Selected Lectures on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Pitāputrasamāgamanasūtra) (19)

Original text: 大王。云何身内风界。轻动等相。谓此内风。或时上行。或时下行。或住腹间。或胁或背。或发瘾胗。或聚成块。或如刀裂。或如针刺。出入息等。遍满身支。

Explanation: Great King, what are the signs of the lightness and movement of the wind element within the body? They are the winds within the body: winds that move from below upward; winds that move from above downward; winds that move from left to right and from right to left; winds that dwell in the abdomen, the flanks, or the back; winds that cause rashes to break out or swell into lumps; winds that make the body feel pain like being cut by a knife or pricked by needles; and the winds of the breath moving in and out of the body. These kinds of winds pervade the limbs of the body.

The nature of wind is light and floating. When there is the push of wind, walking and riding a bicycle are fast; when the wind blows, some light things are blown upward. Wind also has another characteristic: movement. Wind can make objects unstable and cause them to turn and move. What is it that enables our body to function? It is because there is the nature of wind within the body. Without the nature of wind, our limbs could not move, nor could we speak.

How is speech produced? When there are initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra) and feelings in the mind, we want to speak and express them. Then a stream of wind arises in the body; the wind touches the navel, then moves upward, touching the heart and lungs, then further up touching the windpipe and the throat, then touching the tongue, teeth, and lips, and after that speech is produced. Without the wind element, speech cannot arise. The nature of wind is movement, and speech is also movement. Without this nature of wind, sound cannot be produced. No matter how many thoughts we have in our minds, without the function of wind, our thoughts and ideas cannot be expressed and speech cannot be produced. This shows that there must be the nature of wind inside the body; when the wind moves and touches the internal organs, speech is expressed.

Speech is also illusory. Where is each sound of speech stored? There is no place to store it. After we finish speaking, the words cease—where do they cease to? There is no place of cessation. Thus all dharmas are illusory in this way, utterly unobtainable, with no principle to be argued; from nothing at all to nothing at all. Analyzing and inferring all matters and principles, everything we come into contact with is illusory and unreal in this way. By engaging in much contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and reflection like this, one can realize the emptiness of all dharmas, eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), and realize the first fruit. After that, there is nothing that one cannot let go of.

Not being able to let go means our understanding of the principle is not thorough, or we understand a little but not penetratingly. Once the principle is thoroughly understood, sitting here and pondering, from our material body to the entire universe, the mountains, rivers, and the great earth, the trichiliocosm, and the buddha-lands of the ten directions, you can infer according to this principle that everything goes from nothing at all to nothing at all, and nothing is real. This requires entering deep into meditation and deeply and subtly contemplating this principle, and accepting this principle. Without a genuine process of contemplative practice and acceptance, cultivation will not be effective, and there will be no power to subdue afflictions. When encountering specific situations, one still takes all the dharmas one contacts as real, and thus grasps at them and becomes afflicted. When the power of meditative concentration is insufficient, merit is also insufficient, wisdom is also insufficient, and contemplative practice is also insufficient, one cannot realize the fruit of no-self.

The wind inside the body either moves from the bottom of the body upward, or from the top downward, or from left to right, or from right to left—this is the moving nature of wind. When we sit in meditation, we can sense it; when the Qi meridians move, we can feel it. The Qi meridians are wind; wherever the Qi meridians reach, sensations appear in the body there. Originally, when you are sitting, your body is bent; once the Qi meridians run to the back of the body, the back immediately straightens up. Without deliberately sitting upright, the body naturally straightens itself. This is the moving nature of wind and its governing function over the body.