Mie Mie's Experience of the First Dhyāna and the Eradication of the View of Self

Mie Mie: In May 2024, after initiating preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi), I continued practicing. In June, inverted thoughts arose, and I began fantasizing about the state of the first dhyāna and the state of enlightenment, which resulted in the loss of meditative concentration. After losing concentration, I felt very vexed and regretful, forming a negative cycle that made it impossible to settle the mind during sitting meditation.

By July, while copying the Lotus Sutra, I initiated four kinds of repentance: 1. No longer taking the states of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas seen in the sutra text as my own. 2. No longer asking questions while already holding the answers in hand. 3. No longer pretending to understand seeing the mind and seeing the nature, or prajñā. 4. Vowing to forever eliminate arrogance. After repenting and making these vows, that very evening a wholesome state appeared during sitting meditation, and I had auspicious dreams at night. My physical and mental condition improved, and I no longer had excessive expectations (seeking something) regarding cultivation results.

In October, I went to pay homage to the Sixth Patriarch again. When bowing, I was much more sincere than before; the little schemes in my mind disappeared, I no longer yearned for miraculous experiences, and my longing for wisdom increased. During this period, content from the Platform Sutra appeared in my mind, roughly: "If one does not practice according to the teachings, why labor to come from afar?" I felt deeply apprehensive, knowing that I had previously been too indulgent with the arising of thoughts.

One day, while walking near the monastery, I came upon a tree, and a thought suddenly arose: "Only by regarding everything as one's own life can compassion be maximized. May I attain ultimate equanimity." A few days later, during evening recitation at the monastery, a vibration occurred in my body. After returning, I felt very sleepy and slept for nearly 24 hours. Upon waking, I felt that many acquired notions had disappeared. Walking on the street and seeing things, I realized that all of them were names I had given them based on shape, smell, color, function, and so on. At that moment, I understood that what I had been discriminating all along was my own five aggregates (pañca-skandha).

Assessment: Mie Mie's entire account is concise and clear, without a single word of "I," objective and plain, as if narrating someone else's affairs, without a trace of self-emotion, showing no trace of arrogance or boasting. If he had not been asked to introduce his own cultivation situation, he would not have made his cultivation results public. He has no desire for self-display and is extremely modest.

Why is he so modest, preferring to remain unknown? That is the selfless virtue that comes after genuine realization and verification, the merit resulting from meditation that severs afflictions, and of course it is also because in a previous life he was indifferent to fame and gain, laying a good foundation for cultivation in this life. He forms an extremely sharp contrast with those who have false enlightenment without real cultivation—this is virtue. Because of such virtue and cultivation, he has attracted the blessings of all Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and Dharma-protecting deities, who at every step provided guidance and hints, quietly assisting him in completing the transformation of body and mind, even to the point of being reborn anew, so that he took no detours or wrong paths. They also helped him eliminate karmic obstructions and afflictions, gradually develop pure vows, and gradually weaken the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi).

Mie Mie: In December, on the day commemorating the birthday of Amitābha Buddha, I practiced recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti). After about three hours of reciting, I felt I had no strength left, and a thought arose: "May all living beings be able to leave suffering and attain happiness, with eternal peace and joy; may the true Dharma flourish forever, without discord."  Then my strength recovered, and when I resumed reciting, I found my breath flowing endlessly. I felt strange, so I held my breath for a few minutes and did not find any uncomfortable feeling of suffocation. Afterward, I recited for more than ten hours without needing to change breath and without any feeling of fatigue. For a period after that, I felt something flowing inside my body, as if there were an empty shell body within my body.

In April 2025, I set out on foot with several fellow practitioners and good friends toward Lhasa. After more than twenty days, we took a vehicle directly to Lhasa. When I arrived at the Jokhang Temple and saw the people there, who regarded cultivation as more important than living and making money, I was deeply moved and a thought arose in me: it would be wonderful to cultivate continuously in this place. Then, during sitting meditation, that vibration appeared again, spreading throughout the whole body; the awareness of the entire body merged into one, accompanied by a feeling of pleasantness. Then a force seemed to be tearing my skull apart from both sides. I felt fear and withdrew.

In the days that followed, whether walking, sitting, or lying down, I felt the surroundings vibrating along with me, and at all times there was a reasonless happiness of body and mind. One day, while meditating at the entrance of the Jokhang Temple, a doubt arose: "These people cultivate so diligently and still have not succeeded—is it because they carry purposefulness?" After this thought arose, a purposefulness in my mind disappeared, and I simply sat there. At that moment, it was as if I heard a voice say to me: "Mie Mie, you must let go of your subjective notions about the Buddha, your subjective notions about people, things, and affairs. Mind, Buddha, and sentient beings—there is no difference among the three." Immediately afterward, I suddenly had a sense of detachment from thought, feeling, and body, and instantly understood what is meant by "the five aggregates are not self, not different from self, and not mutually contained."

After rising from meditation, I found that the previous sense of a real, existing self had disappeared; I could not find an "I." Looking at the surrounding environment again, it felt very different. Previously, I had a strong sense of participation in all of this, but now it was like watching a scene, with no purposefulness of participating in it, and no judgments either. And after this sense of detachment appeared, there was boundless ease, far more relaxed than the happiness brought by the whole-body vibration. I instantly understood what contemplating feeling as suffering means—that kind of pleasant feeling is essentially still a kind of tension (affliction), incomparable to this feeling of non-reception.

After returning home, the meditative state regressed somewhat, but I still clearly understand that the body, or thoughts and mental activities, are not me. My previous notion that Buddhism is a kind of religion has changed; now I fully recognize that what the Buddha taught is the truth of life. What was once blind idol worship has become the verification of truth, and now my confidence in the cultivation and realization of the Dharma is even greater.

Assessment: This account of his own cultivation of the first dhyāna state is too brief and rough, not detailed enough. There may be several reasons: first, he does not like to express and narrate; second, describing things while in meditative concentration is rather laborious; third, he is personally quite modest and does not like self-display and showiness; fourth, he may feel that having such states is normal and does not feel them to be particularly special, and so on. Whatever the reason, his meditative state meets the conditions of the first dhyāna, and looking at the cultivation process and results he describes, it shows that he has eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa); the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) wisdom within meditation arose automatically.

First, he felt that the self that can be aware was peeled away from the aggregate of form, the aggregate of feeling, and the aggregate of perception among the five aggregates—this is the meaning of the five aggregates not being self—and he felt that each aggregate is not different from self, nor do they mutually exist, nor do they merge together with one another. This is the view of eradicating the view of self. Then, amid the unique joy characteristic of first-dhyāna concentration, he felt that all feelings are suffering, and that the five aggregates are suffering and not self. At this point, the first step of Buddhist cultivation and realization was completed, and he steps onto the second and third steps of subsequent cultivation. From the process of Mie Mie's cultivation, we can see that cultivation is both difficult and not difficult; the key is to have the initial resolve, to have vows, to have sentient beings in one's heart, and to be willing to relieve the suffering of sentient beings. Only in this way can one complete the transformation of body and mind.