A Fortune-Teller Told Me: Earthbound Travels in the Far East

by Tiziano Terzani

And so, after three days of anapanaa, we went on to inner meditation, vippasanaa. This means to direct “that magnifying glass, that band of attention of the mind, sharpened by concentration,” to the contemplation of one’s own body. We were told to begin by fixing our whole mind on the point below the nostrils, and then to bring the mind up to the crown of the head—I finally understood why so many statues of Buddha have a flame at that very place. Then, from the highest point of the body, very slowly and without losing control, one moves the mind to the skin, under the skin, into the skull, into the brain, into the eyes, into the nose, and slowly down into the chest, into the lungs, the heart, the veins, the bones, the internal organs, down, down to the legs, the toes, the soles of the feet, never thinking of anything else. The mind is directed like a searchlight in a cave, constantly aware of every sensation and aware that all sensations are transient—pain, pleasure, sound, the touch of the wind, always fugitive.