Preksha Dhyana Perception of Body

SR No.: 006557
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 1992
Total Pages: 50
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Yoga
File Size: 3 MB

Page 37

26
Preksha Dhyana :
surrounded by impenetrable envelopes of subtle body material. Unless and until these envelopes are torn open, one cannot come face to face with one's real self. The process is long and arduous. One has to develop the ability to perceive more and more subtle phenomena, step by step. One cannot aspire to reach the destination at the very instant of one's commencing the tour. A tour must take its own course; however high the speed of the transport may be, it must travel the distance between the point of leaving and the point of arrival. Some journey may take a few minutes while some may last for hours.
Our tour of self-awareness, tour to realise the pure innermost self, commences with perception of breath. The second step is perception of body. Perception of body! The body is what we live with. It is our constant and closest companion. What is there to see ? What is there to perceive inside the body ? Such doubts arise only until one commences the perception. Afterwards, such doubts automatically vanish. In fact, there is so much to perceive that it is never completed. Each exercise of perception will reveal new and interesting events. One would then realise that perception of body is really worthwhile. A doctor has to examine a patient's body from within to diagnose the disease. He will measure the temperature, feel the pulse, examine the chest, listen to the heart-beats, probe the abdomen, have a look at the tongue and the throat. If the clinical examination fails to tell him what is wrong, he may order an X-ray or pathological tests. He may take help of delicate instruments and probe carefully inside. He does all these to know the state of the internal organs and thereby infer where and what is amiss. The intense search for the symptoms of the disease finally succeeds in revealing the dysfunction of an organ or a system and in diagnosing the cause of illness. No doctor can diagnose a disease without proper examination with or without the help of instruments. One must probe deep to get at the root of the trouble. Perceptual meditation (prekşā dhyāna) also probes deep to perceive the subtle. It is concentration of perception.
Perception is a process of great significance. Its