Entering Ecstasy
(1) The first ecstasy:
with inquiry, inference, serenity, comfort, and stillness of mind.
(2) Then the second
ecstasy: with serenity, comfort, and stillness of mind.
(3) Then the third
ecstasy: with comfort and stillness of mind.
(4) Then the fourth
ecstasy: with stillness and apperception.
Then he began to enter the cognitive ecstasies:
(1) The realm of
infinite space
(2) The realm of
infinite perception
(3) The realm of
nothingness
(4) The realm of
neither sensation nor no sensation
(5) The cessation
of sensation and feeling.
This last state was the absolute unconsciousness (avijjā),
where the consciousness was absent though the body was alive. It was when he
woke up from this state that he began to become aware of the mental process by
which the “world” that we are aware of, the “self” we are aware of, and
the “suffering” we are aware of, came into being. All this came out of the
process of perception, conception, cognition, and affection. These
psychophysical activities did not arise due to the commandments of a
supernatural Creator, but only because of the presence of the necessary
conditions.
This experience made him realize that the mind is not an
entity separate from the body, but an activity of the body, which when
perceived subjectively appears to be mental and when observed objectively
appears to be physical. In other words, experience is dichotomized into a
subjective and an objective. He also saw that the cognitive process creates the
objective “world,” and the affective emotional process creates the subjective
“self,” and the resulting suffering.