Hi all,
I came across the term of the mind-made body in the Samannaphala Sutta as one of the fruits of the contemplative life. This is something I would like to discuss and I would be interested to hear of your own thoughts regarding the topic matters in the title.
What I am trying to work out is if this mind-made body is born of the mind taking shape of the base physical form through periods of bodily (sitting upright) and mental (focusing on an object) meditation? What is the exact mechanism or process which leads to the development of such a phenomenon? Given that a person comes to experience such a thing, how then, can they stabalise the experience, overcome fear of exploring such territory, and what would the function of the mind-made body be? An experience like that would be a radical shift from the ordinary wake up, brush your teeth, go to work and sleep type of life.
It is not uncommon to hear of meditators experiencing an increase in lucid dreaming through diligent practice. What I would assume is that the mind is taking the shape of the physical form through mental/bodily discipline and is then rendered in a dream but I am curious as to if anyone has detailed out the exact process. I have not yet been able to find anything regarding lucid dreaming, meditation and the mind-made body in the EBTs other than the mind-made body being mentioned briefly in the Fruits of the Contemplative Life Sutta, other than the EBTs, there is Tibetan Buddhism which does pay a lot of attention to this topic.
- What is the mind-made body?
- What is its function?
- Is this what the meditator is getting a glimpse of when experiencing lucidity in sleep if it is not stablised?
- Is there any more references in the EBTs regarding the mind-made body and lucid dreaming?