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Contemplating Conditions of Interdependent Arising, Discourse 5
*Mindfulness is like a source of “electricity” that sparks our practice, keeping us fully present in each breath and each step. Through the third breath (“Breathing in, I am aware of my whole body”) and the fourth breath (“Breathing in, I release the tension in my body”), body and mind are calmed, paving the way for the fifth and sixth exercises—generating joy and happiness—and then the seventh and eighth exercises—embracing and soothing suffering with mindfulness, to recognize and calm our pain.
*The final gatha of the Treatise on Objects of Mind analyzes form (rupa) and function (seed) as two inseparable aspects of all phenomena. For example, when an electron meets a positron, they become a photon; conversely, when a photon collides, it produces an electron and a positron. Similarly, matter and energy are two manifestations of one reality, as both modern science and the Sautrāntika Buddhist scriptures recognize. In the Mahayana tradition, there were ten outstanding commentators, the Nālandā center once had nearly 10,000 monastics, and the commentator Dharmapāla affirmed the six characteristics of seeds.