There is no part of his body untouched by the white cloth

When in Buddhism we come to discuss or try to understand ultimate reality we have to keep in mind that it is not something mentally constructed or imagined.  We also have to keep in mind that mental constructions come in various grades from the coarse to the very fine and subtle.  This does not mean that seeing ultimate reality is not effective, that is, incapable of bringing about an effect.  It can and does.  Here, the Buddha is explaining to us what this effective experience is like.

Again, a monk who attains the fourth jhāna [dhyāna] has no suffering or happiness because happiness and suffering are eliminated and his former sorrow is eliminated. There is only equanimity which purifies mindfulness. The pure mind suffuses every part of his whole body, like a man whose head is covered by a white cloth. There is no part of his body untouched by the white cloth" (M. iii. 94).

If we had never seen fire before, going to a fire school we might see pictures of fires and set our mind to imagine being in one.  But the real fire comes from the striking of a match or seeing wood burn where we can feel the heat.  This is our tejo-samadhi!  Another example, it is like looking directly at the sun for an instant, only to have our vision changed by the sun's rays.  In this order, first comes the sun then the almost blinding effect. Seeing ultimate reality is somewhat the same.  First we get a glimpse of it, then we sense it producing its effect upon our psychophysical body in which no part of our body, including our thoughts, remains outside of its influence.

The big mistake Western Buddhists make is in believing there is no gnosis of a real unconditioned object (vastu).  There is.  And the result of yoking with it does produce an effect that we can sense, although we cannot be conscious of it in the way we are conscious of sensory objects.  Truth be told, during gnosis we meet our actual, primary nature, face to face, which is interfacing with the body but is not of it.  This interfacing has been the result of an attaching which is so deep that we are unable to distinguish our self (the animator) from the animated body.  This is a state of assimilation which is avidya or ignorance.  The more we desire/attach the more we assimilate so as to become like the conditioned body, never our self—always other.

With such a gnosis, we can reverse the process of assimilation/avidya.  It is like realizing: here is the unconditioned; here is the conditioned, this is my self; this is not my self.  This is also like the ocean: here is the water; here are the waves. The latter is the illusory expression of the former.

Comments

[smith]

hmm, yes but also the duality is NOT at that or in that place of gnosis. We also see that we are everything -including our body of which we identify/attach to, as well as the entirety of the material creation - and nothing at once. There is nothing but THAT which we are, and which all is. Which without there is no material reality or thing. Both within and without of space/time THAT which we are is. The one changing infinitely, the material, the other never changing, which creates the material, one and the same. gnosis of the truth. As far as our limited words can serve us.