The Practice Which leads to Nibbana - A Buddhist Library

w 110through the sense of touch, but the last two characteristics, flowingand cohesion, are known by inference based upon the other tencharacteristics. That is a good reason to teach them last.11. To discern cohesion be aware of how the body is being heldtogether by the skin, flesh, and sinews. The blood is being held in bythe skin, like water in a balloon. Without cohesion the body wouldfall into separate pieces and particles. The force of gravity whichkeeps the body stuck to the earth is also cohesion. Develop it asabove.12. To discern flowing begin by being aware of the flowing ofsaliva into the mouth, the flowing of blood through the veins, theflowing of air into the lungs, or the flowing of heat throughout thebody. Develop it as above.If you experience difficulty trying to discern flowing or cohesionthen you should firstly discern the other ten qualities again and againone at a time throughout the whole body. When you become skilledin this you will find that the quality of cohesion also becomes clearto you. If cohesion still does not become clear then pay attentionagain and again to just the qualities of pushing and hardness.Eventually you should feel as if the whole body is wrapped up in thecoils of a rope. Then you can discern this as the quality of cohesion.If the quality of flowing does not become clear then pay attentiontogether with the qualities of cold, heat, or pushing and you shouldthen be able to discern the quality of flowing.When you can discern all these twelve characteristics clearlythroughout the whole body from head to feet you should continueto discern them again and again in this same order. When you aresatisfied that you can do this you should rearrange the order to theone first given above which was: hard, rough, heavy, soft, smooth,light, flowing, cohesion, hot, cold, supporting, pushing. Continueto use this order and try to discern each characteristic one at a time