འཕགས་པ་ཤན་ཏ་རྒྱས་པ་ཆན་པའ་སྡ་ཉ་མའ་སྙང་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བའ་མད 7.20

7.20

Consciousness and thoughts are referred to as the mental formations. Those three types of formations are the characteristics shared by sentient beings.

“How should the wise ones generate the perception of dislike toward formations? They should examine the characteristics of their inhalation and exhalation in terms of freshness, staleness, coolness, warmth, and repulsiveness. Having also examined the characteristics of the inhalation and exhalation of all bodies as well as their orifices, they will think, ‘These formations are like lightning—they arise out of nowhere and disappear right away.’ Thinking in that way, they will contemplate how formations are exhausted and insubstantial. All concepts arise as one conceives of things as being different, and these perceptions of exhaustion and insubstantiality arise within concepts. All the perceptions of coolness, warmth, repulsiveness, freshness, and staleness related to those phenomena arise from such perceptions and thoughts, and they lead to the perception of total exhaustion and the perception of insubstantiality.⁵⁴ They lead to the perception that all formations are exhausted and the perception that they disintegrate. They lead to the perception of the freedom from desire and the perception that apprehends cessation. By seeing the past and future limits of all formations, they will develop the perception of total exhaustion up to the perception that focuses on cessation. Those who have thoroughly purified their way of apprehending formations will perceive all formations as being transitory, perishable, unreliable, impermanent, insubstantial, and selfless.