The Conscious Experiences After the Perfuming of Manas

Question: As a disciple, I contemplate the body as suffering, empty, impermanent, and without self. Reflecting on myself and others—birth, aging, sickness, death, eating, drinking, excretion—I realize how little control we have. While walking, my contemplation isn't deep, but when I settle down to reflect, I feel a joyful sensation arising in my body and mind, as if entering a new world, as if my body and mind have stepped into another realm. I greatly enjoy this feeling. Is this sensation due to the mental faculty being influenced a little?

Answer: This is the factor of joy among the seven factors of enlightenment. It is indeed a positive sign during the process of being influenced by the Buddha Dharma. It is because the mental faculty is influenced that the factor of joy arises. With joy, one can persevere in long-term practice, after which the factor of tranquility will emerge. Genuine joy from the heart arises because the mental faculty is influenced, manifesting in the physical body and the conscious mind. It is through the influence on the mental faculty that various changes occur in body and mind, including sensations of suffering and happiness, as well as neutral sensations. Because the mental faculty gains new understanding and transforms its thoughts and views, it prompts changes in body and mind. By frequently contemplating and observing the selflessness of the five aggregates and other Buddhist principles, the transformations in the mental faculty, body, and mind will grow increasingly profound and numerous. Ultimately, through the accumulation of quantitative change, a qualitative transformation occurs—like being reborn, like a carp leaping through the dragon gate—transforming from an ordinary being into a sage.