Analytical Knowledge of the Body and Mind

[Ted]

Hello !

For some meditators 'direct knowledge' is understood as "knowledge by
direct experience" of the body and mind (nama-rupa) through
mindfulness observation of the rise and fall (samudaya-vaya) of the
bodily and mental processes.

An excerpt from the Progress of Insight- (Visuddhiñana-katha) By
Mahasi Sayadaw [Trans. from the Pali By Nyanaponika Thera] is given
below to illustrate the idea.
.......................................

1. Analytical Knowledge of Body and Mind Endowed with purification of
mind and continuing the practice of noticing, the meditator now comes
to know body-and-mind analytically as follows: "The rising (upward
movement) of the abdomen is one process; the falling (downward
movement) is another; sitting is another; touching is another," etc.
In this way, he comes to know how to distinguish each bodily process
that he notices. Further he realizes: "The knowing of the rising
movement is one process; the knowing of the falling movement is
another." In that way he comes to know each mental act of noticing.
Further he realizes: "The rising movement is one process; the knowing
of it is another. The falling movement is one process; the knowing of
it is another"; and so on. In that way he comes to know how to
distinguish each bodily and mental process. All that knowledge comes
from simply noticing, not from reasoning; that is to say, it is
knowledge by direct experience arrived at by the mere act of noticing,
and not knowledge derived from ratiocination. Thus, when seeing a
visual object with the eye, the meditator knows how to distinguish
each single factor involved: "The eye is one; the visual object is
another; seeing is another, and knowing it is another." The same
manner applies in the case of the other sense functions. For at the
time, in each act of noticing, the meditator comes to know
analytically the mental processes of noticing, and those of thinking
and reflecting, knowing them for himself through direct knowledge by
his experience thus: "They have the nature of going towards an object,
inclining towards an object, cognizing an object."
-----------------------------
Page 9

On the other hand, he knows analytically the material processes going
on in the whole body — which are here described as "the rising and
falling movements of the abdomen," "sitting," etc., knowing them thus:
"These have not the nature of going or inclining towards an object, or
of cognizing an object." Such knowing is called "knowing matter (or
the body) by its manifestation of non-determining." For it is said in
the Mula-Tika, the "Principal Sub-commentary" to the Abhidhamma
Vibhanga: "In other words, 'non-determining' (as in the passage
quoted) should be understood as having no faculty of cognizing an
object." Such knowledge as this, which analyzes in each act of
noticing both the bodily process noticed and the mental process
engaged in noticing, according to their true essential nature, is
called "analytical knowledge of body and mind." When that knowledge
has come to maturity, the meditator understands thus: "At the moment
of breathing in, there is just the rising movement of the abdomen and
the knowing of the movement, but there is no self besides; at the
moment of breathing out, there is just the falling movement of the
abdomen and the knowing of the movement, but there is no self
besides." Understanding it thus in these and other instances, he knows
and sees for himself by noticing thus: "There is here only that pair:
a material process as object, and a mental process of knowing it; and
it is to that pair alone that the terms of conventional usage 'being,'
'person' or 'soul,' 'I' or 'another,' 'man' or 'woman' refer. But
apart from that dual process there is no separate person or being, I
or another, man or woman."

This is called purification of view. [End of excerpt]


Best wishes.