Inner Strength - Access to Insight

eath means to use whichever feeling is most predominant, as when you feelvery relaxed, very empty, or very comfortable. If there’s a feeling of motion,don’t use it. Use just the feelings of emptiness, relaxation, or lightness. To usethem means to expand their range so that you feel empty in every part of thebody. This is called having a sense of how to make use of the feelings youalready have. But in using these feelings, you have to be completely mindful andalert. Otherwise, when you start feeling empty or light, you might go thinkingthat your body has disappeared.In letting these sensations expand, you can let them spread either one at atime or all together at once. The important point is that you keep them balancedand that you focus on the whole body all at once as the single object of yourawareness. This is called ek›yana-magga, the direct path. If you can master this, it’slike having a white cloth that you can either keep hidden in your fist or spreadout for two meters. Your body, although it may weigh 50 kilograms, may feel aslight as a single kilogram. This is called mah›-satipa˛˛h›na—the great frame ofreference.When mindfulness saturates the body the way flame saturates every thread inthe mantle of a Coleman lantern, the elements throughout the body worktogether like a group of people working together on a job: Each person helps alittle here and there, and in no time at all, almost effortlessly, the job is done. Justas the mantle of a Coleman lantern whose every thread is soaked in flamebecomes light, brilliant, and white, in the same way if you soak your mind inmindfulness and alertness so that it’s conscious of the entire body, both body andmind will become buoyant. When you think using the power of mindfulness,your sense of the body will immediately become thoroughly bright, helping todevelop both body and mind. You’ll be able to sit or stand for long periods oftime without feeling tired, to walk for great distances without getting fatigued,to go for unusually long periods of time on just a little food without gettinghungry, or to go without food and sleep altogether for several days runningwithout losing energy.As for the heart, it will become pure, open, and free from blemish. The mindwill become bright, fearless, and strong. Saddh›-balaª: Your sense of convictionwill run like a car running without stop along the road. Viriya-balaª: Yourpersistence will accelerate and advance. Sati-balaª: Your mindfulness andalertness will be robust, capable of knowing both past and future. For instance,knowledge of past lives and knowledge of other beings’ death and rebirth: Thesetwo kinds of intuition are essentially forms of mindfulness. Once yourmindfulness is fully developed, it can give you knowledge of people’s pastactions and lives. Sam›dhi-balaª: Your concentration will become unwavering andstrong. No activity will be able to kill it. In other words, no matter what you’redoing—sitting, standing, talking, walking, whatever—as soon as you think ofpracticing concentration, your mind will immediately be centered. Wheneveryou want it, just think of it and you’ve got it. When your concentration is thisstrong, insight meditation is no problem. Paññ›-balaª: Your insight will be like adouble-edged sword. Your insight into what’s outside will be sharp; your insightinto what’s inside will be sharp.37