Agony and Ecstasy

75
In the sphere of mental absorption a refinement can be observed
in the transition within the material spheres (rūpāvacara), where
application (vitakka-vicāra), interest (pīti) and satisfaction (sukha)
are gradually overcome to make room for one-pointedness (ekaggatā).
In the fading away of the material spheres, consciousness
dwells in the formless (arūpa) Realising the object of infinite space
to be a mere mental concept, the state of mind as infinite now becomes
the object of the second stage. But, in the awareness of the
nature the mind being a mental process without inherent or abiding
entity, this same infinity of space and thought is then seen ‘no-thing’
(akiñcana). Thus, not being anything, not be attached to anything,
and hence owning nothing, is the immediate fruit of this third stage
of abstract concentration.
Non-Perception
This sphere of the voidness, the no-thing-ness (akiñcana) of both
material space and its mental concept, has also to be abandoned
and completely by-passed in order to attain a still more subtle
sphere, Where perception itself becomes imperceptible (n’evasaññā-n’asaññāyatana),
the last step before the final attainment of
cessation of perception and feeling (saññā-vedayita-nirodha).
But, if mind cannot perceive, how can words explain? This is
indeed the silence of thought in which there can be direct communication.
The concept of perception, that is, the idea, the thought of perception,
is in a way not different from any other concept, however
abstract it may be. Thus the concept of space was derived first from
an observation of enclosed space, which on investigation proved to
be only a possibility for an object to occupy, or the unoccupied
room between some material objects, the space within the walls of a
room. Then, by removing the limitations, thought formed an idea of