Contributed by the Buddhas’ Practice Incorporated, Australia
Mentor: Bennie Spirit
Editor: Yinyue(Ivy)
With gratitude to Google AI Gemini
With gratitude to NotebookLM
Draft Date: July 27, 2026
Location: BPI Meditation Center
Are you able to clearly understand your own state (avasthā)? Which dimension are you currently in? In which dimension does your thinking reside?
Have you ever considered that the circles you draw trap you, yet you continue to draw them endlessly? Whenever the six sense organs (ṣaḍ-indriya) make contact with the six sense objects (ṣaḍ-viṣaya), you begin to draw. Drawing circles upon circles, in heavy overlapping layers, you soak in them forever. In other words, you are eternally trapped within your own circles, unwilling to seek renunciation (naiṣkramya) from them.
From an inherently dimensionless state (the unconditioned reality / asaṃskṛta), you obstinately force yourself into one-dimensional or two-dimensional circles, and even entangle yourself with countless loops.
Observe closely: how do ants explore as they move forward? Why are they unable to escape when moving in a swarm? When an ant encounters a circle you have drawn that contradicts its intended exploration, it merely changes direction and becomes unable to find its way out.
Are your continuous, moment-to-moment delusive thoughts (vikalpa) just like the ants, only exploring what you desire? If so, you can only ever be an “ant.” This is a one-dimensional state.
From the one-dimensional, continuous exploration leads into the two-dimensional. However, as long as you harbor attachments of “desiring” (rāga) or “not desiring” (dveṣa), you draw a circle and can never escape. Attaining the third dimension becomes impossible; you will not even know what the third dimension is.
What is the third dimension? The third dimension is a plane. You must possess a certain elevation so that the entire plane falls within your field of vision (darśana). It is no longer just a matter of a single line; you can clearly see front, back, left, and right. For example, if you know the corresponding reactions to your speech, actions, and demeanor (karma)—knowing what lies in all directions around them and what karmic effects they will produce—you can then enter the third dimension.
If you only stare at what is right in front of you, exploring forward with profound short-sightedness, you remain limited to two dimensions, merely spinning along a line.
If you are always just staring at a single point, no matter how you explore forward, it remains a single point, failing to even reach the second dimension. True two-dimensionality requires absolute clarity of at least the front and the back. If you speak a word or perform an action and are completely clear about what it entails looking forward and looking backward, that can be considered two-dimensional.
Daring to speak without knowing what effect your words will produce means you do not know the “front.” Not remembering the path you have already walked means you do not know the “back.” Knowing neither front nor back, what remains is merely a point.
When both front and back are absolutely clear, you have entered the second dimension.
When front, back, left, and right can all be clearly distinguished, and the entire plane is clear to you, that is the third dimension.
How much do you truly know?
Ants know their route back; they remember what they have explored and can run back along their original path to summon others. If you are entirely unclear about your path, what exactly are you? Ants work ceaselessly without distinguishing between day and night; can humans do that? Ants possess profound organizational discipline; can humans achieve that? Humans fall far short of ants. Do ants experience selfish greed? It is because they are devoid of selfish, self-benefiting motives that they can form a colony. Therefore, even the organizational discipline of ants is stronger than that of humans.
Since we are called humans (manuṣya), we ought to be superior to ants. But where does this superiority lie? The key is whether we can truly discern what is beneficial to us and what is harmful.
In the animal realm (tiryagyoni), no matter how delicious something might be, they do not eat indiscriminately. They only consume foods with which they are highly familiar. However, humanity’s gluttony and greed for food take on countless forms.
On the surface, humans appear superior to all animals, but in reality, because we create illness and suffering (duḥkha) for ourselves through our consumption, we are vastly inferior to animals, and our organizational discipline is also vastly inferior.
Can humans truly be superior to animals in every single aspect? How can we sublimate our dimensions? How do we transition from one dimension to two dimensions? How can we reach three dimensions? Reaching four dimensions is an even more supreme and marvelous state (viśeṣa).
Being clear about and knowing top, bottom, front, back, left, and right—that is a highly supreme state (gocara). Knowing top and bottom means knowing one’s identity and proper place. For instance, regarding the “top” (parents, kings, teachers, etc.), do your speech and actions conform to propriety and rules? Regarding the “bottom” (children, students), do they conform to propriety? What are your internal rules and principles? If you do not know them, you have no top or bottom. If you precisely know them and can act upon them, then you possess the top and bottom.
Humans are moving forward every single day, continuously walking forward. Whether day or night, the mind (citta) is ceaselessly moving. Ultimately, which realm (dhātu) have you walked into, and which circle are you trapped in, refusing to emerge?
Is it the circle that possesses the power to trap you, or is it you who insists on being trapped within the circle, refusing to step out?
Think carefully: what kind of state is it to confine yourself within a circle of your own making? Originally, these circles did not exist (they are empty of inherent existence / śūnyatā). You obstinately insisted on drawing them and treating them as something real, thereby exhausting your mental energy and losing all mindfulness.
Ultimately, which circles produce which karmic effects? What do the circles of each individual look like? If you realize all of this clearly, you will know exactly what human beings are doing.
After you elevate your dimension, you will realize that some people are forever drawing circles on a single point, soaking in those circles, unable to escape. For someone who explores ceaselessly, even if they remain just a point, at least they will not draw circles to trap themselves. If one can stretch into a line, remembering front and back with absolute clarity, they enter the second dimension. If front, back, left, and right are all clear, you enter the third dimension. If top, bottom, front, back, left, and right are all clear, you enter the fourth dimension.
Which dimension are you ultimately in?
What exactly is each person’s spiritual state (gocara)? It is entirely drawn by themselves. You can draw yourself into a Buddha, or you can draw yourself into a mere point—a point that is not even on par with an ant.
Ending
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