Uninterrupted Contemplative Practice Is the Training of the Manas

Bai Xuexiang's sharing of her white bone contemplation experience: When I first began studying the Dharma principle of contemplating the body as impure in the four foundations of mindfulness, I bought forensic dissection videos, along with some pictures of Tibetan sky burials to use as references. When quietly watching these videos or pictures at night, the manas could follow the mind consciousness's visual perception and give rise to the thought that this physical body is not me. My original intention at the time was to cultivate the contemplation of the body as impure, but the conclusion I often arrived at through repeated deliberation was that the physical body is not self, not me, an illusory self, a false self, a marionette. Every time I went to sleep I contemplated that the body is not me; upon waking I contemplated that the physical body is not me. 

This went on for nearly two years. One day, upon waking from an afternoon nap (before opening my eyes), I suddenly saw the flesh on the soles of my feet flow away like sand, all the way up to the knees, where the flesh had all flowed away. I thought I was dreaming, so I opened my eyes and found that I was awake and not dreaming. So I closed my eyes again, and at that moment I saw the flesh of the body continue to flow away like sand, until I saw that only the entire skull remained, but the bone was black, not white. I analyzed this: seeing black bones was probably because I had not yet gotten past the hurdle of emotional attachment (parents, children, relatives, and the like). So I contemplated more on breaking through delusion at this hurdle of emotional attachment (recently I have come to understand it somewhat). A while ago, when practicing the four foundations of mindfulness together with everyone, sitting in half-lotus meditation, not long after taking my seat, I saw the flesh on my leg bones split open. Then I saw the flesh of the whole body fall away bit by bit, with bright red strands of sinew still hanging on, not yet completely fallen away. 

Assessment: Bai Xuexiang's contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) has reached the point of being continuous and unbroken. Only when the Dharma principle takes root in the manas can the practice be continuous and unbroken—able to contemplate during the day, able to contemplate at night, able to contemplate before sleep and after waking, and even able to contemplate while asleep, whether dreaming or not. When there is no dream, the manas contemplates on its own; when there is a dream, the manas urges the mind consciousness to deliberate and contemplate. The mind consciousness's practice is intermittent and cannot be continuous. Because the manas's contemplative practice is continuous and unbroken, over time its cognition of the physical body changed; once it changed, and it awakened to the fact that the physical body is not self, the flesh fell away from the bones, flesh and bone separating. This is an initial stage of meditative absorption (samādhi); there is still some distance from the meditative absorption of ultimately eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi). As long as the causal conditions for seeing the Way are further perfected, attaining the Way will come very soon.

This is a practical example of contemplative practice in white bone contemplation, offered as a model of cultivation for everyone, to encourage everyone who practices contemplation: as long as you diligently and energetically continue contemplating without interruption, the practice will keep advancing, you will surely eradicate the view of self—the Buddha does not deceive me. It all depends on one's various causal conditions; the main things are the making of vows and merit. Make the great bodhicitta vow, have the mind to escape suffering, diligently cultivate merit along with precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom, and the contemplative practice will flourish day by day, and results will ultimately appear.