The Practice Which leads to Nibbana - A Buddhist Library

from head to feet. You should try to develop this until you can doit quite quickly, even up to three rounds in a minute.While practising in this way for some meditators the elementswill not be balanced and there may be a tendency for some elementsto become excessive and unbearable. In particular, hardness,hotness, and pushing can become excessively strong. If this shouldoccur you should pay more attention to the quality opposite of theone that is in excess and continue to develop concentration in thatway. You may find that this will balance the elements again and it isfor this purpose that twelve characteristics have been taught in thefirst place. When the elements are balanced it is easier to attain concentration.In balancing the elements the pairs of opposites are: Hard andsoft, rough and smooth, heavy and light, flowing and cohesion,hot and cold, supporting and pushing.If one member of these pairs is in excess, balance it by payingattention to its opposite. For example if flowing is in excess paymore attention to cohesion, or if supporting is in excess pay moreattention to pushing. The rest can be treated in a similar way.Having now become skilled in the discernment of the twelvecharacteristics in the whole body and the characteristics havingbecome clear, you should note the first six together at one sight asthe earth element, the next two together at one sight as the waterelement, the next two as the fire element, and the last two as the airelement. You should continue to discern as earth, water, fire, andair, in order to calm the mind and attain concentration. You shouldcontinue to do this again and again for hundreds, thousands, ormillions of times.At this point a good method to use is to take an overview of thebody all at once and to continue to contemplate the four elements.w 111