Looking at my human biology, I am interfacing with fifty trillion cells which I regard as, this is mine, this I am, this is my self. I have no way of knowing I am other than this conditioned body of trillions of cells. In other words, I am under the delusion that this cellular entity is really, really me. Everything about my 'cellular life' has, in fact, only served to reinforce the delusion of embodiment: this is mine, this I am, this is my self. I even laugh at the idea that I am really an immaterial energy system locked onto a biological system which during the body's terminal phase I will decouple from in what is called a manomayakaya.
And again, Udayin, a course has been pointed out by me for disciples, practicing which disciples of mine from this body (mentally) produce (another) body, having material shape, mind-made (manomaya), having all its major and minor parts, not deficient in any sense-organ" (M. ii. 17).
Reading more about the manomayakaya in the Lankavatara Sutra we find this:
Thatness, Emptiness, Reality-limit (bhuta-koti), Nirvana, Dharma Substrata (dharmadhatu) are like the multiple bodies made of spirit (manomaya-kaya)—these are taught as being synonymous. (Lankavatara Sagathakam, X: 289-90 [vv. 185, 190-93])
As we can see, we are fundamentally a spiritual body except that we have latched onto a cellular system at conception and in the process of biological growth and development, have lost almost all remembrance of our spiritual state. In this deluded condition we believe, as regards the cellular body, this is mine, this I am, this is my self. Tragically, s such a belief only sets up a kind of Darwinian system which is vicious, lethal and short term. Nothing higher can come out of such a system. Nor does such a system come close to matching the cooperative biological system of our fifty trillion cells.
In a higher, much more evolved world we would become aware of the spiritual body by which we couple with the biological body of birth and death. The fear of disease and death would be overcome which would mean the present human world as we know it would end like a bad dream. We would have much different powers and abilities when we take into consideration that our fifty trillion cells add up to seventy trillion volts, 1.4 volts per cell. Regrettably, we are a long way from this new human species. The good news, it is through Buddhism that we will reach it.
Comments