The Practice Which leads to Nibbana - A Buddhist Library

with consciousness. That is the matter present in the bodies ofother living beings.The meditator then discerns matter of livings beings that isexternal and understands that it is not a man, woman, person, orbeing, but is just matter. He then discerns all matter that is externalall at once and discerns all of the different types of matter that existinternally and externally.This means the 54 types of matter that exist in the eye internallyand externally, and the 6 types of particles that exist in the eyeinternally and externally. The meditator then discerns all the formsof matter produced by kamma, mind, temperature, or nutriment inthe same way in the remaining 5 sense bases. He also discerns allthe remaining artificial types of matter both internally and externally.After this he proceeds to the discernment of mentality internallyand externally.Discernment Of Mentality Internally And ExternallyFirstly he discerns mentality internally starting form the minddoor process and then the eye door process, and discerns all thementality associated with it, whether it be wholesome orunwholesome as explained earlier. Then he proceeds to do thesame externally.He does this by discerning an external eye transparent elementand an external mind transparent element and then discerning theeye door process and mind door process that occur when the colourof a group of particles appear in both doors. He does this manytimes again and again both internally and externally, and also doesthe same for the rest of the 6 sense doors that are internal andexternal.If the meditator is able to attain jhŒna he can also discern jhŒnaw 19