..續本文上一頁bhumi: the level of sensuality.

　　2. Rupavacara-bhumi: the level of form.

　　3. Arupavacara-bhumi: the level of formlessness.

　　4. Lokuttara-bhumi: the transcendent level.

　　1. The level of sensuality: A mental state arises and connects with a wholesome object — any sight, sound, smell, taste, tactile sensation or idea that can form the basis for skillful mental states. When it meets with its object, it becomes happy, joyful, and glad. (Here we”re referring only to those sensory objects that are good for the mind.) If you were to refer to the Heavens of Sensual Bliss as they appear within each of us, the list would run as follows: Sights that can form the basis for skillful mental states are one level, sounds are another, and same with smells, tastes, tactile sensations and ideas. Together they form the six levels of heaven on the sensual level.

　　2. The level of form: A mental state arises from thinking about (vitakka) a physical object that serves as the theme of one”s meditation; and then analyzing (vicara) the object into its various aspects, at the same time making sure that the mind doesn”t slip away from the object (ekaggatarammana). When the mind and its object are one in this way, the object becomes light. The mind is unburdened and can relax its sense of concern. Rapture (piti) and ease (sukha) arise as a result. When these five factors appear in the mind, it has entered the first jhana — the beginning stage in the level of form.

　　3. The level of formlessness: The mind lets go of its physical object on the level of form, but is still attached to a very subtle mental notion — the jhana of unbounded space, for instance, in which you are focused on a sense of emptiness and awareness with no physical object or image passing into your field of attention, so that you are unable to know its full range. What has actually happened is that you have curled up and are hiding inside. This isn”t the kind of ”going in to know” that comes from finishing your work. It”s the ”going in to know” that comes from wanting to run away. You”ve seen the faults of what arises outside you, but haven”t seen that they really lie buried within you — so you”ve hidden inside by limiting the field of your attention.

　　Some people, when they reach this point, believe that they have done away with defilement, because they mistake the emptiness for nibbana. Actually, it”s only the first stage in the level of formlessness, and so is still on the mundane level.

　　If you seriously want to know whether your mind is on the mundane or the transcendent level, then observe it when you turn your awareness inward and make it still — when you feel a sense of peace and ease that seems to have no defilements adulterating it at all. Let go of that mental state, to see how it behaves on its own. If defilements can reappear, you”re still on the mundane level. Sometimes that mental state remains unchanged through the power of your own efforts, but after a while you become unsure of your knowledge. Your mind has to keep fondling, i.e., making a running commentary on it. When this is the case, don”t go believing that your knowledge is in any way true.

　　There are many, many kinds of knowledge: The intellect knows, the heart knows, the mind knows, consciousness knows, discernment knows, alertness knows, awareness knows, unawareness knows. All these modes are based on knowledge; they differ simply in how they know. If you aren”t able to distinguish clearly among the different modes of knowing, knowing can become confused — and so you might take wrong knowing to be right knowing, or unawareness to be awareness, or knowledge attached to suppositions (sammuti) to be freedom from suppositions (vimutti). Thus you should experiment and examine things carefully from all angles so that you can…

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