Eradicating the View of Self through Contemplative Practice on Qi

Question: When practicing meditation, I always fail to enter deep meditative concentration (samādhi) because of the movement of vital energy (qi). Can I contemplate the vital energy in my contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) in order to make a breakthrough and eradicate the view of self regarding the body?

Answer: The various kinds of vital energy in the body are material form (rūpa). Even if through contemplative practice one discerns the arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing of the vital energy, and its suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self, one can only eradicate the view of self regarding the aggregate of form; the view of self regarding the conscious mind cannot yet be eradicated. However, being able to contemplate the vital energy in the body clearly is also quite good. By using one point to illuminate the whole, one can then contemplate all the material form of the entire body clearly, knowing its origins and course, and realizing its arising, ceasing, change, and impermanence. Even eradicating only the view of self regarding the physical body is quite commendable. After afflictions are lightened, it will become easier to contemplate the suffering, origin, cessation, and path of the conscious mind.

How does one contemplate vital energy so as to eradicate the view of self regarding the body? As the saying goes, if a breath fails to come up, one dies instantly, separated between yin and yang—such is the importance of vital energy to the physical body. Within the body, vital energy can transport the oxygen the body needs and drive the flow of the blood; vital energy and blood together constitute the nourishment required for the physical body to survive. Without the nourishment of vital energy and blood, the physical body would surely perish. Vital energy is material form constituted by the seeds of the four great elements, with the element of wind as the dominant one; therefore vital energy possesses fluidity and mobility, and can move throughout the whole body. Once it is blocked in a certain place and ceases to circulate, an ailment or obstruction appears in that place. Since vital energy is material form composed of the four great elements, it is an impermanent dharma of arising, ceasing, and change. Contemplating the impermanence, mutability, and emptiness (śūnyatā) of vital energy, one knows it to be of the nature of suffering; what is of the nature of suffering is neither self nor belonging to self. Since vital energy is not self, the physical body sustained by vital energy is likewise so—arising, ceasing, changing, and impermanent, suffering, empty, and non-self. Contemplating from the angle of vital energy can also eradicate the view of self regarding the body.