Teaching You Zazen 15: The Human Body and the Four Great Elements
2007/11/4 14:03:54
Modern people — aside from building a few atomic bombs for making human meat buns, producing some porn to stimulate the nighttime economy, hyping up GDP, engaging in rhetorical masturbation about globalization, and of course commuting nine-to-five, turning every possible place into a city in a feathery mess of triviality — what a brave new world indeed.
No matter how beautiful the world, your body is still a body, the human body is still a human body. At least until the game of collective karma makes it possible to custom-order bodies like parts and assemble them like machines, the human body remains the human body.
But the question is: if human bodies could someday be custom-ordered like parts and assembled like machines, would the human body cease to be a human body?
Obviously not. What we currently call the "human body" is merely born of collective karma and formed by karmic force. When karmic conditions change, the body naturally changes too.
It is foreseeable that in the near future, the human body will indeed be customizable like parts and assemblable like machines. Your brain could be transferred onto a pig's body, and pigs could offer their bodies for you to play Zhu Bajie for a while. Of course, there could be any combination beyond your current imagination — and don't think a human brain on a pig's body is unattractive. That's merely the prejudice of a pig's brain in a human body. Beauty is nothing but a collective karma thing. Someday, if anyone gets the chance to visit the hell realm, the animal realm, the asura realm, or similar places, they'll naturally develop the eyes to appreciate the aesthetics there.
Of course, whether you're fortunate enough to encounter such a world, or fortunate enough to wait for the trend of custom-ordering and machine-assembling human bodies to arrive, isn't really an important question. It merely demonstrates that all prejudices about the human body necessarily being as it currently appears are nonsensical — science itself will shatter them. And science is one of humanity's greatest collective karmas right now.
Of course, science is indeed an aid to zazen. You see — a pig's brain can be transplanted into your body. So if you think your current brain is "yours," that's merely a prejudice. In truth, which part of your body is actually you? Your body is only your body — it is not you. No matter how that body is assembled, it's all just a game. What does it have to do with you?
In your countless kalpas of transmigration through birth and death, you once had a demon's body, once had an asura's body, once had what people call a celestial being's body, and you even once had a body without a body. You have tossed and turned through endless possible bodies. Science's little tricks — what do they amount to? What you've experienced is far more spectacular than anything science could ever experience.
Note: bodies are not necessarily composed of the Four Great Elements. Beings in the formless realm have bodies that have nothing to do with the Four Greats. Certain concepts must be clarified here: "form" (rūpa) in Buddhism is not equivalent to "matter" in physics, though many people incorrectly explain it that way. "Matter" in physics is merely the coarse portion of the coarse portion of what Buddhism calls "form."
Of course, there's nothing wrong with physics studying matter — that too is a dharma gate. Buddhism does not negate any dharma, and naturally does not oppose any scientific research. It merely points out the boundaries of science.
Science is a method for studying the coarse portion of the coarse portion of what Buddhism calls form-dharmas, within the world created by our current collective karma.
Science has two boundaries: First, in worlds not born of our current collective karma, there may be no such thing as science, or even if something similar exists, its appearance may be completely different — anything is possible. Second, even within the world born of our current collective karma, science can only study the coarse portion of the coarse portion of form-dharmas.
Of course, since the realm of our six senses is temporarily bound by karmic conditions to one particular realm within the coarse portion of the coarse portion of form-dharmas — the realm called "humanity" — science is naturally useful to humans. It can certainly help humanity build a few atomic bombs for making human meat buns, produce some porn to develop the nighttime economy, hype up GDP, rhetorically masturbate about globalization, commute nine-to-five, and turn every possible place into a city in a feathery mess — scientifically creating a beautifully brave new world indeed.
Since no matter how science develops or how scientifically humanity evolves, it still cannot escape the scope of the Four Greats — and moreover, only the coarse portion of the coarse portion of the Four Greats — for human beings, understanding the relationship between the Four Greats and the human body is not an entirely pointless endeavor.
Nothing we see is conjured by a single Great alone. Note: "conjured" (幻成), not "composed." Do not think of the Four Greats as elements combined in fixed proportions to form different things. For instance, thinking that water is "composed of" Water-great means your brain has literally been waterlogged.
Of course, sometimes for the sake of ordinary language, one might say "composed," but that is not a precise expression. The more accurate expression is "conjured" — and this conjuring involves no fixed proportions whatsoever. Everything is related to collective karma. For example, the water we see now is conjured by the entanglement of all Four Greats, but one cannot say there is some fixed proportion inside it that makes it appear as water.
This water, in the eyes of a hungry ghost, might appear as fire. The reason humans see it with the appearance humans perceive as "water" is merely the flow of collective karma. Then humans take this flow of collective karma as something necessary and inevitable, and then further assume that Water-great looks like water — this is all topsy-turvy delusion.
Of course, within the collective karma reality of humans, the karmic force of Water-great is stronger in water. From this angle, we can say water is "biased toward Water-great." Because when explaining to people of insufficient intellect, to accommodate their need for concrete thinking, we can use water to explain issues about Water-great. Just as when teaching a child what "1" is, you can use the concrete examples of 1 apple or 1 pig — but a pig is not "1." Otherwise, you'd truly be a pig.
For convenience of explanation, whichever Great's karmic force has the strongest bias in something, we call it "biased toward" that Great. For example, in our current collective karma world: water is biased toward Water-great, fire is biased toward Fire-great, stone is biased toward Earth-great, and wind is biased toward Wind-great.
Note: this "bias" refers to karmic force, not proportion.
The Four Great Elements are essentially a form of karmic entanglement. Whether we want to accomplish something or destroy something, we must leverage the power of karmic force to regulate it. Zazen, during the body-adjustment stage, is essentially the regulation of these Four-Great karmic forces.
For our current human body form, from the perspective of the coarse portion of the coarse portion of the Four Greats: when your body becomes a corpse, the karmic force of Earth-great reaches the limit that the current human body form can bear. The action of Earth-great's karmic force on the human body is essentially the force that turns your body into a corpse. But at the same time, the karmic force of Earth-great is also the force that maintains the basic form of your body. Through birth, abiding, decay, and cessation, this force is always at work.
Going deeper, the human body is actually going through instantaneous birth and death. Don't think that death only happens when your body becomes a corpse. In truth, birth and death happen every moment. Earth-great's karmic force is entangling and continuing — every stage of humanity's birth, abiding, decay, and cessation is conjured by the entanglement and continuation of these instantaneous moments of birth and death.
From the perspective of the specific structure of the human body under our current collective karma, the feet are most susceptible to the pull of Earth-great's karmic force. Hence the old saying: "Aging begins with the feet" — there is truth in this. The abdomen is most susceptible to the pull of Fire-great's karmic force; the chest is most susceptible to the pull of Water-great's karmic force; and from the neck upward is most susceptible to the pull of Wind-great's karmic force.
Note: the above applies only under our current collective karma. In other worlds, there may not be such correspondences.
Even more importantly, some absurd teachings divide the human body into the Three Realms, claiming that certain parts correspond to certain realms, and similar nonsense. This is nothing more than the tedious, naive "unity of heaven and humanity" ideology from ancient China, attempting to infiltrate Buddhism and producing nothing but gibberish.
"Unity of heaven and humanity" is a garbage ideology. When you haven't even figured out what "heaven" and "humanity" are, what are you "unifying"? Moreover, there's an even more naive notion that celestial beings are somehow impressive. That comes from reading too many comic books. Celestial beings are just another type of sentient being. In your past lives, you've been a celestial being who knows how many times, and in the end you still ended up going through hells, human rebirths, and ghost realms again. Celestial beings — big deal.
As for Fire-great, Water-great, and Wind-great — if used well, they serve as elevating forces relative to the body's current state level. Of course, this elevation applies only to the desire-realm level of the human body. For beings of the form realm, these are forces of descent and destruction.
But if Fire-great, Water-great, and Wind-great's forces become excessive, the body will develop deviations. For example, with Fire-great, if handled improperly, it can trigger intense sexual desire, irritability and agitation, vomiting blood, or even hemorrhaging.
Among the Four Greats, Wind-great's force is the greatest. Therefore, using Wind-great to regulate Fire-great, Water-great, and Earth-great is a relatively safe and expedient approach.
Our breathing is connected to the most crude of the most crude portion of Wind-great. To understand the most refined structure of Wind-great's karmic force, one must reach beyond the Fourth Dhyāna. Therefore, from body adjustment to the Fourth Dhyāna, in a sense, is a complete investigation of Wind-great's karmic force — and of course, simultaneously investigating the other three Greats as well.
But even the most crude of the most crude portion of Wind-great is already extremely important for the desire-realm level of the human body. If you don't fully appreciate this importance, well — someday, after your last breath, you'll naturally understand.
At the human level, Wind-great's karmic force is in a state of equilibrium, unlike the three lower realms such as the hells, where Wind-great plays an entirely uncontrollable role. At the human level, Wind-great can be explored step by step starting from its most crude of the most crude portion. For beings higher than humans, they can only access the more subtle levels of Wind-great, which can actually cause them confusion and be unfavorable for cultivation. This partially explains why it is said that a human birth is rare and precious.
A human birth is rare and precious. To obtain this body yet fail to use it to see through this endless fog — that is truly the most pitiable thing.
Replies
缠中说禅 2007/11/5 15:05:33
See that? The top was made by this ID, the bottom was made by this ID — what cost can't be averaged down?
缠中说禅 2007/11/5 11:40:58
636 — how is this not a rebound?
Watch this ID pull a big move this afternoon!