Page 113 - Dhamma Practice

sense? This is very refined and our awareness must be in the present. If the chewing impacts our mind, if it impacts our sense, once it impacts, does it cease? What happens after it ceases? How is the new mind that emerges? As we swallow, just follow the phenomenon of swallowing. Do we swallow into an empty space? Once it is gone, does the mind that experiences also ceases? This is the way to contemplate minor bodily movements in an unusual way, in a refined way.
If we want our awareness to have continuity, we would need to contemplate in this way. When the mind is placed within the phenomenon of chewing where the teeth impact each other and cease, then emerge again, observe one thing—when we chew, do we have a sense of self? Do we chew with or without the sense of self? Are we the experiencer of the chewing phenomenon—or is our awareness the experiencer? Chew, chew, chew, cease, cease, cease.
Now, observe further—when our awareness is in the present, does desire emerge? Does satisfaction or dissatisfaction emerge when we experience the emergence-cessation phenomenon of chewing? The mind that experiences without the feeling of self is called an equanimity mind—without gladness, without satisfaction, without refusal of natural conditions. This middle path (majjhima) is an Abyakata Dhamma. The mind is neutral, not swayed by the phenomena that emerge. The mind
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