Wisdom Wide and Deep

by Shaila Catherine

  MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 17.9

  Contemplating the Repulsiveness of Animate Material Phenomena

  1. Establish concentration, and then review the meditations on the thirty-two parts of the body as described in chapter 5. Practice alternately discerning the parts of your own body and the parts of other bodies until gradually you have expanded your perception of body parts, and in every direction throughout the whole world you perceive only body parts. Alternate quickly between discerning internal parts and discerning external parts. Emphasize the repulsive nature of both internal and external body parts as you practice these meditations.

  2. When you are satisfied with the repulsive component of this meditation, next discern the material elements of each part, internally and externally as you did in chapter 12 with the four elements meditation. For many meditators, the ultimate reality of materiality will appear automatically when the repulsive meditation matures. By continuing to alternate quickly between internal and external perceptions, soon all the bodies throughout the whole world will appear as only rūpas or rūpa kalāpas. Discern and analyze all the materiality that you find internally and externally. Contemplate the rūpas as impermanent, unsatisfactory, not-self, and repulsive. You will sense the repulsive quality of even material elements—they are small; their color, smell, and taste is associated with the repulsive body; they are subject to birth (arising stage), decay (standing stage), and death (perishing stage) just like the repulsive body. Perceive the impermanent, unsatisfactory, not-self, and repulsive characteristics of all animate material phenomena.

  3. Notice that both your own body and the bodies of all other people are the homes of worms and bacteria that live, breed, feed, excrete their waste, and die within our bodies. Contemplate that the living body, internal and external, is the home of many repulsive things and the repository of filth—highlight the repulsive quality. Then discern, analyze, and contemplate the rūpas that compose the worms and the bacteria as just composed of the four elements and derived materiality. Contemplate the ultimate realities (rūpas) that make up the worms and bacteria as impermanent, unsatisfactory, not-self, and repulsive. Notice that in this meditation you are contemplating the repulsive quality at the level of conventional reality (characteristics of worms and bacteria), and also at the level of ultimate reality (characteristics of rūpas).

  4. Then see mental phenomena as repulsive. Observe a cognitive process occurring at the eye door and contemplate each of the five aggregates arising in each mind-moment as repulsive. Contemplate both the unwholesome and wholesome mental processes as repulsive. The ugly and disquieting qualities of greed, hate, conceit, possessiveness, delusion, and all unwholesome mental processes may be obviously repulsive. Wholesome mental factors as well can be seen as repulsive—they are subject to arising and perishing; they are responsible for producing the five aggregates of clinging in the future. Perhaps the only dhammas that are not repulsive are those that arise in conjunction with the perception of nibbāna.

  5. In a similar manner, contemplate the mental factors that function in cognitive processes at the remaining sense doors (ear, nose, tongue, body, mind) as repulsive. See all phenomena, internal and external, near and far, mental and material as repulsive.

  Highlighting the repulsive quality can elicit powerful dispassion toward material and mental experiences, suspend habitual attachment to mind-body experiences, and support an awakening to the peace that is untouched by any trace of filthy or repugnant qualities.

  CONTEMPLATING PHENOMENA IN INCREMENTAL TIME PERIODS

  If you have practiced all the previous exercises but have not yet realized your goal, the following traditional vipassanā method may enhance insight, inspire dispassion, and consume attachment. It is an exhaustive survey of phenomena that emphasizes the limitations and fluctuations of mentality and materiality throughout the course of your lifetime. When I first read the instructions, it appeared so laborious and daunting that I doubted anyone would attempt such a practice. However, with the foundation of strong concentration along with the discernment of ultimate mental and material processes, your mind will be malleable, quick, agile, and balanced, and capable of gaining insight into the nature of phenomena. You may expand and refine this sequence into finer and finer increments, as you wish, apply the contemplation to daily activities, or let the framework inspire a wise and mindful presence by living with the flow of changing phenomena.

  The next exercises take the inconstancy of all matter as the primary object, and structure the lesson by sorting materiality in seven ways and then sorting mentality in seven ways. In this approach you will divide your life span into small increments and then contemplate the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self (if you like, you may add repulsive) characteristics of the internal and external phenomena found in each designated period.285 You already know that materiality is impermanent—so the insight may not bring a radically new discovery regarding the quality of matter. By repeatedly examining the obvious characteristics of matter, internally and externally, near and far, past, present, and future, you wear away any subtle tendency to assume there is anything solid, substantial, or enduring in this life or any other life. It is insufficient to discern just present phenomena, just the matter within your own body, or just a single characteristic. This approach demands a comprehensive review of phenomena to prevent even subtle formations of views, conceit, or attachment from forming through association with mental or material processes.

  MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 17.10

  Contemplating Phenomena in Incremental Time Periods

  Preparation: Establish concentration and conceive of your lifetime, from birth until death, as occurring in a series of time periods. For mathematical simplicity, we will assume a life span of one hundred years. Then, focus on materiality through the seven exercises that follow.

  Exercise 1. Highlighting that Materiality Is Born and Dies

  Casting your meditative discernment into the past, and into the future as practiced in chapter 15, scan your hundred-year life span, from the moment of conception to the moment of your death, observing the continuous arising and perishing of material phenomena in the body. Contemplate the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self characteristics of the internal and external phenomena that you find arising and perishing throughout the course of that hundred-year period. You will have found only constantly changing materiality. Each element of ultimate materiality will have a rising stage, a standing stage, and a perishing stage. At no time, at no phase of life, not for your body or for the body of another, have you found a single particle of matter that endures. Let this recognition alleviate the insult of aging and end resistance to loss, decay, and death.

  Exercise 2. Highlighting that Materiality Disappears Stage by Stage

  Divide that hundred-year life span into three periods of approximately thirty-three years, which roughly correspond to youth, adulthood, and old age. Next you will divide the hundred-year life span into ten equal parts: ten decades. Throughout this exercise you will continue to divide the life span into incrementally smaller and smaller parts, such as five-year blocks, one-year blocks, one-month blocks, one-week blocks, one-day blocks, until eventually you divide each day into two segments: night and day. Then, finally, divide each day into three segments roughly corresponding to morning, midday, and late afternoon, and divide each night into three segments roughly corresponding to the evening, the middle of the night, and predawn.

  Cast your meditative attention into the past as you accomplished in chapter 15. Discern and analyze the rūpa kalāpas that you see arising and perishing, starting at birth and gradually proceeding, stage by stage, until death. Start by dividing the lifetime into thirds. Contemplate all the material phenomena that you can discern in each third as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self, alternating between discerning the materiality that composes your own body at the various times (internal) and the matter that composes other bodies at those times (external). Recognize that the materiali
ty that arises in that phase of life perishes there without ever reaching the subsequent phase of life.

  Then divide the life span into smaller increments such as ten decades or twenty five-year blocks and again discern, analyze, and contemplate the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self characteristics of the material phenomena arising in those periods from birth until death, specifically recognizing that materiality arises in one stage, without enduring into the next stage.

  Systematically divide your life span into increasingly fine periods: 100 one-year periods, 1,200 one-month periods, 36,500 one-day periods, and so on. Discern, analyze, and contemplate the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self characteristics of the material phenomena arising in those periods from birth until death, internally and externally. In each case see that the materiality does not last or reach the next stage.

  Next, consider the various postures that you might take throughout a day, week, month, year, decade, or lifetime.286 Sitting, standing, walking, and reclining, plus activities such as reaching, bending, stretching, moving forward or backward, looking away or toward, can all be incorporated into this category. You may break down each posture into smaller and smaller increments to discern, analyze, and contemplate the materiality that occurs in each section of movement. For example, you might divide walking into several stages: lifting of the heel, lifting of the foot, moving the foot forward, lowering it, touching the ground, shifting the weight. Reflect that the material phenomenon that arises in one stage of posture, gesture, or activity perishes without reaching the next stage. For example, the matter that manifests while you are sitting does not endure until standing. The wind element that propels your leg forward during walking perishes before the next step. The materiality that reaches for a cashew is not the same materiality that draws the nut toward your mouth. In each phase of the movement, observe and contemplate the material phenomena as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self. Vividly experience the dynamic nature of the body throughout your life span. Every nuance of gesture and every subtle shift of the body is carried by a swirl of microscopic change. Look carefully. Among these currents of changing processes, is there anything that you can claim to be self?

  Contemplate the subtle realities by systematically reflecting on the impermanence of materiality, stage by stage, decade by decade, year by year, day by day, hour by hour, activity by activity, gesture by gesture, experience by experience. Carefully discern the impermanence of rūpas during formal meditation by discerning their arising, standing, and perishing phases, and then, as you move about your daily activities, continue to observe the dynamic and ephemeral manifestation of posture and gesture. Mindfully observe an activity, such as putting on your socks or getting out of bed; see the subtle and gross expressions of impermanent phenomena that are born and die posture after posture. Let the insight register: this body is continuously changing, oppressed by change, unstable, and without anything that can be identified as myself.

  Exercise 3. Highlighting Matter Arising from Nutriment287

  Sometimes you feel hungry, and at other times you feel no hunger; nutriment is impermanent. The feeling you experience prior to partaking of a buffet is different than the feeling you experience after feasting at the buffet. The popcorn that you ate at the movies last month is not the same matter than will fuel a walk to the store next month. The materiality that is born out of the fuel from a carrot does not remain fixed and stable in any place in the body. Reflect on the impermanence of nutriment.

  This exercise highlights matter that arises from nourishment day by day, meal by meal, throughout your life span, by focusing on incremental periods designated by hunger and the satisfaction of hunger. Discern, analyze, and contemplate the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self characteristics of matter arising from nutriment and food consumption. For example, focus on one day and observe the changing material formations that arise and perish during the six periods of the day: before and after breakfast, before and after lunch, and before and after dinner. If your meal schedule differs, modify the instructions accordingly. Observe all material formations, including kamma-produced, temperature-produced, mind-produced, and nutriment-produced materialities, although in this exercise nutriment-produced materialities will be most vivid as you witness the rapid multiplication of nutriment-produced materialities after each meal. Start as a baby, and then examine the next day, and then the next, and then the next until you have examined 36,500 days of food consumption in a hundred-year life span, internally and externally. Notice that at the level of ultimate materiality the quantity of nutriment-produced rūpa kalāpas is minimal when you are hungry, but increases dramatically after eating. No meal has ever lasted, no satisfaction has ever endured; nothing that you gobbled, nibbled, or slurped has formed a solid experience of self. As you approach your next meal, observe your response to hunger, food, and nutriment in light of these contemplations.

  Exercise 4. Highlighting Matter Arising from Temperature288

  Notice that cold and heat are continually fluctuating. The temperature at dawn changes before midday. The crisp cold sensation that you perceive as you bite into a chilled slice of melon is replaced by soft warmth as you chew the fruit. The warmth of mother’s milk is not the same heat that a middle-aged person feels when mowing the lawn. A simple activity such as taking a shower or washing the dishes can reveal uncountable fluctuations of temperature. Each perception of temperature occurs and then instantly perishes. Temperature does not linger; it is not the same temperature event that arises in the next period of time. Similarly, materiality that is born from temperature arises and perishes instantly, without lingering.

  Meditatively review your life span, day by day, from birth until death, highlighting material formations that arise and perish in conjunction with shifts and changes of temperature. Discern materiality (include all ultimate materialities including kamma-produced, mind-produced, nutriment-produced, and temperature-produced materialities), internally and externally, and contemplate those rūpas as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and insubstantial temperature- related phenomena.

  You might integrate this perception of temperature into daily activities by periodically tracking the inconstant nature of temperature. Recognize the suffering that stems from incessantly reacting to fluctuations of temperature—preference of season, layers of clothing, adjusting heaters and air-conditioners. Learn to view temperature as simply a dynamic and impersonal material element.

  Exercise 5. Highlighting Materiality that Arises from Kamma

  To expose materiality that is kamma produced, this exercise highlights materiality at each sense door. Discern the sixty-three rūpas in the eye, ear, nose, tongue, and mind doors, and the fiftythree rūpas in the body door as you did in chapter 12 (see Table 12.7). Progress day by day, from birth until death, contemplating the materiality in each sense door, internally and externally, as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self. Although you may accumulate countless sensory experiences in a hundred-year life span, nowhere will you find a single particle that remains stable throughout those encounters.

  Exercise 6. Highlighting Materiality that Is Associated with Happiness289

  This traditional approach uses the fluctuations of joy and grief to highlight materiality that arises with consciousness. Reflect on the vicissitudes of joy and grief, happiness and unhappiness. Your mood is fickle. The happiness that you felt when you received a perfect test score on your algebra exam arose and perished then; it is not the same happiness that you experienced when you married. The sadness that you felt when your goldfish died is not the same sadness that you feel reading the obituaries. The happiness that you feel in the moment that you emerge from jhāna is not the same happiness that you feel ten minutes later when you reflect upon it.

  Understanding that joy and grief come and go, divide each day in your life into periods designated as being marked by happiness or unhappiness, and then observe materiality that arises in those periods. This exercise highlights the profus
ion of mind-produced materialities that occur with emotional states, but please discern all materialities, including those that are kamma-produced, nutriment-produced, temperature-produced, and mind-produced. Contemplate the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and not-self characteristics of all the material phenomena that arise in association with joy and grief. Discern, analyze, and contemplate rūpas occurring in each period internally and externally.

  Then you may notice your mood as you experience daily life. Although nonmeditators may say, “I have been angry all day long,” or “I have been grieving continuously since my mother died last year,” when you look closely at the mind you will discover that every mood, feeling, emotion, and mental state arises and perishes as a sequence of subtle momentary events. Even the materiality that is associated with joy and grief changes constantly through arising, standing, and perishing phases. It is impossible for sadness to endure or anger to last. One event arises and perishes, and it is followed by another event that arises and perishes, and then another, and so on. Although nonmeditators might take their moods personally, by contemplating moods in the refined structure of formal meditation, and applying that understanding to the intricate dynamics of daily encounters, you will find nothing but fleeting events that are dependent upon ephemeral material formations; nothing is there to build a personal identity upon.

  Exercise 7. Highlighting Natural Materiality290