi mechanism surged upward again, both ears rang briefly at the same time, the pores of the entire head and face stood on end, tingling and numb; the sensation quickly receded. Slight sweat appeared on the front and back of the chest and the abdomen; the deep breathing stopped. Looking at my watch, there were still ten-odd minutes, so I deliberately did deep breathing until the sitting ended.
Sitting down, doing ten deep breaths, then contemplating the breath at the nose, I soon entered abdominal breathing; this morning the dantian area was also very hot, especially when inhaling—I felt the airflow, like a stream of heat, entering the dantian from the upper abdomen. Sometimes with one inhalation I could feel the thighs were cool, as if cool air were entering through the thighs. After about half an hour of sitting, I again felt the qi mechanism surging upward; this time it was slower, not so intense; it surged to the chest and head and would not go down; the chest's qi distension caused the breathing to shorten, and the head also felt somewhat swollen but not very obvious. After ten minutes, placing the attention at the dantian, the above discomfort slowly dissipated, the breathing became smooth, both shoulders sank down, and the abdomen was soft and comfortable.
Assessment: The emptier the mind, the faster and longer the qi mechanism stirs, and the deeper one enters concentration. Those obstructed by afflictive obstruction (kleśāvaraṇa) cannot easily stir the qi mechanism, and even when it arises it quickly falls away. In the future, when the first dhyāna arises, there will be a similar stirring of the qi mechanism: the emptier the mind and the lighter the afflictive obstruction, the faster and deeper the qi mechanism stirs, the more it can pervade the whole body, the longer it can last, and the deeper the meditative concentration. The so-called afflictive obstruction means the mind has attachments—clinging to body and self, many dharmas on the mind, unceasing mental wandering, taking all worldly dharmas as real and refusing to let go.
VI. What Is Meant by "Investigating Things to Attain Knowledge"
Ba Shi'er Kou's contemplative practice journal: Following the method Master taught, I practiced concentration in stillness, starting from contemplating the breath. After letting the mind quiet down, I placed a thought of "the physical body is not self" in the mind and watched it, while entering a state of blankness free of language. Gradually I felt the body seemed to be moving away from the knowing mind, somewhat unable to hold its ground. After rising from the seat, my body felt light and at ease, as if awakening from a great dream, not as tired as before; only the head felt somewhat tight and numb, and this persisted for ten-odd minutes. Thanks to Master's teaching: studying Buddhism means first resolving to change one's manas's habitual tendencies; having a goal, the mind felt much lighter.
Assessment: There is a saying, "investigating things to attain knowledge" (gewu zhizhi), meaning that as long as the mind separates from sense-objects, does not stick to sense-objects, and does not dwell on sense-objects, it will not be influenced and limited by them; it will leap outside the sense-objects and look back at them objectively, and will reach objective conclusions and views. But when the mind is fused together with sense-objects, it is often veiled by them: seeing only the marks of the sense-objects, not seeing truth and fact.
Contemplative practice within meditative concentration is precisely "investigating things to attain knowledge": drawing the mind away from the dharma, thereby re-examining and observing the dharma objectively without language and words, without subjectivity; slowly there will be objective discoveries different from before, one recognizes objective truth, and thereby can give birth to the wisdom of the state of liberation. Subjective initiative belongs to the mind consciousness; objective perception and examination belong to the manas. "Investigating things" means letting the mind consciousness not move, letting the manas personally perceive—only thus can there be fair, objective, and reasonable discoveries: it turns out things are not like that; it turns out we were all wrong.
Without cultivating meditative concentration and contemplative practice, one will never "investigate things to attain knowledge," will never change the manas's view of self and self-grasping, will forever remain in ignorance and delusion, and liberation will have no date. This hurdle of meditative concentration and contemplative practice must be crossed no matter how hard, and one must resolve to break through it—only thus is one worthy of one's lifetime and many lifetimes of studying Buddhism. To attain realization and liberation there is no other route—only this one path, which cannot be bypassed; sooner or later one must walk it. Walking it early is far better than walking it late, sparing oneself much suffering.
VII. The Merits of Meditative Concentration
Ru Zhao's contemplative practice journal: Today I sat half-lotus on the left leg for half an hour and half-lotus on the right leg for half an hour; after sitting I first recited the Śūraṅgama Mantra once. Then I gathered the mind and calmed the qi to contemplate the breath; before long the whole body continuously warmed, there was sweat on the limbs and face, saliva kept secreting in the mouth; I did not feel heat in the dantian, but every breath was drawn in very deep, the lower abdomen naturally bulging, and as the observation deepened the inhalation seemed to go even deeper. The bodily sensations and the amount of air inhaled through the nostrils seemed different between left-leg and right-leg half-lotus, and the bodily feelings were not entirely the same; for me at present, with left-leg half-lotus the mind settles more easily and I can observe longer.
In daily life I am very dull and slow; most things do not enter the mind, and many trifles cannot be remembered. Sometimes when I should use my brain it seems to suddenly jam, and I do not know what the mind is thinking. When talking with people I can know what they want to express and vent, but cannot say words of agreement, or even do not want to open my mouth. When oneself or others have feelings of suffering, I contemplate the origin of the suffering, wanting to thoroughly sever its accumulation and extinguish suffering.
Assessment: The more concentrated the mental thoughts, the more concentrated the qi in the body and the more concentrated the energy, which causes the qi mechanism to stir and the whole body to warm. A person whose meditative concentration is very deep is insensitive to cold and heat in the body: in winter no need to wear much, in summer wearing much does not feel hot—one robe through winter and summer, no need to keep changing clothes. Meditative concentration can eliminate a certain restless energy; unimportant matters will no longer occupy the mind, much less currying favor with the powerful. At first the speech and movements appear clumsy; the capacity for action is weak but the power of observation is deep and penetrating; the mind is fine and sensitive; in viewing people and affairs one is more precise and careful than before, not easily deceived—somewhat like great wisdom appearing as foolishness; in reality the mind is simply not applied to trivial matters, and true wisdom is slowly rising.
