Answers to Questions on the Contemplative Practice of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness 10

Answer: If you feel bored and that it is meaningless while engaged in contemplative practice during sitting, it means the habitual tendencies of the manas have manifested. The manas craves worldly dharmas, delights in the lively activities of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), likes worldly dharmas, likes liveliness and excitement, likes gaining something, and dislikes solitude and non-action, dislikes being restrained. At this time, you should contemplate the benefits of the contemplative practice of the four foundations of mindfulness, contemplate the purpose of cultivation, and look at the results of practice described at the end of the Sutra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness; this will dispel some of the negative emotions. The habitual tendencies of the manas are hard to subdue; you must treat Him like a child, employing both kindness and firmness. In daily life, you should frequently contemplate the impermanence and suffering of the world, repent of the karmic obstructions and afflictions accumulated over beginningless kalpas, and make great aspirations, long-term aspirations, and the aspiration for renunciation, relying on the pull of these vows to continuously advance on the path.

What are the benefits of contemplating the breath? In terms of worldly benefits, it can improve physical health, purify the mind, extend lifespan, bring comfort and ease to body and mind, and bring joy and happiness; it can make the mind pliant, subdue afflictions, and improve one's cultivation and moral character; it can also enhance the power of thought, making the mind meticulous, and increase wisdom. A person's life exists only between breaths—with exhalation and inhalation there is life; without exhalation and inhalation, life comes to an abrupt end. The breath represents life. By contemplating the breath, one can contemplate how fragile every life is, how unreliable, how impermanent, how full of suffering. Can the five aggregates that exist by relying on the breath be the self? Contemplating in this way back and forth, self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) becomes slighter, self-grasping weakens, afflictions diminish, and it becomes possible to eliminate self-view and attain partial realization of the fruits of liberation.