The Radical Transformation Process of the Stream-Enterer-to-Be

Ven. Shi Ruyuan's Contemplative Practice Log (February 28, 2024)

In recent days, the bodily reactions have been especially pronounced. I am eating less and less, yet I do not feel hungry. The area on the top of my head still feels somewhat swollen and itchy; when I scratch it, my scalp hurts. The spot between my eyebrows and the crown of my head feel swollen and tight, and my forehead burns hot as if scorched by fire—so much so that I cannot even keep my eyes open, and looking at things makes me feel weary and exhausted. Now I dread going out, doing things, or meeting people. When people around me call me, I often fail to react in time; countless times I have misheard and done things wrong. My mind goes completely blank and refuses to obey me.

During this period, whatever I do, I unconsciously forget. While walking, at the moment of waiting for the green light, as soon as my mind settles down, my brain goes blank; I stand there dazed, unable to remember what I was doing, feeling as if I were sleepwalking, with my mind and body out of control and sluggish. Sometimes I recite the Śūraṅgama Mantra to ease these reactions, and then when I look at the people, buildings, and cars around me, they seem like images on a boundless screen—unreal. Now the area between my forehead and the point between my eyebrows is tight and hot. If I sit in meditation with my eyes closed, it is much better. When contemplating the Dharma meanings, my mind is pure and no stray thoughts arise. When my family talks with me, I find it strenuous and laborious.

In the past, when listening to you, Grandmaster, expound the Dharma meanings of contemplative practice, I could not understand. Now that I have attained meditative concentration (dhyāna) and contemplate the four foundations of mindfulness, I have gradually come to understand a little of the wondrous function of self-nature (svabhāva). In observing how things are done, and in observing the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) body of sentient beings and the eighteen realms as tools, I can discover the functional workings of the wondrous manifestation of self-nature. With certain huatous, such as "Who is the one reciting the Buddha's name?" or "Who is the one dragging this corpse around?", I can slowly and deeply ponder them, giving rise to questioning doubt; an instinctive reaction arises within me, and tears flow down involuntarily. In the past, when studying Buddhism, I only used the simple mind consciousness—listening, thinking, and looking—and I had no real feeling for the Dharma learned this way. Now, when I contemplate with meditative concentration, it is different: I am deeply moved within, and I profoundly perceive that this body is nothing but a corpse. Through birth after birth in the cycle of the six realms of saṃsāra, changing bodies is just like changing clothes. Now I have no interest in people, matters, or things; I no longer wish to discriminate between right and wrong, good and bad; and my mind is at every moment engaged in contemplating the Dharma meanings.

Assessment: This is the process of transformation of body and mind prior to seeing the Path—a gradual shedding of the old self and rebirth, departing from the body and mind of an ordinary person and resonating with the realm of the sages. She is now at the level of one oriented toward the srotāpanna fruit. This process of cultivation is indispensable; without this process of transformation of body and mind, one remains an ordinary person forever, always within the realm of the mind consciousness, with the manas never having been perfumed. The transformation in the body is brought about by meditative concentration: when the mind becomes still to a certain degree, the qi and blood throughout the whole body flow freely and abundantly, replacing the old karmic-obstruction body.

The transformation in the mind is a gradual dissonance with conditioned worldly dharmas—losing interest in the realm-appearances of the human world, gradually resonating with emptiness (śūnyatā) and with no-self, gradually shedding the ordinary person's womb and exchanging the ordinary person's bones. The eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) is only a matter of time. In terms of wisdom, she has not only achieved something in the Small Vehicle Dharma but has also made great progress in the Great Vehicle Dharma, gaining an initial capacity for direct realization (abhisamaya) of the Dharma of self-nature, without a trace of the emotional sentiment and intellectual interpretation of the mind consciousness; the light in her mind grows ever greater and brighter. In this way, after eradicating the view of self, if she then single-mindedly engages in Chan investigation, seeing the mind (enlightenment) will also be within reach.

From Weiru's state of body and mind, it can be seen that her cultivation of the Small Vehicle Dharma has already passed the stage of the heat method (ūṣma-gata) of the four applications of mindfulness (four nirvedhabhāgīyas), and also passed the stage of the summit method (mūrdhan), reaching the stage of the patience method (kṣānti), having the roots of goodness of the patience method. After passing further through the stage of the supreme worldly dharma (laukikāgra-dharma), she will eradicate the view of self and realize the fruit of srotāpanna. In her cultivation of the Great Vehicle Dharma, she has already reached the stage of the heat method among the four applications, having the roots of goodness of the heat method. After eradicating the view of self in the Small Vehicle, her cultivation of the Great Vehicle's four applications will naturally continue to advance, and there is hope of seeing the mind in this life. Judging from this most genuine and real cultivation: in Weiru's entire realm of body and mind, is there any manifestation of the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion? Is there any grasping at or craving for the world of the five aggregates? Is there even a trace of indulgence in the five desires of the world? None at all. Therefore, the facts prove that as long as one cultivates genuinely and earnestly, as long as meditative concentration arises—especially preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi)—afflictions will be subdued. After eradicating the coarsest greed—greed for the human world—and then eradicating greed for the heavenly realms, that is the meditative concentration of the first dhyāna. If the first dhyāna arises after realizing the fruit, there is every hope of realizing the fruit of anāgāmin. So as long as one makes the aspiration to cultivate genuinely and wishes to attain realization, it is not really so difficult. One does not need to be too clever; cleverness and worldly sophistry often get in the way.

Those who can practice diligently and steadfastly are generally not the shrewd, superficially clever types, nor those fond of talking, nor those fond of showing themselves off. Though they may appear somewhat dull on the outside, being honest and hardworking is their greatest advantage, and the result is that they obtain benefits that are real and true. By contrast, all those people who claim to have realized the first or second fruit—do they have any such process of cultivation? Hardly any at all. Their body-mind world has undergone almost no change; flat as still water, they remain the same old appearance, the same old shell, with nothing new. Without meditative concentration, so-called wisdom is merely the views of the mind consciousness, unable to penetrate beyond the mind consciousness and reach the inner mind of the manas. They still carry that old womb and old bones, complete with all afflictions, yet they can be glib and smooth-tongued—able to talk but unable to practice.