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The Wheel of Analytical Meditation: The 5 Aggregates (Ch 1)

Introduction

This text is a method of investigating the characteristics of existence, based on what we call the five aggregates. According to Buddhism, the five aggregates are the way to classify all phenomena. The subject of the five aggregates is a very complex and extensive one, with lots of nomenclature, classifications and lists; so it can be a very elaborate teaching. But this text is a text of instructions for practice and not a theoretical teaching, and the best way of using these instructions is to practise them and not to theorize about them. You can talk a lot about this teaching and spend a long time studying, but this may not really change your life and it can even be quite boring. So we are going to treat the subject following the intention of Mipham Rinpoche, the author of this text, which is to try to realize the meaning of this teaching of the five skandhas.

Actually, the whole of Buddhism is intended for practice. The totality of the teachings given by the Buddha and all the great teachers after him are there to be practised in order to experience something. Experience is the purpose, and it is very important to know this. Buddhism is something that has to be experienced, not something just to be studied. We have to study it in order to know how to apply it and to gain the experience of it. If there is no experience, there is no Buddhism.

We can say that Buddhism is a religion, a philosophy, a way of life or any other name. And we can compare it with other religions and philosophies and say many things about it. But in any case, the main purpose of Buddhism is to experience something. When you experience what Buddhism tries to communicate, then no matter what people can say about Buddhism and how much they can theorize, it doesn't change your experience. You are the one who knows what Buddhism really is, because you are experiencing it. That is the essence of Buddhism, and that essence doesn't have any name or any title; you cannot call it anything. It is just something that is true, because you are experiencing it. All the teachings and schools of Buddhism have the purpose of leading to this experience and to its full realization.

What is this that we are supposed to experience? It is the same that the Buddha experienced. Buddhism started when Prince Gautama reached a level of experience and realization - which we can call enlightenment or the true nature of reality - and understood that it was the solution to all the problems, conflicts and sufferings; and he understood that everybody could experience it. Therefore, he started teaching the way to reach that realization so that everybody could attain the same.

This is the proper way of understanding what Buddhism really is. We don't need to play around with words too much nor have any doubts of whether these teachings are valid or not, are adequate to our times or are old fashioned, and things like that. Of course the way to talk about them can change according to different places and times, and can be modified. But in any case, their only purpose is to lead to that experience, which is a true experience that anybody can reach.

Of the two main types of Buddhist meditation - shamata and vipashyana, or shinay and lhaktong in Tibetan, this particular text belongs to the second type, vipashyana meditation. Shamata means to be in peace, and all the methods of shamata meditation help to pacify our minds and bodies and to reach a state of complete calm and peace. Vipashyana means insight or clear seeing. It means to have a clear vision of the nature of the universe and of the beings in it. To have a clear and correct perception of who we are, and of the true nature of things.

Normally the first type of meditation comes first, because it is considered that in order to be able to develop that clear vision of things, one needs to have a stable and tranquil state of mind. This implies that shamata meditation is just a means to lead the mind to the experience of vipashyana. A calm mind is not the goal in itself; the goal is vipashyana. Just to practise shamata, no matter how fantastic the experience of shamata may be, is not the final solution, because it is not lasting.

If one practises shamata properly, one can reach a deeply peaceful and joyful state of mind, and have a gratifying experience of ease and lightness, as if one was made of thistledown. Then, after the meditation session, one starts moving around, slowly, and tries to maintain that experience, but the world around functions at another pace, in a much faster and rougher way. People are running and shouting, and we think, "What are they doing? Why are they so busy? Why do they behave so carelessly? Don't they realize I am in this state? People should be more peaceful!" Then you have a problem, because there is so much contrast. You may think that Buddhism, or the path to enlightenment, consists in floating around like a cloud and you make a very strict distinction between what is spiritual and not spiritual. You think that the world is a 'non-spiritual' place and you feel you need to isolate yourself from the world in order to maintain your 'spirituality', that trance of peace.

Another problem with this idea is that if you think that shamata is the main thing and don't understand vipashyana, you may think that to be in a state of real meditation or correct practice means necessarily to be completely calm. Then, when the mind is not calm, you feel you are not practising correctly or that something is not going well. So, again you make a radical distinction between a peaceful and agitated state of mind, thinking that the first is good and the second is bad. You think you have to achieve the first and avoid the second. This way, you are fighting yourself. Practising meditation becomes a conflict. What tends to happen is that you can meditate only when you are alone in a quiet place; but when you interact with the world, you are not able to maintain the practice of meditation.

Vipashyana meditation consists of investigating reality in order to gain that clarity of vision and understanding we were talking about. After the Buddha was enlightened, he was enlightened all the time. The experience he gained was a continuous experience. This is the kind of experience that we have to try to achieve through the practice of vipashyana. We can call that clear understanding 'wisdom'. Wisdom is the experience we are talking about and is the only purpose of all the Buddhist teachings.

This wisdom receives many different names, but its main characteristic is that it is indescribable, inconceivable. This means that even though we can say many things about it, they are not it, because it cannot be described. It is something that can only be experienced. Not even the Buddha could explain it, so that one could listen to him and understand it. No matter how enlightened a person may be, there is no way he or she could communicate to anybody what it is to be enlightened. All the different methods, practices and teachings are oriented to realize this one thing; and this thing is unspeakable!

It is important to reflect on this; it can be revealing and help us understand what it means to be a Buddhist. Buddhism is such a complex collection of methods, and sometimes people may have doubts about those methods because they may seem to be contradictory, and because there are so many and so varied. They may seem strange, alien to our normal daily lives, and one may feel confused or disoriented about the meaning of all this. But if we know this essential purpose of all Buddhist practices - that is, this one experience that is there, waiting for us - then we know where the path is; and when we experience that, we will understand all those different teachings and methods. That gives us a lot of confidence and reassurance about Buddhism, because it is something we experience; we know it is a truth. And a truth is just a truth; it is not even a 'Buddhist' truth.

An example of this could be being in love. Being in love is a very personal and real experience, but there is no way one can explain it to others. We cannot experience being in love just because another person tells us what it is like. It is an indescribable experience. But it is a very real one; and when one is in love, one experiences the world in a very different way than usual. It is a very powerful experience. There may be lots of books about that experience; there may be debates about it; people can write novels and poems and songs to try to express it; and there may be philosophers trying to discover what love is. But none of these words and ideas is being in love. However, when one has the real experience, it is there, even though one can't communicate it to others. You know what it is, you don't need to go to the library and read books to find out whether what you experience is being in love or not. In fact, you will probably find all these speculations boring and meaningless. The experience that is the goal of the Buddhist path is similar to this.

Actually this is a good example, because being in love is a way of seeing the world, and it also affects very much your way of acting. People notice that something has changed in you. The same will happen when one experiences the essence of Buddhism.

In Mahayana it is said that the Buddhist path can be summed up in two ways: wisdom and compassion. Wisdom we explained before. Compassion is the way of relating to the world that comes automatically from wisdom. It doesn't exactly come from it; it is inseparable from it. When one has wisdom, one can't avoid having compassion too. You don't need to practise bodhicitta, because that is bodhicitta, "the enlightened mind which has compassion as its essence", as it is said in the teachings. Before we have that wisdom, we have to develop it, and we do it in two ways: through practising vipashyana meditation and through cultivating compassion. We cultivate compassion practising the six paramitas and so on: the path of bodhicitta. Compassion is something we can understand, somehow; but we still don't have wisdom, which comes at the end. Practising compassion is like behaving as if we were already enlightened. It is like trying to behave as if you were in love when you are still not in love. And when we have accustomed ourselves to be like this, finally the real experience can happen.

Another way of introducing shamata and vipashyana is saying that shamata develops from vipashyana. If one practises vipashyana, out of it shamata will appear. This is another approach to meditation. Therefore, we can consider that this text, which is basically a method of analysis, is also a way to develop shamata. For example, when we analyse the impermanence of the body as the object of meditation, we have to maintain the mind focused on it, attentively, and we have to develop stability in order not to forget our object of investigation. For some people this can be a more inspiring and effective way to develop shinay than, let's say, watching a pebble, because one needs to be fully awake in order to analyse things, and this prevents from the possibility of becoming too passive or dull.

In any case, it is important to practise some form of vipashyana and not just to sit still for a long time, like a statue. It is important to investigate the nature of reality, to question things. You are not a real Buddhist if you don't question everything. Buddhism is not a way to reach special states of mind or pleasant experiences. It is a way to discover the truth; and for that you have to analyse. In order to practise any method of vipashyana, one has to have this attitude of questioning things. In fact, this is often what brings people to Buddhism: when at a certain point in their lives they ask themselves "Who am I?" "What is the purpose of my life?"

This questioning attitude is very necessary. When you have this attitude, you are awake. And the whole idea of Buddhism is to wake up. To reach enlightenment means to fully wake up from the sleep of samsara. In order to wake up we have to want to wake up. And this is what bodhicitta means: a mind that aspires to be awake. But we need to know the right way to awakening, which is the practice of vipashyana. Vipashyana is the method to analyse things correctly and thoroughly in order to wake up. This is what this text is about. This is also what the first paragraph of the text talks about: "All the faults of existence are created by the power of the conflictive emotions in our mind. The cause of these conflictive emotions is an improper mental attitude. We have to replace it by a proper mental attitude". This proper mental attitude is wisdom, the right way of seeing things as they really are. When we don't have this, our way of perceiving reality and behaving is inadequate which gives rise to all the negative mental states of mind, which are the cause of all sufferings. Until we have that right perception of things, everything is wrong, because we don't see things as they are but in a confused, mistaken way.

The inadequate frame of mind mentioned in the first paragraph of the text is what in Buddhism we usually call 'ignorance' or 'confusion'. It means not seeing things as they are, but mistaking them for what they are not. As we have seen, the final purpose of all the Buddhist investigation is to see the true nature of everything, which can be called mahamudra, dzogchen, emptiness, buddha nature or many other names. But in order to understand this, it is absolutely necessary to train our mind for a very long time, because this confused way of seeing things is a deeply ingrained mental habit and it is not changed by just a momentary recognition of the nature of things. For that recognition to become a permanent experience in our minds that really takes the place of our wrong perception, it is necessary to dismantle very thoroughly and systematically all the previous confused ways of seeing. Otherwise, even if we have a glimpse of the true nature of mind through the practice of mahamudra, for example, we will still have a very strong tendency to see things in a confused way. Because of that, we may have lots of doubts about that glimpse. We will wonder again and again, "Is this really what I am supposed to meditate upon?" "Am I practising correctly?" "Shouldn't I practise something else?"

Many great teachers say that the more you do systematic study and investigation, the easier will be later to stabilize the proper recognition of the nature of things. Doing a thorough study of madhyamaka philosophy, for example, will be of great help to overcome doubts when you practise meditation, and to have certainty easily. It is important to start from the beginning and walk slowly, step by step. Like this, one will progress. In that sense, this text is very useful because it starts from the very beginning, and if you practise it, it will be very helpful as a preparation for mahamudra practice; it leads to a correct understanding of mahamudra.
The text itself

This text has three main parts:

The method of meditation.
The signs of progress in our minds.
The significance of this understanding.

Of these, we are going to examine only the first two.

In the commentary, Mipham Rinpoche says that, before starting a session of practice, one should reflect upon the preciousness of having a human existence and generate enthusiasm for the practice of meditation.
Then, one should visualise our Teacher, Buddha Shakyamuni, above one's head, surrounded by the hinayana and mahayana sangha and offer the 'seven branch prayer' and other prayers with deep devotion and longing, thinking: "Please, give me your blessing so that the stages of practice of this complete exercise of investigation arise in my mind and in the minds of all beings".
After that, generate the bodhicitta thinking: "For the benefit of all beings I have to reach complete enlightenment; for that, I am going to meditate on the different stages of the complete exercise of investigation".
After that, one starts applying the instructions.

The first part, the method of meditation, talks about the ignorant way of seeing reality, which according to this text, consists of four mistakes.

i) To take what is composite as non-composite

We take the phenomena that are made of many different parts as objects that are unitary or complete in themselves. For example, our body is composed of many elements and substances, but we don't see it like that; we consider it as one thing. Because of this, we have a superficial view of it; we don't see the totality of it, but just its outer appearance, and we believe that it is intrinsically desirable.

We also consider our mind as one thing; but actually it is composed of many factors: different ideas, ways of reacting, feelings, etc. And these are all the time changing. Yet we consider our mind, our personality, to be one. We are not fully aware of the multiplicity of our mind. In this way, we have a superficial and simplistic view of what we and other people are. Then, we become attached to this superficial view, and the notion we have of things is based on this superficial appearance that we take as the totality. We have a whole system of valuing things as desirable or undesirable according to that superficial understanding. This emotional involvement with things can lead to many mistakes, because it is based on an error. For example, we may defend very passionately some things and reject other things without seeing the totality of what they are; and we might be completely wrong.

'Composite' means not only that things are made of different elements, but also that they are a result of different causes and conditions: they are not always just one thing but depend on many previous and present causes and conditions. They are interconnected with many other things. An example of this mistake is that we consider the notions we have about things complete in themselves, and we are not aware that these notions are conditioned, dependent upon many different circumstances. That is why we get very attached to some ideas and reject others, because we take them very seriously, as if they existed independently from us, their creators, and from all the conditioning that led us to create them.

This attachment leads to tremendous mistakes. Just think, for example, of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages. It was based on attachment to ideas: whoever had a very different idea from the one that was considered acceptable was burned alive! This kind of grasping leads to fanaticism, to wars and to great sufferings.

ii) To take as permanent what is impermanent

It is the belief in the stability and durability of things. One aspect of impermanence is that we all have to die. Here, when we say that ignorance is taking as permanent what is impermanent, we don't mean that people don't know that they will die. Of course everybody knows that. But people don't live according to this truth. We expect not to die for a long time, and meanwhile we live as if death didn't exist. We plan our lives as if we were going to stay forever. So again, the way we lead our lives is based on a superficial appearance and not on a deep perception.

Another mistake related to this type of ignorance is not being aware of the impermanence of our ideas. Ideas are always changing, according to different people, cultures and circumstances. Ideas don't last forever. Our feelings are also very impermanent. Often we consider that our happiness and suffering are very real and we become obsessed by them and by their sources, as if they were going to last for a long time. This way, we think, for example, that some things are really worth getting, because they are really going to make us feel happy always. We develop rigid ideas about what is good and what is bad, and because of this, we become very attached to some things and reject others. Like this, we have a very strong emotional relationship with things because of not being fully aware of their impermanence.

If we are more aware of impermanence, we don't have such a strong involvement, because we know that things are not always the same; they change, they are not always good or always bad. It does not matter so much whether we get and achieve things or not. We become more flexible and adaptable.

iii) To take suffering as happiness

It means that basically we consider life, naturally, as something enjoyable, as a happy experience. Or we believe there must be a particular place or type of existence that is really enjoyable, without any faults. Of course we are aware of the existence of suffering, but still we thing that these sufferings, somehow, are temporary mistakes, and we can fix them up. We think that they are just annoying little obstacles that have slipped in but that are not part of the real nature of life. Life should be happy - we think - but from time to time these insidious setbacks happen. We spend so much energy trying to 'repair' life, fix everything up, trying to make everything go smoothly, as it should be. And we make so many efforts and use so many resources trying to remove these 'imperfections' that spoil our existence.
Here again we have a rigid view of happiness and suffering. We see good and bad as very real, and consider that what is good has to be protected and what is bad has to be eliminated. This leads to attachment and aversion, and that is the problem.

iv) To take as existent what is non-existent

In the context of these teachings, 'to exist' means to have inherent existence, which is to exist independently, unconditionally. The most important mistake in relation to this is that we take our own person as really existent: "I am". When we say "I am", we have a sort of instinctive and vague idea of what we mean. But it is really a very superficial notion. We have just an idea of who we are, or who other people are. We relate that sense of 'I' to a name, a profession, a nationality, a culture, a family, a set of believes -political, religious and so forth - a particular way of thinking and some likes and dislikes, and we take all these credentials together as one single thing that we call 'I'. In other words, our mind identifies itself with all those things as one single entity. Again, since we believe that this 'I' is real, we become attached to it and to its possessions, whether material or mental.

According to Buddhism these are only appearances; they are not the truth. Things are not unitary, independent phenomena; they are not permanent; they are not happy by nature and they don't have inherent existence by themselves. This is how things appear to be; but not the way things really are. This distinction between what really is and what seems to be is the fundamental principle upon which the Buddhist path rests. The purpose of vipashyana is to discriminate between these two, to see things as they are, so that our reactions to the world are healthy and not based upon a wrong assumption. When we see things as they really are, there is no ground for the negative emotions to root, and we find peace.

The more obsessed we are with these four views, the stronger is our madness and the more intense our suffering. When we have a wrong perception of things, life becomes very complicated, like a farce. We live as if we were actors who are supposed to play particular roles; we take these as true and try to live accordingly. But this is almost impossible, because it is not what we really are. It is just our idea of what we are. We have a concept of who we and other people are, as if we had attributed roles to people in a theatre play, and the problem is that we take these roles as if they were true. The result is as if we are mad.

This is what we usually call 'relative' or 'conventional' truth. Conventional means that we all agree about the way things are, and agree to relate to things according to that particular view of the world. That is, we agree about the play and about the roles we represent in it. This has its useful side, of course, which is that we can function in co-ordination. But if we take it as the ultimate truth and get involved with it as such, then we are as if insane, always in a state of anxiety, because we are all the time trying to live according to a false idea of ourselves and the world. It is impossible for us to be what we think we are; we can never fulfil our expectations about ourselves, about others or about the world. Things never fit completely with our ideas, because they are not as we think they are.

By practising vipashyana we are not trying to create a philosophy or a theory of the universe. We are not trying to fabricate anything, nor are we trying to destroy anything. For example, if we say that the self does not exist, we are not trying to eliminate our personality or anything like that. We are just trying to see things as they are, without mistake, and to be what we are. And we are trying to live according to this truth and not according to concepts that we or others may have about us. In other words, we are not forcing ourselves to be what we are not. It is important to keep this in mind.

Traditionally, this is explained through the example of mistaking a rope, in semi-darkness, for a snake. If that happened, we would react with fear and behave in a particular way, based on a wrong assumption. The practice of vipashyana is the method to see the rope clearly; seeing that, the perception of a snake automatically vanishes, together with the need of a wrong reaction.

The way of practising

We can distinguish three stages in the Buddhist meditation of vipashyana:

· Understanding the emptiness of the individual self
· Understanding the emptiness of phenomena
· Understanding the great emptiness, which means realizing the buddha nature or the real nature of one's mind

The meditations that are explained here are directly related to the first stage: they are meant to help us realize egolessness or the absence of a self. However, I will try to relate them also to the other two types of emptiness and present them from a Vajrayana perspective, so that you see where they lead to, within a broader context.

Each meditation is supposed to be practised at least for one week. The whole lot should cover three or four months of regular practice and the meaning of the totality should appear more clearly at the end.

In each of the four chapters you should examine reality according to the instructions. Once you have gained some understanding, stop examining; just rest your mind in that understanding, try to maintain it and gain stability. When you loose this stability, start again examining until you reach some understanding, and then rest your mind in it. The combination of these two approaches is the essence of this practice.

If you already have some experience of Shamatha, you probably have some stability, and that will help you. It is very good to have practised Shamatha before, but if you have not, this meditation in itself is Shamatha meditation: instead of looking at a statue of the Buddha or following the breath, you focus and concentrate on this mental examination.


I. The composite nature of phenomena

The way of analysing the composite nature of all phenomena is considering five groups of elements which compose the totality of our being and the whole of reality, according to Buddhism, and which we call the five aggregates (skandhas). These five can actually be reduced to two aspects:

What we consider external phenomena, the material world including our own body; this is called Form in Buddhism; and

All inner phenomena, which are of a mental nature. According to the Buddhist teachings, these consist of four main groups of factors: Feelings, Recognition, Mental formations and Consciousness.

To simplify, altogether these five are body and mind. We have a body and a mind that inhabits and governs the body. At the present, these two are together and that is why we are alive. When the mind and the body separate, what we call death takes place.

THE BODY

The First Aggregate: Form

A. Analysis of the composition of the body

Imagine in front of you the greatest object of attachment. Usually it is assumed in the texts that this object is the body of another person, probably of the opposite sex. It is considered that there is nothing in the world to which we are more attached. Sexual attachment is the prototype of attachment, because in it all five senses are fully involved and because through it people feel they can find the greatest possible pleasure in life.

I think it is interesting to reflect about this. It tells us that our main problem in life is the experience of separateness, what we call duality. Duality means living in a state of separation, and through different means we try to recover a state of union in which we don't experience this separation and loneliness. The highest form of an experience of union would be to feel one with the whole universe: there would be no fear, no conflicts, and no unhappiness. Unconsciously we all recognise that our main problem is duality, the fact of being separate from the rest of the world, and one way we try to remedy this is through sexual union.

But we need to examine whether this is really the way to reach a state of union, because all beings have been trying, since beginningless time, to achieve that state through the urge of sexual attraction, and they don't seem to have reached enlightenment yet. We have to analyse and see if it is worth putting so many expectations in that, and whether our behaviour is wise and beneficial or not. Nevertheless, I think we are even more attached to our own bodies. Attachment is in the mind, and there is nothing to which the mind is more attached than the body where it resides. So here we will start examining our own bodies first.

We usually consider the existence of our body as the first proof of existence of the 'I'. The mind identifies with the body to ascertain the evidence of being a self-entity. The body then becomes the main object of attachment. In fact, we have a distorted perception of our body: we either over or underestimate it. We have ideas of what our body should look like. The meditation we are going to practise is supposed to bring the body into the right perspective, and to show us what it really is.

The body corresponds partly to the aggregate of form. We start analysing the body by examining the different parts and substances that make it up: flesh, blood, bones, marrow, fat, organs and cavities; limbs and sense organs; faeces, urine, micro-organisms, hair, nails and so on. In that way, we try to be aware of the totality of our bodies, not only of the superficial appearance. In traditional texts there is a list of 36 different substances composing the body, some of which are mentioned in our text.

This is the first meditation exercise, and it can be done just like this, examining all these substances one after another. But if we like, we can also do it in a more systematic way that I am going to suggest.

First examine the surface of your body: the skin. For a few minutes, try to be aware of the skin all over the body, as if it were a wrapping material; something like a bag or a balloon.

Secondly, peel the skin off the body and examine the flesh. Forget about the skin, and concentrate watching the flesh and muscles. It's like in anatomy manuals: the first page gives us a view of the body from the outside; the following page shows us the body without the skin; in the next one we see the body without the muscles, and so on.

Then, mentally remove the flesh and examine the circulation of the blood. At each stage, focus on a particular system, forgetting all the previous elements. Visualise the heart beating, all the veins and arteries, and the blood constantly flowing through them. This is what is happening in our bodies right now.

The next step is to meditate on the nervous system, with the brain and the spine branching into all the nerves throughout the body, like a tree. Through these nerves all kinds of messages are constantly transmitted; it is very active.

Next, be aware of the digestive system, from the mouth to the anus, with all the different organs in between - oesophagus, stomach, kidneys, liver, intestines, etc.- and the substances in them. You can also think of the food you have eaten; analyse what happens to a piece of cake from the moment you put it in the mouth all the way through until it comes out at the other end.

Then, concentrate on the breathing system: trachea, lungs and the air going in and out and being transformed into energy that is distributed all over the body. You can also examine the lymphatic system.

The last stage is to concentrate on the skeleton. Feel your skeleton from the skull to the tip of your toes. Think of yourself as no more than a skeleton. Meditation on the skeleton is an important method of meditation in some Buddhist texts.

At every stage you can imagine that you take each part off the body and put it aside, so that at the end, after seeing the skeleton as a pile of bones, you have a big heap of substances. That is your body!

After this, you can go back to the beginning in reverse order and go again through all the stages, but in a much quicker sequence, in order to get a general view of the body.

The idea is to examine the body thoroughly, from top to bottom, from outside to inside, not leaving anything out. It is not a matter of thinking too much, or remembering the names and the functions of the organs as if you were studying anatomy; rather try to visualise, to place your attention on them without discursive thinking; try to watch it and feel it.

At each of these stages, watch your reactions. See whether you feel any sort of attachment or aversion to each particular aspect of your body or not. For example, examine the heart. Imagine it on its own, look at it and see if you feel attachment or aversion. I think we are all attached to our heart, because we need it to stay alive. But at the same time, if we could see it directly we would probably feel frightened. Some of us would probably faint! I thing we would feel frightened not only due to its unpleasant aspect, but because we depend so much on it and we don't control it. In fact, it is the heart that has the control over us! And it can stop any time… Anyway, I don't want to frighten you! But even though we cannot see it, it is there all the time.

If we were standing in front of a mirror and saw ourselves reflected as skeletons, wouldn't we probably be quite frightened too? However, we should be aware that the skeleton is there, within us, all the time, although we do not wish to identify with it. Our idea of what we are only matches a part of what we are, not the totality; but all these other things are there too. We have to be aware of their presence, so that we may no longer feel so much attracted to the body, with which we tend to identify as a whole.

Usually we are very attached to our body -and other people's bodies- and take so much care of it and worry so much about its outer appearance. But all these attachments are based on a superficial perception of the body. Now we are examining our feelings in relation to the body when we see it thoroughly. Our perception of our body and other people's bodies would already be quite different if we all went around naked, without all the coverings with which we manipulate our image. And it would be radically different if we walked around skinless!

Consider also all your activities related to accumulating for, and feeding your body, under the light of this new way of perceiving it. Through this practice, you gain a deeper understanding of the body; you feel that it is just a skeleton, wrapped with skin and filled with flesh and organs that have various functions.

Practise alternating between focusing on the respective organ at each stage and resting the mind, until you gain a clear understanding. When that happens, rest your mind on that certainty, on that new perception of what the body is, and maintain that understanding while it lasts. The key point is to rest in the recognition of the nature of our body and to realize that you have no attachment to any of the parts, substances and organs that constitute it.

After you have practised this exercise with your own body, you can meditate on the body of another person, especially one whom you find very attractive. Visualise it in front of you and start peeling layer after layer, to see what it really is, and to determine whether you feel any attachment to any particular part of it, separately.
Afterwards, you can apply this method of examination to any person who is an object of attachment, or to any object that triggers a very emotional reaction in you. For example, an object of jealousy or aversion: someone you hate or towards whom you have a very negative feeling, and so on. If you see that person in the way we have explained, you will come to realize that he or she is not something so 'definite'.

Apart from doing this practice regularly in meditation sessions, you should refresh and cultivate this understanding as often as possible. For instance, when you are walking in the street, you can try to see yourself and other people as skeletons filled with flesh and different organs. Not only people, but also the objects around us are made of various parts. Train in breaking up everything you see, the whole world.

B. Interdependence

Now analyse how the parts and organs of the body are all interrelated and dependent on each other, altogether making this 'universe' that is the body. At the same time, the body as a whole depends on the outer world: the parents, care from other people, food, water, air, a particular atmosphere, temperature and so forth, as well as clothes, shelter, different kinds of objects and so on. We don't really own our body; it is a product of the world, resultant from many factors. We just use it as a temporary home.

Analyse too how everything that makes up the human civilisation is a result of many past and present aspects, all interrelated. Everything we know, our education and culture, is the result of thousands of years of efforts and experiences of many people. Cultivate a feeling of appreciation and gratitude.

Finally, examine in the same way the totality of the outer world: the earth, the mountains, forests, trees and fruits, everything in nature and in the cosmic universe is interconnected and interdependent. Everything is part of everything, and so are we.

C. Finer Composition of the Body

Now we are going to disintegrate the body into its basic elements. According to Buddhism, all material phenomena are made up of four elements: earth, water, fire and air. Sometimes it is also considered that space is a fifth element. These are the fundamental qualities or functions of matter, rather than different types of matter. The body is made of solid substances, like flesh and bones (Earth); fluids and liquids, like blood and phlegm (Water); air and gas (Air); warmth (Fire); and holes and cavities (Space).

Earth also means the degree of hardness of material things, and is what provides the support upon which everything else can rest. Water means cohesion, the quality of matter to coalesce as a coherent mass; it also allows fluidity and flexibility. Fire means temperature, be it higher or lower. There is the natural warmth of the body and the warmth of digestion. It is what makes the body grow, mature, develop and age, and what softens it. Air means movement, or mobility, as well as expansion; it allows the body to stand up without falling. There is the out-going air and the in-going, and the movement of the blood and of the nervous impulses, as well as the breathing. Finally, space is also the volume that the body occupies.

Analyse your body and the bodies of others realising that they are nothing more than a combination of these five elements or functions, and watch whether you feel any attachment to these.

Observe too how the outer world is also composed of these four basic elements: solid matter, liquids, air and fire, besides space. Try to gain some certainty that your body is nothing more than the prolongation of the outer world and that we are part of the elements that make up the whole world. As before, rest your mind in this understanding.

The next stage is to realize that those elements are ultimately made of particles or atoms. Try to feel your own body as just a combination of particles and nothing else. It is like a sandcastle: it has the shape of a castle, but is actually made of grains of sand put together. Observe the outer world and realize that it is also made of particles. There is no essence anywhere in the material world. Like waves on the sea, physical phenomena appear to have different shapes, but ultimately, they are all part of a flowing ocean of elementary particles. They arise from the ocean, last for some time and dissolve back into the ocean at the end.

Actually, according to modern physics, the distance between the nucleus and the electrons of an atom is equivalent to the one between the planets and the sun, so that matter is really almost just space. At the same time, the 'solid' particles that make up the atom are made of smaller particles, which in the end seem to be just energy.

That is the way things are, according to modern science. Many millions of years ago what is now our planet and the solar system were just a cloud of gas and dust. The sun and the planets, the mountains and the oceans, the plants and the animals and our bodies have all taken shape from that original cloud. We all come from that gas and dust, and the whole solar system will, one day, return to a state of gas and dust. There are no physical phenomena that is not multiple and hollow. This exercise just makes us aware of what things really are. When you reach this understanding, rest your mind in it and feel the non-separateness of all physical phenomena including our bodies. Cultivate equanimity and non-attachment.

As before, in both stages, after analysing your own body you can analyse the bodies of other people in the same way, and all the material phenomena in the world. These two stages, elements and particles, constitute one session. Once again, try to maintain this understanding as often as you can. In any occasion, try to be aware of it and continuously break apart the solidity of what appears around you. It is just a matter of training the mind to see what is. It is not fabricating anything, but being aware of the true nature of things. It is a very simple, yet very effective and practical method. It is not only effective and useful during our lifetime, but it will also help us to be tolerant when we experience physical pain or sickness, and will help us at the time of death.

To conclude, consider, as the root text says that "that which we call 'the body' is nothing more than a collection of impure fragments; see it as a dirty machine, a heap of entrails, a pile of dirt or bubbling froth and keep in mind this meaning".

Some people might think we are denigrating the body but in fact we are just looking at things as they are. Before being able to perceive the purity of the body and see it as a deity, as it is taught in Vajrayana, we have to proceed from the ground level. This does not mean that we have to generate a feeling of revulsion. (Some people may even think that this examination can lead to a depressive or self-denigrating attitude!) The main point is to realize that there is nothing intrinsically attractive or desirable in the body. We are just trying to see the body in a more balanced way, without exaggerating some parts and ignoring others. There is no need to be so attached to our body and the bodies of other people. In fact, we can feel compassion as a result of this exercise. We can also gain an appreciation of our body and feel gratitude for the fact that each organ is functioning faithfully of its own accord and that the whole system is doing its work to keep us alive. In a way, we don't own the body. It is something that has been given to us, temporarily, and that is working for us. So, here we relate to our body more intimately, with more humility and respect, as well as with less emotional involvement.

THE MIND

The Second Aggregate: Feeling

We are going to see now what the mind is. According to Buddhism, what we call mind is not a permanent subject of thoughts and emotions, but a continuous stream of mental events. Each momentary mental event has two inseparable aspects: consciousness, which is one of the aggregates, and mental factors, which are the other three aggregates. 'Consciousness' means the bare cognition of an object; it cannot be differentiated by its own nature, but by the mental factors associated with it, which give it a particular character or colour.

Feelings are like a radar that evaluates our perceptions as pleasurable, painful or neutral. It is an automatic and instinctive reaction that gives us a first subjective assessment of the cognised information. Whatever we perceive through any of our five senses gives rise either to attraction, to repulsion or to indifference. It also applies to the mind: everything that happens in our mind, all our mental activities, gives us either a feeling of happiness, unhappiness, or neutrality. Therefore, we can have eighteen different types of feelings, three for each of our six faculties.

This is based on past conditionings and experiences, either from this life or from previous ones. Sometimes, obviously, it is useful: if we touch fire, the feeling of heat is automatically judged as painful, which lead us to the reaction of withdrawing the hand immediately. Thanks to this instinctive reaction, we are not burnt. If we have a feeling of hunger, we will automatically look for food, and that will keep us alive. These assessments are useful to maintain normal life.

But feelings can also be very mistaken. Most of the time, ignorance is at the root of the conditioning of feelings. We often judge things as good or bad in a wrong way. We may feel attracted to drugs because of the pleasurable feeling they first produce, but they are a cause of sufferings afterwards. Some people may think that hunting is pleasurable: one is close to nature, it is a healthy activity and one may experience what considers pleasant feelings; but one is actually creating a very bad karma that will be the cause of much suffering.

What is very important to notice is that these feelings of pleasure or pain tend to solidify our perception of reality. Things become more real when we experience particular feelings in connection with them. As long as we see something far away and it does not generate any particular kind of feeling in our mind, it is not very important for us. On the contrary, when something causes us to suffer or becomes an object of desire, it becomes very serious, very important, and very real for us. We have to realize that our feelings are not reliable; that they are multiple, very relative and changing all the time, and that, therefore, there is nothing real in them. This is the point we have to understand clearly. Feelings are very important part of our makeup because they are the first step of a complex chain reaction: they trigger the three poisons - attachment, aversion and stupidity - and are the starting point of karma production. Only watchful mindfulness deactivates them so that they cannot give rise to unhealthy responses. Therefore, it is very important to understand them and be aware of their nature.

Imagine that we go to a party. There are many people, music, food, and so forth. In such a situation, our five sense faculties are all functioning and we collect information through them. Through the eyes, we can see the place. The decoration may be very nice and give us a pleasant feeling. Or maybe it is too dark and makes us feel uneasy. At the same time, we have sensations through the ears. Soft, pleasant music can make us feel happy. Or maybe it is the kind of music we do not like, or it is playing too loud, and it gives us a headache. Maybe the music is pleasant but some people are talking too loud, preventing us from listening to the music, and we are annoyed. So we can see how we can experience different feelings even through the same sense faculty. Through the smell faculty, we may perceive pleasant smells, perfumes, incense or maybe there are too many people smoking and we feel uncomfortable. We can taste different kinds of food and drinks. Some may be delicious, giving us a good feeling, some absolutely disastrous giving us stomach ache. Through touch we may have a pleasant feeling of warmth; but after a while, it can become too hot, becoming unpleasant. Or maybe this pleasant food we ate in the beginning is now making us feel sick.

At the same time, we have feelings related to our mental activity too. We may have expectations or fears as to how the party is going to be. We may feel happy at the prospect of meeting someone. Or we may remember in the middle of the party that we will have to get up early the next day and work very hard, and this suddenly worries us. May be a person whom we consider a rival or very undesirable comes in, making us feel tense and angry. We continuously have all kinds of moods in our minds, changing as the day goes on. Now we feel happy for some reason; a second later some memory may trigger sudden sadness; a few moments afterwards another little experience makes us feel jealous. The mind is particularly volatile.

The conclusion is that our judgement of things as good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, is composed of various, very relative, impermanent and completely subjective impressions. These judgements have no intrinsic reality; they are not independent factors. Pleasure and pain, happiness and suffering, are not stable fixed realities. They are a changing mixture of different feelings, and they are dependent on different circumstances of the present moment and conditionings from the past. Besides, the same circumstances or objects don't produce always the same feelings.

Through this meditation we should realize that there is no need to let our lives be directed by feelings, as it often is. In a way, the entire world is moved by feelings. We tend to be fascinated by feelings, and our lives are fully conditioned by our likes and dislikes, always fighting between the good and the bad. This makes us unstable and vulnerable, unable to find deep peace. If we realize that they are not so consistent and 'real', we can learn not to be their slaves, not to depend so much on our feelings and moods. We can control our lives and find peace and freedom. Non-attachment is freedom. People are always talking about peace and do things "for world peace". But if we really want to have peace, inside us and outside, we need to gain this kind of control.

The practice consists in being mindfully aware of all the different feelings as they arise in your mind, recognising their composite nature and not identifying with them. Let every feeling go and let the next one come without attachment. In this way, do not let feelings lead to inadequate reactions.

The Third Aggregate: Recognition

The next step in the 'chain reaction' is what we can call recognition, discernment or perception. This is also something that happens in a flash. After contacting a sensory object, we automatically recognise the object at the origin of the perception. It is the act of interpreting what consciousness recognises, which also means labelling what we perceive, giving names. We do this interpretation according to the signs we recognise; and that recognition is based on karma, previous experiences, memory and acquired knowledge, through which we identify what we perceive. Another function of this aggregate is to 'mark' things mentally in order to identify them in the future. In this way, we accumulate data about things stored in the mind, and this enables us to recognise things later. Every time our consciousness cognises anything, this function of the mind checks all the information stored underground, let's say, and identifies what is cognised, what its characteristics are, what it is for, and so on. Often, this recognition is what gives rise to a particular type of feeling; depending on what kind of interpretation we do of the object, we will feel it as pleasant or unpleasant.

We can see that this process of identification is very arbitrary, because it is based on conventions. It is based on our personal experience, as well as on our particular culture and education, and on the fact of being human beings. It is an interpretation of the world, dependent on causes and conditions. Like feelings, it is also a very important function, because the way we relate to the world depends very much on the notions we have about things, about what they are and what they are for. It is an interpretation of reality that is constantly going on in our minds, and on the basis of this interpretation we behave in one way or another and relate to the world. Therefore, this aggregate is a key factor in our lives.

Here, to perceive its composite nature is to be aware of the dependence of this aggregate of recognition on so many other factors. If we are aware of this, we know that we can't assume our particular interpretation to be the correct and only valid one. We can't take this as the way things really are. It is just an interpretation. If we are not aware of this, we get attached to our perceptions thinking that they really exist the way we perceive them.

Of course recognition is useful, in general, because we live in a society that is based on conventions, about which we all agree; and this helps us to share the same environment and to communicate. But sometimes this recognition is a problem, because we mistake things; we interpret them wrongly. Due to these wrong assumptions and misinterpretations there are conflicts. It is like misinterpreting a scarecrow for a human being. When we automatically classify things, we do not have a fresh perception of them. Ignorance blocks the wisdom of our mind. This labelling of things is a source of prejudices. We classify people and things, and link them to particular feelings and reactions. And we cannot be natural and open because of our prejudices.

All the preconceptions we have about things and about people are part of this aggregate. Not being aware that our preconceived ideas are a composite aggregate, we take them as valid or real. In other words, we think they are the truth, we have fixed ideas and often this makes us rigid, unable to be open and flexible, and to relate afresh to situations. The process of classifying generates hopes and fears. We either recognise things as liable to give us some kind of pleasure (which triggers hope), or as threatening (which triggers fear).

It is amazing how much we depend on this aggregate and how much it affects our lives. The way we humans live is so much conditioned by ideas! And yet, they are just ideas! Consider, for example, the idea of beauty: how much it has changed along history. But we judge people, amongst other things, according to our idea of beauty, and our relationship with them depends very much on this judgement. We may have different attitudes toward 'handsome' or 'ugly' people. We also have strong attachment to some ideas - may be we could call them 'theories' -, and we defend them passionately, we make friends and enemies due to them, and we even fight and kill for them.

Recognition functions like advertisements: we believe in them and run after them. Samsara as a whole is like a massive advertisement. We let ourselves be fooled by it, and that is why we are in samsara. Samsara is just a concept, just an interpretation of reality; and it is like an advert because it is very beguiling by nature. We have faith in samsara.

It is important to be aware of this aggregate and its composite nature so that we can remain detached and open and we can perceive things in a fresh and pure way. If we remain ignorant and let our mind classify things automatically, putting labels on them, we will remain trapped in an illusory view of the world, based on our preconceived ideas. On the other hand, if we let our perceptions flow without attachment, the world can be bright and surprising: like children, with a more open attitude we may discover qualities in people and in things that we had not recognised before.

The Fourth Aggregate: Mental formations

This aggregate consists of all the mental functions and activities, including feelings and recognition, which are about fifty-one, according to some classifications. But those two are so important that they are treated separately. So in this aggregate are included all the rest. They are the basic functions of focusing on an object, paying attention to it, retaining or remembering it and so on, which lead to recognition of that object and to feelings; and they are also the different reactions of the mind developed from feelings and concepts, as well as thoughts and emotions, both virtuous and non-virtuous. These are the source of karma.

The most fundamental conflictive reactions are basic attraction, basic aversion, and some kind of uncertainty, of hesitation. From these, all kinds of other reactions evolve, like irritation, anger, covetousness, pride or jealousy; and from their absence derive detachment, openness, love, kindness, generosity and so forth. Finally there are other mental factors that are not necessarily positive or negative, like thinking or sleeping.

Mental formations are what colour our consciousness and are inseparable from it. Together they are the mental events or states of mind that take place moment after moment. All these states of mind are also conditioned by the past - previous habits, thoughts, memories - and they condition the future. T here is a multiplicity of activities in the mind. The mind is all the time busy, bubbling with all kinds of reactions: anger against one thing, desire for another, thoughts about this and that... As they are dependent and always changing we cannot consider them together as a unitary phenomenon. Our 'personality' is a multiplicity of fragments. This aggregate is what we generally talk about when we speak of meditation: thoughts and emotions, and the way to relate to them wisely, not letting our minds be carried away by them.

The practice here consists of mindfully noting the presence of any mental factors and, being aware of their multiple character, letting them come and go without attachment or discouragement, whether they are pure or impure. In this way, mental events gradually dissolve and the mind becomes more clear and alert.

The Fifth Aggregate: Consciousness

The fifth factor is consciousness. As we saw at the beginning, according to Buddhism what we call consciousness is not an independent entity, but an experience. If we are conscious of something, there is 'consciousness'. If we are not conscious of anything, there is no 'consciousness'. When we talk about visual consciousness, for example, it is a visual experience. And there are six different types of consciousness: we can be conscious of visual objects and also of hearing perceptions, odours, flavours, tactile perceptions and mental activity.

Visual consciousness is the bare cognition of visible objects. Hearing consciousness is the bare cognition of audible objects. Olfactory consciousness is the bare cognition of smells. Taste consciousness is the bare cognition of flavours. And mental consciousness is the bare cognition of mental formations.

Each one of these types is a completely different experience. Consider, for example, the visual and the hearing consciousnesses: the first is a universe of colours, shapes and shades of light; the second is a universe of sounds and vibrations. They are totally different. Imagine you could only perceive things through the visual faculty: your perception would be one-sided. If you could only smell them, your perception would be completely different. Some animals have their smell faculty more developed than vision. For an elephant, the world is a world of smells. They have another picture of reality. How must the world look like in the mind of a bat? However, bats and humans share the same world. Consciousness, therefore, is a composite phenomenon, but this does not mean that we have six different 'things' in our brain. It is one moment of awareness that has six different interrelated functions. Consciousness is something composite and multiple, and changing all the time. Even the intensity of a particular sense consciousness can vary from moment to moment.

The mind is not one thing because it is multiple, but it is not several things either. What mind actually is, is a little mysterious. We may find out through further practice. The five sensory consciousnesses are five very different types of experience and the sixth, mental consciousness, is also a different world. But somehow, that sixth consciousness processes and combines them all together and perceives this sextuple mosaic as a unitary reality. So the sixth consciousness is the one that co-ordinates everything and gives the sense that the five aggregates are a single entity.

Summary

To give an example of one way to understand the workings of the five aggregates, form can be compared to a room and consciousness to an ill person in it. Mental formations could be like someone giving us some bad food, as well as our attachment to food. Recognition is like the attractive appearance of the sauce covering the food, and feelings are the poisoned food itself that causes the illness.

Through the previous analyses we have realized that each one of us, and the whole of reality, is made of five different facets, and that each one of these five is at the same time a collection of many different fragments. We have deconstructed reality into its parts. The Buddha says that form is like froth: for example, like a mass of soap bubbles, it occupies a big volume but is hollow. Feelings are like water bubbles: they last only a moment. Recognition is like a mirage: it is a mistaken perception. Mental formations are like a plantain tree: they have no core. And consciousness is like an illusion: it is deceiving. Through the previous exercises we should try to generate a perception of things in this way, with full conviction that this is their true nature, and cultivate that understanding as much as we can. When we see things like this, we know that there is nothing particularly desirable in them, and we cultivate non-attachment. And we also know that, apart from the fragments, there is no essence in any of the five aggregates.

Apart from that, the five aggregates are all completely interdependent. In brief, body and mind, matter and mentality, depend on each other, like two sheaves of straw leaning on each other. They function together, like a puppet and the person moving the strings. They are completely different from each other like a drum and its sound; but mental processes occur due to the body and the body occurs due to the mind.

During the meditation we can train imagining one or many different objects and situations; but we have to carry this understanding into our daily activities. We can practise this understanding anywhere, at any time, in any circumstance. Perceptions through the five senses are always present; our mind is constantly the theatre of a multiplicity of reactions. Therefore, we have a constant opportunity to practise and maintain the awareness of the composite nature of things and their lack of essence. Try to keep the mind open and uninvolved: let things flow.

The Subjective Perception of Reality

We will deepen our analysis of the composite nature of things by approaching it from a different angle. Through the practice of the previous methods we have achieved some understanding of the fact that all objects we perceive are nothing more than an aggregation of various parts. Apart from the labels and names we put on them, they do not have any independent existence of their own. The same applies to our own bodies.

Now we will see how everything we experience is in fact a fabrication that we create through our own senses, perceptions and consciousnesses. The outer world cannot exist independently either; rather, it is a subjective experience. We might compare our body to a spacecraft equipped with five artefacts to measure what is outside: a video camera, a tape recorder, a 'smell recorder', a touching machine and a tasting machine. These five sensors function only when there is input, and store the different data in respective supports (our five sense consciousnesses). These are connected to a computer (our mental consciousness) that processes all these different data to give us a global picture of what is out there. We have a general picture of reality, but in fact, this picture is composed of different images and pieces of information. If any one of them were missing, then the general picture would be different.

For example, examine taste. If, due to a bad flu, the taste faculty is blocked, we cannot taste anything when we eat. Food and the organ of taste are present, but the taste faculty is not functioning; therefore, there is no taste consciousness. If one element is missing, the perception cannot take place. On the other hand, if our taste faculty is unimpaired but our mind is concentrating on something else (as when we eat while reading a newspaper), we may be chewing the most delicious food without being conscious of its taste.

For an experience to take place, three things are required: an object, a sense faculty and a sense consciousness. If one of these is missing, the experience does not happen. This is true for all the senses. Consider, for example, the visual faculty. If we are blind, no matter how beautiful or ugly the outer world may be, it makes no difference to us. We are not considering whether things exist or not. This is not the point here. The point is that nothing exists that can be called attractive, beautiful or ugly if we do not have the faculty to perceive it in the first place. Again, if we have the faculty to see, but we are thinking very much of something else, we do not notice what is in the scope of our vision, because our mental consciousness is occupied. It is the same for sounds. If we are deaf, there is no sound that is pleasant or irritating, and no word that is an insult or praise, because we do not perceive sound. Or we might be distracted and not notice a sound; therefore, it does not affect us. The same applies to odours or tactile perceptions.

If a volcano erupts in one of the moons of Jupiter and there is nobody present, does the volcano produce a sound or not? If there is a flower with a wonderful smell in the middle of the desert with nobody around, does the smell exist or not? The sound and the smell are experiences that happen in the hearing and smell faculties of a sentient being, and that are perceived by a consciousness. If these are not present, there might be waves and particles of pollen in the air, but no sound and no smell. In order for an experience to be an experience, there has to be someone who experiences it.

If reality is composite, then our experience is subjective. The whole universe we perceive is a subjective universe. It is something 'we' perceive, and we cannot say that because we perceive it in a particular way, it really is that way. If our 'spacecraft' were equipped with ten artefacts instead of five, if we could see X-rays or had a spectrograph, if we had clairvoyance, the faculty to hear very distant sounds or to see the past and the future, our picture of reality would be completely different. We cannot say that one vision is more real than the other. Every perception is a real experience, but that doesn't imply that the objects of those perceptions are also independently real.

Different types of animals have different degrees of sensitivity related to the different sensory consciousnesses, so that they have different ways of perceiving the world. That is why we cannot say that things are really, objectively, the way we perceive them.

When we say that everything is composite, we mean not only that everything is made of parts and particles, but also that all things depend on other things. In the case of the six consciousnesses, they depend on the six senses and the six objects for them to happen. Therefore, whatever is dependent on causes and conditions has no independent existence. At every given moment of experience there are eighteen different elements functioning in interdependence: six objects, six sense faculties and six consciousnesses.

Apart from this, the same object can produce simultaneously pleasurable impressions through one of the senses, and unpleasant impressions through another. A very attractive person may have an unpleasant high-pitched voice, or a very bad smell! Whether an object is desirable or not, does not depend on what it is in itself, but on how we perceive it.

To gain awareness of this, we can do the following meditation exercise. Put some desirable or attractive object in front of you. It may be a person, food, a landscape or any object. First concentrate on the visual perception of it: just look at it and be aware of its visible appearance. Then, try to be aware of the impressions that this object produces in your eyes: keep on looking but relax your sight a little and pay more attention to the impressions in the eye itself. After that, relax even more, turning your attention to the mental perception of the object, to the visual consciousness itself. Through this practice, you become aware of the three elements that function in correlation.

After this, focus on another faculty, like hearing. Listen to some music or any sound and concentrate on the sound itself. After that, relax, concentrating more on the impression in your ears; the sound is actually in your ears, not outside. After a few minutes, meditate on the consciousness of that sound.

Do the same with the three other senses. The first part of this meditation thus has fifteen stages, which can also be applied to one and the same object if it is able to produce sound, flavour and odour, apart from being visible and touchable. This is the first part of the exercise.

The second part is to observe and feel this multiplicity of aspects; to realize that every perception of an object or a situation is made of eighteen different elements, some of which may be pleasant, some unpleasant, some strong, and some weak. Also realize that your perception of the same object can be very different at different moments. Realize the relativity of your perceptions.

The third stage is to try to see the object as if it was a mirage or a reflection in a mirror. The visual image you perceive, is it an object 'out there', is it in your eye or is it in your mind? When you hear a sound, where is the sound exactly? Realize that whatever you perceive is actually a mental experience, composed of different elements. The mind processes all these and produces the impression of unity; yet, they are a multiplicity of factors at play. Rest your mind in that understanding.

The six types of phenomena appear to exist. But if we examine them carefully, we see that everything is composite and interdependent. None of the eighteen elements (objects, faculties and consciousnesses) has an inherent, independent existence. However, we cannot say that they are non-existent either. Rather, they are like mirages, echoes or reflections in the mind. Let them flow without grasping, without involvement: there is nothing to be attached to and nothing to be afraid of. Realize that they are not as real as they seem to be.

If we dream of a tiger and, in the dream, we are able to examine that appearance and see that it does not have inherent existence, there is no fear; it can't hurt us. But if we believe it is real, we will experience fear and pain. So the purpose of this exercise is to see things more like a dream and be less involved. Let the perceptions flow and rest in this perception of things as they are, completely relaxed. Remain equable (in relation to feelings), not conceptualising or labelling too much (in relation to recognition), peaceful and relaxed (in relation to mental formations) and without involvement (in relation to consciousness), like a small baby.

This state is the result of your previous examination; it is not a concept. You do not have to think "It is a mirage, it is a reflection"; just leave your mind relaxed and wide awake, and all you perceive through the senses is naturally seen as reflections, free from any grasping or concepts. When thoughts appear and you get distracted, analyse again until you develop that understanding and can let things flow. You can analyse one object after another, or you can also examine the whole of existence in this way.

It is also important to be aware, in relation to this aspect of interdependence or conditioning, of how from the contact produced by these three factors all the conflictive emotions arise. This helps us understand how to eliminate and prevent them from arising.

This exercise may seem a little difficult, but it is a way of training our mind to be aware of what is actually happening. Normally, we are unaware of this. Through this exercise, we train ourselves to perceive with more clarity. If you practise this for one or two weeks, it will become easier. These steps are necessary. If we do not train in this way, it is very difficult to realize that things are interdependent phenomena without self-essence.

The aim of these exercises is to understand the interdependence of all things, to see that they happen due to a multiplicity of factors. This means that the world we perceive is actually part of us. We carry our reality with us, all the time. This is what is meant by the concept of mandala. As you may know, in the Vajrayana one considers one's body as the body of the deity, and the environment, all outer phenomena, as the mandala of the deity. The deity is in the centre of the mandala, and the surrounding world is part of the deity. Centre and surroundings make a totality, and this is called a mandala.

Through these methods we will also gain some understanding of how we solidify reality and turn it into such a serious thing, whereas in the beginning, there is just a neutral perception of something. We touch something. Feelings make it a little more serious: "Oh, it is painful!" Then, we start thinking about it, and we get frightened; the picture becomes even more solid. We keep thinking about it: "Oh, how can I get rid of that pain? What if it gets worse? Why does all this happen?" By now it has become a real problem that can disturb us for many days. We just solidified things.

Persistent meditation on the composite, hollow nature of everything is like breaking things apart; like breaking the window glass into pieces. When we do that, then the window is open and we are free. That is what we should realize: that the window is open, already. If through this practice we learn how to remain detached from things as soon as they appear, then things will flow by and our mind will be free!