The Basis of the Interfunctioning and Mutual Use of the Six Faculties

This morning I sat observing the breath. The qi channels were unobstructed, and 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 noticeable blockage in the head or face, and the pressure from breathing was not great. My mind perceived the changes in the body's qi channels and the accompanying sensations; later I focused my attention on the area before my eyes.

Occasionally I contemplated the Dharma principles, and suddenly I recalled the teacher's instruction from the day before yesterday: one should perceive the breath single-mindedly, without the mind consciousness's reasoning and guidance, observing the breath's movement and its arising and ceasing through direct perception (valid direct cognition). So I focused on observing 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 brain felt somewhat empty and clear. 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 clear, the area before my eyes became limpid, and the ears' sensitivity to external sounds decreased. I could clearly feel that my concentration had further improved. Since all my attention was in the head, I did not feel sensations in other parts of the body. The head underwent some changes during subsequent breaths, but they are hard to describe. This continued until the end of the sitting session.

Assessment: During the sitting meditation, he felt that the eye faculty, the ear faculty, and the brain had all become connected. This is because meditative concentration (samādhi) caused the four great elements to change and become more subtle, so that within the supreme faculties (rūpa-prasāda) the various faculties 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 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 miraculous powers of the six faculties will manifest. Sentient beings originally all could have such miraculous powers, but because the mind has obstructions, the five-aggregate body is divided into six faculties, each faculty governing a portion of the functions, so their functioning is obstructed and no longer so wondrous. 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.

The feeling that the brain has become clear and penetrative is a reaction that occurs when the mind has become purified and thoughts are concentrated, and the qi channels run from the front, along the Conception Vessel (Ren Mai), to the back, along the Governing Vessel (Du Mai), reaching the brain at the end of the Governing Vessel. The qi channels, at the rear of the head in the region of the supreme faculty, reach the crown of the head and then descend to the entire face, reaching the Yintang acupoint where the Conception Vessel and the Governing Vessel meet—the Microcosmic Orbit is nearly complete. Because attention is concentrated and the power of meditative concentration is strengthened, the mind's intentional force is also strong, and the body will change in accordance with intention. This is the function of the three transforming consciousnesses; the transformative agency (parināma) of the manas is evident, showing a slightly proactive transformative agency. If the manas's intentional force becomes very great, then whatever one thinks of will transform, whatever one wishes for will come, and everything one conceives in the mind will be realized as one wishes. At a certain point, even turning stone into gold becomes possible, and manifesting certain realms also becomes possible.