The Chinese guan (contemplation) has many shades of meaning, among them to use methods of practice, to observe or perceive, to be aware, or even to assimilate an idea. All practices can be considered contemplation—whether they are directed inwardly or outwardly. Practice can also involve contemplation of emptiness, or voidness. “While coursing in the deep prajnaparamita,” refers to the deep state of absorption achieved by Avalokitesvara while contemplating the ineffable nature of emptiness.

Contemplation may begin with our bodies and sense faculties, but ultimately we must use our minds. Indeed, by themselves, body and sense faculties cannot contemplate. For example, in the contemplating breath method, it is the body that breathes, but the mind that contemplates the breathing. Similarly, in contemplating impurity the mind investigates the constituents and processes of the body. There are other methods that utilize seeing, hearing, touching, and their corresponding sense objects, but it is always the mind that contemplates.

Contemplation involves the sixth consciousness,12 which is the mind of discrimination and cognition. For that matter, without a body and its sense faculties there can be no practice of any kind. There is a vipassana method called ‘sweeping’ where one contemplates, or sweeps, the sensations of the body. Without a body and the senses, what is there to sweep? There is a Chan method where you imagine cool cream pouring over the body. Again, one needs a body and sense faculty to do this. Likewise, Chan methods like huatou investigation and silent illumination are dependent on a physical body.