Transcription
Just a couple of words before we start. Usually when we talk about mindfulness of the body, although quite a lot is said in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, in this tradition we tend to focus more on how the body feels, the sensations in the body, which is very important, very central, very grounding, and everything that we went into when we talked about that. But today I want to come from, as I said, a slightly different angle, and look more at the nature of the body itself: what actually is this body?
And, as always, asking a question like that, you cannot separate that from the nature of the mind that looks at it, and the nature of the way we are looking. We said, so importantly, how actually what practice is, what meditation is, is a kind of playing and experimenting with ways of looking that bring freedom. So that's also what we're going into today: the power of the mind, and the power of the ways that we look, and in this case, look at the body.
So if English is not your first language, and some of the words I'm using, the sort of biological words, anatomical words, you don't understand, it's actually not that important. You'll get the general sense of what we're doing, and you can kind of just improvise. It's very hard to get this wrong, so if you feel, in the middle of the meditation, that you're not getting it or something, that's -- what would we say -- it's a wrong view. It's hard to get it wrong. So just as I'm speaking in the guided meditation, just play, play with it in response to what you're hearing me saying. Improvise. Make it work for you. Okay? So feel free to find your way to make this work. You can't get it wrong.
One thing before we start. Do you remember we used, for those of you that were here, we used this word, citta? And we said it means a kind of 'mind/heart.' I'm going to use that word. I might say, "What's the response of the citta?", meaning what's the response, the emotional response? How is the heart centre seeing what's going on? But I'm using that word rather than 'heart,' because the other heart is the anatomical heart. Do you see what I mean? [laughs] Yeah? Okay. Okey-doke.
So let's settle into a meditation posture.
[2:51, guided meditation begins]
Finding your way into the body, into the felt sense of the body. Settling into that, grounding in that felt sense of the body, the experience of the body.
So helpful at the beginning of any practice to align the consciousness with a way of seeing practice as kindness. So whatever practice, whatever exploration or exercise, it's really just a gift of kindness, a manifestation of something lovely that we give to ourselves, for our well-being. Simply a gift of kindness. That is all that practice is, all that it can be, should be -- nothing else. And in giving ourselves kindness, we also give the world kindness. So that's what practice is, and you can come back to that sense, that perspective on practice, whenever you wish. Holding the whole meditation in that sense.
Sitting now in kindness, and inhabiting the field of experience of the body, the whole body. How does that feel, the whole body right now, sitting? The awareness expanding to fill the whole space of the body. And as we progress in the exploration of the body, seeing if it's possible to just lightly keep connected with that whole body sense, the whole body feeling, and also with the environment of kindness.
When you're ready, beginning to put the attention on the left thigh, the left upper leg. But not so much in terms of the sensation of how it feels there -- keeping open to the whole body feeling, but with the mind, with the inner sight, however that works for you, contemplating, considering, imagining this part of the body. Starting on the outside, perhaps with the body hair -- maybe a lot of it, maybe a really small, subtle amount of body hair on the skin. Seeing it, or somehow knowing it's there, getting a sense of it.
And the skin itself on the thigh, just knowing it. Let the mind somehow come into contact with that knowledge, with that seeing. Underneath the skin, the layer of fat. And the muscle in the thigh, bands and sheets, cords of muscle. Right down to the thigh bone in the middle of the leg. Just whatever helps you to get a sense, an image, a feel, a knowledge of this. Be playful. Make it work for you.
So an awareness of the thigh bone, and travelling down that bone with the mind, through the knee, and into the lower leg, and the bones there, within the muscle, within the fat, the skin. Following the bones down, down into the ankles, and the feet, full of various bones. And then the toenails. Can you get a sense, a vision, of your toenails -- what they look like, what they feel like, how they are?
Staying lightly connected to the whole body feeling, and open to, sensitive to, whatever the responses of the heart, the citta, are. Just noticing. They may be strong. They may be very subtle. But somehow open and connected to the heart, the citta, the emotional life.
And then the mind entering the right foot, aware of the nails, the bones, travelling up the leg, up the bones of the foot, the ankle, the lower leg. Arriving at the knee, the knee joint. Aware of the tendons and the ligaments that join bone to bone, and bone to muscle. Allowing softness into the seeing, into the citta. Perhaps it's possible to see this miracle with tenderness. Something touches the heart with awe, wonder. The cartilage at the ends of the bones, and the synovial fluid, the fluid in the joint, protecting, cushioning.
Further up into the thigh of the right leg. And then an awareness of the veins and arteries in the leg -- just that there are veins and arteries in the legs. And the blood that flows in the body, in this network of veins and arteries. Seeing that, knowing that, getting a feel for that. Again, letting the citta, letting the heart, its sensitivity, into the seeing, into the knowing.
A little further up the thigh, and the genitals. If you're a man, aware of the penis, and the scrotum, the testicles. If you're a woman, with the vagina, and the womb, the ovaries, the fallopian tubes. Just letting the citta know this body, what it is to be a body, to have a body, to be given this.
[18:53] Moving on, there's the bladder, and the urine in the bladder. The kidneys. You don't have to dwell too much on the function, or trying to remember or figure out what some body part does, but you can just vaguely be aware of it, if you like, or if it comes up. Be free, be playful.
Up higher is the liver, the spleen, the pancreas. The heart, the organ of the heart. The lungs encased in their membrane, the pleura.
Gently in touch with the whole body, gently allowing the citta, the heart's response, responses, the fluidity of that.
Then the whole digestive tract, the stomach, the long small intestine, the large intestine. The partially digested food, the gorge, and the faeces in the lower intestine. The various juices, the bile, saliva, mucus in the throat and the membranes. Letting the heart, the citta, see all this -- its miracle, its wonder, its gift. The sweat that the body produces through the skin, the sweat glands.
Up into the head. The hair on the head, the facial hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes, and head hair. Get a feel for their quality, their physicality. They are more than just physical. The eyes. The fluid in the eyes, the aqueous and vitreous humours, the tears that can come from the eyes. The teeth in the mouth. Let the citta, let the heart see the teeth, know the teeth. And the skull. And the brain in the skull.
[26:56] The spinal cord, the nerves sheathed together, going down the spinal column, the vertebrae. And then actually this whole intricate network of nerves, their incredibly sensitive electrical messages running through the whole body. Get a sense of the whole body, and this network of neural pathways throughout, of nerves.
You may have come across the fact that the body is mostly water. Can you get a sense of the water element in the body, in the urine, the tears, the sweat, even in the blood? Can you get a sense how that's not really different than the water element outside the body, the rain, the rivers, the puddles? This body shares the water element. Inner and outer, not separate. Water inside, water outside.
And likewise with the air element. The air that we breathe, outside in, inside out. Continually exchanging inner and outer. Where is the boundary here, between this and that, and between me and the world, this body and this earth?
And the fire element, the element of heat, of warmth, within the body. Can you get a feel for that right now? The warmth in the body, the heat element, the fire element. Again, this body radiates that out and takes it in -- the cold, the heat, the warmth. Completely porous, this exchange. Is there really a separation? Is there really a place where I begin or where I am not? Opening up the seeing, opening up the vision, the way of looking.
The earth element, the element of solidity, solidity taking shape, the shape of this body. No different than solidity taking shape in the earth. Mountains and hills, canyons, valleys, trees. The earth element taking shape. Tables and chairs, solidity. These atoms that make up the molecules in our body, and these different atomic elements, all the elements that we share were born from the same explosion of a star, a massive star, a supernova, billions of years ago. It gave birth to all the complex elements that now make up our body, the bones, the membranes. All this atomic structure, its elements born all together in a solar explosion far away, now here, now us, now me, and you, and everyone.
Yet if we look closer still, subatomically, it's mostly space. This body, this solidity here, is mostly space, mostly nothing. The space between the atomic nucleus and the electron -- vast, vast. Even then, something massive, something solid, cannot really be found. It's unclear still what 'mass' is. It's actually a kind of energy. This is what we are. This is what this body is, this solidity is. Can you play with this now, get a sense of it?
We never see any substance, physicists never see any substance, at a particle level -- just a dynamic dance of energy, appearing, disappearing. A miracle of appearance and disappearance. We can't say a particle is this or that, a wave or a mass. We can't say that. Apparently there are just probabilities, tendencies to appear this way or that way, tendencies to manifest. What seems solid dissolves into patterns of probabilities -- not even of things, but of events, of relationships, interconnections. Steeper and deeper into mystery, into non-thingness, no-thingness.
[40:15] At the particle level, a thing, an event, only appears when we observe it, and dependent on how we observe it. Somehow consciousness is involved, even in how space and time appear. Profound mystery. Nothing separate from anything else. Nothing separate from the mind that sees it, that observes it, from the way of looking at it.
When you're ready, returning to the sense of the bones, the skeleton, the structure -- the hardness of that, the image, the knowledge of that. The veins, the arteries, connecting through the body, and this network of nerves. Can you feel the whole body sitting now, the whole space, how it feels, the space of the body? Can you feel stillness in the body, in the space of the body right now? Stillness pervading, or in areas.
So this last bit is optional, just if you feel okay with it. If not, then just abiding in the stillness of the whole body, or with whatever moves you to be with. If you like, from this body, this body of bone and nerve and tissue, the Buddha says, "like taking a sword out of its scabbard,"[1] out of its sheath, or taking a reed from its sheath, or just like unzipping a dress, just playing with it, unzipping this body of solidity. And from within, drawing out, letting emerge, a body of white, radiant, luminous light, shaped like the physical body. Draw it out. Let it float out, even. This radiant body, just let it mimic your posture right now, however you're sitting -- perhaps opposite you, or next to you.
And then maybe this radiant, mind-made body wants to float upwards. See if you can sense that, imagine that, feel that. How does it feel? It's like you're feeling the experience of this radiant body floating upwards. Luminous, and light, and weightless, translucent. Perhaps this radiant body slowly begins to turn or to somersault backwards, to arc backwards in the air, floating in the air. Enjoy its freedom of movement, its unimpeded nature. Play with this, if it feels okay.
How does it feel? Or it can float on its back in the air, maybe float right up to the ceiling. Maybe walk upside down on the ceiling. Maybe it likes to fly around the room, and swoop, and turn. Radiant and free. Feeling that freedom in the body, enjoying that unrestrictedness, that lightness in the body. Unimpeded by solidity, it could pass through the windows or the walls, and out to float or fly in the garden. Feeling this in the body, in the kinaesthetic sense, as well as the image-sense.
Whenever you feel ready, returning this luminous mind-made body to the physical body, integrating the mindfulness into the physical body sitting here now, and how that feels, the whole body sitting in stillness and awareness, grounded, centred, unified. Once again, connecting with yourself, with the body, with kindness, in kindness, in the view of kindness, of care.
[54:30, guided meditation ends]
MN 77. ↩︎
