An Example of developing the Spiritual Faculties

Then, we of course also want to use the Abhidhamma system to develop our spiritual powers. There are countless ways to apply it in developing spiritual capabilities, and a true meditator will ever be on the lookout for opportunities of doing that. The following example, though it may seem a bit drawn out, illustrates how the knowledge of the Abhidhamma can guide you through meditation long enough for truly special things to occur.

For example, you hear music being played somewhere, and, being accustomed to meditating on the four elements*, you try to you try to understand the music in terms of them.

You hear the soft, dreamy notes of a piano, flowing like the slow, clear waters of a brook. As you follow its flow, you notice how it sometimes widens, sometimes narrows. Occasionally, it churns in a pool before continuing in a definite direction. As you keep following, bright notes emerge like glittering beams of sunlight refracting on the surface of the steadily flowing brook..

Suddenly, a thunderous sound grabs your attention—a deep bass instrument enters, bringing in the earth element just when you were wondering where it might be. Yet you comprehend it as a water-suffused earth element, combining both heaviness and depth.

More and more of that comes in —a drum, a bass— earth with more water, earth with more wind. You see how things blend together, and you realise how your understanding gradually deepens allowing you to know more than just one element at a time.

Slowly the thunderous sounds pass, and you again perceive notes of brightness. A gentle wind’s blowing speeds up the flow of your perception. You see how the wind element and the water element merge softly. Above them, the brightness of fire begins to shimmer. And as your mind sharpens to such a heightened state of comprehension, you see, in the light of those bright notes glittering harmoniously, the appearance of a dancing fairy, playfully moving in rhythm with the song.

Gradually you come to understand, that that artist having so perfectly harmonised his notes, has actually created a new life—a being with its own definite powers and individuality. And you also realise that this life-form has a kind of mind, a mind breathed into it by the creator of the music.

Your comprehension of what is called “life” deepens further, as you see how this life-form can move people, even enter into people. It can uplift the depressed, calm the hectic, deepen the superficial, but also, at times, dominate the weak or distract those who seek to concentrate their minds.

Remembering your list of emotions, you try to estimate its primary character, after which you continue your observation.

Recalling your knowledge of emotions, you try to identify the primary character of this new life-form before continuing your observation. As you watch the music flow, sparkle, and foam, you gradually perceive not just one, but many fairies dancing. You come to understand that life does not necessarily require a single form or base. It can consist of many centres of activity, playing together to form a larger organism—an entity providing a collective mind for all involved.

Little by little, you gain insight into the lives of beings that seem very different from anything you have known before. You continue observing, aided by your faculty of knowledge and intuition—guiding lights that help you maintain discernment. With their help, you study the strengths and limitations of entities whose growth or decline depends on how they are received by others.

The more you observe, the more you perceive the infinite variety of lives filling the cosmos—some brief, some long-lasting, some beneficial, some harmful. You sense beings revolving around veins, wires, and even ecosystems in nature, or around processes that destroy those ecosystems.

And as you reflect on these perceptions, you realise that the beings you encounter can be as complex and varied as music itself. Furthermore, you realise that you yourself can be as complex and varied as music, and that whether music or these other beings, all are actually reflections of the infinite varieties of the mind. Going deeper into this, you remember moments when you were like a song – full of joy, bravery, love or enthusiasm, contrasting sharply with the limited material creature you are when you are caught up in sense impressions or petty fears.

This insight then makes you realise more than ever the importance of turning away from both identification with and involvement in fleeting external forms and material things, and the need to continually attune yourself to the higher aspects of existence. This you realise is not just a more beautiful way of living, but also an obligation to life itself.

* Note: I chose the example of music to have an example for developing the faculties which is distinctly different from the sense of bodily feelings, which will be used by most meditators for developing their faculties. I believe, a good meditator, will have no difficulties to translate this example into the sphere of the experiences of meditation centering around bodily feelings. 

Apart from that, I would recommend anyone who really is determined to get somewhere with the element meditation, to also try to use (or harmonise) more than one sense-organ, for example the body and sound or sight and sound.