Upon meditating, you are supposed to be able to feel the subtlest sensations on your body, which makes apparent the perpetual movement of energy, and you reach the revelation that all is constantly in flux, and the source of all suffering is attachment to some arbitrary constellation of affairs that is to arise out of that flux, but which is to pass away in time.
But during meditation, some conflicts arise. This metaphysics of course appeals to me personally, because it parallels what I intuitively find acceptable. But the claim of the teacher was that this practice is scientific and universal, that it is merely the practice of observing the body, and coming to conclusions based on those observations, much like conducting a scientific practice.
It is impossible to verify whether this is the case, because as the teacher delivers instruction, he also delivers the metaphysics with it, so that your mind is already primed to organize the phenomena into a given framework. Given what we know about how suggestible the mind is, and how powerful its capabilities of constructing reality are, it becomes very difficult to decouple the subjective observation from the arising phenomena.
How much of these sensations are really happening, and how much is the brain actually filling in with its own representations? Admittedly I haven't gotten to an advanced stage in meditation, and supposedly what eventually happens is a dissolution of this dichotomy, as you can clearly perceive the relationship between mind and matter at the latter stages. The very conception of a purely objective, empirical science is mistaken as well, as it is well understood that we have to organize everything within some sort of framework, and that the mere act of measuring and observing can have profound effects on the measured and observed.
But all of this reveals an important point about the mind/matter relationship. It may be difficult to parse out the finer mechanics of causation in meditative practice, but for many practitioners, simply believing and following through with that belief is enough to bring about some very powerful effects and experiences.
We often feel compelled to create this mind/matter division, as we often find that matter behaves in certain ways regardless of the mind's volition: fire burns whether we want it to or not. We get sick from viruses and bacteria regardless of our choice. But then a strong version of this interpretation obscures the importance of intentionality, of volition, in a wide variety of phenomena.
If the experience is coherent and makes consistent logical sense to the subject, something happens in which it generates a reality of its own. What does it mean to worship a god? What does it mean to have faith in a given metaphysics? To have faith in a Buddhist metaphysics brings about changes in the individual, and the collective that is comprised of those individuals, and the phenomena that manifest from this systematic implementation have a character of their own. It generates something which takes on life, which becomes more than the sum of its parts.
Consider a purely material religion. This society worships purely material goods, as well as the efficacy of the individual in procuring and embodying these goods. Given a collective accumulation of these beliefs, attitudes, and desires, a market is generated, an entity which takes on properties and behaviors of its own, and which is worshiped as a deity.
The deity itself goes through various periods of stability and instability. Within a span of a certain era, the deity bestows all manner of blessings on its worshipers, and then over time it becomes capricious and unstable, a state-change with roots that can be traced to the relationships between the individuals themselves, and their relationships to the ecology.
The matter itself responds. Granted there are forces outside of it which effect it beyond our control, but at the same time, our stress levels, our contentment, our happiness, our concerns, our volitions, all have effects of their own on our bodies. The more you dig into it, the more it becomes difficult to separate and parse.
As you meditate, as you develop a more intimate contact with your body, you find that there is something there. The abyss gazes back so to speak. You find mirrored in your body the contents of your mind, and mirrored within the contents of your mind are the contents of your body, and these respective contents interact as one, so long as you are paying attention, and acting that it is so.
