The Practice Which leads to Nibbana - A Buddhist Library

w 114concentration you will begin to see different kinds of light. In somemeditators the light begins as a smoke-like grey colour. If youcontinue to discern the four elements in this grey colour, it willbecome whiter like cotton wool and then bright white, like clouds.At this point your whole body will appear as a white form. Youshould continue to concentrate on discerning the four elements inthat white form and you will find it becomes clear like a block of iceor like a block of glass.This transparent matter (rèpa) is the five sensitivities (pasŒdas)and these we will call ' transparent elements '. Of these five transparentelements the body transparent element (kŒya pasŒda) is foundspread throughout the whole body. When the body transparent element,eye transparent element, ear transparent element, nose transparentelement, and tongue transparent element are seen at this stagethey appear as lumps or blocks because you have not yet removedthe three kinds of compactness (ghŒna). (See more below in thesection containing theoretical explanations.)If you continue to discern the four elements in the transparentelement of the transparent form of the body you will find that itsparkles and emits light. After this light has been producedcontinuously for at least half an hour, if you try to discern the spaceelement in that transparent form by looking for small spaces in it youwill find that the transparent form breaks down into small particlescalled rèpa kalŒpas. Having reached this stage which is purificationof mind (citta visuddhi), you can proceed to develop purification ofview (diÊÊhi visuddhi) by analysing rèpa kalŒpas. If however yourlight of concentration is weak and you wish to develop a particularsamatha meditation it is best to change to samatha just before seeingthe rèpa kalŒpas. From here you could develop the meditation onthe thirty-two parts of the body. You could take a single part anddevelop the first jhŒna by seeing it as repulsive, or you could use the