釋禪波羅蜜次第法門 8.57

8.57

Second, explaining the corresponding characteristics of the internal realm and the external country. When practitioners carefully contemplate the body through the power of samādhi, wisdom, and knowledge based on aspiration, they immediately know that this body completely mirrors all the dharmic and conventional affairs of heaven and earth. Why is this? As for such bodily characteristics: the round head models heaven; the square feet model earth; the space element within is none other than empty space. The warmth of the abdomen models spring and summer; the firmness of the back models autumn and winter; the bodily postures of the four seasons model the four seasons; the twelve major joints model the twelve months; the three hundred and sixty minor joints model the three hundred and sixty days; the breath exhaled from the nose and mouth models the wind and air in mountains, marshes, ravines, and valleys; the eyes model the sun and moon; the opening and closing of the eyes model day and night; the hair models the stars; the eyebrows are the Northern Dipper; the vessels are rivers; the bones are jade and stone; the skin and flesh are earth and soil; and the body hair models thickets and forests. The five viscera are within: in heaven they model the five planets; on earth they model the five sacred mountains; in yin and yang they model the five elements; in the mundane world they model the five truths. Internally they are the five spirits; in cultivation they are the five virtues; their emissaries are the eight trigrams; for governing offenses they are the five punishments; as directors they are the five ministerial offices; ascending, they become the five clouds; and transforming, they become the five dragons.