Knowledge of Comprehension

At this stage, when the meditator becomes more practiced, he perceives in every act of noticing that object appears suddenly and disappears instantly. His perception is so clear that he reflects thus: "All comes to an end; all disappears. Nothing is permanents; it is truly impermanent." His reflection is quite in line with what is stated in the Commentary to the Pali text: "All is impermanent in the sense of destruction, non-existence after having been."


He reflects further : "It is through ignorance that we enjoy life. But in truth there is nothing to enjoy. There is a continuous arising and disappearance by which we are harassed over and over. This is dreadful indeed. At any moment we may die and everything is sure to come to an end. This universal impermanence is truly frightful and terrible."  His reflection agrees with the commentarial statement: "What is impermanent is painful, painful in the sense of terror; painful because of oppression by rise and fall." Again, experiencing severe pain he reflects thus: "All is pain, all is bad." This reflection agrees with what the Commentary states: "He looks on pain as a barb; as a boil as a dart."


He further reflects: "This is a mass of suffering , suffering that is unavoidable.  Arising and disappearing, it is worthless. One cannot stop its process. It is beyond one's power. It takes its natural course." This reflection is quite in agreement with the Commentary: "What is painful has no self, no self in the sense of having no core, because there is no exercising of power over it." The meditator must notice all these reflections and go on contemplation as usual.


Having thus seen the three characteristics by direct experience, the meditator, by inference from the direct experience of the objects noticed, comprehends all the objects not yet noticed as being impermanent, subject to suffering, and without a self.


In respect of objects not personally experienced, he concludes: "They too are constituted in the same way: impermanent, painful, and without a self." This is an  inference from his present direct experience. Such a comprehension is not clear enough in the case of one with less intellectual capacity or limited knowledge who pays no attention to a reflection but simply goes on noticing objects. But such a comprehension occurs often to one who yields to reflection, which in some cases may occur at every act of noticing. Such excessive reflecting, however, is an impediment to the progress of insight. Even if no such reflections occurs at this stage, comprehension will nevertheless become increasingly clear at the higher stages.


Hence, no attention should be given to reflections. While giving more attention to the bare noticing of objects, the meditator must, however, also notice these reflections if they occur, but he should not dwell on them.

Knowledge by discerning conditionality (Conti. 2..)

After having reflected that the material processes and mental process being noticed are conditioned by the previous processes of the same nature, the meditator reflects further that body and mind in the former existences were conditioned by the proceding causes, that in the following existences body and mind will result from the same causes, and apart from this dual process there is no separate "being" or "person"; there are only causes and effects taking place. Such reflections must also be noticed and then contemplation should go on as usual. Such reflection will be many in the case of persons with a strong intellectual bent, fewer in the case of those with no such bent. Be that as it may,energetic noticing must be made of all these reflections. Noticing them will result in their reduction to a minimum, allowing insight to progress unimpeded by an excess of such reflections. It should be taken for granted that a minimum of reflections will suffice here.


When concentration is practiced in an intensive manner, the meditator may experience almost unbearable sensations, such as itching, aches, heat, dullness, and stiffness. If mindful noticing is stopped, such sensations will disappear. When noticing is resumed, they will reappear. Such sensations arise in consequence of the body's natural sensitivity and are not the symptoms of a disease. If they are noticed with energetic concentration they fade away gradually.


Again, the meditator sometimes sees images of all kinds as if seeing them with his own eyes; for the Buddha comes into the scene in glorious radiance; a procession of monks in the sky, pagodas (Dagobas) and images of the Buddha; meeting with beloved ones; trees or woods, hills or mountains, gardens, buildings; finding oneself face to face with bloated dead or skeletons; the destruction of buildings and dissolution of human bodies; swelling of one's body, covered with blood, falling into pieces and reduced to a mere skeleton; seeing in one's body the entrails and vital organs even germs; seeing the denizens of the hells and heavens, etc. These are nothing but creatures of one's imagination sharpened by intense concentration. They are similar to what one comes across in dreams. They are not to be welcomed and enjoyed, nor need one be afraid of them. These objects seen in the course of contemplation are not real: They are mere images or imaginations, whereas the mind sees those objects is a reality. But purely mental processes, unconnected with fivefold sense impressions, con not easily be noticed with sufficient clarity and detail. Hence principal attention should be given to sense objects with can be noticed easily, and to those mental processes which arise in connection with sense perceptions.


So whatever object appears, the meditator should notice it, saying mentally, e.g., "seeing" until  it disappears. It will either move away, fade away, or break asunder. At the outset , this will take several noticings, say about five to ten. But when insight develops, the object will disappear after the couple of noticings. However, if the meditator wishes to enjoy the sight, or to look closely into the matter, or gets scared of it, then it is likely to linger on. If the object is one induced deliberately, then through delight it will last a long time. So care must be taken not to think of or incline towards extraneous matters while one's concentration is good. If such thoughts come in, they must be instantly noticed and dispelled. In the case of some persons, if while contemplating as usual, they experience no extraordinary objects or feelings, they become lazy. They must notice this laziness thus: "lazy, lazy"  until they overcome it.


At this stage, whether or not the meditators come across extraordinary objects or feeling, they know clearly the initial, the intermediate, and the final phases of every noticing. At the beginning of the practice, while noticing one object, they had to switch onto a different object that arose, but they did not notice clearly the disappearance of the previous object. Now, only after cognizing the disappearance of an object, do they notice the new object that arises. Thus they have a clear knowledge of the initial, the intermediate, and the final phases of the object noticed.