The Road to Dinghui
fourth edition
Narrated by Master Zhiguang
Minutes from Ming to Lay
( Revised 2012 )
If you have walked this road of concentration and wisdom , why guess who I am!
I have no ego, and I am always drifting in the sea of life and death, so why ask me where I am?
It’s not greed, anger, ignorance, let alone precepts, concentration and wisdom, no one?
But you want to divorce me, please always remember,
The more selfless you are, the greater I am in your heart.
Have you really realized that there is no self?
How can you realize that there is no self?
Who realizes no-self?
Enlightenment is me!
I, who has been given many names, here use the name of the southern transmission of the Dharma to shine.
My confidence in telling the Dharma in this book comes from my four most respected teachers,
Among them, the person in this book is translated as the one who seeks to destroy .
However, the Dharma taught has been added with my own opinion.
What used to be his is now, I am sure, mine.
In the future, you also confidently say that it belongs to you.
When you explain, you must be full of confidence and joy.
Otherwise, you have no insight in cultivating the Tao.
How can the Dharma belong to me or not?
Although there is no self, it is said by the speaker.
Origin of the third edition
Thanks to the recorder for his heart, so that people who are destined can see this book. May those who read and hear this book be filled with Dharma joy and meet good teachers who are predestined. Because there is no teacher’s guidance, self-study according to the content of the book is blind practice. Use it as a reference when teaching, but what I say should not be regarded as an authority, it should be based on my own experience.
The content of this book is the six lectures given at the Qingcheng Mountain Meditation Camp in a certain year. Later, the layman from the Ming Dynasty took notes and revised them into a handbook. The title of the content was inserted when editing, so the title is not very standardized. The teachings are based on personal experience, and the book is compiled for the students who have completed the four meditations as internal reference materials, and is not circulated externally. Because I don’t want to see people practice blindly according to this book.
Someone circulated this notebook on the Internet, and it attracted a lot of objections due to the different opinions of different sects, so I had to append the classics to strengthen everyone’s confidence. Therefore, one-third of the second edition is supplementary to relevant classics on the law.
I don’t want people to practice blindly based on this book, let alone put it on the Internet. Just because the handbook has already been posted on the Internet, some Theravada believers criticized what I said about “hearing the sound in meditation” as not a Buddhist teaching. The dispute between Buddhism and hearing the sound in meditation has repeated itself for more than 2,000 years. In order to prove to students that my point of view on meditation is not groundless, I supplemented the relevant classics of “Entering Meditation and Hearing Sounds”, as well as related classics that people who have achieved fruition will lose their minds, break precepts, and withdraw from the present method. This is the fourth edition.
Due to the lack of classics in the appendix of the old version, students are requested to refer to the new version of ” The Road to Dinghui “, but they are not allowed to read the book blindly. Also, students are not allowed to teach and practice on the Internet, because real names are not used on the Internet, such a mentality does not conform to the question, and you cannot distinguish the real situation of the other party. There is no need to waste time discussing the right and wrong of the Dharma on the Internet. If you have not personally experienced the joy of the Dharma, what is the benefit of discussing the Dharma?
The teachings in this manual talk about entering concentration and attaining fruition. Those who have doubts about the content should read the scriptures attached to the book first, understand the divergent opinions after the Buddha’s death, and stop clinging to one sect and rejecting other sects. Go back and read the book before giving the content.
sequence
The method of cultivating wisdom in Hinayana Buddhism is mainly the four foundations of mindfulness, that is, contemplating the impurity of the body, contemplating feeling as suffering, contemplating the impermanence of the mind, and contemplating the non-self of dharmas. The sequence of contemplating body, feeling, mind, and dharma taught in this handbook is: observing name and form to know the cause and effect of body and mind; observing the first thought of the five kamikasina mental objects, and thus realizing feeling, feeling, and mind. Uncomfortable thinking; observe the birth and death of the mind and know the subtle mind, so as to experience the impermanence and extinction of the mind; observe the eighteen realms and know that the mind clings to the other realm, and thus leave the other realm to realize the tranquility, that is, this practice method This is the stage to observe selflessness, suffering, impermanence, and extinction. The reason for this is that enlightenment is the first way of seeing (breaking the self-view), and knowing the cause and effect of the body and mind is easy to break the self-view. After seeing the Tao, the practice of the Tao is to eliminate the habit of afflictions. It is easy to eliminate the habit of knowing the first thought that arouses the mind at any time, so observe the five kasina mental states. Only when you see the first thought clearly can you see the perception and perception of the five aggregates clearly. Only at this time do you start to observe the five aggregates to be sure that it is suffering, so that you can firmly abandon the five aggregates. Consciousness, so that the consciousness turns from birth and death to extinction; finally, the view is far away from the eighteen realms, and thus enters the emptiness and realizes extinction. As for the wise, you don’t need to follow this stage, that is, you can realize selflessness, suffering, impermanence, and cessation by observing name and form; you can also realize selflessness, suffering, impermanence, and extinction by observing the five aggregates; , suffering, and non-self.
The order of practice is the path of accumulation, the path of seeing, the path of cultivation, and the path of no learning. Seeing the Tao means seeing it once and never seeing it again, while cultivating the Tao means getting rid of afflictions and habits. Unless you don’t return to the state of secular life, otherwise, the habits can come back. Among them, the unlearned arhats who are enlightened and unlearned are full of concentration. As for the arhats who are free from wisdom, they will lose their righteous thoughts due to lack of concentration. Life. However, when an arhat of Huiliberation faces the pain of death, he must know the suffering with righteous thoughts, and choose to leave without any attachment. Because the urban living environment is completely deviated from the world, it is difficult for modern people to prove Luo Han Guo. Therefore, modern people do not have the so-called completion of cultivation. Mindfulness, five kassins.
This book was originally a handbook of about 70 pages. In order to answer various questions, it quoted scriptures and classics, and there were more than 100 pages of supplementary materials. Readers should read more information in the appendix, and pay attention to one thing when reading, that is, all scriptures have been divided into sects in the process of spreading-everyone says their own scriptures are the Buddha’s words. After Indian Buddhism was wiped out by Islam, Theravada Buddhism outside of India was mainly the Bronze Division of Theravada Buddhism, which caused later generations to regard the Bronze Division as primitive Buddhism. In fact, the Tongdi Department is just a sectized Buddhism, which means following the views of the ancestors of each sect, and there is no primitive Buddhism anymore.
From a realistic point of view, when the Buddha was alive, there was no primitive Buddhism at all, because the Buddha accepted that all living beings can be understood in their own way. Spread what the Buddha said – the Dharma before the assembly. Moreover, the Buddha never said: “A certain disciple can spread the Dharma impartially.”
After the Buddha died, the disciples of the Buddha discovered that the Dharma passed down by various arhats was different, that is, the Dharma was passed down in different personal versions. Therefore, in order to unify the theory, Maha Kassapa initiated the first collection of scriptures; however, the collected scriptures are spread by reciting, and who can guarantee that the scriptures recited are the compiled version? Moreover, in addition to the assembly in the cave presided over by Da Kassapa, there were also so-called assembly outside the cave at that time, which caused the spread of Buddhist scriptures. At the beginning, there were two collection versions and many personal editions. Therefore, a hundred years later, Buddhists gathered again in Vaisali, including the Theravada with 700 members and the Dalai Lama with tens of thousands of people. At this time, Buddhism officially split into the Theravada and the Dalai Lama. More than 200 years after the death of the Buddha—the time of King Ashoka, the debate on Buddhism was fierce and divided. At this time, there were many sects, and King Ashoka was at a loss. As a result, King Ashoka supported Emperor Moggallanazi to lead the third compilation of classics in Huashi City. At this time, there was the so-called Tongdu Department, which later formed the Theravada Buddhism in Ceylon. Therefore, it is said that the Bronze Tribe is the primitive Buddhism of Ceylon, not the primitive Buddhism of India, but the followers of the Bronze Tribe wishful thinking think that the Bronze Tribe is the primitive Buddhism. The Northern Buddhism accepts the classics from various sects, and calls the Tongdi tribe the Southern Buddhism, and the rest as the Northern Buddhism.
After understanding the history of the division of Buddhism, when reading the appendix again, don’t insist on using Theravada Buddhist classics to negate the Northern Hinayana classics, or insist on using the Northern Buddhism to negate the Southern Buddhism. Ministries.
2012 _
Table of contents
- Basic Knowledge of Shamatha and Vipassana… 1
- The basic method of cultivating in-and-out breathing meditation………………………… 3
2.1 Body adjustment method………………………………………… 3
2.2 Breath adjustment method………………………………………… 3
2.2.1 Abdominal breathing method…………………………………… 3
2.2.5 Wrong karma: thinking about people, paying attention to the sense of breath… 5
2.3 Alignment method: ………………………………………………… 6
2.3.1 The result of adjusting the mind—one-pointedness of the mind……………………………… 7
2.3.2 Drowsiness and restlessness can be overcome by walking… 7
2.3.3 Think clearly about your breath… 7
2.4 How to go through the revision stage…………………………………………………………………………. 8
2.4.1 The method of amending concentration while walking…………………………………………………………………………. 8
2.4.2 Practice should be cultivated from careless to careful… 8
3.1 Conditions for entering meditation… 10
3.1.1 From the five barriers…………………………………………… 10
3.1.3 Entering samadhi is not waiting for an opportunity……………………………………… 11
3.3 Recognize the interference of qi——air blockage, qi stringing, fire qi leaving the head… 13
3.3.1 Blockage of the air channel—the blocked disease qi causes pain on the body… 13
3.3.2 Keeping air on the head—causes headaches for a long time… 14
3.4 Self-righteousness and external aura will affect the meditator… 15
3.5 The choice of the length of revision time ……………………………………………………………………….. 16
3.6 There are three kinds of freedom in meditation… 16
3.7 Differences in Meditation…………………………………………… 17
3.7.2 Differences in experience between meditations………………………………… 17
3.8 Zhixin Yiyi Doing Everything……………………………… 18
3.9 Questions and Answers ……………………………………………………………………………………… 19
3.10 Misconceptions about Meditation………………………………………… 20
3.10.2 Examples of meditation in the classics……………………………………… 20
3.11 The Right Viewpoint of Meditation…………………………………… 22
4.1 The First Jhana……………………………………………… 24
4.1.1 You must first train how to enter and exit samadhi…………………………… 25
4.1.2 Beginners should not want to enter the first meditation as soon as they take the seat… 26
4.1.3 How to Strengthen Concentration…………………………………… 26
4.2 How to practice the second and third meditations……………………………………… 26
4.2.1 First, there must be sufficient heat………………………………………………………………………….. 26
4.2.2 The mind must leave the experience of meditation… 27
4.2.3 Concentrate on practicing Dharma again……………………………………… 27
4.3 How to Cultivate the Four Zen…………………………………… 27
4.4 Colorless Definition and Transcendence Zen…………………………………………………………………………. 28
4.6 Various problems and deviations in entering meditation…………………………………………………………………………. 29
4.6.1 Handling of realms………………………………………… 29
4.6.2 Let’s talk about gas treatment again…………………………………… 29
4.6.3 Other amendments………………………………………… 30
4.6.5 Don’t cling to premonitions…………………………………………… 31
4.6.6 Be Careful of Your Mind Power………………………………… 31
4.6.7 Remote control treatment is not conducive to spiritual cultivation…………………………… 31
5.1 What is Seeing the Way…………………………………………… 33
5.1.1 Perplexity and Confusion……………………………………… 33
5.1.2 Path of Accumulation………………………………………… 33
5.1.3 Added walkway……………………………………………… 34
5.1.4 Seeing the Way…………………………………………… 34
5.1.5 Supplementary scriptures say: All views are based on the body view… 35
5.2 Conditions for seeing the Tao——pure heart and pure view… 35
5.3 The shortcut to break the self-concept – the fastest way to observe karma… 36
5.4.1 Righteousness is the protagonist of Xiuweiguan………………………………… 38
5.4.2 Choosing the Dharma is the Director of Xiuhuiguan……………………………… 38
5.4.3 The Seven Factors of Enlightenment……………………………………… 38
5.4.4 The method of quickly breaking my opinion… 39
5.5 The Difficulty of Seeing the Tao…………………………………… 40
5.5.2 Can the final Dharma still prove the first fruit? ……………………………………… 40
5.5.4 False transmission of thousands of volumes of books, true transmission of a sentence… 41
6.1 Don’t let the air into the meditation …………………………………… 45
6.2 Common Problems in Meditation—Pain………………………………… 45
6.3 How to deal with the body swinging………………………………… 46
6.4 It is very important to massage before getting off the seat……………………………… 47
6.5 Cultivating concentration and reciting the Buddha’s name ……………………………………………………………………………………… 47
7.1 The Threshold to the Path of Liberation—Five Faculties, Five Powers………………………… 50
7.2.1 Gross Contemplation – Body Contemplation…………………………………… 51
7.2.2 Subtle Contemplation—Feeling Mindfulness…………………………………… 52
7.2.3 A more detailed observation – mindfulness ……………………………………………………………………….. 53
7.2.4 Letting go of viewing——The Dharma Mindfulness……………………………… 53
7.3 The sequence of eliminating doubts…………………………………… 54
7.4 Concentration is too strong and hinders the mind… 57
7.5 Maintain the power of the four meditations to observe the mind… 58
8.1 Increase and increase slowly ………………………………………………… 61
8.2 Guoding………………………………………………… 61
8.2.1 Live in the present method………………………………………………… 61
8.2.2 Cash back method Lezhu………………………………………………… 62
8.3 Realization of Fruition and Elimination of Afflictions… 62
8.4 Restlessness (of the five upper fetters) in meditation… 64
8.6 Observing the Mind from the Afflictive Environment… 65
8.7 The living environment of the Noble Eightfold Path ……………………………………………………………………….. 65
8.8 Entering space and setting…………………………………………………… 66
8.9 Questions and Answers ……………………………………………………………………………………… 66
8.10 Summary: The Confidence, Authenticity, and Refund of the Proof of Fruit… 69
8.11 Appendix A Meditation-related Classics………………………………… 71
8.11.1 The first jhana to the fourth jhana mentioned in the A scriptures… 72
8.11.2 B．Miscellaneous Talks on Meditation…………………………………… 82
8.11.3 C．Sutras related to Chan Ding Hearing Sounds……………………… 85
8.12 Appendix D Classics Related to Proof and Fruit………………………………… 103
8.12.1 D．Affected by the cessation of fruition……………………………… 104
8.12.2 E．About what kind of person can prove the fruit… 116
8.12.3 F．Miscellaneous theory of evidence and fruit… 121
8.12.4G．Regarding refunds ……………………………………………….. 124
8.12.5 H’s evil deeds about the first fruit… 129
8.13 Conclusion: Those who see and see love to talk about non-Buddhist teachings… 132
1. Basic knowledge of Shamatha and Vipassana
Buddhism divides meditation methods into two types, namely samatha and vipassana. Shematha is the practice of tranquility, and Vipassana is the practice of insight. Shamatha and Vipassana are the terms used in the theory. In the scriptures, samadhi (Samatha) and wisdom (Vipassana) are used. According to the theory of Tiantai School, the practice of samadhi is called samadhi, and the practice of wisdom is called insight .
Because of the differences in the faculties of all beings, some people must first cultivate concentration and then wisdom; some people can directly cultivate wisdom, and then generate concentration through wisdom; Both tranquility and insight can produce one-pointedness of mind, and one-pointedness of heart is transliterated as samadhi, and slightly translated as samadhi. Samadhi is the unity of mind and environment.
The Buddhist guide Shamatha pays attention to the four jhanas and eight samadhis, emphasizing that one must be able to enter different depths of samadhi when practicing meditation, that is, the first jhana, the second jhana, the third jhana and the fourth jhana. In fact, the Four Zens and Eight Concentrations are not exclusive to Buddhism. Heretics can also practice the Four Zens and Eight Concentrations. Before Sakyamuni Buddha became a Buddha, he practiced samadhi with outsiders until he reached the place of neither perception nor non-perception. If a person is cultivating wisdom, how to measure how stable his wisdom is? Buddhism judges whether a person can enter the first jhana, second jhana, third jhana, and fourth jhana. The mind of wisdom who can only enter the first jhana is relatively rough. If the concentration reaches the fourth jhana, his wisdom will be very pure.
In terms of meditation, I only pay attention to the four meditations. why? Because the last four samadhis of the four meditations and eight samadhis belong to the samadhi of the formless realm, the “concentrating mind” defined by the formless is strong, and the “wisdom mind” is weak, so it is difficult to practice visualization in the formless delimitation. The first jhana to the fourth jhana belong to the samadhi of the form realm. Only the samadhi strong in the mind of wisdom can achieve both samadhi and wisdom.
Among the four meditations, the first jhana is the shallowest, and the fourth jhana is the deepest.
The first dhyana is from the five hindrances (drowsiness, regret, greed, anger, and doubt), which is called the land of joy from birth—there is awareness, insight, joy, joy, and concentration.
The second Zen is away from awareness and observation (awareness refers to the coarse awareness, and observation refers to the fine awareness), which is called the ground of steadiness and joy-there is joy, joy, internal trust, and concentration.
The three dhyanas are called the blissful land of leaving joy——joy, mindfulness, awareness, equanimity, and samadhi.
The four dhyanas are separated from happiness and cut off in-and-out breathing, which is called the pure ground of equanimity and thought – no suffering and no joy, equanimity and pure thought. Letting go of the pure ground means that there are several kinds of minds that are rare for practitioners at this time: a pure, equal, and uncontrived mind:
1. Equanimity – the fourth meditation, the mind is equal without artificiality.
2. Neither painful nor pleasant feeling – the fourth jhana has no pleasant feeling, only equanimity.
3. Purity of mindfulness – the fourth meditation is the purest mindfulness due to equanimity. When a person cultivates to the fourth jhana, he will develop a pure mind of equanimity, and with the pure mind of equanimity, he can directly observe the Dharma right now, and the Dharma he observes will be easy to present. Therefore, when cultivating samadhi and wisdom, one should try to reach the fourth jhāna.
If you know the difference between the first jhana and the fourth jhana, you will understand the importance of observing the Dharma with a subtle mind. If your samadhi power is only up to the first dhyana today, you can go directly to meditate on vipassana and read Huatou. No matter how hard you work, it is easy to get delusional when you practice vipassanā with the first dhyana. If your samadhi has reached the fourth dhyana today, you can practice with a very subtle mind, whether you refer to Huatou or practice meditation. The mind power of the first jhana cannot be compared with that of the fourth jhana. Therefore, it is very important to complete the practice of the first jhana to the fourth jhana, that is, the degree of purity of the mind will affect the efficiency of practice.
The difference between meditation and meditation
The so-called practice of tranquility means that the mind stays focused in a certain state and does not pay attention to any external environment at this time, and still focuses on the original state. This is the practice of tranquility. The so-called practice of insight means that in any state, the mind observes with the practiced method of observation. At this time, the mind observes according to the state, but is not confused by the state, and can see the truth of the body, mind, and state clearly.
Therefore, if a Dharma door encounters various realms and ignores them, and keeps silent all the time, this kind of practice belongs to meditation practice; Enlightenment, this kind of practice belongs to Xiuhui. For example, referring to “Who is reciting the Buddha’s name” belongs to cultivating wisdom, and reciting the name of Buddha without distraction is cultivating samadhi. Therefore, when practicing vipassana, I will emphasize to you: no samadhi is allowed! This is because most people enter concentration as soon as they contemplate, and only a small number of people with strong concentration and wisdom have the ability to achieve both concentration and wisdom.
To repeat, any method of practice, when the state comes, the mind remains still and does not follow the state, this kind of practice is the practice of shamatha. If the mind follows any state without being confused by it, and sees the truth of the state clearly from it, this is meditation. Therefore, one should avoid turbulent realms when practicing tranquility, and not be afraid of any realms when practicing meditation; this is the difference between practicing tranquility and meditation. Regardless of whether you are sitting in meditation or walking, you can practice tranquility or meditation, depending on how you put your heart into it. Every time you sit in meditation, you must be aware of whether you are practicing tranquility or meditation. In the same way, every time you walk in the meditation, you must distinguish whether you are practicing samatha or vipassanā. Here, in terms of meditation, I will guide you from the first meditation to the fourth meditation, and then teach you to continue to practice wisdom.
2. The basic method of practicing in-and-out breathing
There are many ways to practice meditation. In the first lecture, I will introduce “In-and-Out Breathing Concept”. The in-and-out breathing concept taught by the Buddha is not counting or following the breath. (The original text here is a black and bold subtitle. If you don’t want a title, you need to add a comma.) The Buddhist method of observing breathing is called in-and-out breathing, which later became the concept of counting and breathing. , and further developed into the six wonderful methods. Therefore, many people mistakenly regard the concept of breathing in and out as the concept of counting breath. The mind of counting breath meditation is less nuanced and easier to practice, so counting breath is only needed when there are many delusions and distracting thoughts. What I teach here is mainly “watching the breath in and out”, and “counting the breath” as the auxiliary.
According to the classic records, the method of “watching the breath in and out” is to watch the breath in front of the nose. There is a saying in Buddhism: “The eyes observe the nose, the nose observes the heart”. Some people call it “observing the whiteness of the tip of the nose”, which is to observe the breath from the tip of the nose, and further observe the heart from the middle. The whiteness of the nose tip is because of seeing the light at the tip of the nose.
2.1 Adjustment method
Some people will experience some phenomena and obstacles soon after sitting in meditation. For example, posture disorders, breathing disorders, body pain, etc., are mostly caused by poor body adjustment. Although any posture can be settled, the best posture for meditation is double-legged; sitting in meditation does not have to be cross-legged, the important thing is to relax the muscles of the whole body. For example, Venerable Upali was standing up for the first time in meditation, when he was shaving the Buddha’s hair!
Physically, keep your chest in your chest and your back straight, that is, the chest cannot be straightened, which will cause chest tightness and suffocation. The waist should not be bent, because a hunchback will hinder abdominal breathing; the waist should not be too straight, which will cause the muscles on both sides of the lumbar spine to tighten and cause backache. There is no need to try to straighten the head, as long as the eyes look forward, the head will naturally be straight. The eyelids must be lowered. When the eyelids are lowered, don’t forget that the eyes are also looking down. Don’t look forward. After looking down, don’t pay attention to the eyes. Too much attention to the eyes will create illusions. Every time you sit, be sure to check whether the muscles of the whole body are relaxed. The sitting posture does not have to be double or single, the focus is on relaxing the muscles of the whole body. If you sit quietly for an hour and a certain muscle in your body is tensed but not relaxed, that part will be tired after an hour. Some people will lower their heads a little after sitting for a long time. It doesn’t matter if you lower your head a little bit. Unless you enter into no-heart samadhi, otherwise, your head should not be lowered as if you are dozing off.
2.2 Breath adjustment method
2.2.1 Abdominal breathing method
Breathing methods include chest breathing and abdominal breathing. Chest breathing will cause chest tightness and shortness of breath, so it is best to use abdominal breathing. If you want to sit for a long time or enter the samadhi for a long time, you must use your abdomen to breathe. Do not use your mind to control your breathing. When you inhale, your belly should naturally swell up, and when you exhale, it should naturally sink in. The best abdominal breathing is when you inhale until you are full, the lower abdomen will feel like you are full. In order to do this, the belt must be loose, and if your trousers are elastic, the belt must be pulled four fingers’ width below the navel. Chest breathing is more difficult to enter into deep concentration. When people with brain hypoxia practice the second meditation, they will hold their breath and have chest tightness when breathing through the chest, so they cannot practice the third meditation, which is very thin and long breathing.
2.2.2 The practice of observing the breath
The karma is the heart of the practice. The karma of the practitioner who observes the in-and-out breath is the movement of the in-and-out breath. The breath in the nostrils, the chest and the navel all have breathing movements. Contemplating the breath in different parts has different effects on the mind. The Taoist view of the dantian is to observe the movement of the belly up and down, which is a very rough breathing movement. Buddhists view the breathing in front of the nose as a subtle realm. The state of viewing the dantian is not only very rough, but also the concentration of the mind on the dantian will produce the circulation of inner qi, resulting in a strong sense of qi and distraction. Buddhism says that the state of concentration of the mind has size and thickness. The disadvantage of Dantian under the Taoist view is that the state is relatively rough, and the advantage is that it is easy to cultivate; repairing Ren Du Channel can also enter concentration, but the inner energy is very dynamic and it takes a long time to stabilize it. The advantage of Buddhist observation of breathing in front of the nose is that the realm is subtle, and one can quickly enter concentration; the disadvantage is that if the mind is not subtle enough, one cannot observe the fine state in front of the nose.
2.2.3 The method of Buddhism: feel the in-and-out breath in the human body
The karma of in-and-out breath observation is the touch dust among the six dusts, that is, to observe the touch of breath in the human body outside the nasal cavity when breathing. This is the so-called staying in the human body to observe breathing. That is, the heart should not move the observation position with the breathing in and out, and the heart must always stay in the human body to observe the breathing in and out; avoid observing the breathing sensation in the nostrils, but observe the breathing sensation in the human body outside the nasal cavity-the wind blows when breathing In human beings, the breathing observed is not inside the nasal cavity, but in the human being outside the nasal cavity. It is described in “Pure Taoism” as follows: “Phase and out-breath and in-breath are not the object of one mind. If you don’t know the three methods, you can’t practice (Anpan).” When you feel the touch, you should not stay in the breath, and you can’t move with the wind of the breath out and the breath in. As for the object of one mind, it means: the three things, breath, breath, and breath in, are not the one mind of consciousness, but Consciousness maintains one mind in this state. The wood-sawing analogy in this discussion is very wonderful, that is, when sawing wood, one knows sawing (like breathing in the middle of a person), knowing the coming of sawing (like breathing out) and sawing away (like breathing in), but the mind is neither sawing nor seeing coming and sawing away. , but a mind that is focused on breaking the wood (not changing with the situation).
Because the breathing in the middle of the human body is relatively thin, people with thick thoughts can’t feel it (these people have to count their breaths first), so it is easy to find out whether a person’s thoughts are thick or thin by observing the breathing in front of the nose. It can be easily observed that those who have a breath blowing through them can easily enter the subtle mind, and this person will quickly enter the meditation meditation; on the contrary, those with rough minds will not feel it when they search for it. Some people can’t find it for three days. No; because his mind is too rough, he cannot be found, and it is difficult for such a person to enter concentration.
What does it feel like to observe the breath? These are the eight senses of touch:
2.2.4 Phases of breathing: length, thickness, coldness, heat, smoothness of in-and-out breath
The tactile sensations of breathing include length, thickness, hot and cold, slippery and astringent. Observing the in-and-out breath is to observe the changes of these eight tactile sensations.
What is the length? It is to compare the breath before and after. Not between you and me to compare. That is, comparing this breath with the last one, is it longer or shorter? If the breath is adjusted well, it will become longer and longer. Then, those who quickly enter the samadhi have not adjusted their breathing well, and even though they have entered the samadhi, their breathing is still very short. However, the elderly who breathe are just able to sit for a long time and may not be able to enter meditation, but to quickly enter meditation does not require long breathing, but fine breathing.
Hot and cold is to observe whether the exhalation or inhalation is hotter. However, when the breath is subtle, the hot and cold are not obvious. At this time, the length and thickness should be observed instead. Then, the heat and cold of breathing in steadiness must not be obvious.
What are slippery and astringent? Refers to how easily you breathe. Sometimes it is difficult to inhale, as if there is a blockage, which is called astringency. If it is easy to inhale, it is called slippery. The same goes for exhaling, that is to say, whether it is easy or difficult to breathe out, which is called slippery and astringent. Then, breathing in steadiness must be comfortable and easy.
Thickness refers to the strength of the wind when breathing. If the breath is strong, it is thick, and if it is weak, it is thin. Then, the breath must be relatively fine in the steadiness.
Here are the main points of mindfulness of in-and-out breathing:
1. At the beginning, observe the hot and cold feeling of breathing, and the heart does not count or follow the breath. If you can’t observe hot and cold, just count your breath temporarily, and then observe hot and cold again after counting until you have no distracting thoughts in your mind.
⒉The finer the breathing, the less obvious the hot and cold.
3. Observe the breath’s thickness when it is not obvious.
⒋The finer the breathing, the finer the mind; the finer the mind, the deeper the concentration.
⒌The longer the breath, the longer you can enter into concentration; long breath is not necessarily fine breath.
⒍Don’t stay at the same thickness and length, the more you look at the breath, the longer and thinner it is.
2.2.5 Wrong karma: thinking of others, paying attention to breath
When observing breathing, one should not attempt to forcibly place the mind in this position in the human body. This kind of behavior is called excessive attention. When watching the breath, the heart only needs to focus on the touch of the in-and-out breath in the human body, and the heart focuses on the feeling of the breath rubbing in the human body, not to catch or control the breath. Don’t force your mind to focus on people when you don’t feel any friction, that would be wrong. In other words, don’t concentrate your thoughts on any part of the body, including the human body. Note: not on the location, but on the feeling of breathing in and out.
When observing breathing, in addition to the eight senses of touch, the whole body will also produce a sense of qi, that is, there is qi circulating in the body. Anyone who practices qigong knows that when you feel the breath, you get the breath. Chinese medicine also believes that where the mind is concentrated, the qi will go there. Anyone who has meditated for a long time knows this. However, those who don’t know how to meditate, when they hear someone talk about qi, they say it’s heresy. Because we observe the breath in front of the nose, some qi will be concentrated in the human body. At this time, the heart must distinguish clearly, not to observe the sense of qi, only the wind of the breath is allowed. If you observe the sense of qi, you will feel that the human body is getting heavier and numb. If you observe for a longer period of time, your entire lips will become numb. At this time, you should observe the feeling of numbness and swelling in addition to breathing. However, the feeling of wind breath is not the feeling of skin numbness, so the feeling of numbness in the human body is not what you need to observe when you observe the breath. The state, physical pain and numbness are not the state to observe in and out of breath.
Those who don’t know how to observe the in-and-out breath will focus on two things: one is to pay attention to the breath, and the other is to pay attention to the numbness and swelling of the breath. Some people also pay attention to the third thing, that is, they add an extra mind—the mind that focuses attention on people. Be clear: Of these three things, only the touch of concentrating the breath is right, and the rest are wrong. Only when we understand these three things can we not use our mind wrongly, and only then can the practice of observing breathing with one mind enter into one-pointedness of mind.
Another type of mistake in observing breathing is observing bright light, that is, observing the light in front of Yintang, or observing the light at the tip of the nose. Some people who have already opened the Tianmu point can easily see this kind of light. In fact, it is the feeling when the qi rises to the Tianmu point. As for some practices that require observing the light from the tip of the nose, that is no longer the practice of breathing in and out; for this, we can remind him that you practice with the sense of touch of body consciousness? Or is it the practice of vision based on eye consciousness? Because light is not the subject of in-and-out breathing, if you focus on the light after observing the breath, you will actually change from “observing in-and-out breathing” to “observing all in-and-out breathing”. So, ignore the light and maintain one mind on the in-and-out breath.
In fact, when observing breathing to achieve physical and mental peace, various signs will be produced-the light and peaceful signs produced by observing breathing. When explaining “breathing in and out”, “Pure Path” says: “Some people’s signs appear like stars, mani, etc. Beads, such as pearls; or (appearing) formed into thick touches like cotton, like needles (made by the heart of a tree), some are like long belts, garlands, and smoke; some appear and expand like spider silk, Clouds and shadows, like lotus flowers, like wheels, like moon wheels, and like sun wheels.” Among them, there is light-like mani beads, pearls, light like moon and sun wheels, and sensation-like tingling like needles, long belt , garlands, etc., and even see illusions in the consciousness such as spider silk, clouds, lotus flowers, wheels, etc. Why do you see these pictures? This theory explains: “This (phase – light perception, numbness, illusion) is born from thinking, with thinking as the cause, and thinking as the root; therefore, it is known that various (phases) arise from different thinking.” That is to say, there are many appearances of Qing’an, seeing the light is only one of them, and it doesn’t mean that if you don’t see the light, you will fail.
2.3 Alignment method:
In addition to body adjustment-relaxed posture, breath adjustment-dantian breathing, and mind adjustment-maintaining mindfulness and awareness. Mind-tune is to concentrate on the practice with righteous thoughts and awareness, and finally achieve one-pointedness of mind.
2.3.1 The result of adjusting the mind – one-pointedness of the mind
For any practice method of Buddhism, one must be clear about the realm to be observed in practice and how to focus on that realm. The practice of in-and-out breathing meditation is based on the breath as the realm – the sense of touch. At any time, the mind must be kept on the breath, and any thought in the mind must be related to the breath, such as observing the difference in length, thickness, heat and cold, or concentrating on counting the breath, etc., are all related to the breath. If you do that, you are one-pointed. If your mind leaves the observed breathing environment, other thoughts are not called one-pointedness of mind. The duration of one-pointedness can vary from time to time. Even if the time is short, it is one-pointedness. Concentrating for just five seconds is also one-pointedness. The one-pointedness of the mind is gradually extended, and the samadhi that ordinary people feel is produced. At this time, every thought is concentrated in the same state, which is called samadhi-samabodhi. Although you don’t distinguish everything around you when you enter the state, your consciousness is very conscious and focused on the state. Some people enter the samadhi and don’t know anything—no state, and then they have a feeling of coming back when they leave the samadhi. This is not in line with the one-pointedness of mind. The one-point nature of the mind means that the mind does not leave the original environment after thinking clearly and clearly. The environment is not necessarily the external environment with images, but also includes the invisible artistic conception in the heart.
2.3.2 Walking can overcome drowsiness and restlessness
Some people will have drowsiness, distraction, restlessness and other troubles when they sit in meditation. If you feel drowsy while sitting in meditation, don’t support yourself rigidly. For example, if you feel drowsy after sitting for fifteen minutes, you can wash your face. If you’re tired, I’ll let you go to bed. why? If you don’t get enough sleep, you will be tired and strenuous when you meditate, which is a waste of time. It is better to go to sleep for one or two hours, and then sit again, the effect will be better. Efficiency must be emphasized in meditation and study. It doesn’t mean that I sit here for an hour, or I study for an hour. If you sit for an hour and your mind keeps wandering, it is an hour of wandering. So what should I do if I feel drowsy and restless while sitting in meditation? You can take a piece of candy in your mouth, and you will drool at this time and you will no longer be drowsy; or you can get up and walk, which can overcome drowsiness and restlessness. If you sit quietly for an hour, you will be awake for the first 15 minutes, and then you will be drowsy afterwards; it is better to sit for 15 minutes and walk for 15 minutes. Repeat sitting for 15 minutes and walking for 15 minutes, the effect will be better, and the sitting time will be extended later; therefore, I will not force you to sit together. But beginners must sit at least twice an hour in the morning. For the rest of the time, you can sit and walk, and then sit again after walking.
2.3.3 Be mindful of breathing
Cultivating samadhi is not cultivating wisdom. The main point is to keep mindfulness in the samadhi, that is, to be mindful whether you are sitting or walking. When practicing contemplation of in-and-out breathing, the mind always maintains contemplation of breathing, and everything else is wrong; the four thoughts are in the contemplation of the body at the stage of meditation, only the body movements are concerned, and everything else is wrong. Similarly, it is correct to recite mantras while reciting mantras, and to recite Buddha’s name when chanting Buddha’s name. However, in the process of observing breathing, it is wrong to suddenly want to recite mantras or recite Buddha’s name. These are restless troubles. If you suddenly want to see the Buddha during the process of observing the breath, it is also wrong. At this time, the Buddha should be cut off. why? Because the method of observing the in-and-out breath is to observe the in-and-out breath to achieve the one-pointedness of the mind-taking the breath as the state. Anything that leaves the breath is wrong.
2.4 How to go through the revision stage
What happened to Jingxing? It is walking back and forth to practice. You can also practice concentration and wisdom while walking. That is to say, you can practice tranquility, and you can also practice vipassana.
2.4.1 The method of amending the travel time
The method of practicing regular walking is to walk back and forth, limited to between 15 and 20 steps, you can’t go around in circles, you can only walk back and forth in a straight line. During this back and forth process, how to maintain righteous thoughts? Before cultivating wisdom, the method of walking is mainly based on calming the mind. First of all, one must be mindful of the movements of the body. It is wrong to pay attention to things other than the movements of the body. That is to say, when the feet are walking, the heart should clearly understand the movements of the feet. At this time, it is wrong to do wisdom meditation in the sutras, because the mind cannot be settled down and the meditation cannot be done well. It is easier to clearly understand the movements of the feet after observing distracting thoughts.
If you walk slowly, watch your feet “up…down…contact, up…down…contact”. If you walk faster, watch your feet go “left…right…left…right…”. To observe in this way, when the left foot moves, the heart should know that it is the left, and when the right foot moves, the heart should know that it is the right. When you come to the end and stop, you need to know “stop”. Not only must you clearly know the movement, but you must also concentrate on reciting it, and recite whatever you do, such as “sitting…sit…sit…” when sitting, “left…right…left…right…” when walking, and “left…right…” when standing. “Stand…Stand…Stand” and say “Turn…Turn…Turn” while turning. You must clearly know the movement of your feet while thinking about the movement in your heart.
Why read it? It is to strengthen the concentration of your mind and stop doing second things. If you suddenly notice a light, your mind has left your feet. At this time, you must quickly say “know…know…” to warn yourself. This “knowing” is to remind yourself: the heart is now running to the eyes, and come back quickly to observe the feet. You should make it clear that when practicing wisdom and contemplation, observe the truth in all realms according to the Dharma. However, if you practice meditation and observe too many things on a regular basis, your mind will be confused. At this time, you must focus all your thoughts on the movements of your feet. Although you are moving, the mind only focuses on the body movements, this is the way to generate concentration while moving. This way of walking is to practice meditation with body mindfulness in motion.
2.4.2 Practice from carelessness to carefulness
In the process of walking, the mind can be thick or thin, and we should try to reach the subtle mind. When the mind is rough, you don’t feel anything. When the thoughts are relatively subtle, you can feel the friction of the muscles of the feet, and even the sound of the muscles rubbing, and even the sound of the bones. If you go to such a fine point, you are very clear about the friction of bones and muscles, you must have no distracting thoughts at this time, and you will feel particularly light and peaceful physically and mentally. When the mind is so careful that you are very concentrated, there will be a phenomenon of falling, and you will forget the balance of walking. That is to say, you are very focused on the movement of your feet. At the time of walking, the mind only maintains one thing and does not care about anything else, as long as it is aware of the movements of the feet. When you think of another thing, that is, delusions and distracting thoughts, you should quickly say: I know! Know! Then come back quickly and watch your feet carefully.
2.4.3 When revising concentration, you must maintain righteous thoughts and clear understanding at ordinary times
How long will it take to walk? No time limit, the longer the better. It would be better to be able to walk for an hour or two. If you walk peacefully with mindfulness for two hours, the effect is the same as sitting in meditation for two hours. If you don’t know how to walk, your mind may be busy with other things, thinking about things, or taking a walk, which is not walking. If you are tired from walking, you should come back and sit quietly, and if you are tired from sitting, you can go to the meditation again. Do you understand? By exchanging cultivation in this way, your mind will not feel that you have been sitting for a long time, and when you have nothing to do, you will feel troubled and want to rest. Get up and walk when your body is tired from sitting, and meditate when you are tired from walking. In this way, you can practice all day long.
If you practice continuously throughout the day, not only when walking and sitting in meditation, your mind will only focus on the method you are practicing. At other times, mindfulness and awareness must also be maintained. That is, at any time, you must be clear about your thoughts and know what you are doing. When the bell rings, a person who wants to eat and has a rigorous practice will not leave in a hurry. He will carefully observe how the thought arises, starting from the thought of eating, and observe all his actions; Observe getting up, standing, walking, serving food, etc. like Jingxing. When eating, you know clearly that you are holding the rice bowl, chewing food, swallowing, etc. The heart only observes the physical and mental changes at the moment, and does not think about the second thing. Do you understand what I said? That is, just focus on the immediate action in front of you, keep it clear in your mind, and don’t think about other things. In this case, the revision will be very fast.
second lecture
The last lecture was about the basic knowledge of the practice of mindfulness-in-out breathing, and today I will teach the skills of mindfulness-in-breathing.
3. The technique of meditation
3.1 Conditions for entering meditation
3.1.1 Li Wugai
There are many ways to practice meditation. The Buddhist meditation method requires gradual practice from the first meditation, the second meditation, the third meditation to the fourth meditation. To enter concentration, one must have some causes and conditions, that is, to leave the five hindrances at that time. The five hindrances are: drowsiness, regret, anger, doubt, and greed. When the five hindrances are not present and the practice is correct, there will be a chance to enter samadhi. If there are five hindrances, it will be difficult to attain concentration. In addition to the five hindrances, there are certain obstacles in our body that will also affect our concentration.
3.1.2 The feeling before the first jhāna—the sign of lightness and tranquility
To enter concentration, you must recognize some feelings in the process of entering concentration. If a person’s body and mind are very comfortable, and his practice is correct, then he will have the phenomenon of lightness and tranquility before entering meditation. That is, the whole body is very comfortable, and most people feel that the whole body is light and light. People who are new to meditation will have the phenomenon of light security before entering meditation. For example, some people feel that their bodies are getting bigger and bigger, and even the whole body is expanding, so big that they feel that they fill the world; Some people will feel that their bodies are getting smaller and smaller; some people will feel that their bodies are floating. These feelings are the signs of light tranquility that will be produced before entering the first meditation in any practice. As for the peaceful signs mentioned in the previous lecture, they are not common, and they are only produced by observing the breath. The joy of entering concentration will be produced after lightening the peace. The first jhana, the second jhana, and the third jhana all have different feelings of happiness. In the fourth jhana, there will be no joyful feeling.
A person who enters meditation will definitely feel very comfortable and happy all over his body, and this happy feeling will make his original sickness and discomfort disappear. In addition, when he enters meditation, his breathing must be very even and comfortable, and his breathing must become subtle. From these phenomena, we can distinguish some situations of entering concentration. According to the classics, the five things of enlightenment, view, joy, joy, and concentration will arise when entering the first meditation, which are called the five branches of the first meditation. With awareness and insight, leaving birth and joy, entering the first dhyana.” How to use these five factors to determine the entry into samadhi? You can concentrate your thoughts on the same state (the samadhi branch), observe that your thoughts and breathing have become finer (the awareness, the observation branch), and feel that the body is very comfortable (the joy, the joy branch), and use these phenomena to confirm that you have entered the samadhi . Generally, those who are new to samadhi can’t tell the difference clearly, so they don’t need to pay attention to the five elements of the first jhana first, so as not to be distracted; For a while, he felt sore, numb, and painful in his feet and thought about it; he didn’t know that the pain meant that he was in joy, happiness, and concentration, but later he knew that the pain meant that he was out of concentration. why? Because the first jhana has only pleasant feeling and no painful feeling. In other words, when you sit quietly until your mind is calm and your body is very comfortable, you will immediately feel pain all over your body as soon as you rest, which means that you have entered the first meditation before resting. Many people who practice meditation have the above experience, but these people find numbness and pain and don’t believe that they have entered meditation! The reason is that I was misled by those teachers who taught scriptures. It turned out that this person felt pain and numbness when he came out of samadhi for a moment. Due to the lack of samadhi in the first jhana, it is easy to be affected by the sound. “Chengshi Lun” describes the samadhi of the first jhana as weak as water on a flower . Therefore, many people think that they have not entered the samadhi.
3.1.3 Entering samadhi is not waiting for opportunities
As I just said, the process of entering concentration includes changes in breathing, changes in thoughts, and changes in pleasant feelings. Many people don’t know how to use these changes to realize the path to concentration. Sitting continuously for a long time, he unconsciously entered samadhi. When do you enter? How to enter? Do not know at all. These people often think that they have to sit for a long time to get into samadhi. In fact, it takes a long time to enter the meditation, but he does not know how to enter the meditation, he does not know when he entered the meditation, and he does not know how to enter the meditation.
Those who know how to practice meditation must know how to enter and exit meditation. People who don’t know how to practice meditation, even if they have entered the meditation, they don’t know that they have entered the meditation, and they are still waiting in the meditation. Many monks can enter the first jhana, second jhana, third jhana, and even cultivate to the fourth jhana. How do they settle down? It turned out that every time he took a seat, he always wanted to experience a certain strange feeling of sitting in meditation, and then waited… Wait, when the time came, the experience he expected came out again, and he fell into meditation like this. Most of the monks “look forward” to the experience of the last meditation, which shows that they don’t know the skills of meditation, and they don’t know how to observe the process of meditation. It can also be settled in an instant. Since these people don’t know how to observe the process of entering concentration, they have to wait for the comfortable feeling of concentration that they have experienced. When the strange experience appears, they think: Oh! I’m in samadhi again, but I don’t know what samadhi I’m in.
3.2 Entering the first meditation: the breath becomes thinner, the mind becomes thinner without distracting thoughts, and joyful feelings arise
To learn meditation, you must learn to understand the process of entering meditation. In fact, the process is very simple. Why is it so simple? Because there is a happy feeling in meditation, the breath is very thin, and the mind is also very subtle. Based on these three things, we can say that all the process of entering concentration must be: the breath changes from coarse to fine, the mind changes from coarse to fine, and the body changes from no pleasant feeling to happy feeling. That is to say, to understand the process of entering meditation, you must carefully observe that at least the above three things are changing.
3.2.1 Training to understand the three things of concentration: breath, mind, and joy
When should we observe these three things? When you sit in meditation, sit until your breathing is very thin, your mind is calm and free of distracting thoughts, and when pleasant feelings appear throughout your body, you should not be lingering on the Zen music without distracting thoughts, and quit immediately. Why? Because when you find that your body is happy, your mind becomes thinner, and your breathing becomes thinner, immediately withdraw from concentration, and carefully observe the changes of these three things when you quit. retreat. When retreating to no-pleasure feeling, you must immediately think that you want to enter meditation again, and then focus on practicing Dharma again. Since you have just withdrawn from concentration, you must have the ability to return to the first jhana in a short time (because you have just come down from the first jhana, you must have the ability to return to the first jhana). Just when you concentrate again, pay attention to observe the changes of the three things in concentration – the breathing becomes thinner, the mind becomes thinner, and the pleasant feeling appears again. These are three very important things, because this process is the path to meditation. So you need to observe how the mind changes from coarse to fine, how the breath changes from coarse to fine, and how it changes from no pleasant feeling to pleasant feeling. This is the way to enter meditation. When should you observe these three things? The timing (heating) for beginners to grasp is when the breathing is very thin (awareness and observation become subtle), the mind is calm without distracting thoughts (centered), and the whole body is pleasant (joy and happiness).
For beginners, every time they sit in meditation, they have to think: Ah, I am going to enter samadhi now! Generally it cannot be done. He has to sit for a period of time until the pleasant feeling is about to come out, there are no distracting thoughts, the thoughts are subtle, and the breathing is subtle. At this time, the time (fire) for observation has come, and he should withdraw quickly at this time. Once you quit, you think I’m going to enter meditation again now! At this time, you must be able to observe the changes of three things in the process of entering concentration: thoughts, breathing and pleasant feelings.
3.2.2 Repeat the practice of entering and exiting samadhi, and lengthen the time in samadhi
When the heat is enough, carefully and repeatedly observe the thoughts, breathing and pleasant feelings in the process of entering meditation, and you will understand the original process of entering meditation. You must repeat the training, go in and out, come out and go in again, the more times you do it, the better. In the future, the speed of entering samadhi will become faster and faster. Ordinary people don’t know how to practice meditation repeatedly, they just cling to pleasant feelings and stay in the meditation and don’t want to come out. Therefore, anyone who enters samadhi for the first time must not fail to come out once he enters samadhi. It should be to come out as soon as you enter. After the first stage of training is repeated many times, the second stage is to stay in the center for five minutes before coming out. Keep doing it repeatedly until you become very proficient, and only after you know how to settle down can you strengthen your concentration. The so-called strengthening of concentration means that you do not come out immediately after entering. When practicing strengthening concentration, how long should you stay in concentration? Beginners should not take too long to enter the first meditation for the first time, five minutes will be fine. Set in five minutes before coming out, and then go in for five minutes and come out. why? Because beginners stay in the first jhana for too long, they may enter the second jhana, or a higher meditation. At this time, the breathing is thinner, the mind is thinner, and happier, but you still think it is the first jhana, so you Can’t tell the difference in the thickness of the mind between different meditations. In the second stage, I am very familiar with the meditation for five minutes, and I am very sure, and then I enter the meditation for ten or fifteen minutes each time. After 15 minutes, if you are sure, you can enter meditation for more than an hour, and strengthen your concentration in this way. In the second stage, when practicing to strengthen the concentration of the first meditation, you should be able to enter the first meditation for one hour each time, and enter and exit four times within four hours; this will not only stabilize the concentration of the first meditation, but also know how to exit and enter. When you feel that this concentration is very stable, then you can try to enter another meditation. This is the so-called meditation technique.
3.3 Recognize the interference of qi——air blockage, qi string, fire qi retention
There are some obstacles to beginners in meditation. One is the obstacle of the five hindrances, and the other is the obstacle of the body:
3.3.1 Blockage of air channels—blocked disease air causes pain on the body
Regarding physical barriers, one is on the chest and one is on the back. When sitting in meditation, there will be qi movement in the body. That is to say, when you concentrate on what you are observing, your whole body will inevitably relax. As soon as the body is relaxed, the qi will start to circulate, and at this time the qigong master will think that you are practicing qigong. In fact, it is not the case, because your mind is focused on one environment and you ignore your body, so your body will naturally relax, and the qi in your body will start to circulate. At that time, if the Qi meridian in the body is blocked, it will cause pain when the Qi circulates there, and then it will not be possible to practice meditation. People suffering from cold and dampness or muscle injuries usually have air blockages in the back and legs, and those caused by respiratory or psychological problems usually have air blockages in the chest. Stomach upset or hiccups at some point.
Most people don’t take good care of their bodies, and there will be places where they can’t breathe. Therefore, many people are always disturbed by pain and discomfort in the first three days of learning to meditate. In fact, when you meditate until the sense of qi is activated, the pain in your body means that you are meditating well. Why say yes? The reason is that I have a disease in my body and I don’t know it at ordinary times. When I meditate, Qi will automatically open up the focus of the disease and cause pain. At this time, it is best for you to deal with the pain. If you do not deal with it, the sickness will interfere with your meditation. If you don’t deal with it and insist on sitting every day, it will slowly and automatically open up, but it will take a long time. If you find any pain, you have to deal with it, don’t think that the occurrence of pain is the wrong teaching of the teacher, or the wrong practice. If you have been frightened during meditation, you will experience chest pain every time you sit in meditation. You should seek medical advice from a doctor or qigong master to help you recuperate, so as not to interfere with meditation. If you are frightened while sitting in meditation, do not open your eyes and move immediately. You should calm down and focus on the Dantian, swallow your saliva or draw the Qi to the Dantian, and find someone to adjust the Qi to deal with it afterwards.
There are several important parts on the back, namely perineum, gate of life, lung acupoint (same as Feishu), Dazhui, jade pillow, etc. During meditation, qi will naturally flow through these chakra points. If these parts are blocked, it will cause hard , tight, cold, hot and other phenomena. The Mingmen behind the navel is cold, which can cause cold and numb legs. Also, the lung acupoints on the back of the chest will swell and hurt once they catch cold. When you catch a cold, Dazhui tends to be cold, sore and blocked. If Ojo is blocked, you will feel very hot on the back, but cool above the neck, this is because the Qi cannot circulate. If the jade pillow at the back of the head is blocked, you will feel that the whole neck is hot and the back of the head is heavy, which means that the jade pillow acupoint is blocked and blocked. If there is such a phenomenon, you must deal with it. If you can’t handle it, as long as you sit for a long time, even if you are troubled for a period of time, you will eventually pass.
When the qi hits the lesion and causes pain, it means that you have made progress in meditation. People who don’t understand will retreat because of the pain, and even suspect that the teacher taught them wrong, or that this practice is not suitable for them. However, the problem is that I have a serious illness.
The following pains are not caused by chronic diseases, but caused by carelessness and ignorance of “Qi” during meditation:
3.3.2 Keeping air on the head – causing headaches after a long time
After a few days of continuous meditation, most people experience swelling and pain in the temples and between the eyebrows, cracked lips, tongue pain, mouth sores, and inability to sleep. These phenomena are caused by ignorance of Qi. why? It turns out that when sitting in meditation, the internal energy will naturally rise to the head. Many people rest without realizing that there is air left in the head. Every time they sit in meditation, a little bit is left, and the head will be swollen and painful after a few days of hard work. When the situation is serious, the virtual fire will rise, causing cracked lips, tongue headache, aphthous sores, and insomnia and other ills. These are the qi left on the head, which causes deficiency fire and disease qi. At this time, you should drink more decoctions such as reducing fire. However, the more important thing is to adjust the fire qi on the head. Many monks became sick when they were disturbed by qi while practicing meditation. It was because they were ignorant of the movement of qi that they became “false fire heretics”, but they called qigong masters heretics . On the contrary, qigong practitioners ridicule Buddhist practitioners for not cultivating their minds but blocking their Qi vessels. Similarly, when I talk about dealing with qi here, many monks will call me a heretic, alas! Isn’t it better to meditate after regulating Qi and unblocking the meridian? Should Buddhists chant scriptures and seek blessings from Buddha when they are sick? Practitioners are not allowed to adjust qi and unblock the meridians, and are not allowed to see a doctor and take medicine? Didn’t the Buddha say that regulating Qi and seeing a doctor are heretics? Does the fact that Buddhism is the most correct mean that all laws other than Buddhism are crooked? This kind of thinking is religious extremism. I hope you are not, otherwise you will secretly scold me as heretics in regulating Qi and Tongmai.
Therefore, every time after sitting in meditation, there will be qi in certain parts of the head. If you are sure to deal with these qi, you can use any method to deal with it. There is no difference between Buddhism and non-Buddhism to deal with the blockage of qi. So there are good methods for non- traditionalists can also be used . Those who learn to meditate should follow the rules set by Taoism: After meditating, rub your palms together, comb your hair with your claws, wash your face with your palms, and massage your hands and feet with your fingers. Be careful not to open your eyes immediately while massaging. After the massage, you can open your eyes.
Massage is to let you evacuate the qi that stays on your head or body. In addition, some people go to sleep after sitting in meditation. If they do not evacuate their qi, it is easy to cause pain in certain parts of the body after a long time. If you know how to deal with these “qi retention” problems, you will not be disturbed by qi. Otherwise, you will end up feeling disheartened by sitting until you feel uncomfortable all over.
After sitting in meditation for a certain period of time, sensitive people will find that there is Qi circulating in the body, and most people have experienced swollen temples. Why is this? It turns out that cultivating the mind and cultivating the character will produce pure qi, while greed, hatred and lust will produce dirty qi, and the filthy qi will automatically descend. The pure air rises towards the head automatically, and the purer the air rises higher, the highest reaches the Baihui acupoint on the top of the head. When the mind is pure enough to be close to the first meditation, the pure qi in your body will rise to the level of the eyebrows, which is a level, not a point between the eyebrows. During the second meditation, the pure qi will rise to the level of the hairline, that is, between the hair and the forehead. During the third jhana, there will be a puff of pure qi on the top of the head, and during the fourth jhana, that qi will be outside the top of the head. Careful meditation practitioners will find this phenomenon. After anyone sits in meditation, these parts will have qi. Because many people do not understand this phenomenon, they instead strengthen those qi during meditation. For example, when they find that there is a feeling of qi in the head, they pay attention to it. Once they pay attention to it, it will add fuel to the fire, causing some people to have headaches in different parts.
It is a natural physiological phenomenon when it comes to the sense of air in different parts of the head when entering concentration; however, this phenomenon cannot be used to judge the level of concentration, because anyone will have the same feeling as long as the mind is concentrated on those parts. Moreover, many meditators tend to focus their minds on those parts unconsciously, and because they concentrate their minds there unconsciously, eight or nine out of ten people have headaches after sitting . Also because of this, many meditators tend to have false fires rising. And when I teach meditation, it is always for the sake of these ignorant meditators—don’t become a “heretical way of imagining fire” (but scolding that regulating qi and dredging the meridian is a heretic), and I tell the organizer to make herbal tea to reduce the fire every day.
3.3.3 Before getting out of the seat, massage and pat to let the Qi return to its normal state
Every time after sitting in meditation, you must let the qi in your head come down. Those who are sensitive will know, those who are not sensitive will not. Those who are not sensitive must massage well after sitting in meditation to prevent the air from staying on the head. If you can’t handle it with massage, you can do some visualization, visualize the qi slowly descending from the head, or you can use the palm of your hand to face your head and slowly pull it down, through the chest to the dantian, and repeat this action. If it doesn’t work, you can pat the qi left on your head with a hollow palm (not a flat palm). After shooting, you will feel the air on your head sticking to your hands, and you have to shake it off. If you know how to deal with the obstruction of breath, it is not difficult to enter meditation.
Some people have been sitting for a long time, although they have no distracting thoughts, they can’t enter into meditation and feel happy. why? Most of the reasons are due to physical illness, and the inability to concentrate strongly due to the weakness of the mind, so it is impossible to enter samadhi. Because it requires a strong concentration of mind power, if the mind is weak, and the concentration cannot reach a certain level, there is no way to enter the concentration, that is to say, those who are deficient in energy cannot concentrate the energy required for concentration. Therefore, people with weaker bodies must supplement more external energy than ordinary people, that is, those with Qi deficiency should take some Qi-invigorating medicines before sitting in meditation. Due to the problem of qi deficiency and qi excess, it is best for the meditation camp to provide two kinds of decoctions for reducing fire qi and nourishing qi.
3.4 Self-righteousness and external aura will affect meditators
Many people have the experience that it is easy for them to calm down when they go to a certain place, especially in the practice places of people who practiced Taoism in the past. In fact, the aura of that place is very good and has blessing power. Although a good external aura is helpful for samadhi, it is better to rely on the external aura than to rely on one’s own aura, that is, after sitting in meditation for a long time, the body will form its own aura. As for people with Qi deficiency, they need to take some Qi-invigorating medicine to strengthen their meditation, and then their meditation will improve; for healthy people, it is better to take less tonic.
Do not change the place of meditation. If you are at home, it is best to sit in the same seat every day, and you will form an aura in this seat. When you return to the same seat in the future, you will be able to settle down very quickly. This is due to the influence of the environment. Also, if the fellow practitioners around you sit well, you will be honored if you get close to them. That is to say, his aura helps you, but your aura interferes with him. If his aura is strong, your disturbance to him will be very slight and have no effect. If his own aura is not very strong, if your aura interferes with him, he will be upset if he is sensitive. The aura of a sick person will also interfere with fellow practitioners around you. Therefore, if you feel uncomfortable sitting in this position, you may be able to change your seat.
3.5 Choice of revision time length
How long does it take to sit in meditation? It is not necessary to insist on sitting a stick of incense, why? If you are not drowsy, restless, scattered, you must persevere. If you have severe drowsiness, restlessness, and distraction, then you have to measure the time yourself. If you sit very well for the first 15 minutes, and then feel drowsy, restless, and distracted afterward, and this happens every time. If you sit very well for the first 5 minutes of meditation, your efficiency will be poor after 15 minutes. I advise you not to insist. What should I do? That is to practice meditation and walking alternately, that is, first sit for fifteen minutes, walk for fifteen minutes, then sit for fifteen minutes, and walk for fifteen minutes. If you practice like this, that is to say, within four to fifteen minutes, you can have clear mindfulness while walking and sitting quietly, then that kind of cultivation will be very effective. If, after sitting for fifteen minutes, you cannot concentrate on sitting for an hour because of poor energy, that is a waste of time. Don’t listen to people saying that it is a good thing to insist on sitting a stick of incense, not necessarily! Everyone is different, if you have a bad day today, lack of sleep, or fatigue due to other reasons, then I advise you to go to bed quickly. If it is not annoyance but mental fatigue, it will be better to sit up after a full sleep.
Is it better to stay in samadhi for as long as possible? indefinite! If you want to meditate deeply, you have to sit as long as possible. If not, never sit for too long. Why? If you sit in meditation for a long time, you will become greedy. What are you greedy for? It’s just that every time he goes in, he doesn’t want to come out. Once you are in samadhi, you don’t want to come out. This is greed. Therefore, when practicing meditation, it is best to set a time for getting out of concentration before entering concentration. If you want to enter the first jhana, you should stipulate yourself: Now I want to enter the first jhana for one hour, and within this hour, do not go to higher samadhi or descend. If I want to enter the first meditation for fifteen minutes now, I must come out after fifteen minutes.
3.6 There are three types of freedom in meditation
There are three kinds of ease in meditation, that is, ease into concentration, ease out of concentration, and ease in concentration.
What is being at ease? The ease of entering samadhi means that I can enter any samadhi I want at any time, which is called the ease of samadhi. For example, if I want to enter the first jhana, I can enter the first jhana in one breath; if I want to enter the third jhana, I can enter the third jhana in one breath. If I want to stay in the first jhana, my mind will always slip to the second or third jhana, but I will automatically go to the third jhana. This is because the first jhana is not comfortable in concentration. There are many old practitioners who have entered samadhi, and their minds always want to go to a more comfortable samadhi and make the mistake of being uncomfortable in samadhi. What is being at ease? If I want to enter meditation for 20 minutes and come out in 20 minutes on time, this is called being in meditation. If I want to enter meditation for 20 minutes, but only come out after an hour, I am greedy for meditation and feel uncomfortable in meditation, do you understand? That is to say, before you enter the meditation, you have to decide how long I will stay in the meditation now, and then when the time is up, it is not greed. If you need twenty minutes, but it takes an hour to emerge from concentration, you are greedy and uncomfortable. The ease of coming out of samadhi means that a person who sits in meditation wants to go out of samadhi, and as soon as he thinks about it, he comes out, and his body and mind return to the state before entering samadhi. Don’t think that once you open your eyes, you can get out of samadhi, but your body and mind will return to normal. Those who are not comfortable in samadhi generally feel that their hair is bloated, trapped by qi, and very uncomfortable. This is because they are not comfortable in samadhi and cannot open their eyes immediately. Therefore, there are so-called freedom in and out of concentration and freedom in concentration in the practice of meditation. After you are familiar with all kinds of meditation, it is best to preset the time in meditation before each meditation.
3.7 Differences in Meditation
3.7.1 The difference between access concentration and absorption concentration
I just said that there are one, two, three, and four meditations in meditation. I use the analogy of climbing a building. The first, second, third, and fourth meditations are the level of energy concentrated in the mind. Just like you go up a building, the first floor, the second floor, the third floor, and the fourth floor represent the first meditation, the second meditation, the third meditation, and the fourth meditation. Different samadhis are different levels of concentration—the concentrated energy of the mind. When the mind reaches the concentration before entering meditation, it is called access concentration. There are access concentration of the first jhana and access concentration of the second jhana… What is access concentration? Access concentration is as if you go up the stairs to a certain floor, but you can still climb up or down the steps on that floor without entering the room. Entering root samadhi is also called Anzhi samadhi. Entering root samadhi is like stepping off a ladder and entering a room and not being able to climb up and down. If you travel close, you will be able to go up and down. The access concentration of the first jhana has not reached the form realm, so it is called the unreached ground concentration, and the access concentration of the second jhana and above is in the middle of all the jhanas, so it is called the middle jhana. The access concentration of the first jhāna means that the concentration of the mind has reached the level of the first jhāna, but has not yet entered the root concentration of the first jhāna. When you enter the root concentration of the first meditation, you will have the feeling of entering, and the whole person will sink into it. At this time, if you want to go up and down another samadhi, you have to come out from the samadhi of the root samadhi (called samadhi) of the first jhana—the samadhi of access samadhi (not samadhi), and you will There is a feeling of coming out of it. Going in and out of fundamental samadhi is like going in and out of a room, and going up and down is like going up and down stairs outside the door. Going up and down in meditation is different from going in and out.
3.7.2 Differences in experience between meditations
The biggest difference between the first jhana and the second jhana is: the mentality of the first jhana is conscious and contemplative, because it has a discerning mind about other states besides breathing, so it is easy to be disturbed by sound. When a person of the first dhyana hears the sound, every word hits his ears, and his heart is confused. Therefore, the Buddha said that the sound is the thorn of the first dhyana. The state of mind of the Second Chan is non-aware and non-contemplative, because there is no discrimination for other realms, so the Second Chan listens to the voice, and every sentence is incomprehensible, and the mind is as if it does not move.
The difference between the third Zen and the second Zen is: in the third Zen, the sound seems to be far away, and more importantly, the body is no longer felt. Feeling happy in the whole body, but don’t know where the body is. According to the “Virtuous Way” of Southern Buddhism, one cannot hear the sound after entering the first meditation, and it mistakenly refers to the relevant sutras on the last page of meditation.
Because the breathing of the third jhana is very weak, it feels like the head is still there. Some people will find it difficult to breathe when they go to the third jhana. The main reason is that their breathing is not normal. It is usually caused by a problem in the chest. , irritability and nervous troubles cause qi stagnation at Tanzhong point. Even when it comes to the access concentration of the third jhana, the heart will speed up. why? Because the breathing is very subtle at this time, people with weak heart will feel that the heart will beat faster. These people should stay in the second meditation for a longer time, let the body get used to it slowly, and then go to the third meditation. It is best to take more medicines that invigorate the heart, especially medicines for cerebral hypoxia. Therefore, if you have trouble breathing and rapid heartbeat after entering meditation because your body cannot adapt during this period, I recommend eating “Rhodiola rosea” at this time. Some people may think this way, why do you still have breathing problems after entering samadhi? The problem is that this person’s breathing is not normal at all, and his heart has enough power to enter the second and third meditations of the second and third jhanas, which are relatively subtle in breathing. When the heart speeds up, he will be fine as long as he takes the medicine for cerebral hypoxia. However, taking medicine is only to alleviate the difficulty of blood oxygen production during this period. To solve the sub-health problem of brain hypoxia after returning home, you should do more aerobic exercise. In addition, as long as these people do not pay attention and quickly enter the samadhi, and gradually strengthen and enter the samadhi, everything will be normal.
After practicing the fourth meditation, breathing will stop. Some people can’t stop breathing, so they can only stay in the fourth jhana access concentration, and cannot enter the fourth jhana. If you go deep into the four jhānas and cannot hear the sound, that is the best fourth jhāna. If a person is in the fourth jhana and cannot hear the sound, he can further practice the fifth samadhi. If you only practice the access concentration of the fourth jhana and still hear the sound, you cannot enter the fifth concentration.
The higher the meditation, the stronger the concentration, the finer the mind, the finer the breathing, and the happier the feeling. However, there is an obvious phenomenon in going from the third jhana to the fourth jhana, that is, once you enter the fourth jhana from the third jhana, the pleasant feeling will disappear immediately, and there is no pleasant feeling at all—the feeling of equanimity. If you have had the experience of the Four Dhyanas, you will know what equanimity is, that is, the mind of equanimity without artificiality. The mind of the Fourth Dhyana is not artificial, and it is very pure—the mindfulness is pure.
3.8 Zhixinyiyi has nothing to do
If you have clearly experienced the first jhana to the fourth jhana, no matter whether you practice Tantric Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, or any practice in the future, you can use meditation to judge the thickness of the mind. Practicing meditation is like sharpening a knife. The efficiency of cutting things depends on how sharp the knife is sharpened. The efficiency of practice is the speed of entering meditation. If today you sit down and can’t even attend the first meditation, but you want to practice Yamantaka, or Dzogchen, or Zen, no matter if you practice any method, you will not be able to practice well. You should know that this is because of distraction. heart to repair. Understand? However, if you can enter the Fourth Dhyana today, then practicing any method is very effective, because you practice with a pure heart. That is to say, no matter what method you practice in Buddhism, the effects you get will be different if you practice with different degrees of effort. The pure mind of the Four Dhyanas is something practitioners must strive for. Therefore, if the mind cannot be calm and is just thinking wildly, it is nonsense to practice Huatou Zen Qi in this way, and it will become a “Zang Qi” with entangled afflictions. why? My heart can’t even settle down, and I have a lot of troubles. It’s the troubles that are entangled, and I think it’s meditation. To cultivate any Dharma door, one must cultivate wisdom and become enlightened, and before cultivating wisdom, one must have concentration. Buddhism says that there is wisdom but there is no certainty, it is called crazy wisdom. Crazy wise people worry a lot and say they are wiser than others. Therefore, it is helpful to master meditation before practicing any method. If one does not realize that samadhi is the foundation of wisdom, if one does not have enough samadhi to practice advanced methods, one does not know what kind of heart one should use to practice. I emphasize again: To cultivate wisdom, you must first practice meditation well.
3.9 Q&A
Question: You said just now that if there is an obstacle in the body, it needs to be eliminated before you can continue to sit? Can’t insist on sitting down?
Answer: You can persevere and bear the pain, but persevering is just asking for trouble. For example, if your foot hurts, you can insist on ignoring it until you sit down. After a few weeks, the breath may pass without pain. But it’s better not to bear it, you can massage it quickly to relax it, and then it will be easy to enter the samadhi again within three or two days.
Question: Do you not know the pain after entering meditation? answer. Once you get into samadhi, you don’t know the pain, but after you get out of samadhi, it hurts again. Pain means that you are no longer in the samadhi, because in the samadhi there is either pleasant feeling or equanimity. Since there is pain and you can’t enter meditation, why endure it for half an hour! It’s better to deal with the pain, and sometimes you can fall into meditation after five minutes.
Question: Can you hear the sound in the first meditation?
Answer: Upali listened to the instructions of the Buddha and adjusted his breath to enter the fourth jhāna. Some people say that you can’t hear the sound in the first meditation. That is a practitioner who is too focused on the mind, and the other five senses are like this. If you practice inhalation and exhalation, and focus on the touch of the body root, you will definitely hear the sound, and the sound will gradually disappear only when there is no breathing in the fourth dhyana.
Answer: Is it necessary to see the light at the end of the nose when entering the first meditation? Answer: The Buddha never said that one must see light when observing the in-and-out breath. However, looking at the light can also enter concentration, but that is no longer observing the in-and-out breath, but practicing observation of all in-and-out breaths to enter concentration.
third lecture
3.10 Misconceptions about meditation
3.10.1 I do not know what set
In the process of practice, meditation is to obtain pure mindfulness. Different samadhis have different subtle minds and concentration. The deeper the samadhi, the more concentrated the mind, and the purer and more subtle the mind. The mind of the first meditation is relatively rough, while the fourth meditation is relatively subtle. The purpose of practicing meditation is to strive for a subtle and pure mind. Therefore, in the process of practicing meditation, we have to practice to distinguish what is the first jhana, the second jhana, the third jhana and the fourth jhana. Before I knew these meditations, because I didn’t get the teacher’s instruction, I used to practice blindly. Later I thought that I should sit for twelve hours a day, four hours per seat. Sitting like this every day, I sit back and forth until I reach samadhi and I don’t know what samadhi is. This is blind practice and ignorance of meditation. I asked people everywhere, but no one could explain clearly. Until one day I met a Zen master, and I asked him: Are you teaching people to practice meditation?
He said: yes.
I asked again: When you teach meditation, do you know what samadhi your students have entered?
He said: Of course I know. If you don’t know, you can’t teach.
After hearing this, I was very happy to learn from him. Because I have been to many ashrams and asked a lot of people, they only teach you to meditate, but I can’t tell what samadhi the students have entered. Some mages said: Oh! Don’t practice meditation anymore, you will be possessed by demons, and you should recite the Buddha’s name! Only after I learned from that Zen master did I realize that the first Zen to the fourth Zen are like this. Only then did I realize that sitting for twelve hours a day was just blind practice and a waste of time. Why? It turns out that sitting for four hours may only be in the first jhana, or it may be in the second, third, or fourth jhana, depending on how deep your concentration is during that period. At that time, you will return to the same concentration every time. I only know how to return to the original samadhi, but I don’t know how far I have samadled, and I don’t know how to move forward. This situation is like entering a deep mountain and old forest, losing your way and doing nothing anymore.
According to that Zen master, if one can enter concentration, one minute or four hours in the first meditation is the first meditation, it does not depend on the length of time in concentration. I was once misled by a teacher who didn’t know how to meditate, thinking that it takes a long time to sit for a long time to count. In order to convince everyone, I will give some examples.
3.10.2 Examples of meditation in the classics
“Buddhist Practice Collection Sutra” records the karma of Upali: At that time, the mother of Upali’s boy told Upali to say the following: You Upali! You shaved off your beard and hair for the Tathagata. Don’t let your body be too low to disturb your mind. At that time, Upali entered the first meditation.
The first example is the story of Venerable Upali, who attained meditation while shaving the Buddha’s head. His mother said, “You Upali! You shave your beard and hair for the Tathagata. Don’t let your body be too low to disturb your heart.” So he raised his body, because it was the Buddha’s head, and he shaved the Buddha’s hair very carefully. Unknowingly, he enters the first meditation. Even when it came to the third meditation, his mother told him, “You and the Tathagata shave off your beard and hair, don’t let your exhalation be too much to disturb your heart.” Upali adjusted his exhalation after listening to it and entered the fourth jhana. At that time, Venerable Upali was standing with a razor. Before entering the first meditation, he carefully calculated (contemplated) how to shave the Buddha’s hair well. When he entered the third meditation, he could still hear the words of the Buddha and his mother. different set. In this example, I want everyone to pay attention: Venerable Upali did not cross his legs at that time, but he was still listening to the Buddha’s teachings. He changed from focusing on the Buddha’s hair to adjusting his breathing. This is the key to his entering the first meditation. Yes, that is, the time for him to enter these four samadhis is very short. Therefore, don’t hear the rumor that you have no thoughts, you can’t hear the sound, and it takes a long time to enter samadhi. This is not the in-and-out breathing concept taught by the Buddha.
The second example is the story of Venerable Mulian. It is possible to enter meditation very quickly, so how fast is it? Once, Venerable Mulian went to subdue a dragon. He used supernatural powers to make himself very small, and got into the dragon’s nostrils. The dragon wanted to drive the Venerable out, so it exhaled. When the dragon started exhaling, the Venerable Mulian entered the Fourth Jhana in an instant. Then, the dragon could not breathe out him, because the Venerable had entered the fourth jhana inside, and it could not breathe out no matter how much he shouted. In other words, the Venerable entered into samadhi the moment the dragon breathed out. So entering and exiting meditation can be very fast. The Zen master said: You can enter the fourth meditation in just one breath. Most people think that it takes a long time to enter the Fourth Dhyana slowly. These people mistake themselves and others. That is to say, if you know how to practice, you can enter meditation very quickly, and you can also come out very quickly. You can be in and out of the four jhānas in a few seconds, and that counts as the four jhānas as well. But those who don’t understand will say, what kind of Four Zens are these? Is it the fourth jhana if you enter it for a few seconds? They say that meditation cannot be like this! In fact, whatever samadhi you entered at that time is the samadhi, not the length of time you entered the samadhi. In addition, many people think that after entering meditation, they cannot think about things, which is wrong. In addition, some people think that after entering meditation, they can no longer hear outside sounds. This is also a huge mistake. In fact, the Venerable Upali listened to the Buddha’s guidance while concentrating on concentration.
Let me tell you another story from the precepts. Once, Venerable Mulian entered the samadhi of the Formless Realm. According to Buddhism, formless samadhi means there is no perception of matter, you can’t see things, you can’t hear sounds. But Venerable Mulian said to some monks, I entered the samadhi of the formless realm, when I heard the sound of an elephant patting the water with its ears in a distant river. Those monks said he was lying. why? Because those monks are proficient in the Dharma, they know that it is impossible to hear the sound when entering the formless concentration. Venerable Mulian insisted that when I entered the Formless Realm, I heard the sound of elephants slapping the water of the Ganges River. Then, the monks dragged him to see the Buddha, saying that he was lying. The Buddha asked Venerable Mulian: Have you really entered the samadhi of the formless realm? Venerable Mulian replied: Yes. The Buddha asked him again: Did you really hear the sound of the elephant patting the water with its ears? He said again: Yes! In the end, the Buddha still agreed with Venerable Mulian to enter the colorless definition. The Buddha explained: Venerable Mulian has entered the concentration of the formless realm, but he can come out quickly and go in again. When he comes out, he can hear the sound of elephants splashing water. Venerable Mulian came out of samadhi instantly after hearing the sound, but he didn’t realize that he had been out of samadhi for a while. This example shows that when entering samadhi, sometimes you will go out of samadhi and enter again immediately. Then, at the moment when you come out of the fourth jhana, you may feel pain in your feet and hear a sound, and then immediately return to the fourth jhana and you will not hear the sound and your feet will no longer hurt. This is possible. Therefore, don’t think that once you hear the sound, you have never entered the colorless definition, and then blindly deny yourself by citing scriptures. We must be sure that any samadhi can temporarily come out to entertain delusions, and then quickly go back in.
3.10.2.1 Do not rely on pictures or blindly believe in authority
Due to various misunderstandings about meditation, many people have no way to distinguish whether they have entered meditation or not. why? For example, some people in Southern Buddhism say that the sound of the first dhyana disappears. However, according to “The Way of Liberation”, the sound is gradually lost after entering the meditation, and it is not heard at all until the fundamental concentration of the fourth dhyana. Some people think that “Ji She Lun” said that the second Zen can no longer smell the fragrance, so they think that smelling the fragrance has not entered meditation. In fact, “Ji She Lun” says that the heavenly beings above the first jhāna level do not eat or have the sense of nose and tongue, but they can come out of the first jhāna to smell the fragrance. Even celestial beings in the Four Zen Heavens can see the whole universe if they want to see things! Even the gods and humans of the Four Dhyanas can listen as long as they want, so what is going on? There is such an explanation in “Ji She Lun Shi”: The heavenly eyes and ears of the heavenly beings of the four dhyanas are superior to those of the third dhyana, but the concentration must be lowered to the first dhyana, and the ear consciousness and eye consciousness of the first dhyana should be used to listen. , Come and see the great world. In other words, when the gods of the Four Dhyanas use the Heavenly Eye of the Four Dhyanas, their thoughts can go back and forth between the first Dhyana and the fourth Dhyana (that is, the roots are in the fourth dhyana and the consciousnesses leave the fourth dhyana and return to the fourth dhyana). If you don’t understand that each dhyana god can have a different concentration, please refer to the “Kisha Lun” which says that the four dhyana gods and humans can see and hear the realm of the lower world in the four dhyana heavens. Since the gods and humans of the Four Dhyanas can enter and leave different samadhis at the moment of samadhi. You may also unknowingly come out of the first jhana and feel leg pain, smell the fragrance, and hear the sound for a moment, and then immediately return to the first jhana, and immediately feel that the legs are no longer painful. Have you experienced this before? So don’t suspect that you have never been in samadhi from the beginning to the end because of the momentary leg pain and smelling the fragrance. You must understand that even the Venerable Mu, who has the most supernatural powers, can’t tell if you have temporarily left samadhi and heard the sound, let alone someone who has just entered samadhi.
Also, there is a very bad legend in Chinese Buddhism: the first dhyana is mindfulness, the second dhyana is resting, the third dhyana is staying, and the fourth dhyana is extinguished. The pulse of the third jhana has stopped, and the fourth jhana has already ceased to be samadhi. This is very wrong. In fact, resting and abiding are the four dhyanas. Stopping the pulse means stopping the heartbeat is at least the extinction concentration, and the extinction concentration is the ninth samadhi that has surpassed the four jhanas and eight samadhis. Therefore, many monks have been misled because of this, and they think they have not entered meditation after they have entered meditation.
So, what do the classics say about meditation?
3.11 The Right View of Meditation
For meditation, please refer to the first jhana to the fourth jhana mentioned in the Theravada and Theravada scriptures in Appendices A1 to A7. Among them are the so-called leaving the place of holding and attaining the meditation branch:
The first dhyana is separated from the five barriers and has five limbs. The five hindrances are drowsiness, restlessness, anger, lust, and suspicion. The five limbs of the first meditation include awareness, insight, joy, joy, and one-hearted concentration.
The second jhana has four limbs from awareness and insight, and the separation is the awareness and insight of the first jhana. The second jhana without awareness and insight has four limbs: inner purity, joy, joy, and concentration.
The three dhyanas get five limbs of happiness. The second jhana is the joy of the second jhana, and the second jhana of lili has five branches: equanimity, mindfulness, wisdom, happiness, and concentration.
The four dhyanas are separated from the joy to obtain the four limbs, and the bliss is the joy of the third dhyana. The four limbs obtained: equanimity, pure mindfulness, neither suffering nor happiness, and samadhi.
According to the classics, in the process of entering meditation, temporarily subdue some troubles step by step. When a person enters the first meditation, there will be no drowsiness, distraction, or anger in the concentration. If there is anger, he will not be able to enter the meditation, and there will be no desire for lust at that time. So it is said that the first meditation is free from the five hindrances. What are the doubts in it? Doubt means doubting oneself, doubting the teacher, and doubting the practice of Dharma. In that case, you will not be able to enter the first jhana. Generally, people who practice meditation do not know what the first jhana is, because they have not experienced the feeling of the first jhana, so they have no way of knowing it. How can we know the first jhana? It can be observed in this way, that is, anyone who practices meditation, after sitting to a certain level, will feel that the mind is calm, there are no distracting thoughts, and the whole body is very comfortable and happy. In fact, this is entering samadhi, but I don’t know what samadhi to enter, how to distinguish it? According to Buddhism, the first meditation has the feeling of concentration and joy, and it is impossible for the body to feel pain at that time. So, if you feel body pain all the time during meditation, it proves that you were not in meditation at that time. When you sit quietly, you feel that your mind has been settled for a long time, your body feels very comfortable, and suddenly you feel pain in your body. At this time, the immediate change from comfort to pain means that you have just come out of a certain samadhi, that is, you were in samadhi before. why? It turns out that the Qi meridian of the meditator is not fully opened, and the body will be tired after a long time of meditation, so the backache and leg pain, but I don’t know it when I enter the meditation. Because there is only the feeling of joy in the concentration, and after coming out of the concentration, I feel the pain in the legs. Experience it, congratulations!
4. How to practice the Four Zens
4.1 First Jhana
The first jhana is very rough concentration, how rough is it? The Buddha once described that sound is the thorn of the first meditation. If a person hears the sound of the outside world in the first meditation, his heart will be disturbed to the point of being unable to stand being pierced by a needle, and he will come out of samadhi. back out. Many people believe that the sound of the first meditation taught by Southern Buddhism is extinguished, and they don’t believe that they will be disturbed by the sound after entering the first meditation. My Nanchuan teacher said that the first meditation can hear the sound; What is wrong with the saying in “Tao Lun” about entering meditation without hearing the sound. It turns out that the person who enters concentration and cannot hear the sound is because the heart leaves the first five consciousnesses and turns to the nimitta of concentrated consciousness. However, the experience of not hearing sounds concentrated in consciousness should not be used to deny the hearing of sounds concentrated in body consciousness (touch) experience. In fact, many people have experienced listening to music (focusing on the composition) but not being able to hear others calling him! Also, the hypnotized person can be hypnotized (focused on the authoritative phase) only to hear the guiding voice of the hypnotist, but not the surrounding voices!
The Buddha said that you can practice meditation according to one of the first five consciousnesses. Entering meditation is the synchronization of the dharma object of consciousness with the state of one of the first five consciousnesses. environment. As for those who observe the in-and-out breath and enter the first jhana without hearing the sound, it is because they do not continue to observe the wind contact at the tip of the nose, but turn to observe the (bright) nimitta of the artistic conception of the dharma object and do not hear the sound, but the light is not the in-and-out breath! Please refer to “Zhuan Falun Pin” in the corresponding part of C1 The Southern Tradition in the appendix: Brahmas and humans can speak to each other. C2 “Other Views” corresponding to Brahma in the Southern Legend: The arhat went to Brahma and entered the fire to speak. C3 The Southern Transcript of Brahma’s Correspondence to “Aluna Yuetti”: Teach Buddhism in Brahma. C4 Nanzhuan “Zengzhibu”: The pronunciation of Buddhist disciples living in the Brahma world. C5 Miscellaneous Agama scriptures: You can still hear sounds, see colors, and move thoughts when you are in Brahma. Here, the Southern scriptures mention that “arhats go to the Brahma and enter the fire to talk”, which is enough to prove that the “Virtuous Way” does not hear the sound when entering the first meditation, which violates its own scriptures . As for the Buddha’s saying that sound is a thorn in the first dhyana, it means that beginners lack concentration, and when they enter the first dhyana, their minds will be disturbed and they will get out of dhyana. Sensation and conception in Zen is the thinking of language.
People who have not practiced the first meditation can’t sit in a noisy place, so the place where the first meditation is practiced should not be noisy. However, a person who has practiced the second jhana hears any sound, but does not know its content, because he is more focused on the dharma object state of consciousness.
How can beginners understand the first meditation? The first condition is that you must feel comfortable all over your body and have no distracting thoughts in your mind. If you don’t know whether it is the first jhana, you should temporarily assume that it is the first jhana! Why do I say this? In short, at that time, I had peace of mind, joy, and joy! That being the case, it is a kind of samadhi, and it is assumed that it is the lowest first jhana. What should I do after I settle in? In the previous lecture, I said that those who are new to samadhi must not stay in samadhi for too long. Those who don’t know how to practice meditation, they don’t want to get out of meditation when they first enter the meditation, they don’t know how to practice meditation. People who are new to samadhi, once in, come out quickly, and pay attention to all changes at the moment they come out. Many people who practice samadhi don’t pay attention to how to enter and exit samadhi, and they don’t remember how to enter the original samadhi later. Therefore, when you first enter the samadhi, you should come out quickly, and pay attention to the changes when you leave the samadhi: the mind becomes thicker, the breathing becomes thicker, and the pleasant feeling fades away. You must observe these three things. When you focus on concentration again, you can move a thought, thinking that I am going to enter the first meditation now, and then focus on the original practice method – observing breath. And pay attention to the changes in samadhi: the breath becomes thinner, the mind becomes thinner, and the pleasant feeling comes out, so you enter samadhi again. If you don’t know how to get into samadhi, you should practice fine breathing, fine mind, no distracting thoughts, and happy feelings as the first meditation. Ignore what others say is not the first meditation. If you pay more attention, you will always have doubts. Enter the first Zen.
4.1.1 You must first train how to get in and out
Repeatedly entering and exiting the first meditation in this way, the more you practice, the more familiar you become. In the future, you can enter the first meditation as soon as you think about it. Students who have practiced have such experience. All in all, those who know how to practice meditation should not rush into concentration for a long time in order to strengthen concentration, but must first train how to enter and exit. When you have a clear distinction between leaving and entering samadhi, you can stay in samadhi for a little longer to strengthen your samadhi. When you have strengthened your samadhi and stabilized it, you will have the confidence to say: I have indeed entered samadhi, and I know that as long as my mind is so concentrated, I can enter that samadhi, and as long as I give up concentration, I will get out of that samadhi. He will deny your experience, and even scold me for lying to you, and turn into believing that there is no thinking when you enter the meditation, you don’t hear the sound when you enter the meditation, and it takes a long time to enter the meditation. If you still can’t tell clearly, you can rely on someone who has experienced it to tell you when you enter samadhi.
Most beginners can only enter the first meditation, why? There is a mystery in the method, that is, anyone who is new to meditation will never be able to go to the second jhana within five minutes, but can only go to the first jhana. Therefore, beginners first sit in meditation for a long time, and when they find themselves in the samadhi for the first time, they should not stay in the samadhi for too long at this time, and come out in five minutes. When entering the second jhana, there is no need to ask what kind of samadhi he entered, at most it can only be the first jhana. That is to say, if we limit the time to five minutes, we must come down after five minutes to ensure that beginners will not exceed the first jhana. In this way, even if the teacher is not there to guide him, he himself can understand the depth of the first jhana. up.
However, if the good roots brought by this person from previous lives may soon be able to enter the samadhi above the first jhana, this is another matter. I have to ask how long does it take for him to feel settled every time he sits? If he thinks he can enter deep meditation in five minutes, then he should be told to quit after one or two minutes when practicing the first jhana, understand? He was not allowed time to enter a higher level of concentration, so he did not enter into concentration deeply, at most reaching the first jhana. When he repeatedly enters and exits the first jhana within one minute, he is asked to stay in the first jhana for a longer period of time after he has a clear understanding of the first jhana. When strengthening the samadhi of the first jhana, be careful not to think too thinly and enter a deeper samadhi, and take the higher samadhi as the first jhana. That is to say, through the limitation of time, the mind cannot enter too deep and surpass the first jhana. When he is proficient in entering and exiting the first jhana for five minutes, he is asked to practice the first jhana for fifteen minutes. These fifteen minutes are to strengthen the concentration of the first jhana. The mind of the first meditation is rough, and the heart does not want to stay for a long time, so most people’s hearts will want to enter the second meditation quickly.
4.1.2 Beginners should not want to enter the first meditation as soon as they sit in the seat
Beginners should not think that I want to enter the first meditation as soon as they sit, or they will not be able to enter. Why? Because the mind of beginners is usually scattered, it takes a long time to calm down the mind and adjust the breathing every time when sitting. Therefore, when beginners practice the first meditation, they must first adjust their mind and breath, and it is impossible to enter the first meditation as soon as they sit down. If he is in a hurry to get into samadhi, he will make a mistake, and he will not be able to do so. He has to sit down to calm his mind, enter concentration slowly, and then exit meditation. At this time, he can think that I want to enter the first meditation, and I will definitely be able to enter the first meditation, because I must have the ability to go back after I have just come out of the first meditation. Being able to enter again, he literally goes in and out when he wants to. Beginners, if you have sat down to the first jhana today, don’t think that you will be able to enter the first jhana immediately after sitting down tomorrow. You will not be able to enter it! Then he will doubt everything he has cultivated. Therefore, if you have not sat in meditation for a long time and your concentration has receded, you should not try to enter the first meditation as soon as you sit down, because you will not be able to enter. You have to sit until your mind is calm, and you feel that you have settled down, and then you can go up and back up. Only then can you do it. This is because you have to calm your mind from distraction, and it takes a while to strengthen concentration due to lack of concentration.
4.1.3 How to strengthen concentration
If you can enter and exit the first jhana four times in one hour, each time for fifteen minutes, it means that the person’s first jhana is very stable. Because these four times add up to one hour. If he wants to sit for a longer time in the future, he can extend the time into the first meditation for an hour, or two hours. However, after a long time in the first jhana, most of them will automatically go to the second jhana. If beginners automatically enter the second jhana from the first jhana, they will not be able to distinguish between the first jhana and the second jhana. So, at the beginning of the training, I don’t encourage you to spend an hour or two hours to experience the first jhana. Why? Because many beginners often enter the second meditation slowly without knowing it after entering the first meditation for too long. Many people enter slowly so they don’t feel any changes. They think they are in the first jhana. Because every time they enter the meditation, it is the first jhana, and it is already the second jhana before they leave after an hour. Zen.
4.2 How to practice the second and third meditations
4.2.1 There must be enough heat first
If you have entered the first jhana, when can you enter the second jhana? If there is a teacher to guide you, he will tell you to continue practicing the second meditation if he knows that your concentration is enough. What would you do if you didn’t have a teacher to guide you? According to Buddhism, if a person’s concentration in the first meditation is not enough, then he wants to enter the second meditation. Then, not only will he not be able to enter the second jhana, but he will also lose the first jhana. That is to say, if you do not have enough concentration in the first meditation, you will not be able to enter the second meditation if you want to.
Therefore, you must sit very firmly in the first jhana before you can practice the second jhana, and you must be able to stay in the first jhana for an hour; however, try not to stay in the first jhana for more than one hour. Why? Because then your concentration will be strengthened and you will reach the second jhana unconsciously, so you will not be able to distinguish between the first jhana and the second jhana. Therefore, beginners should go out of concentration once an hour, and then go in again after coming out. This lasts for more than ten sessions to stabilize the first jhana.
4.2.2 The mind must leave the experience of meditation
If your first jhana is very stable, if you want to enter the second jhana, you have to leave the experience of fundamental samadhi in the first jhana, and enter a more refined mind from the original practice. The higher the meditation, the finer the breathing, the finer the mind, and the happier. Therefore, if you want to enter the second meditation, you must stay away from the experience of the first meditation, and focus on the practice again: look at the breath very concentratedly. Re-enter the Second Zen. However, if the mind of the first Zen was more subtle and joyful, does it mean that he has entered the second Zen? How to separate pleasure and feeling? To distinguish how the Buddha described the blissful experience in concentration, refer to the Sutra description in Appendix A9 for a clearer description.
4.2.3 Refocus on practice
Why do we have to focus on practicing the Dharma again? That is to say, after we have settled down, we will feel joyful and comfortable in the body. If you keep sticking to that comfortable feeling, you won’t be able to get out of that samadhi. Whenever you want to ascend to a higher level of timing, you have to give up the original experience. That is to say, you should not be attached to the state and pleasant experience of the first meditation, but must give up. Only after giving up and concentrating on the original practice can you enter the second meditation. If you do not give up those experiences, that is, if you are not willing to give up the first jhana, you cannot enter the second jhana. Just as you are unwilling to leave the first floor, how can you go up to the second floor? Therefore, when you want to achieve a higher level of samadhi, don’t miss any of the original experience, but focus your mind on observing your original practice. Breathing watchers should pay more attention to breathing, and slowly you will be able to Up to the second meditation, the change of the second meditation is the same as that of the first meditation, the mind becomes thinner, the breathing becomes finer, and it is happier. These steps have to be carried out step by step, and the same is true for the last three meditations.
4.3 How to practice the Four Dhyana
In terms of the pleasant experience of meditation, it is more and more comfortable and happy when the concentration is higher; but when it comes to the fourth jhana, the pleasant experience suddenly disappears. At this time, the breathing stopped, and a pure mind of giving up thoughts arose. Some people’s breathing is abnormal or they are attached to breathing. During the access timing of the fourth jhana, they will feel that they have to stop their breath. It feels very hard to stop their breath. These people are mainly eager to practice the fourth meditation because the heat of the third meditation is not enough, so the breathing becomes unstable.
The day before yesterday, I said that when the mind has the strength to reach a certain access concentration, it does not mean entering that meditation concentration. Access samadhi is like going up and down stairs, the mind can become thicker and thinner as it goes up and down. Entering samadhi is like entering a room, where the mind neither rises nor falls. Therefore, when the breath is repeatedly stopped and breathed again, it is the access concentration of the four jhanas. When your four jhānas are solid, the breath is absolutely cut off. When practicing the Fourth Dhyana and reaching the end of breathing, you should increase the time in concentration, so that concentration will continue to deepen, and gradually you will not even be able to hear the sound. Only when you can no longer hear the sound can you go deep into the Four Jhanas. If you can still hear the sound in the fourth jhana, it is as if you climbed up the fourth floor and walked to the door of the room, but did not enter the room, then you are only in the access concentration of the fourth jhana.
According to the classics, it is said that the first meditation has left the five hindrances, and then you can practice vipassana. And I ask everyone to practice at least the fourth dhyana access concentration before allowing him to practice vipassanā; the reason is that in the various minds of vipassanā, equanimity is more superior than righteous thoughts . I have purified my mind. However, in the future, we still need to thoroughly cultivate the four dhyanas. Anyone who has completed the four meditations will understand that different levels of concentration have different thicknesses of thoughts. After clarifying these thoughts, you can practice vipassana or the fifth samadhi.
4.4 Colorless Definition and Beyond Zen
The fifth is called the place of boundless emptiness. If a person can go on to practice the fifth concentration after practicing the fourth jhāna, he must first enter the fourth jhāna tranquility concentration where he can’t even hear the sound. If he can still hear the sound, then he is still in the fourth jhāna access concentration. If you want to cultivate the fifth samadhi at this time, you are delusional. why? Because the samadhi of boundless emptiness belongs to the samadhi of the formless realm, there is absolutely no sound to be heard. What is the difference between concentration at the base of boundless emptiness and the four jhānas? Both meditations stopped breathing and could not hear the sound. However, in the four meditations, the wisdom mind is more active than the boundless space, easy to practice visualization, and there is awareness of the place, so it is clear that I am sitting here. People who enter the samadhi of boundless space lose their sense of place at that time, and don’t know where they are, only know that I am in samadhi.
When you have clearly distinguished the four samadhis, you can learn to turn your mind directly to a certain samadhi to enter the samadhi, and you can enter whichever samadhi you want to enter immediately. You can think that I want to enter the third meditation, and then focus on the concentration of the three meditations and enter the third meditation. You don’t have to watch the breath slowly to enter the meditation, but directly turn your mind to the concentration of the three meditations and enter the third meditation. Once you have the ability to turn to the concentration of the third meditation as soon as you think that I am going to go to the third meditation, you will have the opportunity to observe a phenomenon, that is, you will enter the concentration after a few thoughts. This matter is especially discussed in “Psydrome of the Pure Path”. From access samadhi to fundamental samadhi, there should be several changes in mind. If your mind can directly turn to a certain meditation mind, you can further train the transcendental meditation, that is, you can enter the third meditation directly without following the sequence, and then jump from the third meditation to the first meditation, and from the first meditation to the fourth meditation. Jumping around like Zen.
4.5 How to repair the Determination
When you have completed all the four jhanas and eight samadhis, you can further practice the ninth samadhi—the extinction samadhi. However, not everyone who has completed the four jhānas can enter into cessation concentration. If a person can enter into extinction samadhi, and can freely jump to any samadhi when he comes out of extinction samadhi, such concentration is called Lion Fenxun Samadhi. If you are just jumping around in the four jhānas, that is just transcending jhāna.
Extinction samadhi is a very special samadhi. A person who enters extinction samadhi is like a dead person, with all perceptions and thoughts gone. Because of the lack of mind, it is impossible to jump out of the extinction samadhi with a thought, and it can only be released when the samadhi is withdrawn. After exiting the extinction samadhi, you can jump to another samadhi. The concentration of extinction is also called the concentration of extinction, and the concentration without thinking is called Wuxin concentration. In Wuxin concentration, it is impossible to think that I want to jump to the third jhana or the fourth jhana. You can only jump to the third jhana and then the fourth jhana as soon as the extinction concentration is withdrawn. This is a very difficult thing, because very few people can reach extinction.
The time here is limited, I teach the cultivation of the four meditations, and do not encourage the practice of concentration in the formless realm. Why not advocate the cultivation of concentration in the formless realm? Because the concentration in the Formless Realm is too strong, too strong concentration will hinder your meditation. When you have strong samadhi, you will enter samadhi as soon as you practice meditation. Once you enter samadhi, you will not want to think about meditation. Without meditation, you will not be able to develop wisdom. Therefore, outsiders cultivated to the samadhi of the formless realm, and they can’t get out of samadhi all day long, so they can’t cultivate the wisdom view at all. Therefore, Buddhism says that the best time for ordinary people to practice meditation is when they reach the concentration of the Four Dhyanas.
4.6 Various problems and deviations in meditation
4.6.1 Handling of realms
There will be some deviations when practicing meditation, and those who enter the meditation must know how to deal with them.
In the process of practicing meditation, many realms will appear. No matter what kind of practice method you use, if you create any state or see anything in meditation, you must think that it is just a by-product of meditation. It cannot help you strengthen meditation, nor can it help you increase wisdom. That is to say, seeing any state in meditation, no matter how superb it is, is just a kind of supernatural power and a by-product of meditation. If you are interested, you can read more, you can increase your knowledge, but if you read it, you will throw it away. Don’t regard those states as enlightenment, as a great practice. Many people encounter the holy interpretation of state arising (cultivating the Tao) in meditation, thinking that their own state is higher than others. That is comparing the level of realm, not the level of meditation. He said I can see Buddha, what can you see? He compares these useless things. A mage in a certain temple once taught me meditation. After entering the meditation, I saw many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas around me. Do remember this sentence. Is it amazing to see Buddha? Even if the real Buddha is in front of you, it cannot enlighten you for you. It is better to look at your own heart. You can watch and listen to the realm as a game, but don’t take it as a great thing. If you feel great, be sure to become obsessed. Why? The devil is the easiest to show you this kind of trick. Therefore, the most important thing in the whole process of meditation is to see how pure the mind is and how concentrated it is. This is the correct purpose of meditation.
4.6.2 Revisiting gas treatment
When you meditate, the qi is running around your body, and if you pay attention to it, the qi will be strengthened by your attention. When some people sit in meditation, the qi of Ren Du Channel will automatically circulate. If you pay attention to it, it will become stronger and stronger, and finally it will become a circle. You can turn Zhou Tian, but you have to know how to turn it. If you turn around the sky well, it will be very good for your body, and even many diseases will be eliminated; however, you must be careful to keep Qi in your body. Because the qi of turning around the sky is very strong, if you don’t have the basic knowledge of Chinese medicine and qigong, if you can’t turn to a certain place, something will go wrong in that part. That is to say, in the process of turning around the sky, if the qi runs to a certain place and stops, if you ignore it, it will cause strong qi to stay in that part, and as time goes by, this part will go wrong. If you don’t care about the qi and don’t turn it around, some people’s qi will still circulate automatically, but it will not be very strong. Even if it stops in a certain part, it will be easily resolved by itself.
In addition, anyone who sits quietly for a period of time every day will feel a sense of qi on his body and head, and his body will be full of energy. Every time you take a seat, the qi will change differently due to your thoughts and concentration. The purer the heart, the higher the pure qi will rise. When the mind of lust is aroused, the turbid energy sinks down, until it sinks to the root of male and female. When the mind is very steadfast and pure, the qi rises all the way to the top of the head. Therefore, after sitting in meditation, you should check the qi left on your head before you get off the seat, and dispose of it if there is any. If you accumulate qi on your head every day, it will gradually cause problems and even headaches.
Some people, after their samadhi is strengthened, can also enter into samadhi when they sleep. The mind is settled in a bright light, and then they fall asleep. If this is the case, there is a lot of air in the head when you wake up, and you must deal with it when you wake up, otherwise it will cause problems in the future.
Some people’s samadhi is too strong, once they concentrate their minds and look at something, they will fall into samadhi. When these people concentrate on reading or reciting scriptures, because the mind is very concentrated, the outside world can’t disturb them, and they quickly fall into samadhi. These people sometimes have their heads heavy. At that time, they should pay attention to whether the air is accumulated on the head, and if so, pull it down.
Inner qi is closely related to meditation. Don’t blindly believe those who don’t know. They deny that there is qi in motion during meditation. These people think it’s qigong or heretics when they hear qi. When I tell you to be careful not to be disturbed by qi, they will think I It’s also an outsider. In fact, when many monks meditate, they unknowingly carry a sickness all over their bodies. They also deny qigong and misunderstand him. They don’t understand that being disturbed by qi is thought to be possessed by demons. In the end, they advise people not to meditate, thinking that it is safer to practice in a pure land , but, can you go out of the world without a little concentration? Woah!
4.6.3 Other amendments
Some people have entered into samadhi originally, and I accept that they use their original practice. However, you must know how to use the original method of practice. If you don’t know how to practice step by step, it is best to give up the original method of practice. Those who observe the breath can see the light after entering concentration, some people see the light after the fourth jhana, and some people see the light after the first jhana. Be careful when you see the light, ignore the light, and return to the practice that should be practiced. Some people teach ānāpāna to turn to the light of sight, but looking at that light means you leave the ānāpāna. Can light be used to enter samadhi? Can I give up the original practice if I see the light after practice? Yes, but you have to know how to use light to enter a deeper concentration. If you give up the original practice and don’t know how to practice in the light, it will be difficult for you to move forward.
4.6.4 Common fault in concentration: craving for pleasant feelings
Another thing that happens is a feeling of joy. If you observe the joyful feeling all day long, for example, you like the comfortable feeling of the whole body and get intoxicated in this state, you will not be able to raise a higher level of samadhi. If you want to ascend to a higher concentration, you have to give up the original state and pleasant feelings. Only by continuing to work hard on the practice can you move forward.
4.6.5 Don’t cling to hunches
A person who often enters and exits the Four Dhyanas will have particularly strong mindfulness and sensitivity, and there will be some by-products of meditation—sensitivity and mindfulness. For example, when he thinks about something, then that thing happens. You can observe, but don’t be obsessed with it, how sensitive will it be? For example, when you are doing something, you suddenly think of someone and know that it is him who is thinking of you. These thoughts that appear suddenly, most people pass away without paying attention, but practitioners of the Fourth Dhyana are sensitively aware of them. Therefore, a practitioner who often enters the Fourth Dhyana has the ability to know what happened to his disciple. have you heard of it? No matter where the disciples are or what happens, some masters will know it. This is because the master has a particularly strong sensitivity. This shows that this person has achieved the merits of the Four Chans, but don’t think that this is an achievement in practicing Buddhism, as many outsiders and practitioners in the sect can do it.
4.6.6 Be careful with your thoughts
The fourth jhana has a strong power of thought. People who have completed the fourth jhana will find that such things often happen. For example, when you want something in your heart, someone will give it to you soon. Or, if you want to find someone, that person will come to you. Again: These phenomena are just by-products of meditation. The purpose of practicing meditation is to obtain righteous thoughts and a pure heart, not to obtain supernatural powers. If you have these abilities, you can help people. But don’t do this stuff all day long. why? Because if you pay attention to these things, there will be too many things around you to make you feel, and you will be very busy because of this. For example, if you are sitting here in meditation, you suddenly sense what someone is thinking, why should you sense him? Too much trouble. There are also more sensitive (personal privacy) situations, that is, you can always sense when the other party thinks about things related to you. In fact, that is not a good thing, and people will be afraid of you.
4.6.7 Remote control treatment is not conducive to spiritual practice
In addition, after you practice the Four Dhyanas, you can learn to know whether others are in samadhi. After completing the four meditations, you will have the ability to see what kind of samadhi a certain person is currently in. This is not seen with your eyes, but because of the subtlety of your mind, you can perceive whether others are in samadhi. With the mind power of the Four Chans, one can learn Qigong without practicing Qigong, and one can naturally send out Qi and draw in Qi. Not only that, after practicing the Four Zens, you can also use your thoughts to help others heal their illnesses, but you have to be careful that you will arouse your illness. Thoughts are not limited by time and space. Therefore, the power of thoughts of the Four Dhyanas can not only heal people, but also remotely control diseases. What those qigong masters can do, you can also do at this time. These are just the results of thoughts. If you don’t believe me, you can use your thoughts here to vent your anger and try to heal someone somewhere. There is no mystery in it. However, I want to warn you that if you often use your thoughts to help people, you will be busier and busier, because many people worship you, and you will get sick and attract enemies and demons.
fourth lecture
Today I will start talking about meditation.
5. It is not difficult to see the Tao – just break the self-view and keep greed and hatred
5.1 What is Seeing the Way?
Practice meditation in order to generate wisdom and liberate the mind. But many contemplations are not for cultivating wisdom. For example, the concept of compassion is not for cultivating wisdom, but a kind of visualization for cultivating samadhi. In the practice of contemplation, visualization is the cultivation of samadhi, and observation is the cultivation of wisdom; the cultivation of concentration can produce a pure mind, and the cultivation of wisdom can purify knowledge and vision. Which kinds of views can produce wisdom? There are many ways to cultivate wisdom in Buddhism, and the wisdom you observe can be deep or shallow.
5.1.1 Perplexity and Confusion
What is the sequence of liberation? The theorists of Buddhist Buddhism divide the liberation of afflictions into two categories. According to the classics, they are the liberation of seeing confusion and the liberation of thinking and confusion. Confusion is a lot of incorrect views, so that we continue to reincarnate. Confusion is an affliction in mental behavior, including all kinds of greed, hatred, and ignorance.
There is a difference between seeing confusion and thinking confusion. The confusion of views is that you hold a kind of view and idea in your heart, and the confused views make you make many wrong actions. One of the most erroneous views is “I see”. However, perceptions can change instantly, which means that perceptions can be let go very quickly. As for thinking and confusion is a disturbing habit of mental behavior, it is impossible to let go of the habit all at once. I use a metaphor, for example, you think smoking is good for your health, this is an opinion. If you are greedy and fond of smoking, that is not a view, but greed in the affliction of mental behavior. Letting go of insights is quick and never repeated. For another example, in the Qing Dynasty, women loved to bind their feet. At that time, people thought that small feet were beautiful, and that was a kind of opinion. Now everyone doesn’t think it’s beautiful, and women don’t bind their feet anymore. The affliction of seeing and confusion can be let go as soon as it changes, but the affliction of thinking and confusion is different; we have various psychological behaviors of greed, hatred, and ignorance, and these afflictions need to be gradually corrected. Therefore, in Buddhism, practice is divided into several stages. First cultivate the path of accumulation, then add the path of practice, and then see the path, practice the path, and prove the path.
5.1.2 Fundamental Road
When you start to practice the Tao, first accumulate the merits of the Tao. That is, to learn more about the Dharma, to cultivate all kinds of virtuous methods, to accumulate all kinds of merits, and to learn precepts, samadhi, and wisdom. These are the ways of accumulation.
5.1.3 Additional lanes
When you know how to practice according to precepts, samadhi, and wisdom, and you have been able to enter samadhi and practice wisdom in accordance with the law, this is the way to add practice. When practicing the path of practice, the main practice is to practice Shamatha and Vipassana, mainly to let the heart generate the five faculties and five powers, namely, faith, diligence, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.
5.1.4 See Tao
See the Tao, what Tao do you see? It is to see the way of liberation from birth and death. When practicing Jiaxing Dao to a certain extent, you will see the way to liberate your mind from life and death. Seeing the way is not the same as being on the way. Only after seeing the way can one start to set out on the way—cultivating the way. That is to say, before you see the Tao, you don’t know how to practice it. In fact, cultivating the Tao is the way of cultivating the mind, not the way outside the mind. You must first see the path of liberation in your heart – see the Tao, and then move towards liberation from your heart. Buddhism says that when a person sees the Tao, he gets rid of the afflictions in his views, and the most important affliction to be dealt with when he sees the Tao is the self-view. What I see is my attachment to having my own views. Many people are confused about ego and self-view, that is, our attachment to “I” has two aspects, one is the attachment to behavior and there is self-ego; the other is the attachment to opinion and there is self-view.
If a person has attained enlightenment, he will let go of the attachment to “having a self” in his views, but he will still be attached to “having a self” in his actions. Therefore, when a person sees the Tao—the First Fruit of Realization, although he knows that there is no self in his mind, his behavior is still greedy for life and fear of death, and his karmic habits are still attached to the existence of self. A person of first fruition is still afraid of death, unless he is an Arhat. Northern Buddhism divides self-attachment into two types: the attachment to opinion is called separate ego, and the attachment to behavior is called congenital ego. In Theravada Buddhism, distinguishing self-attachment is called self-view, and inherent self-attachment is called self-arrogance. That is to say, when you see the Tao, you will let go of the attachment to discerning ego—I see it, but the inherent ego brought about by his past karma—I still haven’t let go.
Because the sects of Buddhism have different views on the good and evil actions of those who see the Tao, and most people think that the first fruit will not do evil karma. I don’t think so, because the Buddha said that the three fruits are good people. I hope you can refer to the attached scriptures Argument. The Buddha said in the scriptures: To break the self-view is just to get rid of the three knots, but not to get rid of greed and anger in the desire world. If the righteous thoughts are not enough, it is possible to create evil karma because of the lack of righteous thoughts. However, due to the power of good roots in previous lives, he can realize the first fruition in this life. The evil deeds made by the saints of the first fruit for a while, are no match for the good roots of the first fruit for many lifetimes, so the first fruit will not fall, but they must suffer in this world. Regarding this point, “Jushe Lun” said, “If you are stupid, you will fall into evil if you commit a small crime; if you are wise, you will escape suffering if you commit a serious crime. It is like a ball of iron that is small and sinks in water; it is a bowl of iron that is large and can float.” It is said in the Sutra: “It is like someone who owes him five or even one coin and is bound by the (debtor) because the debtor is poor and powerless… If so, someone who does unvirtuous karma will suffer the reward of hell, because this person is not self-cultivating, If you don’t practice precepts, don’t cultivate your mind, don’t cultivate your wisdom, and your lifespan is very short, you will suffer the retribution of suffering in hell for your unvirtuous karma. It’s like someone who owes a hundred dollars or even never is bound by the Lord, because the debtor’s property is immeasurable and extremely powerful. … If so, someone who commits unvirtuous karma will suffer the retribution of suffering fruit in the present law. This person cultivates body, morality, mind, wisdom, and has a very long life span. It is also minor due to good and bad karma.”
5.1.5 Supplementary scriptures say: All views are based on personal views
To prove the first fruit, you only need to break the three knots, and if you see a break in the three knots, the precepts, prohibitions and doubts will be broken automatically. It is not necessary to cut off greed and hatred to see through the body, so it is not difficult! Please see the description of the view of breaking the body in the “Miscellaneous Agama Sutra”: At that time, the elder asked Lixi Daduo, “My lord! What is the source, where is the collection, where is the birth, and where is the turn of everything seen in the world?”
The venerable Li Xi Da Duo replied: “Elder, what you see in the world, whether there is a self, or all living beings, or life span, or good or bad luck in the world, etc., all these views are based on personal experience. Collect, see life, see change.”
Ask again: “My lord! What is the meaning of personal experience?”
Answer: “Elder! The ignorant and ignorant ordinary people see form as me, form is different from me, form is in me, and I am in form. Feeling, thinking, action, and perception are me. Knowing is different from me. I am conscious, and I am in consciousness. Those who see it by name and body.”
Ask again: “My lord! How can you not have this personal experience?”
Answer: “Elder! It is said that the holy disciple who has heard a lot does not see that form is me, does not see form is different from me, does not see the form in me, and the self in form; , Conscious of me, it is called seeing without body.”
5.2 Conditions for Seeing the Way—Purity of Mind and Purity of View
If you want to see the Tao, what method should you cultivate? To see the Tao is not to get rid of anger or greed first, but to get rid of the affliction of “self” in the view. Since the habits of greed, anger, and ignorance are not cut off by seeing the Tao, if the right mindfulness of the first fruit is not enough and cannot be present at all times, it will still be greedy, playful, scolding, and fighting. Please see the attached treatise: Desiring things, sometimes getting angry and throwing fists, etc., suffering and hurting all kinds of karma, but he knows how to practice. I repeat it carefully: Everyone must make sure that seeing the Tao is only to break the self-view, but not the self-attachment, greed and hatred, otherwise you will be confused: why do you still have self-attachment and evil deeds after breaking the self-view?
What are the conditions for seeing the Tao? It is necessary to cultivate some “methods that can break the self-view”. The method to eliminate the self-view is not necessarily the method to eliminate greed and hatred. Do not make mistakes in practice. It is the method of cutting off self-view first, not the method of cutting off greed and hatred. If it is practiced the other way around, it will prolong the way of seeing. This is why many people cannot see the way in their whole life.
Anyone who studies Buddhism knows that Buddhism talks about selflessness. But according to Buddhism, if a person has not seen the Tao, even though he knows there is no self, he will still have doubts. Youyi often say: “Although I believe there is no self, I still feel that there is a self.” Many people will feel this way. However, if he has seen the Tao, he will absolutely affirm that there is no self. Those who realize that there is no self have no body to see, and they will not look around for where I am, let alone say that there is no self when they cannot find me. At the moment when he saw the Tao, he knew that there was no need to look for me, because he had clearly seen the phenomenon of cause and effect, cause and effect. When you see the Tao, you must see that the body and mind are just a series of karmic changes, and there is no such thing as self or non-self, so you don’t need to try to prove that there is no self. People who have studied Buddhism have a mantra that “everything is caused by cause and condition”. That person hit me because of the karma in the past life; this person can practice because he had the Buddha karma in the past life, and he thinks that is what the Buddha said about the law of karma, but in fact, he has not actually seen the law of karma. I don’t know if you have heard this verse:
If one lives for a hundred years, one does not see the law of birth and death;
It’s better to be born one day and be able to see it.
This verse says that if you live a hundred years without seeing the law of arising and extinction, it is better to live one day to see it. The law of birth and death can be seen everywhere, everyone sees the law of karma every day! Why does Buddhism say that it is difficult to see a hundred years old? This is not the case. The law of birth and death is the process of changing causes and conditions, and it is the changing process at the moment of seeing causes and conditions, not inner thinking.
If you want to see the Tao quickly, you must practice the right method, that is, you don’t need to deal with other afflictions first, but you only need to deal with the affliction of “I see” first. Therefore, if you choose the practice aimed at dispelling perception and confusion, you will see the path very quickly. If you choose to practice delusion, if you deal with greed and hatred first, it will be difficult for you to see the way in this life, and you will not believe that others can see the way . why? Because you mistakenly think that as long as you have greed and hatred, you have self-view. In fact, being free from greed and hatred is the merit of arahantship, and having no self-view is the merit of the first fruit . It takes a long time to deal with greed and hatred. Even after breaking the self-view, you may not be able to deal with greed and hatred in this life! However, if the mind is pure, it is very fast to get rid of self-view. The scriptures say that you can see the Tao in a few days. What is the key? There is such a saying in Buddhism: The reason why all living beings cannot present the Buddha Dharma is because they are covered by afflictions. Our afflictions don’t appear twenty-four hours a day, at least you are here now, many afflictions have not arisen, and at this moment, everyone temporarily has no anger or greed. When afflictions do not arise, there is an opportunity to develop a pure mind. The Buddha said that if a person’s heart is pure, the Dharma can appear, that is to say, without the cover of afflictions, with a pure equanimity and mindfulness, he can quickly observe the original Dharma.
5.3 The shortcut to break the self-concept – the fastest way to see the causes and conditions
The first step to enlightenment is to get rid of self-conceptions. Getting rid of self-view does not mean that the afflictions of greed and hatred are broken. To get rid of self-views, which dharmas need to be observed? It is to observe karma. Because “I see” means that there is a self in the confusion of causes and conditions in view.
Since we need to observe the cause and condition clearly, what kind of cause and condition should we observe? Why haven’t I seen the law of birth and death at the age of one hundred? The law of arising and extinction that breaks the self-view is the cause and condition of the current thought (confusing the body and mind), not the cause and condition of looking at the outside. Which causes and conditions do not need to be observed? If you observe causes and conditions such as planting melons, you will get melons, and planting beans, you will get beans, but a farmer will not be able to realize selflessness after observing it all his life. We think that there are real external causal phenomena in the world. The Buddha said that the world is not external. The Buddha said that the world is in the six roots, six dusts, and six consciousnesses. explain. Your current body and mind are just the effects of the six sense organs, the six dust objects, and the six consciousnesses, which means that you use the six sense organs, such as eyes and ears, to understand the realm of the world. If you want to see the Tao, you have to observe at the six sense gates where is the cause and condition of what the Buddha said? On the other hand, the “observing behavior” of the self is just the function of the mind and the material, that is, the various causes and effects between the six senses, the six dusts, and the six consciousnesses.
The cause and effect between root dust and consciousness is very fast, so fast that we have no time to think about it. Therefore, in order to have strength in meditation practice, one condition must be met, that is, the mind must be very subtle. To have a subtle mind is to have considerable concentration. This is why you should practice the Four Dhyanas first and then practice Vipassana. Once you have established the pure mind of the Four Dhyanas, you will have the ability to observe the Dharma with a subtle mind. The body and mind are fast and impermanent changes of causes and conditions. If the mind is rough, it is too late to observe. The rough mind can only observe after the causes and conditions occur, and fall into the consciousness to think. Therefore, it is said: When practicing meditation, only observation is allowed, and no thinking is allowed!
How to observe karma? To observe cause and condition is to observe at the six sense gates. It is best to observe in motion, the more changes in the realm, the better to observe. Take the scriptures as an example, the mind is no longer just focused on the body movements. For example, when one hears a sound while walking, one observes the cause and condition of the ear, the sound, and the ear consciousness. Among them, the sound of a bird is the cause, and the ear consciousness knows it is the effect; then the ear consciousness knows it is the cause, and the consciousness thinks that “the bird is singing” is the effect; Then this consciousness thinks that it is the cause, and the state of craving in the heart is the effect; then the craving in the heart is the cause, and seeing it in a blink of an eye is the effect; then the bird is the cause in front of the state, and the eye consciousness sees it is the effect; then the eye consciousness sees it is the cause… . In this series of cause and effect, after observing each process clearly, you will find that apart from cause and effect, there is no self listening, seeing, thinking, etc. in it. It turns out that cause and effect flow in front of the mind to the realm, cause and effect are born and passed away in such an instant, and cause and effect rotate with the conditions without a master, ah! It turns out that there is no need to find out why there is no self, and without thinking, you can see that all the causes and effects have always been without self.
5.4 The Seven Factors of Enlightenment—Seven Minds Should Arise in Enlightenment
Buddhism talks about listening, contemplating and practicing. Thinking is at the stage of thinking, and you don’t think when you practice. Why don’t you think about it when you cultivate? Thinking is learned, and when you practice, you just observe without analyzing. Observation is very subtle thinking, and it is just thinking about a single event. How to think? For example, when you practice meditation, if you observe the breath, you don’t need to worry about anything, just do one thing: observe the breath. As for the thinking when cultivating wisdom – choosing the Dharma, just choose one sentence of Dharma, and don’t care about the rest of Dharma. Have you ever heard that one sentence of the Dharma is enough for you to attain enlightenment when practicing the Tao? When the Buddha guides all living beings to practice and prove the fruit, he always practices a sentence to prove the fruit. What is that sentence? It was the Fa that that person needed at the time, and it was more valuable than anything else. Have you ever heard such a saying in Taoism? Thousands of books are falsely passed on, but one sentence is true. In fact, the sentence of the true biography is in the ten thousand volumes of books, and it has not left the ten thousand volumes of books. But that sentence was told to you just when you needed it the most—the true sentence. In order to get rid of self-attachment, the sentence we need is to observe cause and effect. You only need this sentence——observe the cause and effect of the six senses, and ignore all other Buddhist teachings. Overcome anger, these are all ignored. You just need to observe this sentence of the Dharma, this kind of mentality is called “choosing the Dharma”. That is to say, when a person wants to see the Tao, he must meet seven conditions. These seven enlightenment conditions for seeing the Tao are called the seven factors of enlightenment. If you read the “Amitabha Sutra”, you will read “Seven Bodhisattvas and Eight Noble Paths.” It is the seven bodhi factors that arise when seeing the Tao. The first two factors of enlightenment among the seven factors of enlightenment are mindfulness and dharma selection.
5.4.1 Righteousness is the protagonist of the cultivation of wisdom
The first enlightenment factor of the seven enlightenment factors is called mindfulness, because in order to be enlightened, you must first have strong righteous thoughts, so the mindfulness factor ranks first. Among them, the mindfulness of the four meditations is the most efficient mindfulness. If you can enter the four meditations in a single thought and practice meditation with this kind of mental strength, it will be the strongest and purest mindfulness. Where is mindfulness used? When we generate good thoughts to do good deeds, this kind of righteous thought is the righteous thought of the world and cannot be liberated. Therefore, when practicing meditation, it is not doing good deeds with righteous thoughts. If you want to be enlightened and liberated, you must concentrate on observing a certain sentence of the Dharma you have practiced——choose the Dharma.
5.4.2 Dharma selection is the director of cultivating wisdom
With mindfulness, the next step is the second method of the seven factors of enlightenment – Dharma selection. This choice of dharma is the dharma you want to choose to observe. People who don’t know how to practice, think about a lot of Buddhist principles when they practice vipassana. This is not called choosing the Dharma, but thinking about the Dharma. When choosing the Dharma, choose a single Dharma, and observe it without leaving it at any time. For example, we are observing impermanence, we are observing impermanence in all situations, and we no longer think about other Buddhist principles. This is called the choice of impermanence. You may say that it is too easy to observe impermanence: “Look! There was no house there. Later, someone built a house, which is impermanence.” If it were too easy to choose the Dharma, everyone would. Dharma selection is a very focused and highly concentrated mind, choosing a certain sentence of Dharma to observe. What are the objects of observation when choosing a law? The object of Dharma selection is neither the outer realm nor the inner realm. It is the moment when the mind (name and form) and the external environment are in effect. How each dharma occurs is to observe what causes and conditions are arising and passing away at the moment of each thought . If you want to break my view—to see the Tao, you don’t need to observe what’s happening outside, and you don’t have to observe what troubles happen inside. Instead, observe what is happening between the mind and the state at the moment. It is to observe the cause and condition of knowing the mind and the known state, and to observe the cause and effect of the heart and the external environment. And this kind of cause and effect is a very short moment, because the cause and condition of the state of mind passes in a moment, so the choice of the way of seeing the way is to observe the cause and condition of the body and mind, and the phenomenon of cause and effect in a moment. In fact, everything is a causal phenomenon, and all are the effects of cause and condition that occur in the eyes, ears and other six sense organs at the moment. Dharma selection is to choose to observe “the current causal phenomenon”. As long as you observe clearly in the six sense organs, you can see the causal function of body and mind clearly.
5.4.3 The Seven Factors of Enlightenment
If you have the pure heart of the four dhyanas, and use this mindfulness to choose the Dharma, you must have the ability to see the Dharma clearly. When you see it clearly, you will be very sure: I can see where the mind and dharma of each thought state come from and how it happens. If you can see the cause and condition between every thought and state in every moment, then your mind must be very subtle. Because Dharma-choosing allows you to enter into a very subtle mind, the more you see, the clearer you become, and the more you want to see, the more diligent you will be. Seeing the Dharma clearly will make your whole body excited, and the more you look at it, the more excited you will feel that your whole body is full of energy. This is the heart that generates Dharma joy. As Dharma bliss fills the body and mind, the body and mind become more peaceful. Therefore, the more you look at the dharma, the more concentrated you will be. Slowly, the more you look, the more peaceful your mind will be, and you will develop a calm mind. That is to say, in the inner stage, the enlightenment factor of mindfulness, the enlightenment factor of dharma selection, the enlightenment factor of diligence, the enlightenment factor of joy, the enlightenment factor of tranquility, and the enlightenment factor of concentration arise. From the Samadhi of Concentration and Enlightenment, one enters into a state of mind without fabrication. This is called equanimity and Enlightenment. At this time, one observes the process of cause and condition without thinking, because the mind is no longer fabricated. In this way, the seven factors of enlightenment arise one by one, and when the seven factors of enlightenment arise in stages, you will become more confident as you practice. You will also find that the clearer your choice of dharma, the lighter your troubles and the happier your body and mind. If your cultivation is wrong, your heart will become heavier and more troublesome the more you observe. If you cultivated correctly, the more you contemplate, the happier you will be, and the more you contemplate, the happier you will be. This is the joy of amending the law. Filled with Dharma joy comes from here. Therefore, one must first have righteous thoughts in the order of practice, and then one can correctly choose the Dharma. The factor of equanimity and enlightenment is generated from the step of choosing the Dharma, and then one can choose the Dharma and see the way according to the samadhi equanimity.
5.4.4 The method of quickly breaking my opinion
When practicing vipassana and choosing a law, you are absolutely not allowed to think about any other principles of Buddhism, you can only observe the chosen law. Dharma selection is to observe the truth of the current situation, while thinking is to observe the future, this point must be clearly distinguished.
If you carefully observe the causal changes in your body and mind, you will see clearly that you are not thinking of any reasoning in your mind at the moment, and you are as confident in the Dharma you are observing as if you were seeing your own parents. Self-confidence does not need to be proved by reason or pointed out by others, that is, you are responsible for the Dharma. ——to make sure that I have really realized no-self. Moreover, you will say with absolute confidence: “It is I who have personally seen that the body and mind are just the effect of causes and conditions. Everything is like this. It is not because of the principle that there is no self. Talk, can walk, can create karma, and can cause afflictions.” Once you are sure that everything is a series of causes and conditions operating without self, then you will see the Tao.
Different methods have different effects. You may observe: “Do I feel angry now? Do I have greed?” Prioritize the choice of methods of greed and hatred, so it is impossible to see the Tao quickly. why? Because the focus of seeing the Tao is not to deal with greed and hatred, which may not be completely dealt with in this life when practicing the Tao. To see the Tao is to never be confused once you see it. The afflictions and habits of mental behavior cannot be completely eliminated in an instant. To practice the Tao requires long-term cultivation to eliminate afflictions. Therefore, seeing the Tao is a sudden insight, and cultivating the Tao is a gradual practice. I analyze it this way to let you understand that choosing the right practice method can quickly get rid of my views.
The scriptures all say that one must first have a pure heart, and then one can see purity. The so-called purity of view means to develop correct view and get rid of self-view. When a person observes that body and mind are only caused by cause and effect, he will naturally know that body and mind are selfless, and he also knows the cause and effect of precepts. He will not follow precepts casually. Those who see the Tao will naturally no longer doubt the Dharma they have practiced, and know that if they continue to practice hard like this, they will eventually be liberated. That is to say, he has clearly seen the path, and his heart is directed towards the path of liberation.
5.5 The Difficulty of Seeing the Tao
5.5.1 Difficulties in attaining the first fruition—unbelief, uncertainty, and wrong choice of methods
Although a person’s afflictions are relieved after seeing the Tao, greed, hatred, and ignorance are still a lot. why? Because greed, anger, and ignorance are the afflictions that must be eliminated in the cultivation of the Tao. To realize the first fruit, the key lies in whether you have a pure mind and whether you choose the right way. If your choice of method is how to cut off greed and hatred or practice the bodhisattva way, then it is impossible to see the way soon. why? The Bodhisattva way is long-term. If you want to practice the Bodhisattva way and do things that benefit all living beings all day long, and you don’t observe your own heart, it will be difficult to see the way. Only the cultivation of the great path of the Bodhisattva will take years and kalpas, and it will not be a long time if you want to break your self-view. Therefore, to have confidence in “it is not difficult to attain the first fruition”, the key is to figure out where the difficulty lies in the realization of the first fruition. The difficulty of seeing the Tao lies in the following points:
1. Believe in the end of the Dharma, no one can prove the fruit, and there are no four bad beliefs, and it is impossible to see the Tao.
2. If you don’t clean up your self-view first, but clean up your greed and hatred first, then it will be difficult to see the way for a long time!
3. I don’t know how to break my own views and not break my slowness, thinking that seeing the way is complete without self-action.
4. Choose the Dharma with rough righteous thoughts, lacking the pure mind of the four dhyanas.
5. It is not simple when practicing Dharma selection, and too much observation is mixed at the moment.
5.5.2 Can the final Dharma still prove the first fruit?
Many Buddhist monks of the Northern Tradition do not believe that it is still possible to attain the First Fruition in this era, but most of the Masters of the Southern Tradition believe it. I use numbers to inspire your confidence: Buddha saved sentient beings 2,500 years ago. At that time, the arhat who had saved tens of thousands had 1,250 followers around him. There are so many arhats, and there are more three fruits. Not to mention the second fruit and the first fruit. How many people were there in the first fruition when the Buddha was alive? The scriptures say that the number of arhats is at least 10,000. Assuming that there are 30,000 in the third fruition, 90,000 in the second fruition, and more than 200,000 in the first fruition, I have already estimated that the number of arhats is as low as 10,000! According to this, 200,000 yuan for the first fruit is not too much! According to Buddhism, after attaining the first fruition, one must continue to practice. After the Buddha’s extinction, those who have attained the first fruition will continue to practice. These 200,000 people will either go to heaven or return to the human world. That is to say, these first fruition people have to return to the human world one after another to prove the second fruition. If we divide 250,000 people in 2,500 years, how many people will attain the Tao each year during these 2,500 years? Every year at least 100 people come back from the first fruit to experience the first fruit and pass the second fruit. When the Buddha was alive, there were even more people who had already entered the preparatory position! He also wants to prove the first fruit! Therefore, even if it is the end of the Dharma, some people will continue to practice, and even realize the fruit by themselves, and no one will know when they are enlightened. Therefore, don’t believe that the Dharma is at the end of the day, it is impossible to prove fruition. In fact, if you use numbers to measure, you can know that the fruition is possible.
5.5.3 Don’t just listen to those who don’t believe in the views that can be practiced in this life
When it comes to the issue of fruition, the Chinese Buddhist community is very contradictory: everyone wants to practice for liberation, while the masters who preach scriptures persuade people to achieve liberation in this life, but they do not believe that this life can prove fruition. Practitioners of Southern Buddhism believe that they can achieve fruition, while many masters and lecturers of Northern Buddhism believe that modern people who achieve fruition must be lunatics or liars. However, we have to be confident that we can practice and prove, otherwise the Buddhadharma will not be effective. We think that I have no good roots to realize the Buddhadharma—the dharma treasure is in my heart, and even think that the Buddhist disciples in the world are ordinary people—there is no monk treasure. There is an even worse phenomenon in Chinese Buddhism. When someone hears that someone has practiced meditation to the fourth level, they all say it is a big lie, especially Buddhist colleges say it is impossible, let alone those who practice the Pure Land. These are all things that have not been taught by a wise master, and they have learned too many scripture principles before practicing, and as a result, “entering the sea is counted as sand, and you are trapped”, so I think it is very difficult. If you meet a good teacher, when you need to guide a key point, it is better than reading thousands of books.
5.5.4 Pretending to pass thousands of volumes of books, but actually passing on a sentence
Is it all right to cultivate according to the principles in the classics? Can! However, you don’t know which scriptures in the Tripitaka are what you need most at present. Just now I said: Falsely pass on thousands of books, but really pass on a sentence. Why is that sentence not written in the scriptures? The time to say that sentence is called “fire time” in Taoism, and the fire time cannot be conveyed by words. Only those who have experienced it will tell you to practice in this way when the fire time comes. At the time when you cultivated to that level, you only needed a certain sentence of the Dharma, and you understood it as soon as the teacher said it. If you were given ten thousand volumes of books at that time, you would have been misled. This is the way of practice, when you meet a discerning person who tells you that you need to meditate like this right now; one sentence of Dharma is enough for you to use right now, and you can put aside other methods for the time being. Most people think that if they memorize the scriptures thoroughly, they can practice without following the teacher’s guidance. In fact, they blindly choose certain methods in the scriptures, so they practice a little here and a little here. Even if such practitioners achieve success in cultivation, they do not know how they achieved it, so they cannot guide others.
5.5.5 It is difficult for unbelievers to enter samadhi and attain enlightenment according to the law
Although the set of practices taught by Bhikkhu Xun Mie is spread in Theravada Buddhism, some local scholars do not take it seriously. In fact, since ancient times, there have been many accomplished practitioners, and many people at that time disagreed with him. Have you read the Six Patriarch Altar Sutra? No one believes that Master Huineng, the sixth patriarch of Zen, has attained enlightenment. They think that how could the fifth patriarch prove that such an uneducated person as Huineng, if you were there at the time, how would you tell the difference? Whether a person can be enlightened does not depend on appearance, knowledge, or intelligence. Enlightenment has nothing to do with these. Enlightenment is related to the roots of faith, diligence, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, greed, hatred, and ignorance. , It has nothing to do with reciting scriptures, debating, citing scriptures, and becoming a monk at home.
Doubt about fruition is the most critical reason why you cannot prove fruition. The affliction of doubt will hinder the practice. If you doubt a certain method, you cannot cultivate it well. If you doubt the teacher of this practice, you will not be able to cultivate well. I doubt that I can’t cultivate, and I can’t cultivate well. Therefore, the first important thing today is to tell you that it is still possible to achieve fruition in this era! I never tire of asking you to develop confidence in the Dhamma and in yourself. I know very well that some people will criticize me for misleading sentient beings. However, I believe very confidently that those who believe in the attainment of the fruit have already benefited from the belief in the Three Jewels, because if someone believes in the Buddha as a great enlightened person, believes in the truth of the Dharma, believes in the Sangha, can truly cultivate, and believes in Precepts can help the Tao. The scriptures say that those who have these four non-bad faiths are the first fruits . Many mages think that there are no people who have the four non-bad faiths. Is it possible to be sure that others have no faith just because you have no faith? Do you have these four not bad letters? I hope you will walk with me. Why listen to those teachers who don’t have the four good beliefs (if you don’t believe it, there are those who can prove the fruit)! There is absolutely no reason for this! If you have these four not-bad beliefs, the rest is only for yourself to bear, or try to prove it.
5.5.6 Don’t say anything before ignorant people, you will be scattered
This sentence was said by Master Yongjia after his enlightenment. It means don’t let the ignorant know your enlightenment. If you know it, you will have nowhere to go. After the sixth patriarch became enlightened, the fifth patriarch told him to run away immediately. reason. If you have faith in these four good faiths, beware of the following warnings:
When you have attained enlightenment after cultivating according to the law, don’t casually tell others about your enlightenment.
When you have attained enlightenment after cultivating according to the law, don’t casually tell others about your enlightenment.
When you have attained enlightenment after cultivating according to the law, don’t casually tell others about your enlightenment.
Why do you have to warn again and again, the first point, there are no four bad believers who don’t believe you can. The second point is that you may not be able to cite the classics to explain your enlightenment to him. The theory cannot explain him, and everyone thinks he is right or wrong. Therefore, don’t let other people know your enlightenment casually, let alone teach the ignorant people easily. What is ignorance? The ignorant person’s heart is full of the highest principles of Buddhism, and he doesn’t like to listen to the practice methods taught by the teacher (not as perfect as the Buddha’s teaching), but loves to pick on the shortcomings of the teacher (who has not fully enlightened). The third point, if you show off everywhere that I know the results of practice, I am afraid that people will not know that you have practice, which is against my arrogance. Moreover, ordinary people can see the affliction of egotism in the first fruition, so they think you are a big liar with egotism. In fact, if you have not attained the Arhatship, you must be arrogant. It is normal for you to be slow after practicing to the third fruit.
Regarding the achievement of spiritual practice, the teacher’s achievement is not necessarily higher than that of the apprentice, it’s just a matter of priority; that is, the teacher learns first, and then you learn from him, that’s all. Don’t think that the teacher is definitely better than the student. Suppose you are a bodhisattva from the three places who came to the human world to reincarnate, and I was an old monk. If you come to become a monk like this old monk, of course you are learning from me, right? Although the old monk is an ordinary person, he first understood the Dharma, so the Bodhisattva learned from him. So, in terms of practice, the teacher of the bodhisattvas of the three stages is not necessarily the bodhisattvas of the four stages. If one day you think that my students are very good, don’t think that I have higher morals. To be honest, I am the happiest that my students surpass me in practice. As for some students who think they have reached the highest point in their practice, I always say to them: Just wait and see! Because he doesn’t know that he is falling into the slowness of growth, slowness is a common problem from the first fruit to the third fruit, because he is more qualified than ordinary people to be slow. The slow ones always like to say: “You don’t practice.” They prefer to say: “My teacher is the best, and the teacher values me the most.”
5.5.7 Meditation of Contemplation and Mistakes becomes Meditation of Concentration
If concentration is too strong when practicing Vipassana, it will be difficult to cultivate Vipassana and conduct well. As mentioned earlier, the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth samadhis of the four jhanas and eight samadhis are difficult to practice. If a person’s concentration is very strong, and he immediately enters into concentration during meditation, he will think that I am very diligent in cultivation! The result is a waste of time. Many people have practiced meditation until they reached samadhi, but they have actually done it wrong.
Therefore, when practicing Vipassana, you are not allowed to get too deep into samadhi, but you have to practice Vipassana without samadhi. Therefore, in order to maintain the samadhi of the four dhyanas every day when practicing vipassana, one must be able to go to the fourth dhyana at once every day. For a long time, if you meditate for too long, you will not have the heart to meditate. why? Because staying in it for too long will create a habit of not wanting to move, and you will get into samadhi within a few seconds, so you waste time every day in samadhi. Others think that you have worked very hard to cultivate the Tao, and that you have done a great job in the Tao, and you just sit there all day without moving. However, from the perspective of a discerning eye, you have cultivated wrongly. Therefore, after practicing the Four Dhyanas, I do not encourage you to stay in samadhi for too long. If you want to cultivate supernatural powers, you should enter into samadhi for a long time; entering long-term samadhi can easily lead to supernatural powers in previous lives. Those who are wise in observing behavior will feel that entering samadhi is very boring. After entering it, they will eventually come out. After coming out, they feel that the heart is not as calm as the heart, so they want to go in again. Therefore, don’t forget that the purpose of practicing concentration is to cultivate wisdom, and entering concentration is to train different mental forces—concentration. Once you understand these, you will know how to do meditation in the future.
5.5.8 Key point of Dharma selection: Do not think about other Dharma except the Dharma you choose
The most important point of meditation is that you must keep your mind pure. When practicing vipassana, it is the same as practicing meditation, and no distracting thoughts are allowed. When contemplating breathing into concentration, you must withdraw from meditation if you have any distracting thoughts. Similarly, you should choose the method in this way when practicing vipassana: you are only allowed to observe one sentence of Dharma at a time, and you are not allowed to think about the second Dharma. If the method is chosen correctly, the seven factors of enlightenment will arise quickly. If you practice for a period of time, come and report to me the truths you have realized. However, the truths are thinking wisdom, not cultivation wisdom. It is useless to ponder the enlightened truths while meditating on meditation. You don’t know that Sihui is delusional, and you think you have comprehended something. The main point of Dharma selection is: Dharma is the truth, not the truth, and it does not lie in the comprehension of the truth, but the generation of seven enlightenment factors: the factor of mindfulness, the factor of enlightenment, the factor of diligence, the factor of enlightenment, the factor of tranquility, the factor of joy, and the factor of concentration. The factors of enlightenment and equanimity, let these seven kinds of thoughts arise, and you can realize the truth. When practicing Vipassana, any perception of the Dharma that arises is an illusion, and it should be cut off immediately. Before the seven factors of enlightenment arise, you must realize the truth with a discerning mind, which is the enlightenment that falls into listening and thinking. When the seven factors of enlightenment are present, just observe without thinking, and you will soon realize the fruition. As for meditation, that’s all for today.
fifth lecture
6. Frequently asked questions about meditation meditation
It has been five days since the lecture. Since everyone still makes many mistakes when meditating, today I will continue to talk about some problems that occur when we meditate.
6.1 Do not bleed air into the stance
Let me talk about getting angry first
In the process of practicing meditation, many people will feel that there is air in the head, and it is better to know that there is air than not to know. However, some people think that breathing in the head means that they have entered meditation, which is wrong. Entering samadhi does cause the qi to rise to the head, but having qi on the head does not mean that one has already entered samadhi. That is to say, if you intentionally direct the qi to the head, the qi is concentrated on the head, which does not mean entering meditation. The key point of entering meditation is the one-pointedness of the mind. Be very careful about this, don’t think that getting angry is the third jhana. Entering meditation depends on the concentration and subtlety of the mind, not on the up and down of the breath on the head. So, if you feel air in your head, channel it down first, then focus on the breath again. It should be noted that the qi will go up to the top of the head automatically after entering the samadhi. Don’t think that bringing the qi to the head is meditation meditation. Those who understand qigong know that as long as the mind is concentrated, the qi can be drawn to the top of the head. Even as long as the mind thinks that the qi will rush to the head, the qi will rush up. Therefore, don’t think that the mind’s qi goes up to the top of the head, which is the third meditation, and then the mind’s qi stays there to concentrate, that’s qigong practice. Is it possible to enter meditation by focusing on Qi with the method of Qigong? able! But focus on the head, if you don’t know how to control the qi, there will be a lot of disadvantages, the most likely to have the phenomenon of false fire rising and “Mount Tai pressing down on the top”, it is better to focus on the dantian to be safer. In short, entering samadhi is not about guiding qi to the top of the head. It must have few distracting thoughts, sufficient concentration, and tranquility. At that time, it is right to go up to a certain samadhi when you think about it. You must pay attention to this point.
6.2 Common problem of meditation—pain
Another issue is pain. Some people experience pain while meditating. Many people think that the pain is due to a problem in meditation. In fact, this is not a wrong practice, but an obstacle in that part, or the outbreak of a long-standing disease. It is best to take the opportunity to recuperate the chronic illness. If it remains there, you will not be able to sit well. For example, when you sit quietly and feel chest tightness or coughing, you need to deal with the problem in your chest. If you feel hot below the big vertebrae on your back, it means that your big vertebrae are blocked, and you’d better go to physical therapy to unblock it. If your neck is very hot, it means that the Qi at the Yuzhen point is blocked. The simple way to deal with it is to tap with hollow palms, or you can ask someone to guide you to help you draw the qi up and unblock it when you are meditating. If you know how to do it yourself, when you sit in meditation, visualize the air behind you passing through the jade pillow from the Ojo, and keep thinking like this, as the air slowly circulates, the heat will disappear. Dazhui and jade pillow are very critical parts. Pay attention to whether there is any blockage. If it is very hot, there is a problem.
6.3 How to deal with body swing
Some people will move their bodies when they sit to a certain level because their Qi channels are blocked. If the body wants to move, don’t stop it. The more you hold back the less you sit. This is qi movement, and the qi movement will become stronger and stronger. If the mind and thoughts are not enough, when the qi is strong, the weak mind will be in danger if they cannot control the qi. When the qi is out of control and the body makes big movements, most people will panic, and panic is the easiest way to become possessed. If this kind of situation happens in the future, don’t panic, just concentrate on thinking that the whole body’s qi will slowly return to the dantian, and slowly sink all the qi back to the dantian, and keep thinking like this repeatedly. If your mind is strong enough, you can use your hands to pull Qi back and forth from your head to Dantian, imagine that your hand will bring Qi to Dantian, and finally press and hold Dantian. If the anger is still on the head, I have to find someone to help, how can I help? It is to use the palm to slowly guide the Qi from his head back to Dantian. You can also use Paida to help him dissipate the Qi from his body.
What caused it to move so violently? It turns out that aerodynamics are healing diseases, so the more you move, the more comfortable you feel. The longer you move your body, the stronger your aura will be. If you move your body while meditating in the future, do not exceed half an hour. If it exceeds half an hour, there will be strong qi and it will not be easy to control. How to deal with the strong movement? We can control the timing of the movement, that is to say, let him move for a few minutes first, and then we want to withdraw the Qi and let the body not move. First do a few more breaths for five minutes, and if you are sure you can get the breath back, you can move for ten minutes each time. Slowly strengthen in this way, and in the future, you will have the ability to absorb. Don’t let it move too much at one time. If you can’t stop it, it’s not because you are possessed by a demon, but because your thoughts are not strong enough. Under what circumstances would you be possessed? When the body moves, some people will feel bloated and dizzy, the body will lose control and move around, and they will become obsessed, mad, and insane. Therefore, be careful when moving, keep your mind clear, and understand that moving is a good thing, but the qi in your body is in motion. The body moves with the breath, which is self-adjustment of the body, and automatically removes the obstacles of the sickness and blockage in your body, and your meditation will make more progress in the future. There is an obstacle of qi blockage in your body, and only body movement will occur. If you hold back, the qi obstacle remains, and the progress of meditation will be very slow. So you should feel free to let it move, and don’t frighten yourself into thinking that it is possessed by a demon, otherwise it will be dangerous. If there is qi blockage, it is best to find some qigong masters to help you deal with those qi blockages, or find someone to massage and so on. If a person who can move his body resists to move his body, his breath will become blocked, and it will be difficult to make progress in meditation. He will only move because of severe air blockage, so he must handle it carefully. When the body moves, the mind must be clear, and the mind must pay attention to the movement of the qi, and it must not be so relaxed that it does not care about anything. Qigong practitioners like to let the body move spontaneously, and they don’t care about anything in their minds when they move. This is dangerous. When the mind is not concentrated and gives up the self, it is easy to be possessed. When the body is moving, the mind must be clear that it is Qi that is moving, and it must be prevented from moving too much, so that there will be no danger.
6.4 Massage before sitting down is very important
Every time before sitting down, massage the whole body. In the past few days, I have seen that most people have not massaged, and accidents will happen after a long time. That is to say, when you get off the seat, make sure that the Qi is drawn back to the Dantian. Before opening the eyes, after rubbing the hands to heat up, massage the head with the palm of the hand, or pat the head. Then, with the palm facing yourself, visualize leading the Qi to the Dantian, and from the head to the Dantian. If you are very sensitive to qi, and you know that all qi is drawn back to Dantian, you don’t need to do this. If you are not sensitive, you must do the movement of breathing back into the Dantian. People who are not sensitive to qi keep a little qi on their head every day, and after a few days in a row, it will be difficult to deal with it. From then on, they will feel heavy head every time they sit in meditation. Therefore, it is best to massage after sitting. Also, if you sit quietly for more than six hours a day, your body will quickly become fatigued if you keep one posture for a long time. It is best to do relaxation exercises every time you get up to relax the muscles of your back and legs, which will help those who sit for a long time. If you don’t do this, fatigue builds up and after a while it becomes uncomfortable to sit still. The above mentioned are some problems that meditators should pay attention to.
6.5 Meditation and chanting
6.5.1 Don’t deny that you can’t cultivate meditation and chant Buddha’s name
Don’t worry if you can’t do well in meditation. Everyone’s practice in the past life is different from the present life. Some people have already practiced in the previous life and come to practice in this life, and some people come to practice without any concentration in the first place. Therefore, don’t compare yourself with others. If you can’t sit up and down, it means you haven’t worked hard enough in meditation, and you should work harder; don’t think that I can’t cultivate meditation, it’s better to go to the Buddha. That is to say, if your original concentration is not good, you need to improve your concentration even more. Don’t stop practicing samadhi just because you don’t have samadhi. Any Buddhist practice is all about cultivating precepts, samadhi, and wisdom. Do you think you don’t need to practice samadhi if you recite the Buddha’s name? Reciting the Buddha’s name is a convenient method. Many people who practice the method of reciting the Buddha’s name have been reciting for many years, but they are still not sure. Don’t think that those who recite the Buddha’s name are sure to be reborn in the Pure Land.
Let me tell you an example. We have an old monk named Yunshui Shanren. He stinks to put up orders, and everyone doesn’t like him. When he was about 60 years old, he did sutras and repented by himself, and built a house to live in. Later, he fell ill and had no one to take care of him, so I asked some lay people to take care of him. He has been reciting the Buddha’s name for twenty years, and when he is old, he is even more diligent in reciting. But when he was sick and living in the hospital, he complained, “I have been reciting Buddha’s name for more than 20 years, but now I am seriously ill, and Amitabha Buddha has not come to pick me up.” Don’t think that reciting Buddha’s name is easy, not necessarily , the old monk didn’t read it at all, and he didn’t believe it. He said that Amitabha Buddha never came to guide him. In fact, this is wrong. According to the scriptures, Amitabha Buddha comes to guide you when you die, not when you are alive. All the Buddhas will not tell you to die quickly. It is not Buddhism at all to expect the Buddha to guide you to the next life before you die. In addition, in Taiwan, there is a great lay Buddhist who leads people to practice chanting Buddhism. He has two wives, and he loves his concubine very much. He recited the Buddha’s name until the predicted time would come, and everyone chanted for him. After reading for a few days, the news spread to his concubine. His concubine loved him very much. When she heard that he was leaving, she was in a hurry and called him. After he listened to his concubine’s call, he couldn’t recite the Buddha’s name anymore, and then he was worried about his concubine, and wanted me to leave, what would she do? Ha ha! That is to say, if a person who recites the Buddha’s name still has attachments to the world, he will not be able to go away when he is about to die. This is a very important thing, but many people who chant the Buddha’s name don’t know that they are still craving the human world. When the real death comes, they realize that they can’t let it go, but it’s too late. For example, the layman mentioned earlier knew when he was about to leave after chanting to the Buddha, but what happened later? Fortunately, he was smart enough, so he simply ignored his concubine, avoided seeing her, concentrated on reciting Buddha, and left later. You see, is it easy to recite the name of Buddha? Don’t forget, if you have no concentration at the time of death, how can you be reborn if your mind is in turmoil!
6.5.2 Recitation of Buddha’s name also requires meditation – Recitation of Buddha’s Samadhi
Reciting the Buddha’s name to a certain extent is necessary to produce samadhi. The real method of reciting Buddha’s name is to be able to enter the samadhi of reciting Buddha’s name. If those who chant the Buddha’s name and visualize the Buddha can enter the concentration, they will have the power of concentration at the time of death and will be reborn with confidence. If you just recite the name of the Buddha without concentration, you have to rely on others to help you recite. If those who practice the Pure Land are attached to the things around them, they will not be reborn. Therefore, with samadhi, there is a little more confidence in rebirth in the Pure Land.
7. How to practice the Tao
The Buddha said that he first saw the Tao and then practiced the Tao. The whole process is to establish the thirty-seven Taos from the heart. Among them, the seven Bodhisattvas have not seen the Tao before, the seven Bodhisattvas have seen the Tao, and the seven Bodhisattvas can only practice the Tao.
The four foundations of mindfulness-the path of knowledge, breaking the four inversions, and giving birth to the correct view of the world.
Four Righteous Diligence – Enhancing the Dao, destroying evil and producing good, so as not to fall.
The four gods are full – the way of wealth, the way of purifying the mind, and gradually leaving the way of the world.
The five roots—adding the way to establish faith, mindfulness, diligence, samadhi, and wisdom.
The five powers—adding to the path, the five roots produce power.
The seven factors of enlightenment—seeing the way, adding the five powers to choose the law, giving birth to the factor of equanimity and enlightenment.
The Noble Eightfold Path – Cultivate the Tao, and after seeing the Tao, further let go of greed, hatred and ignorance.
7.1 The Threshold to the Path of Liberation—Five Faculties and Five Powers
Buddhism teaches us to practice precepts, samadhi, and wisdom in any practice. Even if you are reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, what kind of Dharma will you learn there? If you have recited the “Buddha Said Amitabha Sutra”, you will know that when you go there, you still hear about the five faculties, five powers, seven Bodhi points, and eight noble paths. The true way of liberation is these Buddhist teachings, so in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, these Buddhist teachings are still there. Why is this so? Because the process of practice is not to let the heart be full of truth and awaken, but to let the heart establish the five roots, five powers, seven Bodhi points, and the eight noble paths. This is the case, and all Buddhas speak this way. But many people don’t understand, thinking that this is small multiplication. In fact, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven points of Bodhi, and the eightfold path are all kinds of dharmas that must arise in your mind when you cultivate the Tao, and it is impossible to rely on Buddha’s power to bless you.
As far as the five roots are concerned, the five roots are the root of faith, the root of mindfulness, the root of diligence, the root of wisdom, and the root of concentration. The root of faith is what you must have if you want to have confidence in Buddhism. If you don’t believe in Buddha, Buddha can’t force you to believe in him. Diligence is also necessary. Diligence does not mean working hard to do things, nor does it mean cultivating hard. Diligence is a kind of mind, called vigor. It doesn’t mean that if I work hard to do something, I will have the mental state of vigor. The mental state of vigor is only produced when I cultivate the Tao. When the mental state of vigor arises, you will practice very hard. Diligence is not something that you are very interested in doing. It is the thought of diligence when you practice the Tao, which is called the root of diligence. If you do not have the root of diligence, the Buddha can do nothing to you. Therefore, these various roots: the root of faith, the root of mindfulness, the root of wisdom, the root of diligence, and the root of concentration are all the power to build up the Tao from the mind, and the Buddha cannot force the five roots on you. In other words, you need to establish these dharmas when you practice. When the five faculties are strengthened, it becomes strength, called five strengths. The further strengthening of the five powers is the Bodhisattva, and the further cultivation is the Noble Eightfold Path. These methods are the “tao quality” of any practice. No matter who you worship as your teacher or practice any method, you must establish these Taoisms in your heart. Even if you go to the Land of Ultimate Bliss, you have to build up these Taos from your own mind. Cultivating the Tao is not to obtain some dharma from the Buddha or the pure land outside your mind for you to realize enlightenment. Why do you have to wait until you go to the Pure Land to build it instead of this life? You should train here first, and you will be faster when you arrive in the Paradise of Ultimate Bliss. Therefore, we are practicing here now to train these thoughts.
According to the order of practice, the way of adding practice is to establish the five faculties and five powers, and the way of adding practice is definitely not the way of adding practice like ordinary practice. For example, in Dzogchen practice, there are forward practice, additional practice, and righteous practice. The preparatory practice of Tibetan secret practice is to specify certain methods to be practiced. Some of these practice methods are the preparatory practice path, and some are the accumulation path. The real practice path of any practice is to establish the five senses and five powers. When any practice method enters the path of foundation, the heart must have the five senses and five powers. The process of our meditation practice is also to establish the five faculties and five powers.
7.2 The starting point of practicing the path of liberation – the four foundations of mindfulness
According to the teachings of Hinayana (note: it is the way of liberation from illusion, not the Bodhisattva way of self-cultivation), to establish the five roots and five powers, you must first start with the four foundations of mindfulness. Why should you start with the four foundations of mindfulness? ? There is a reason for this. The first of the four foundations of mindfulness is body awareness, followed by feeling awareness, mind awareness, and dharma awareness. This order is related to the thickness of the mind, that is to say, the base of body mindfulness is very thick, and anyone with a thick mind can observe it. The mindfulness of the Dharma is very subtle, and only those with very subtle minds can observe it. Beginners must first observe from the rough mind and state. If the body movements cannot be observed clearly, it is impossible to clearly observe the mind. Therefore, if a person can observe the mindfulness of the mind well, the mindfulness of the body will definitely do well. When ordinary people practice the four foundations of mindfulness, it is best to practice in order of body, feeling, mind, and dharma—from the coarse body meditation to the fine mind meditation. Of course, if you have the ability, you can immediately practice the fine mind meditation. , there is no need to cultivate the gross body and feelings. The so-called ability means that there were no five hindrances at that time, and only those without five hindrances have the ability to settle their minds in the place of mindfulness. As for those who are heavy on the five hindrances, they can’t even control the mindfulness of the body. These people should not cultivate wisdom first, but should first cultivate concentration or both concentration and wisdom.
7.2.1 Gross insight – body contemplation
If you focus on the first mindfulness while walking, that is, to observe the body mindfulness, at first I taught you to pay more attention to your feet, and you should also pay attention to letting your mind relax and love to listen and love to see and leave the body mindfulness; after you are familiar with your feet, then pay attention to anything on your body Movements, comprehensive body contemplation is to be clear about all movements and behaviors on the body (body contemplation does not include feelings). When did body contemplation start? Many people start to cultivate the body and mindfulness meditation when they stand up and walk, which is wrong. They start to practice before getting up from the sitting position. From the sitting down, they should be very clear about all your walking, standing, sitting, and lying down. Meditation for self-cultivation. When you practice mindfulness of the body well, you will find that your mind is too busy to look around, and you no longer want to talk to people. If you are not energetic enough, you will wait until you have a good posture during the walk before cultivating body meditation, or even want to rest when you are tired, then it will be too slack in cultivating body meditation. In fact, if the mind is not yet tired, even if the body is tired and rests, the mind still stays with the mindfulness of the body.
One thing to pay attention to when walking is: from the time you are about to get off your seat and stop crossing your legs, you should be clear about every movement of your hands and feet. If you know how to practice and work hard, you will also be practicing concentration while walking. If you don’t know how to practice meditation alternately with walking, you will feel tired from sitting and want to rest, so you will not be able to practice concentration for a long time. If you know how to practice, you can keep mindfulness in the body anytime, anywhere whether you are tired or not. This kind of walking has the same effect as sitting in meditation.
7.2.2 Subtle Vipassanā – Mindfulness of Feelings
When you are practicing mindfulness of feeling, you should know whether the feeling at that time is painful, pleasant or neither painful nor pleasant. Have you ever felt angry at times, and have you ever felt infatuated when you are neither suffering nor happy? If so, you should let go of these afflictions, and further observe that these three kinds of feelings are impermanent and uncomfortable sufferings. Practitioners should pay more attention to feeling and mindfulness in daily life, but in the environment of retreat, I personally think that there is no need to observe feeling more. Why? Because during the first period of cultivation and retreat, in all the prepared environment, no one will disturb you, and you will walk in a happy mood at that time, with few painful and pleasant feelings, most of which are neither painful nor pleasant. Naturally, there will be less greed and less anger at the time, and the effect of contemplating feelings and mindfulness like that will not be great. Only by observing the mindfulness of the feeling in daily life can we have the opportunity to let go of the greed and hatred that arise after the feeling, because at this time it is easy to lose the mind, and there are many external factors that cause greed and hatred after losing the right mind, so we have the opportunity to deal with the greed and hatred after the feeling .
Contemplating feelings as suffering, impermanence, and discomfort is the main purpose of contemplating feelings and mindfulness. However, it is not necessary to use this method to observe suffering. Other methods of meditation can also be used to observe suffering. In fact, you can also observe suffering, impermanence, and discomfort by observing the mind and observing causes and conditions. It is not necessarily the only way to observe suffering. If you know how to observe, all phenomena of arising and passing away are impermanent, uncomfortable, and suffering. If you practice meditation until your mind is pure, you will definitely observe the suffering of impermanence arising and ceasing. If you have not observed the suffering of impermanence, it means that your supramundane wisdom has not yet arisen. As I said, when you practice Vipassana, once the seven factors of enlightenment arise, you will feel happier as you practice more. However, the wisdom at that time must realize that the impermanent body and mind are suffering. As I said, if you want to quickly realize the first fruition, the key point is to let go of the self-view, not to practice the practice of eliminating greed, hatred, and ignorance first, but to choose the method of prioritizing the self-view. Let me use an analogy, if you have a lot of anger, you observe your breath, observe coming and going, and the anger is still very heavy. Watching the breath is not a practice to get rid of the anger. To overcome the anger, you should practice the meditation of loving-kindness. Likewise, seeing that feeling is suffering is a very slow practice for letting go of ego; because seeing that feeling is suffering tends to generate renunciation but cannot deal with greed and aversion. To get rid of the habit of greed and hatred, the Buddha specially taught to cultivate compassion and contemplate to eliminate anger, and to cultivate impure contemplation to eliminate greed; however, greed and hatred cannot be cut off like I see, and can only be let go slowly. Since getting rid of greed and hatred is not the focus of practice before seeing the Tao, besides, greed and hatred can only be eliminated gradually. In order to speed up the breaking of self-view, I don’t encourage you to practice meditation on suffering before breaking your self-view. I think you should first observe cause and effect, and you can quickly get rid of self-view, and you can also realize the impermanence and discomfort of cause and condition through observing cause and condition. and bitter.
7.2.3 A more detailed insight – mindfulness
As for the impermanence of the mind, it is more subtle than the mind of suffering. After seeing the Tao, the power of concentration and wisdom is stronger. At this time, the ability to observe the mind is stronger than before seeing the Tao. Therefore, when you clearly see the cause and effect inside and outside the body and mind, I will teach you how to observe the heart. From the first jhana to the fourth dhyana, the concentration of the mind can be thick or thin, and the thickness of the mind that can be observed is also affected by the thickness of the observed state. Observing the impermanent arising and ceasing of the mind, you can observe the superficial arising and ceasing carelessly, or you can observe the subtle arising and ceasing carefully and deeply. If you observe with a very rough mind, you will only observe the arising and passing away of the wandering mind in delusions. Therefore, there are three levels of contemplation of the mind and mindfulness: first, when you have not attained the pure mind of equanimity of the fourth dhyana, you can contemplate carelessness such as greed and hatred when you have delusions and distinctions. Second, after you have purified your mind by giving up thoughtfulness, observe the careful mind of the first five consciousnesses touching the external environment, that is, when the mind touches the realm, the mind will return to the light and reflect and observe the first thought with the five kasina mental states. Third, after seeing clearly the five kasina mental states, focus inward and carefully observe the consciousness that takes dharma objects as the environment, but focus on the arising and passing away of the conscious mind.
7.2.4 Letting go even when looking at the Dharma mindfulness
Once the gross observation of the body, the fine observation of the feeling, and the finer observation of the mind can be clearly observed, one can enter the Dharma meditation of all things.
The mindfulness of the dharma is to observe the dharma without self, and to observe the dharma is to observe all dharmas. What is all dharmas? All dharmas do not refer to all dharmas in the world. The Buddha said that all dharmas are the eighteen realms. It turns out that we see all dharmas in the eighteen realms, not the real world beyond the eighteen realms and all dharmas in the world; then, to observe all dharmas is to observe the eighteen realms, in other words, to observe the ten Eight realms without me. When observing cause and effect, don’t you see it? Why look at the Eighteen Realms without self? In fact, viewing the eighteen realms without self is not to observe the presence and absence of self, but to observe which realm of the eighteen realms I am currently in? It means to find out how I am attached to the eighteen realms and stay in that realm, and leave that place immediately after discovering it. In the process of leaving the Eighteen Realms, you will definitely enter different meditations. At the time of the meditation, you find that I stay in the meditation and leave immediately. At the end of the practice, only the consciousness remains in the dharma dust and delusions. At this time, you should also stay away. The realm of consciousness doesn’t stay there either. At this time, it completely jumps out of the eighteen realms and enters emptiness.
Since the practice of leaving the eighteen realms is a very subtle mind, it is necessary to first understand the subtle minds such as mind and non-consciousness. Therefore, first practice observing the birth and death of the mind and then observe the eighteen realms. Therefore, the order of the four foundations of mindfulness must first be to observe the impermanence of the mind, and then to gain power by observing the non-self of the dharma; if you practice in reverse, it means that you take the view of the non-self of the dharma as breaking the self-view rather than destroying the self-attachment. That is the gross method I am gone.
7.3 The order of delusion
7.3.1 The first step in eliminating thoughts and confusions: see clearly the five karmic formations of the first thought
After seeing the Tao, it is followed by cultivating the Tao to get rid of greed, hatred and other delusions. The first test is to see clearly the five-pass practice of the first thought. The key point of this test is to let the mind of awareness go ahead of the afflictions. Five times the mind. The five kathas are touch, intention, feeling, thinking, and thought. These five thoughts are the first thought when our heart touches the state. There is no first thought in the heart, the first thought is based on the state, and the first thought caused by the appearance of the state is called the first thought of a certain state. The first thought in any state is the pervasive mental states. There are five mental states in total, also known as the five kasinas.
We must see it clearly. At the moment when the state of each thought appears, the first thought at that time is the five kasina. Then, those who observe the arising and passing away of the mind in a subtle way will eventually see the five elements of contact, intention, feeling, thinking, and thinking. Even when you practice Zen and practice Huatou closely, Huatou is the head of words, what is the head of words? It is the heart that has not yet moved! To practice Zen, one needs to move the mind before reciting. However, the five karmas have already been moved before the thought, and there is no way to look back at myself at the first thought. It must be the second thought looking at the first thought, so the so-called observing the first thought actually means that the second thought returns to the first thought without observing the external environment. When the mind can always maintain the first thought of observing the state of the mind, the observation of the impermanence of the mind will have power. If you can’t see the five kamikadus clearly, you can’t observe the impermanence of the mind clearly, because the mind you observe when afflictions such as greed and hatred arise is just to observe the impermanence of the afflictions generated by the mind, not the impermanence of the mind itself. When there is affliction, the power of concentration and wisdom is so rough that it can only see that affliction is suffering, and it is not qualified to observe the mental state itself, let alone see that feeling is suffering; because feeling belongs to the pervasive mental state, five This pervasive mental state is not clearly visualized so that the afflictions of greed and hatred have the opportunity to arise. Moreover, afflictions belong to dharma dust, and observing greed and hatred is to observe the impermanence of dharma dust rather than mind impermanence. Therefore, in observing the impermanence of the mind, in order to observe the first thought that arises in the mind, one must first observe the five kasinas well.
After you have stopped practicing for a few months, if you want to continue to observe the mind and mindfulness, you still have to observe the five times of practice first. Only when you have clearly observed the five times of practice again, can you start to observe the impermanence of the mind again. If you have no way to observe the five kamikasas of the first thought, you can only observe the false thoughts and distracting thoughts of dharmas, it is difficult to observe the impermanence of the mind!
After letting go of self-views, the afflictions to be cleared up are greed, anger, and the five upper divisions in the desire realm. The quickest way is to see clearly the five pervasive mental states at ordinary times. What is faster is that the mind of awareness goes to the front of the affliction to clear up the affliction. When the affliction is about to arise, you will know it. This is the fastest way to clear up the affliction. Therefore, it is said that after seeing the Tao, one knows how to practice the Tao, because the concentration and wisdom after seeing the Tao can see the mind clearly, and he knows how to observe and deal with afflictions on the road in the heart. When we observe the mind, we must observe more and more subtle. The mind that is subtle enough to be aware runs to the front of the afflictions. If you want to accomplish this, you must first train to see the five kasinas of the first thought.
7.3.2 The second step of eliminating thinking and confusion: distinguishing the consciousness and dharma objects
Then, after the five-pass observation of the first thought of the mind-touching state is clear, how to look inward to the mind in the next step? Delusion and distracting thoughts are not the mind to be observed, and thoughts known by the mind are not the mind you can know. Known thoughts are called the mind, and those who can know are called the king of the mind. If you look inward at the heart, all you can see is the consciousness of the king of the mind and the dharmas of the mind.
The so-called observing the impermanence of the mind is not observing the impermanence of dharma objects, and definitely not observing the impermanence of afflictions and thoughts in dharma objects. Afflictions are just delusional thoughts created by the mind. Observing the impermanence of the mind is neither the impermanence of the “thinking mind”, nor the impermanence of the “feeling mind” of suffering and pleasure. If you are meditating on mind impermanence and still meditating on these minds, you are doing it wrong. That is to visualize and experience impermanence, not to observe the impermanence of the mind, because the dharma produced by thinking of the mind is the dharma that can only be observed when observing the dharma without self; View method. Contemplating the impermanence of the mind inwardly means no longer contemplating the delusional thoughts of dharmas (thoughts and feelings), but only observing the impermanent beating of the knowing mind. This is the contemplation of the impermanence of the mind. Notice! Consciousness is not (thinking and feeling) thoughts born of the mind! Some people may not understand, so I will give you an example. For example, when reciting “Namo Amitabha”, the common Buddha-chanters say that it is my mind that recites “Namo Amitabha”. The perception of feeling and thinking is the knowing mind. When you recite the Buddha’s name, you are actually thinking of the Buddha’s name. When you recite the six characters “Namo Amitabha Buddha”, there are six thoughts, and each thought is known by the heart. That is to say, the heart that knows what to think is the mind at the moment when it is thought. That is to say, when you recite “Nan”, you know that you are reciting “Nan”, and knowing is consciousness, and what you know is the idea of ”Nan”-dharma dust. When you recite “Nothing”, your mind knows that when you say “Nothing”, this is the awareness of another thought. Observing the impermanence of the mind is not observing the dharma objects, not observing the six thoughts of “Namo Amitabha”, but the conscious mind that knows “Namo Amitabha”. The consciousness of this thought arises with the dharma object, and the eye consciousness of each thought arises with the form object, and the six consciousnesses are like this. If you haven’t figured it out, you say you are observing the impermanence of the mind, but you are actually observing the impermanence of the dharma object. This point must be made clear. Observing the impermanence of the mind is to observe the six mind consciousnesses, not the six states of observation. The same is true for the reference.
7.3.3 The third step of eliminating thoughts and confusions: usually, the mind is in the environment and the world is free from delusions
When we are observing the birth and death of thoughts, your mind wants to stay away from the outside world and only observe your own consciousness. At the end of the observation, your mind will be very subtle, and finally you will have no thoughts—no dusty thoughts.
From observing the birth and death of thoughts to entering no-thoughts, you can enter slowly. After entering, you must find a way to maintain it. When you can be mindless, you don’t want to think as much as you did in the past, and hope that there is nothing to worry about in your mind. Then, you must first maintain a state of mindlessness. In Zen Buddhism, it is said that “no heart is still separated by a hurdle”, which means that no heart can not be liberated. When you have practiced to this level, you should not practice Vipassana in the arranged environment. At this time, you should practice in all situations. When any greed, anger, and ignorance are about to arise, the mind will immediately notice it and let it go. Because at this time, the mind that can observe is already able to run ahead of the afflictions. As soon as the afflicted mind moves, it knows to let go immediately. This is the fastest way to overcome afflictions. But afflictions can’t be cleared up all at once. You have to see how serious the afflictions are, and you can’t know if there are some afflictions that haven’t appeared before. If you can achieve Wuxin, you will no longer be able to hide and cultivate, and you will have to face the realm. Why? Because you practice in hiding, there is no opportunity for you to have various afflictions, and you have no chance to deal with afflictions at all. The so-called unintentional person is usually unintentional about things, and has nothing to do with his mind; it does not mean that he escapes from all situations and is unintentional.
7.3.4 The fourth step of eradicating thoughts and confusions: Awareness of the delusional mind and illusion of the five aggregates
If you have read the Heart Sutra, you will find that many people do not know the key points of Buddhism. The key point of Buddhism is actually what the “Heart Sutra” says, that is, the five aggregates and eighteen realms, the twelve causal relationships, and the four noble truths are all empty and have no self-nature. They are not only the essence of Buddhism, but also the essence of Prajna. However, many Mahayana masters believe that we should arouse the immeasurable and broad mind like Guanyin Bodhisattva, and do not learn the five aggregates and eighteen realms of the Hinayana. In fact, your current body, mind and world are in the five aggregates and eighteen realms. Don’t think that the world is one thing, five aggregates, body and mind are one thing, absolutely not! Your body and mind are the five aggregates, and the world is the information from the eighteen realms. Your five aggregates, body and mind live in the eighteen realms, but you think you live in a real external world. How do you say that? You said I was watching something. Actually not. It is the eye-faculty that comes into contact with form dust that produces eye-consciousness, and it is these three things that are at work. But, you said I saw something. Buddhism says absolutely not. Why not? Because seeing the same realm with different eyes can lead to different results. Have you heard of it? Sentient beings with different karma, because of their different eyesight, see the same thing with different results. You think that all dharmas outside your mind are dharmas within the five aggregates and eighteen realms, because all the dharmas you know are definitely obtained from the five aggregates and eighteen realms. You said that you want to practice vipassana, but what is vipassana? Looking outside? Watch your heart? Isn’t that all about contemplating the five aggregates and the eighteen realms?
In fact, in any profound method, in the process of practicing meditation and turning from confusion to enlightenment, it is to observe the five aggregates and eighteen realms——observe the mind. You have to observe the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self from the five aggregates and eighteen realms, and let go of your worries and attachments. This is the dharma you need to face and observe in practice. Therefore, the essence of Buddhism mentioned in the “Heart Sutra” is to realize emptiness in the five aggregates and eighteen realms. It’s not that there is this alarm clock (referring to the clock on the podium) outside the five aggregates and eighteen realms, and then observe that it is empty and has no self-nature. Absolutely not, why? That is nothing but the karmic phenomenon of the root consciousness, but you cling to the emptiness of the external alarm clock. When you think that there is an alarm clock outside the eighteen realms of the five aggregates, and you have been deceived by the five aggregates, and you still see that the alarm clock outside the five aggregates is empty, then you are delusional. You’re still kidding yourself about explaining that the alarm clock is so-and-so empty. In short, in all meditation practices, you must finally observe the five aggregates and eighteen realms. Apart from this, there is no external Buddhist principle. Everything that the deluded person knows happens in the five aggregates and eighteen realms, but they still think that there is an external dharma, so they abandon the five aggregates and eighteen realms and foolishly observe the external impermanence. Therefore, when practicing meditation, you are asked to observe the five aggregates and eighteen realms, so as to see clearly the truth of all dharmas.
Anyone can observe the five aggregates at any time, but when you can grasp the first thought, you will have the ability to observe the five aggregates very finely. When you look clearly, you will find one thing—your five aggregates of physical and mental activities are always pushing you forward, and there is nothing you can control, and nothing you want. You absolutely have to see this, so that you will know that there are no cute and hateful external things, all of them are persecuted by the five aggregates. Only then do you know where to let go of greed, anger, and ignorance. As a result, you no longer want those illusory external things, and you no longer want to be confused and persecuted by them, and the heart of renunciation will be strong. At the same time, you will also know that you are not leaving this world, but leaving the five aggregates and eighteen realms. Liberation is to no longer be confused by the illusion of the five aggregates and eighteen realms, and no longer think that there are dharmas beyond the five aggregates and eighteen realms. If practitioners think that there is an external world, they will want to jump out of the three realms, but they don’t know that the three realms are within the five aggregates and eighteen realms.
Practitioners learn to observe the five aggregates and return to the troubled worldly life. If the mind is once again greedy for the world, they must again observe the suffering of the five aggregates to strengthen renunciation.
7.3.5 The fifth step of eradicating thoughts and confusions: from dharmas, observing the momentary arising and ceasing of consciousness
Cultivate to the point where you don’t have false thoughts about the environment. This kind of righteous thought is still a rough mind. If you continue to practice, you can enter a very subtle mind and observe the arising and passing away of even more subtle thoughts. Any method of practice, as long as the more you cultivate, the finer your thoughts and the clearer your righteous thoughts, it is the correct practice. If the more you cultivate your mind, the more refined your thoughts will be. If you think that the more you cultivate, the more Fa you will get, then you are all wrong. Is there anything in the world that benefits you? The world is just a trick of the five aggregates and eighteen realms! People who don’t understand think that they can get some great dharma through practice. Therefore, to observe the birth and death of the mind, one must observe the mind more and more finely, and see clearly that everything is just the essence of the Dharma mentioned in the Heart Sutra—the five aggregates are all empty, and there is no other more excellent method to practice and observe. When anyone is practicing samadhi, because of the concentration of the mind, there will be a puff of qi accumulated in the head, and it will feel that there is a puff of qi enveloping the head. When practicing vipassana, there will be qi rising from the top of the head. The more refined the mind of vipassana and the deeper concentration, the higher the qi will rise. Therefore, when observing the arising and passing away of thoughts, you will feel that the top of your head is swollen. Some people describe it as spraying water like a fountain, or as if it is emitting smoke. Some people can see a beam of light rising from the mind watcher’s head. If the person’s thoughts are not subtle and stable enough, the light on his head will swing around and cannot deceive people. When the heart is very pure and subtle, there will be a beam of light above the head that will rush to the sky, that is, the top of the head will emit light, and anyone who can see the spiritual light can see it. Therefore, ghosts and gods will be attracted during real practice, because ghosts and gods can see the light of practitioners.
7.4 Concentration is too strong and hinders the observation of the mind
The qi of samadhi and wisdom are just reversed, and the qi of meditation will stay on the head because it is concentrated and condensed. The anger of meditation is taken up, what is the result? A person with strong meditation cannot cultivate Vipassana, and a person with too strong Vipassana cannot cultivate concentration. These two energies are opposite. People with too much concentration cannot practice Vipassana. Why? Because the energy of samadhi brought him into samadhi, the samadhi was too strong to contemplate, so he had no choice but to samadhi. Others thought he had cultivated well!
If you don’t first make a clear distinction between meditation and meditation, you will just practice and practice without knowing what to cultivate. To find out! That is, meditation will collect energy, and meditation will consume energy—energy. The more he observes, the more he will feel powerless. Therefore, when you practice meditation diligently, you will get tired and get tired easily. Although you are tired, your diligent mind is still there, so your body and mind contradict each other. In fact, you should rest more when practicing Vipassana, and those who practice concentration should sleep less.
Most people are either too strong in view or too strong in concentration. Many people don’t know that there is a very important principle when practicing Vipassana, that is, when practicing Vipassana, you must not stay in concentration for too long, otherwise it will hinder the practice of Vipassana. Why? Because it didn’t take long for you to become samadhi. Such concentration is not conducive to meditation. People who don’t understand think that this person is working hard in cultivation. On the outside, this person is cultivating very well. From the perspective of discerning people, he has not improved at all. Why? He wanted to practice vipassana, but he fell into samadhi without contemplating at all. The result is that concentration becomes stronger and stronger, and in the end, only supernatural powers can be developed, and wisdom cannot be developed, you know? Others admire him very much after seeing his supernatural powers. In my opinion, he has not made any progress. He doesn’t understand the key to cultivating wisdom. After many years of practice, his wisdom has not progressed. As a result, he has supernatural powers, so he looks down on those who have wisdom but no supernatural powers. The Zen masters are most afraid of imitating others to gain supernatural powers, because it is a waste of time to achieve samadhi without cultivating wisdom. Therefore, you must pay attention when practicing vipassana: don’t stay in samadhi for too long.
7.5 Maintain the power of the four meditations to observe the mind
However, if you don’t have enough samadhi, you won’t be able to cultivate, what should you do? You must be able to practice the four meditations every day, one in the morning and one in the evening. It takes one minute each time to practice the fourth meditation, so that you have enough concentration to practice meditation. After you have completed your meditation training, you will have this experience. You will enter meditation after two or three breaths, and sometimes you will stop breathing after one breath and enter the fourth meditation. However, you must not enter into the root concentration of the four jhānas when practicing vipassanā. If the power of concentration is strong but the power of wisdom is weak, one will accidentally enter the fourth jhana when practicing vipassana; those who are strong in concentration and wisdom can practice vipassana in the four jhanas. As for ordinary people, they often don’t want to meditate when they are in samadhi. The reason is that there is restlessness in meditation, and those who love to sing have restlessness in singing. If you don’t understand that meditation becomes samadhi and wastes time, others will think he is very diligent! Once you understand the difference between Dinghui and Dinghui, you can practice meditation quickly. So you have to check once a day to see if you have the ability to go to the fourth jhāna right away? If you can, it proves that you still have enough concentration to meditate today. If you can’t practice the fourth meditation within five minutes today, then suspend meditation. Cultivate concentration again, and practice Vipassana again when you have the concentration of the Four Dhyanas. This way, you will use the right effort, otherwise, you will be wasting time.
Remember, when practicing Vipassana, you must test the concentration of the four meditations every morning and evening.
7.6 The Enlightenment Factor of Eradication every day—the mindless Taoist who is unable to do anything
You will practice introspecting the mind until you see only the mind and do not know the body. When the mind becomes more and more subtle, the stronger the concentrated mind (energy), the higher the qi will rise. This kind of power is the enlightenment factor of diligence. The trend is manifested in the body feeling a strong sense of aura rushing to the sky. When the mind is very subtle, the concentrated energy is very strong, so strong that it will later enter a state of emptiness and no thought. At this time, some strange phenomena must occur in the body and mind, so I will keep it secret here. I hope that the students who have experienced it will not tell others, so as not to hinder his practice. If he knows the process before he has fully cultivated, he will be attached and suggest to himself and think that he has completed it. This is an obstacle.
When you reach the state of no-mind, you will find that when you look at something or do something, your mind is clear and your mind is blank, without any distracting thoughts. In fact, when everyone wakes up in the morning, the energy of the heart will run to the head for use. When sleeping, all the energy on the head will be sent back to the heart. When one observes no-mind, the head is also empty with no energy at all. At this time, as long as he thinks a thought, he will find a wave of energy rushing to his head. That is to say, when you cultivate to the point where your thoughts are very subtle, so fine that you don’t move your thoughts, and your mind is free from artificiality, you must have no energy in your head. When you think of a thought or something, your subtle heart will discover a If a strand of energy comes up, it means that you have reached the state of being a Taoist without heart. What is an unintentional Taoist? Facing any realm, I know in my heart not to be tempted by that realm. Although you don’t think about the state, the five kamikasinas (awareness mind) are still there, but the mind doesn’t think about anything, the mind is just a mirror that perceives everything without interference, and you know that you can also have The pure mind of equanimity is exactly the same as the four dhyanas. When you practice meditation until you reach no-thought, you will be able to not move your thoughts at any time, and be in a state of pure equanimity. Zen Buddhism says that the bottom of the barrel will fall off when you practice Zen for a certain period of time. To fall off the bottom of the bucket is to enter into a state where the mind is unmoved but empty yet clear. This can also be done when you look inward on your mind and see no-thought. There is nothing on my mind, but it is clear, there is not a single thought—no thought.
When a person enters such a situation, he will feel very hard when he is disturbed by minor troubles, and he will feel distressed for a while. From then on, he was particularly alert to greed and hatred, because when the hatred came, he immediately felt that his heart could not bear it, and it was very hard. Because the pure heart is already very sensitive at this time, once the anger comes, the heart can’t bear it, and it must be discarded immediately. At this time, it will be faster for you to get rid of greed and hatred. However, at this time, this person can no longer do things. He only cares about his own inner affairs and is indifferent to time and chores. Ordinary people see him as a selfish and useless person. When he returned home, he was misunderstood by his family, and found that he was either frigid or impotent, and he was unable to follow the crowd when he returned to the temple.
When the mind reaches a pure mind of giving up thoughts while facing the environment, it should continue to practice in a quiet environment for a period of time – the so-called retention. Try to keep this mind uncontaminated by afflictions, and have righteous thoughts and clear understanding like a mirror. Once you can’t let go of your thoughts even if you think about it, many people will think that their afflictions have been cut off. In fact, righteous thoughts and a pure mind are far from being liberated; at this time, one should not just practice in the environment of practice, but should leave the environment of practice to live the life of ordinary people. You will find that your mind becomes like two people, one is doing things with a normal mind, and the other is a normal mind with righteous thoughts and awareness taking care of the previous one doing things. This is the mind with real power to enter the world It’s time to practice against the environment. In the end, these two hearts merge into one ordinary heart, and this is a true cultivator who cultivates without cultivating—a Taoist without heart. However, Wuxin is still separated by a hurdle, and has not yet awakened to the great freedom of illusion that is originally lifeless and deathless. The next step is to practice breaking away from the root-dust consciousness and entering the emptiness. Many people mistakenly think that they can observe clearly the arising and passing away of thoughts, and they don’t need to observe again in the future. This is a huge mistake. If you can enter the pure mind of equanimity when observing the birth and death of thoughts, you should cherish this mind, and you should always enter the pure mind of equanimity throughout your life.
Lecture Six
8. Enlightenment and post-enlightenment practice
Today we will continue to talk about the issue of meditation. Cultivating insight is cultivating wisdom.
8.1 Slow growth
When a person achieves the first fruition, he should realize for himself that he has accomplished the first fruition. However, practitioners often have a problem, that is, they think they have reached a certain fruit level before they have reached that point. As far as self-affirmation is concerned: I have cultivated so far. In Buddhism, the affliction that has not been certified is called increasing slowness. It is said in the theory that people with the first fruit sometimes have slow growth of the first fruit, and even people with the fourth fruit sometimes have slow growth of the fourth fruit. It’s not a lie to be slow, it’s just that he himself doesn’t know it, and he thinks he has cultivated to that one. When a slow person knows that he is slow, he must admit that he was self-righteous at the time, otherwise it is a big lie. Do you have slowness? Don’t fall in! Beware of big lies!
8.2 Fruiting
8.2.1 Now Law Live
How to verify whether the card is the first fruit? If you think you have accomplished the first fruition, have you really accomplished it? The first result is to let go and see you. In the last article of “Pure Pure Way”, it talks about the merits of cultivating wisdom. If a person has completed the first fruit, he can enjoy a kind of samadhi, called fruit samadhi. Fruit concentration is not entering concentration, it is called in the scriptures as the joy of living in the present method. After a person has completed the first fruition, he wants to enjoy the joy of fruition, and he can enjoy it anytime, anywhere. If you have completed the four jhanas and the first fruit, you will know that the present dharma of fruit concentration is more pleasant and comfortable than the four jhanas. This happiness is not the happiness of the world, nor is it the happiness of the Three Zens. It is a very peaceful and comfortable feeling. This feeling makes you feel very light and peaceful all over your body, a kind of tranquility beyond the world. At that time, you were no longer interested in everything in the world, and your mind naturally lived quietly in the present Dharma.
If you have achieved the first fruit, you must know it with confidence. If you want others to confirm it, it means you don’t know what you have proved to be the first fruit, or you don’t have confidence. The reason for lack of confidence is to listen to those who believe that it is impossible to prove the first fruit. For example, some people have heard (miscellaneous treasure scriptures collected by later generations) that when the first fruit walks, insects enter the ground three feet (ants will enter the ground) ?The classics record the statement that Venerable Anarud was blind and trampled to death insects and ants while walking. So, once you think that you have completed the first fruition, you should experience the blissful abiding of the present dharma. If you experience the blissful abiding of the present dharma, you will know and be confident that you are full of dharma joy, and you will be very confident in the fruition , I am convinced that the Dharma and joy of the fruition can be enjoyed in the present Dharma. At this time, remember, don’t let the non-bad believers know your enlightenment, they will not accept you. Regardless of whether a person has completed the first fruition through practice or not, he can try to practice the joyful abiding of the present method. If he has really completed the first fruition, he must be qualified (capable) to enjoy the happiness of the fruition. That is to say, the present method must appear Live happily. If he hasn’t completed that Attainment Status, he won’t be able to experience it. The joy of living in the present law will retreat with your meditation. That is to say, if you retreat from concentration, you will also retreat from the present method.
In the scriptures, it is said that the four dhyanas also have the joy of present dharma. However, the happiness obtained by wisdom is more comfortable than the happiness obtained by the four dhyanas. That is to say, when a person emerges from the four meditations, his mind is very pure, and when he encounters any state, his mind will be as still as water. If the samadhi of the Four Dhyanas is gone, this feeling will also be gone, and you will have to re-practice the Four Dhyanas again. As long as you have completed the four jhānas, you can enjoy the happiness brought to you by coming out of the four jhānas at any time.
When enjoying the joyful abiding of the first fruition, some people will make a mistake and enter the fourth dhyana. When someone lives happily in the realization of fruit concentration, if you have the ability to see, you can see that there will be light rising from his head, and the light will rise very high. There is no need to enter concentration, as long as the heart wants to enjoy the happiness, he will enjoy the joy of the Dharma in it, and the light on his head will appear, which cannot deceive people who are capable of seeing.
8.2.2 Cashback method Lezhu
According to the scriptures, there are six kinds of arhats, namely, the arhats of the retreat method, the arhats of the thinking method, the arhats of the dharma protection, the arhats of the dwelling method, the arhats of the kanda method, and the arhats of the immovable method. Among them, the arhat who retreats from the dharma is because of retreating from meditation, he retreats from the current dharma and lives happily.
It can be seen that the fruit will be withdrawn after witnessing. Many people will withdraw after not believing in the fruit. The Buddha said in the “Forty-two Chapters”: “To get the way of Arhat, you can trust your ears.” It means that after reaching the three fruits, the heart will still go back and forth, even if it is still possible to be greedy and stain the world, it is possible return results. Of course, there are retreats and advances. If you find that you are retreating, you should quickly cultivate. (Please refer to the Sutras on Refund in the appendix)
8.3 Realization of Fruition and Elimination of Afflictions
After attaining the first fruition, one still needs to practice the dharmas that should be broken in the cultivation of the Tao: 1. Greed in the desire realm; 2. Hatred; 3. Greed in the form realm; 4. Greed in the formless realm; 5. Ignorance; Restless. It’s just that there is no need to practice those practices that destroy my views. In the scriptures, troubles are divided into troubles in the desire realm, troubles in the form realm, and troubles in the formless realm. The Hinayana school’s “saying that everything has a department” subdivides the afflictions of the three realms into eighty-eight confusions and ninety-eight confusions. This teaching has been accepted by the current Northern Buddhism scholars. However, there is no ninety-eight confuses in the scriptures (not theories), but only divides afflictions into five upper knots and five lower knots. The five troubles in the desire realm are called the five lower knots. The five afflictions above the desire realm are called the five upper knots, and the five upper knots are the afflictions of the form realm and the affliction of the formless realm.
The five lower knots are self-view, prohibition and view, doubt, greed and hatred in the world of desire.
Greed has the difference between the desire realm, the form realm and the formless realm. Among them, the form realm and the formless realm belong to the upper division, while hatred exists only in the desire realm, and infatuation penetrates the three realms.
The five upper knots are lust in the form realm, greed in the formless realm, restlessness, arrogance and ignorance. Among them: Sutuohuan fruit is the three knots of body view, precepts and doubts that have been cut off and known, and greed and hatred in the desire realm have not been cut off, so it is necessary to go back and forth to the desire realm seven times.
Si Tuo Han Guo only breaks the three knots, greed and hatred in the desire realm, and whether he practices the holy life or not, he only comes to the desire realm to reincarnate once.
Anahan decisively breaks the five lower divisions, that is, greed in the desire realm has been broken, and all the holy lives must be practiced, so he does not come to the desire realm, and he still has lust and formless greed, so he reincarnated to that realm.
From the first fruit to the third fruit, there are restlessness, arrogance and ignorance.
Arhats must practice the Noble Eightfold Path, break the five upper divisions, and not come to the Three Realms.
The first fruit only breaks the three knots. Although the greed and hatred in the desire realm of the second fruit are thin, they are not completely absent. Therefore, greed and hatred in the desire world cannot be used to verify the first fruit and the second fruit. Only by cutting off the three fruits of the five upper divisions can it be verified by whether or not greed and hatred are broken. Therefore, although the first fruition is to reject self-view, there are also greed, hatred, ignorance, ego, and fear of death. Not only that, but also swearing and fighting to create bad karma (please see Appendix H).
When a person completes the first fruit, he breaks three of the five lower fetters, but does not eliminate greed and hatred in the desire realm. After attaining the first fruition, the greed in the desire realm is still very heavy. Where there is greed in the desire realm, there will be hatred. If you don’t understand that the attainment of the first fruition is just to break the self-view without eliminating other afflictions, you will doubt those who have already achieved the first fruition, why do they still have so many afflictions? That’s because you don’t understand the first fruition, but you just break your own opinion, thinking that the first fruition is all troubles away. Many people do not understand that it is not necessary to eliminate the afflictions of greed and hatred in order to attain the first fruition, so they think that it is very difficult to achieve the first fruition. In fact, it is very easy to let go of the self-view. Among all the attainment positions, the attainment of the first attainment is the fastest, and in my opinion, it can be let go in an instant; the condition is that you must know how to practice those observations and actions that can see the Tao. I will always encourage everyone, it is not difficult to complete the first fruit. However, please don’t spread the word that I said so. If you go and tell others: Master XX said that it is easy to achieve the first fruit of enlightenment, they will scold me. They think it’s hard. In fact, there are many people in the Buddhist world who are very sure that there is no self-view, but they still dare not assume that they have achieved the first fruit. The reason is that they are misled and think that the first fruit is unattainable (for example, walking three feet off the ground or worms into the ground) . These people have heard people say how great the first fruit is, for example, they are superstitious about the legend compiled by later generations to falsify a certain scripture: after proving the first fruit, they will not trample to death insects and ants! Therefore, although I have some awareness, I don’t think it is the first fruit of enlightenment. For this kind of person, if you teach him how to live in the present Dharma, he will immediately develop the Dharma. However, it is more appropriate to teach him to observe cause and effect.
8.4 Restlessness (of the five upper knots) in meditation
If you continue to practice after completing the first fruit, you will no longer break your self-view. At this time, the focus of practice is to let go of the other two knots in the five lower knots-greed and hatred in the desire realm. That is to say, after a person has completed the first fruit, he still has the afflictions of the five upper divisions such as restlessness. Some people will say, isn’t there no restlessness after entering meditation? No, entering into samadhi is just not regretting, and there can be agitation in all meditations. Many people don’t know it, and think that once they enter meditation, there will be no restlessness. The Buddha said that after entering the first meditation, there is no regret of the five hindrances, but it is not without restlessness. The difference between regret and restlessness is that regret is something that a person regrets in his heart and conscience blames himself for doing something wrong. Then he thinks that I am a sinner all day long, I am very sinful, so he cannot enter the first jhana. Therefore, repentance can only hinder the practice of the first jhana. If a person regrets all day long, thinks he is sinful, and repents all day long, he will not be able to enter the first jhana. Restlessness refers to recalling a certain thing or a certain state all day long. For example, when you first learn the second jhana, your restless mind will bring you back to the first jhana, and you are enjoying the happiness of the first jhana again. Therefore, a person with severe restlessness cannot reach a higher concentration because restlessness makes him stay in the original concentration. Those who don’t understand will instead say how can there be restlessness in meditation? He doesn’t know that restlessness is the five upper knots, one of the most serious afflictions in the form and formless realms. Therefore, when you enter a certain samadhi and your mind is greedy for this samadhi, and you want to enter another samadhi but slip back to the original samadhi, it means that you are greedy for that meditation—greed for the material world. This greed makes you restless, and this restlessness makes you return to concentration without realizing it. There are even those who are restless in the fourth jhāna, and when they enter the samadhi below the fourth jhāna, their restless mind cannot be settled, and they automatically return to the fourth jhāna. In addition, it is crazy. Ignorance is ignorance, that is, there are still many things that one does not know. Those who have completed the first fruits will find that there are still serious afflictions of greed, hatred, and egotism. The deeper you cultivate, the more you feel that other people’s cultivation is not as good as your own. This is my arrogance. The clearer I can see my thoughts, the slower I become.
Practitioners are arrogant unless they are Arhats.
8.5 Concentration has receded and re-practice the five kassas of meditation and multi-view
Some practitioners observe the arising and passing away of thoughts, observe the presence of righteous thoughts, and later lose righteous thoughts due to various reasons such as working for a living. The reason is that the power of concentration has retreated. This kind of person must practice the fourth jhana again, and then revisit the five kasinas. Don’t think that you don’t need to practice again after you have already practiced meditation and the five kasinas. The purpose of revisiting the five karmas is to re-establish your subtle mind, to regain control of seeing the first thought, and then to start to observe the arising and passing away of the mind. If you observe the arising and passing away of thoughts without seeing clearly the pervasive mental states of the first thought, you are deceiving yourself. So it is very important to practice observing the kasikasika. If you observe the universal mental states well, you can observe the five aggregates and the arising and passing away of thoughts.
8.6 Observing the Mind from the Afflictive Environment
Once you realize that you are unintentional, if you immediately return to the mundane world to do complicated tasks, you will feel unable to adapt at first, and gradually your concentration and righteous thoughts will fade away. You should hide and practice for a while, train and maintain it until the righteous thoughts are always present, and you will not feel greed or hatred for any state. Afterwards, you have to come out and face the state, mastering to keep in the state of no-mind all the time, once troubles stir your heart, you will know to stay away immediately, and finally let go of the troubles. Practitioners enter different stages and need to hone in different environments. At the beginning, in the practice dojo, everything is arranged well, and only by not letting the mind be disturbed can we practice the way with peace of mind. This kind of practice is a flower cultivated in the greenhouse. After a practitioner reaches Wuxin, he has to face the test of the storm. If you can’t stand the storm at the beginning, you can practice hard in the greenhouse for a while. In the end, you still have to face the environment that bothers you. If you avoid the troubles environment, you will still face a troubled day. It is recorded in the scriptures that only in a good environment can one be liberated. Arhats will want to commit suicide due to the re-emergence of afflictions, not to mention practitioners who have not yet attained Arhatship. After learning this method, many people immediately return to secular work to do complicated affairs, and eventually their concentration and righteous thoughts gradually fade away. There are two reasons. The daily life of the temple is busy, and there is no time for their own practice; There are too many, but it doesn’t correspond to my own practice method.
8.7 The Living Environment of the Noble Eightfold Path
Is it possible to prove arhat fruit? It is possible in countries of Theravada Buddhism, but not possible in Chinese monasteries, because it doesn’t matter if an arhat dies tomorrow, and it doesn’t matter if he has nothing to eat. Although an Arahant does not worry about life, he wants to live in the Noble Eightfold Path. Nowadays, it is very difficult to see monasteries where the environment conforms to the Noble Eightfold Path of life. The various affairs in the monastery are not suitable for arhats to do at all; in general monasteries, there are many lives that do not conform to the precepts, too many chores interfere with the life of practice. Most people who practice the way of liberation need to stay away from the complicated world and have their own time, so they need to hide in a relatively free place to practice. It is very difficult to study on your own in modern monasteries, and it is only suitable for group meditation in temples. It is difficult for the time, life, and other things arranged by the monastery to correspond to your practice, and you cannot arrange homework that suits you. For example, if you entered meditation before morning class and left meditation three hours later, you will be scolded. Hey! You lazy ghost, don’t come to do morning class, don’t come to eat during meal time! When you are very involved in meditation practice, someone interrupts you. Therefore, monastery life is only suitable for everyone to practice together, but the progress of practice is different, and monastery practice is not suitable for individual people’s practice life. If you want to hone your mind, you have to be a Wuxin Taoist, and you can hone it in the monastery. However, if you want to complete Arhatship, it is very difficult in the monastery. There are many things in the monastery that prevent you from attaining arahantship. For example, there is a drawing of lots in the monastery, and it is impossible for an Arhat to do such a thing. Also, in monasteries, the monks cook their own food, and the arhat will only provide food, and will not eat the food cooked by the monks. What’s worse, ordinary monks will think that he is a lazy person who eats for nothing. Don’t talk too much. Talking too much is talking bad about the monastery. Due to the above reasons, practitioners have to retreat or leave the monastery.
Most Chinese monasteries have broken away from the lifestyle of practicing the way of liberation, so it is difficult to complete the arhatship in monastery life. However, monasteries in some countries where Theravada Buddhism is suitable are suitable, and some monasteries in mainland China are better. That is to say, the ashram where the precepts are kept must go to the hall and go to the hall, but the monks should not go to the hall. Monastics must be clean in their halls, otherwise it is a violation of the precepts. Therefore, many factors cause practitioners to leave the monastery. If you want to complete Arhatship, you can only live in the mountains alone if you want to live the Eightfold Path. But living in the mountains still has problems. Arhats cannot cook by themselves. Who will make offerings on the mountain? If you live in the city, you will be arrested by the police if you go begging for food. It depends on your relationship.
8.8 Enter the space
As mentioned earlier, there is still a stage to cultivate to reach Wuxin Daoist. That stage is reached by many methods of practice. It means that your heart is so pure that you will enter a kind of light, which is difficult to distinguish, how can you say it is difficult to distinguish? Because some people will see different lights from the first meditation to the fourth meditation, and they can also see the light when they observe the arising and passing away of the mind and enter the subtlety. In the scriptures, it is said that one must enter the Vajra Metaphoric Concentration before proving Arhatship. In Theravada Buddhism, it is called proving the Emptiness Concentration, which means to prove emptiness. When entering emptiness, you will see the light of dharmata. How did he enter into this light? The four meditations and eight samadhis cannot enter the vajra metaphor samadhi. They must be entered through meditation, and they must be entered with wisdom and mindfulness. Before entering this samadhi, there is a phenomenon. If you are interested, you can check the death records of some people who have died and come back to see how they passed through the death experience. In the world, there is a phenomenon of giving up the body and mind, and finally there will be light. In Theravada Buddhism, some people say that this is the realization of emptiness. You can check out some early Zen masters who talked about how to enter nirvana. In other words, to enter nirvana is to know how to die—good death, you must first realize the non-birth and death with wisdom, and then feel the death of the body when entering nirvana. Clearly clearing away from the process of death, it is finally confirmed that the mind is neither born nor dead. In Tantric Buddhism, it is said that the stage of death will pass through the stage of the light of dharmata, and it is said that if the mind is not confused about death at that time, then one can realize emptiness, but there are too few people who can realize the non-birth without being confused about the realm of death up.
8.9 Q&A
Question: What will happen to those who enter the void and come out?
Answer: When a person who enters that state comes out, he will realize that not only no one is practicing, but there is no Dharma to practice. According to the classics, if you feel that you have no cultivation and no certificate after you come out of emptiness, you have done what you have done. However, he should know one more thing, that is, there is no next life. If he thinks that he has done nothing because he has no cultivation and no certificate, and he is still not sure that he will not have another life, in fact, he has not yet completely liberated.
Question: If a person proves Arhatship, will he still withdraw?
Answer: Different sects have different opinions. If you are interested, you can read “Yi Bu Zonglun Lun”, which records the different views of various schools on the realization of fruition. Whether these different opinions will retreat after discussing the fruit of the certificate, and what is the fruit of the certificate, everyone has different opinions. Some sects say that the first fruit will not retreat, the reason is that the first fruit belongs to wisdom, not to the affliction of Taoism. It is believed that when seeing the Tao, it is wisdom to cut off seeing confusion, and seeing it forever after seeing it, and will not retreat. But some sects say that the first fruit will also be withdrawn. There are several theories about the resignation of arhats. The Southern Buddhism says no resignation, and many other sects say that arhats will resign, and the order of resignation is different. (Please refer to the “Zhong Agan · Dapin Futian Sutra” recorded later) Some sects say that arhats will retreat to the first fruition, because those sects say that there is absolutely no way to retreat from the first fruition. But some sects say that an arhat will retreat to the point where he doesn’t even have the first fruition. In addition, some sects also say that an arhat just withdraws from the present method to live happily, but when he dies, he is still an arhat; because of illness or various causes and conditions, his concentration has receded, and some troubles arise again, and he withdraws from the present method to live happily, but they It is said that the arhat absolutely does not want those afflictions, it is only because his concentration is not enough that the afflictions surface. There are various arguments. My opinion is that the arhats of the first fruition and the non-retreat method will not retreat, and the rest will retreat due to the retreat of concentration and righteous thoughts, and afflictions due to loss of righteous thoughts.
Question: Will the first fruit still be reincarnated?
Answer: Yes. Up to seven times.
Question: Will he still be a beast?
Answer: No more. All sects say that the first fruit will never fall. (Refer to Appendix H3, H4)
Question: Will he still encounter Buddhism?
Answer: According to the cause and condition of the first fruit, he will definitely continue to practice and encounter the Buddhadharma, otherwise he will not be able to be liberated within the seven rounds of reincarnation. If you don’t want to suffer in samsara, you can make a vow to be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss after you have attained the First Fruit. Do you know what is the product of the past life? At least mid-range. The lower rank is an ordinary person, the middle rank is a person who has attained fruition, and the upper rank is a great Bodhisattva.
Question: What about Arhats?
Answer: If an arhat aspires to become a great arhat, this kind of arhat will still come to this world again. As for the arhats who have not made up their minds and have entered Nirvana, of course they will not come to the world again. But there are several versions of Arhat’s return. One way of saying is that when the Great Arhat comes again, he will not come to this world as an incarnation, but will come to this world with a supernatural transformation. But the Chinese believe that Arhats will continue to come in incarnations. For example, Jigong Living Buddha is an example. He came to reincarnate again, and came to save sentient beings, and continued to form ties with sentient beings and practice the bodhisattva way.
Q: Will he still be fascinated?
Answer: Most of them will still be confused. Although there is a delusion of being separated from the Yin, the karma in the previous life will make him continue to practice, and he will soon become enlightened. Even those who have completed the first fruits and reincarnated will practice in places where there is no Dharma. Because of the power of karma, if you encounter a heretic, you should first practice the method of the heretic, such as the disciples of the heretic when the Buddha was alive. When there is no Buddha, he will eventually realize enlightenment by himself. At this time, ordinary people see him as a god of heretics, and the Buddha calls him Pacceka Buddha.
Question: If he has already attained a certain fruit position, when he comes again, he will surely attain this fruit position again, right? Will he still encounter Buddhism?
Answer: The cause and condition of practice will not be extinguished. If you can prove the fruit, it means that you have a deep relationship with Buddhism. When you encounter Buddhism, you will definitely practice. Even if he hadn’t encountered the Dharma, he would practice it spontaneously and eventually become a pratyekabuddha, but no one knew about his practice at the time.
Question: Is the light seen in samadhi and the bardo body the same?
Answer: You can also see the light in meditation, and you can also see the light in the bardo body, but it is not the same light. The light seen in different samadhis is different, and the luminosity of the same samadhi at different times is also different. The light in concentration is formed by pure mind, and the light seen in the bardo is formed by good karma.
Question: How to cultivate the concentration of extinction?
Answer: After reaching the point of no-mind through meditation, you can further practice fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth formless samadhi. If your samadhi is very good, after completing five, six, seven, and eight samadhis, you can finally enter extinction samadhi. Those who can enter the extinction concentration must have at least the three fruits (obtained by physical evidence). Entering the extinction time, some people will bow their heads. In fact, when observing the arising and passing away of the mind and observing no mind, sometimes the head will be lowered. The reason is that when there is a high degree of mindlessness, the mind does not control the body, the neck loses control and the head will lower down. Therefore, some people who are not in the center of concentration, when his head is lowered, others think he is dozing off. Sensitive people will have the feeling of being in a trance as soon as they get close to him. The four meditations and eight samadhis are all samadhis of the mind. Entering samadhi, leaving samadhi, and staying in samadhi are all clearly understood by the mind. Extinct samadhi is unintentional samadhi, which means entering samadhi, leaving samadhi, and being in samadhi without heart. The steps of extinction concentration: When you first sit down, first think that I am going to enter extinction concentration now, and then enter the four jhanas and eight samadhis to observe the arising and cessation, and then you should not have the idea of entering extinction concentration. Because it is mindless samadhi, you can’t enter as you wish like the four jhanas and eight samadhis. Only some sages who have been liberated from samadhi above the three fruits can naturally enter the cessation samadhi after the fourth dhyana and eight samadhis. In addition, the extinction samadhi is unintentional samadhi, and when he came out, he also came out of unintentional samadhi.
This concludes the teaching of the six lectures.
8.10 Summary: Confidence, authenticity, and return of fruit
Practice is to get rid of life and death. Theravada Buddhism is called the fruit of proof, and there are four fruits in total. In Chinese Zen, it is called to understand the mind and see the nature, and the later patriarchs even set up three barriers. When the Buddha was alive, some people who had not attained fruition doubted that the saints of the two fruits confirmed by the Buddha were incorrect (see Appendix Miscellaneous E3 Ahan 990 Sutra). After the death of the Buddha, there was a lot of discussion about the confirmation of the four fruits. Later, it developed to the saying that an arhat will retreat to the fruit, and even an arhat can retreat to an ordinary person.
The Ministry of Public Affairs said: There is a right to retreat for those who are pre-streamers, but there is no right for arhats to quit. It is also said that… all the preliminaries create all evils but eliminate them seamlessly. There is a language in the waiting position.
Theravada said: There is no retreat for those who pre-flow, but there is a retreat for Arhats. There are no speakers in the waiting quotation. From the differences in the views of the above schools, we can see that it is even more difficult to judge what fruit a practitioner has attained. For example, those who are slow to attain attainment think they have attained it, and those who have attained the attainment will return the attainment. So don’t tell others about the result of your own proof, because you may be uncertified and think you have been certified, or you may have withdrawn the result. Once people who doubt you find that your troubles recur, they will laugh at you and even tell you the truth. You are driven out three doors away. So don’t tell people that you have obtained the result of xx, but also refer to the results and results of the various schools, and then carefully observe yourself.
The following is the issue of attainment: the eighteenth volume of the law of good views says that the Buddha can still realize the love of the Arhat within three thousand years after his extinction. It can be seen that this sect believes that it should be absolutely not difficult to achieve the first fruit at present, so don’t believe it is impossible to prove it. fruit argument.
1: If you tell others about the real evidence at will, you will be guilty of Bo Yeti.
2: Observing causes and conditions, observing the five aggregates, observing birth and death, observing the eighteen realms, etc., can all prove the first fruit to the Arahantship. Usually focus on cause and effect, karma, birth and death, impermanence, suffering, and anatta.
3: Just because a certain practice allows him to become an arhat does not mean that you can become an arhat after practicing.
4: Pursuing the fruit position and thinking that you are cultivating the realization, it is arrogance, not a big lie.
5: After meditation, you must go through some tempering before you can determine whether the afflictions are eliminated.
6: Seeing the Tao can be seen immediately, so the first fruit can be quickly proved. The best practice to break the self-view is to observe the cause and condition of the body and mind. Entering concentration, reciting the Buddha’s name, and reciting mantras are not due to the cultivation of wisdom, so it is difficult to see the way.
7: To practice the Tao must be cultivated gradually, that is, greed and hatred can only be gradually broken, so you should always practice the four foundations of mindfulness, observe the five aggregates, and observe the arising and passing away of the mind.
8: Afflictions belong to the law of cause and condition, and cause and condition cannot be broken. It is called breaking affliction with no birth condition. As long as you lose your mindfulness and understanding, afflictions will have causes and conditions to arise again.
9: When concentration is lost, mindfulness is also lost. If righteous thoughts are lost, afflictions will be born. Please keep in mind: transformation of afflictions and righteous thoughts are like sailing against the current, if you do not advance, you will retreat.
10: Every morning and evening, check whether the power of samadhi has receded, and if it has receded, cultivate it back quickly. Only by staying true to the right samadhi every day can you have the Eightfold Path in your life.
11: Only by living a life of the Noble Eightfold Path can one become an Arhat.
12: The world takes knowledge as a teacher. Ascetics take precepts as their teachers and rely on the four foundations of mindfulness.
13: Before you become an arhat, don’t let your heart get in touch with sex, otherwise disaster will happen. The “Forty-two Chapters” said: The Buddha told the recluses. Be careful not to believe your intentions. Unbelievable. Be careful not to meet sex. Meeting with sex is disaster. Get Arhat Road. You can believe it.
14: If you have any doubts about the results and the results, please read “Yi Bu Zonglun Lun” or “Yi Bu Zong Lun”, don’t listen to hearsay.
15: Don’t be complacent with enlightenment or fruition, but be free from worries.
16: The result should be the reduction of troubles and the growth of wisdom. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you have completed a Dharma door, how many Dharma doors you have completed, and how many times you have closed it.
17: All living beings have their own causes and conditions, and it is even more inconceivable for Bodhisattvas to practice. Although some people seem to have not practiced samadhi and wisdom, they may become the fourth dhyana as soon as they enter samadhi, and they may attain fruition as soon as they practice insight. So, don’t think that you have precepts and concentration, how can others be as good as you without precepts and inconsistency.
18: Those who have a predestined relationship will be enlightened or proved fruit first, and their path and deeds will not necessarily be higher than those who came later.
19: Unless you are an arhat, you still have arrogance, greed, anger, impatience, and fear of death.
20: The teacher you admire is definitely not omniscient. Don’t just believe in everything about your teacher just because he has cultivation and certification, and take his words as authority.
21: Do you want to be a saint? First ask everyone to investigate and study all your shortcomings. Because the sage is not afraid of investigation, let others prove that I am flawless first!
22: The “Diamond Sutra” says that those who have achieved fruition will not think that I have achieved the first fruition, or even Arhatship, because there is no one who has achieved fruition.
23: Whether old or young, wise or foolish, all can attain the four fruits. The wise ones are like Shariputra, and the most stupid ones are like Zhou Lipan Tuojia. The very old ones are like the 120-year-old Subhadra, and the young ones are like the seven-year-old novice monk.
24: The speed of fruition depends on the speed of personal karma, which is extremely inconsistent. Ananda followed the Buddha all his life and only realized the first fruit; and the fast one realized the Arahantship in one night.
25: After many practitioners have attained the first fruit, the second fruit, or the third fruit, they stop because of karma and other causes and conditions.
26: The lack of proof of the super-slow person is regarded as the proof, because the super-slow person is often mistaken for the proof because of his aggressiveness, self-suggestion, and eagerness to seek relief.
27: Ordinary people can’t accurately measure the fruit status of a person. For example, the “Miscellaneous Agama Sutra” (990) says: Don’t measure everyone, and those who measure everyone will cause losses and losses. Only the Tathagata can know people’s ears.
Supplements to the authenticity of meditation meditation:
28: If those who enter the first meditation have doubts about the sound, the most important thing is to listen to the practitioners of the Southern Tradition saying that the five consciousnesses of the first meditation are extinguished, and they cannot hear the sound. If you have doubts, you should practice to the second meditation first, and then read the appendix by yourself. If you have doubts, you should read the appendix before the first meditation, and you can continue to practice only after you know who is right and who is wrong.
29: If a person who enters the first meditation has delusional thoughts and doubts, first distinguish the phenomenon that the delusional thoughts sometimes and disappears, and then distinguish between retreating when there are delusional thoughts, and entering meditation when there are no delusional thoughts. You must understand that meditation is not stable, and you will go in and out, and don’t deny yourself into meditation because of slight delusions.
30: The Southern scriptures say that cultivating supernatural powers based on the Four Zen Samadhi minds belongs to the concept. However, its treatises say that the four dhyanas have no awareness and no vision, and one cannot practice Vipassana. The Northern Chuan Lundian says that the Four Dhyana can start the dual movement of samadhi and wisdom, and finally reach the end of samadhi. Therefore, the Four Dhyanas are not absolutely without thoughts, at least they can move in and out of this samadhi.
31: For those who have entered the Four Dhyanas, they must know at least the four Dhyanas: touch, intention, feeling, thinking, thinking, as well as mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, correct knowledge, equanimity and other mental states.
32: Don’t mistakenly believe that others say that there is no restlessness in the four dhyanas, because restlessness is one of the five upper knots, and it is a major affliction of the four dhyanas! Be careful not to enter the Fourth Jhāna due to restlessness.
33: Don’t tell those who have not entered the Fourth Dhyana, they may not believe you and attack you.
34: The result of the practice of supramundane dharma must be that the more you practice, the less able you are to adapt to worldly life. The result of the practice of non-extra-worldly methods must be that the more you practice, the more handy you will be in the world. When you earnestly practice a certain method, the result will lead your heart towards the world or into the world. Do you want both? Then see where there is a half-hearted life-death, half-hearted Nirvana method! If there is no Nirvana in the world, then both of them will be abandoned halfway, and they want to enter the world to practice the Bodhisattva way. Is Bodhisattva easier to do than Arhat? No!
8.11 Appendix A Meditation related classics
Don’t listen to theorists when it comes to practicing the law. You must practice according to the instructions of those who have experienced it. At this time, relying on people is not the law. When you gain enlightenment, don’t take the teacher’s testimonials as your authority, and you can’t ask people who don’t agree with you to explain your doubts. You must prove yourself and know yourself. At this time, one should follow the scriptures, not the law and not others. Here are some classics that should be read for your reference. In order to prove that the Chinese Buddhist circles are wrong about the first meditation, the second meditation, the third meditation, and the fourth meditation. When Zen is experiencing, awareness and insight are extinguished. When the third Jhana is being experienced, joy is extinguished. When the fourth Dhyana is being experienced, the in-and-out breath is extinguished. As for the Buddha’s description of each Zen, it is explained in terms of Zen, that is, the correct statement is:
The first meditation leaves the five hindrances, that is, drowsiness, restlessness (should be regret), anger, lust, and doubt. There are five branches: awareness, insight, joy, joy, and concentration. Words die.
The second dhyana is away from awareness and observation, and enters no awareness and no observation. There are four branches: Inner Purity/Inner Faith, Joy, Joy, and Concentration. St. Murren.
The joy of the third Zen is far from the second Zen. There are five elements: equanimity, mindfulness, wisdom/knowledge, happiness, and concentration.
The four Zens are separated from the three Zens. There are four branches: equanimity, purity of mind, neither suffering nor happiness, and concentration. Breathing in and out. From the following scriptures, we can find several key points of concentration based on the breath-taking:
1. In the first meditation, there is awareness and observation when distinguishing between in-out and out-breathing. Some people are not confident in entering concentration. Although the speech is silent, the rough distinction of awareness and observation is not broken, and the holy silence has not been reached. Consciousness does not silently love to distinguish the sounds heard by the ears, so there is a harm of sound stabbing.
2. In the second meditation, the body is aware of the in-and-out breath, the consciousness has no awareness and no view, and there is no distinction, so the inner belief is one-hearted. The sage of consciousness silently does not distinguish the sound heard by the ear consciousness, although the sound is harmless. The whole body is joyful, and the body consciousness is moved by joy, so it often causes the consciousness to distinguish the trouble of body consciousness.
3 The third meditation, the whole body feels the joy of no joy, no joy but joy and movement, and does not leave the body to know the trouble. The body consciousness is less active, so the consciousness is less distinguished from the body consciousness and does not feel that there is a body.
4 The fourth meditation, the mind is pure and the thoughts are pure, the in-and-out breath is quiescent, and the body is only resigned. The in-and-out breath is cut off, away from the body and suffering, so the consciousness is the purest at this time.
5 Sutras A1, 2, 3, B7, 8, 9, 11 of the Northern Tradition, and A7, 8, 9, 10, 11 of the Southern Tradition all specifically mention the joyful experience of the body in the Three Dhyanas, but some sects In order to explain that there are no first five consciousnesses when there is no awareness and no view, the body experience in concentration is interpreted as heart feeling, and body feeling occurs after leaving concentration.
6 Northern Chuan Ahan B8, B9, B9, B10 all scriptures say that after the Four Chans, one should practice supernatural powers without moving the mind, that is, to cultivate other minds, the wisdom of heavenly ears, and the wisdom of destiny after the Four Chans. . However, the classics all say that the Four Dhyanas must retreat to the first Dhyana before they can use the Tianer. But “The Way of Liberation” says: “Having established concentration and ease, living in the fourth dhyana can give rise to the five supernatural powers.”
8.11.1A The first jhana to the fourth jhana mentioned in the classics
From the scriptures, what should be known about the first jhana to the fourth jhana are: 1. The increase and decrease of the dhyana branch of each jhana, 2. The difference in seeking and observing of consciousness, 3. The change of joy and abandonment of body consciousness in samadhi.
8.11.1.1 A1 Chang Ahanzhong’s Collection of Sutras and Four Zens
Bhikkhu eliminates desires, evils and unwholesome methods. Feeling and contemplating, leaving birth and joy, entering the first meditation. Awakening and contemplation are eliminated, inner faith is single-minded, non-awareness and contemplation are absent, samadhi produces joy, and enters the second jhana. Leaving happiness and cultivating equanimity, thinking forward, knowing that the body is happy, what the saints seek, reminiscing, equanimity, and joy, entering the third jhana. To avoid suffering and happiness, first eliminate worry and joy, to be neither suffering nor happy, to give up thoughts and pureness, and enter the fourth jhana.
8.11.1.2 A2 Chang Ahan Qingjing Sutra says: The third meditation knows the body is happy, and the fourth meditation is full of happiness
With enlightenment and contemplation, the joy of leaving life and entering the first meditation is praised by the Buddha for such joy. It is like someone who dies in enlightenment and vision, who believes in one heart, has no awareness and no vision, and enters the second meditation with joy and joy, which is praised by the Buddha who is happy. It is like a person who gets rid of joy and enters the house, knows that the body is happy, which is what the sages seek, and protects and single-mindedly enters the third meditation. Such a happy person is praised by the Buddha. Happiness and suffering are exhausted, sorrow and joy are extinguished first, there is no suffering and no happiness, and the mind is pure and enters the fourth meditation. Such is the praise of the Buddha of Music.
8.11.1.3 In A3, the seven dharmas of Ahan, the Daytime Tree Sutra: Three Zens, Righteous Mindfulness, Right Wisdom, and Body Feels Bliss
Again, the holy disciples have the dharma of abandoning desires and evil and unwholesomeness, have awareness and contemplation, leave birth with joy and happiness, and attain the achievement of the first jhana. …Furthermore, the holy disciples have ceased to feel and observe, and they are calm and single-minded. Without awareness and visualization, joy and joy arise from samadhi, and they have achieved the second jhana. …Furthermore, the holy disciples are free from joy and desire, wandering without pursuit, with righteous thoughts and wisdom, and feel happy in the body. It is said that the holy words, the sanctuary, the mindfulness, the joyful dwelling, and the emptiness can achieve the third jhana. …Furthermore, the noble disciples, when happiness and suffering cease, joy and sorrow have ceased to exist, neither suffering nor happiness, equanimity and thoughts are pure, and they attain the fourth jhana.
8.11.1.4 A4 Miscellaneous Aghan 747 Sutra: The silence of speech in the first meditation, the silence of breathing in the fourth meditation
[Note: The extinction of speech means that you cannot speak, but you can perceive it—thinking about the nimitta. Awareness of the extinction means that you cannot think, but you can still observe—awareness and joy.] As I heard, for a while, the Buddha lived in Rajagaha City, Jialan Tuozhu Garden…Ananda said to the Buddha: “What is the matter? World Honored One, you said that because all feelings are gradually extinguished?” Nirvana, when the third jhana is being experienced, joy and mind are stilling, when the fourth jhana is being experienced, the in-and-out breathing is stilled, when the space is being felt, the perception of form is extinguished, when the consciousness is being experienced, when the space is being experienced, the thought is extinguished, nothing When entering into the right experience, the consciousness enters the extinction of the mind, when there is no perception, the non-non-perception, when there is nothing, the mind wants to be extinguished, when the desire to experience the cessation of the right experience, the desire to experience the extinction, this is called the gradual extinction of all elements.”
Ananda said to the Buddha: “World Honored One, why do all actions cease gradually?” The Buddha said to Ananda: “When the first dhyana is receiving, speech ceases. The in-and-out breath ceases when the fourth dhyana is receiving. The empty entry is receiving…
8.11.1.5 A5 Chang Ahan 11 Sutra. Zengshang Sutra: When entering the first meditation, the sound will be pierced
What is the Nine Destruction Method? …If you enter the first meditation, the sound will be pierced out (the sound pierced is not the sound, which refers to the first Zen person who hears the sound but is not pierced, which is different from the Lower Sutra). Entering the second jhāna is the extinction of awareness and insight. Entering the third jhāna will eliminate the thorn of joy. Entering the fourth jhāna, the in-and-out breath will be pierced. When it enters the empty place, the color wants to be pierced. At the point of entry to consciousness, the vain thoughts are pierced. Where it is not used, the consciousness will be destroyed. If you enter the place where there is thought and no thought, there is no need to pierce the thought. If you enter into extinction, you want to be stabbed.
8.11.1.6 The Ahan Wuthorn Sutra in A6: The first meditation uses sound as a thorn
[Note: If there is a thorn, there is an obstacle, and if the sound is used as a thorn, it is disturbed by the sound]. Good! If the elders, great disciples, etc. should say: Zen uses sound as a thorn, the World Honored One also said that Zen uses sound as a thorn. So what? I am actually saying: Zen has thorns, those who uphold the precepts use violating the precepts as the thorns, those who protect the roots use the adorning of the body as the thorns, those who practice lochia use the pure appearance as the thorns, those who practice loving-kindness use anger as the thorns, those who abstain from alcohol use the thorns Drinking wine is the thorn, those who enter the Buddhist world use the sight of female sex as the thorn, those who enter the first dhyana use sound as the thorn, those who enter the second dhyana use awareness and insight as the thorn, those who enter the third dhyana use joy as the thorn, and those who enter the fourth dhyana use the thorn as the thorn Breathing out is the thorn, those who enter the place of emptiness use the perception of form as the thorn, those who enter the place of consciousness use the perception of emptiness as the thorn, those who enter the place of nothingness use the perception of consciousness as the thorn, and those who enter the place of no thought use the perception of nothingness as the thorn , Those who enter the desire to know and destroy concentration use the desire to know as a thorn.
Again, there are three thorns—the thorn of desire, the thorn of hatred, and the thorn of ignorance. These three thorns, all the arahas have been severed, known, rooted out, destroyed and cannot be revived, are called araha without thorns, arahas without thorns, and arahas without thorns without thorns.
8.11.1.7 The Tenth Collection of A7 Supplementary Branch Classics of The Southern Legend, Seventy-two Classics——Threading
[Into the first Zen, there are different records of “sound piercing” and “sound as piercing”. For the debate on “hearing the sound in concentration”, please refer to Appendix C] At that time, the World Honored One lived in the lecture hall of the Chongge Pavilion in the Great Forest of Vaisali City. Together with many eminent disciples of the elders, Gushou Zheluo, Gushou Youbinzheluo, Gushou Jiajialuo, Gushou Jialingbo, Gushou Nijiatuo, Gushou Kadorisha and other eminent elders All disciples.
At that time, many eminent and well-known people from the chariots joined together in good and beautiful chariots, making loud noises, and entered the forest in order to see the World Honored One in person.
At that time, those people who had a long life thought: “At this time, many famous people who left the chariot, connected by good and beautiful chariots, made loud noises, and entered the forest in order to see the World Honored One. Thorn, we should go to the Bullhorn Sala Forest, where there is no sound, no commotion, and we can live in peace.” At that time, all the elders went to the Bullhorn Sala Forest. In that place, those who live there can live peacefully without sound or noise.
At that time, the World-Honored One immediately told the monks, “Bhikkhus, where is Chara? Where is Ubinchara? Where is Gala? Where is Kaling? Where is Nijadha? Yeah? Where is Kathorissa? Bhikkhus, where are the elders and disciples?”
Dade! At this point, those who have a long life are thinking: “At this time, many famous people who leave the chariot, and the good and beautiful chariots are connected together, making loud noises, and entering the forest in order to see the World Honored One. For its thorns, we should go to the Niujiao Sala Forest, where there is no sound and no noise, and we can live in peace and security.” Great Virtue! At that time, all of them had a long life and went to the Niujiao Luolin. In that place, those who live there can live peacefully without sound or noise.
“Excellent, excellent! Bhikkhus! As the great disciple said, it should be said so. Bhikkhus! I said: ‘Those who think quietly use sound as their thorn’. Bhikkhus! There are ten thorns. What are ten?
Those who stay away from music will be stabbed by the crowd. For those who cultivate unclean appearance, cultivating pure appearance is a thorn. For those who guard the root gate, watching the drama is a thorn. Those who are in the Brahma line, intersecting with women is a thorn. At the beginning of meditation, the sound is stabbing. In the second meditation, looking for waiting as a thorn. In the third meditation, joy is a thorn. In the fourth meditation, the in and out breath is the thorn. So thinking is subject to extinction, thinking and receiving are stabs. Greed is the thorn, anger is the thorn, and ignorance is the thorn.
Monks! Live without thorns! Monks! Live away from thorns! Monks! No thorns, live away from thorns! Monks! Arhats live without thorns, monks! ! Arhats live away from thorns. Monks! The arhat has no thorns and lives without thorns. ”
8.11.1.8 A8 The Southern Tradition Changbu’s Salmonella Fruit Sutra: The Joy of the Three Chans
[This sutra says that the three Chans have the pleasure of the body, and the fourth Chan has the experience of giving up the body. You should stay in the unmoving Fourth Chan to practice supernatural powers, and hear the voices of the two worlds of man and heaven, far and near, in the middle of concentration.】
…However, a bhikkhu abandons these five hindrances and observes (himself) as if he were free from debt, disease-free, released from prison, free, and secure. Observe yourself, let go of the five hindrances, and you will be joyful, and you will experience peace in your body; He is free from all desires, free from unwholesome dharmas; he seeks and serves him, and he lives in the first jhāna by attaining the first jhāna. He blissfully arises from detachment, and fills and overflows his body with fluidity; joy and joy arising from detachment permeate his entire body.
… There are also monks who seek and serve with cessation, have a peaceful heart and a single-minded mind, without seeking or waiting, and live in the second jhana from the joy of samadhi. He enjoys the joy of being born from samadhi, and it flows and overflows around his body; and the joy of being born of samadhi pervades his entire body.
… There are also monks who live in a house away from joy, with righteous thoughts and wisdom, and feel joy with their bodies. All the sages said: “Abiding happily with righteous thoughts through equanimity” has reached the third jhana and lived. The bliss of his emptiness fills his body overflowing and flows around him; the bliss of his emptiness permeates his entire body.
… more monks! Let go of happiness and avoid suffering, the joy and sorrow you have experienced before will disappear, neither suffering nor joy, become pure and pure in giving up thoughts, and live in the fourth jhana. With a pure mind, he sat with one side full of his body, and his pure mind pervaded his entire body.
… When the mind is quiet, pure, free from afflictions, free from following afflictions, soft, constantly moving, and resting in a state of immobility, the bhikkhu’s mind pours into all kinds of supernatural powers, and he attains all kinds of supernatural powers. One body turns into many bodies, many bodies [combine into] one body, or appear, or hide; pass through walls, pass through walls, pass through mountains without obstacles, just like in the air; appear and disappear on the earth, just like in water; walk It does not sink on the water, just like on the ground; sits and walks in the air, like a bird with wings; has such great virtues, can touch the sun and the moon with hands, and reach the Brahma realm with the body.
…… When the mind is quiet, pure, free from afflictions, free from following afflictions, soft, constantly active, and resting in a state of immobility, the bhikkhu’s heart pours into the heavenly ear realm. And he is pure and transcends the [ear realm] of the human world. With the ear realm of heaven, he hears the voices of the two realms of man and heaven, far and near.
8.11.1.9 A9 The Sutra of Body Practice in the Central Part of The Southern Chuan: The joy of leaving joy in this body is better than full and full
[Note that this sutra uses water droplets, water flow, and total sinking to describe the joy in concentration. The first meditation is like pouring water with you, as if there is no flow. The second meditation is like a pool of water gushing out, partly full and partly overflowing. The three dhyanas are like lotus flowers growing in water, submerged and nourished. The fourth meditation is like a cloth wrapping your head] Again, all monks! A bhikkhu is separated from all desires, separated from all unwholesome dharmas, has search, has service, and lives from separation to give birth to joy, happiness, and the achievement of the first jhāna. Those who are separated from this body will be joyful from separation, full of happiness, full and overflowing, so as to lift up the whole body, joy from separation, so that everything is universal. Monks! The arm is like a bath master, or a disciple of a bath master, who sprinkles bath powder on a metal dish, pours water and mixes it. The bath powder block is accompanied by water, and the water travels, and the inside and outside are full, and the water does not flow. Again, monks! The bhikkhu also uses this body to create joy from separation, fullness of happiness, fullness and overflow, and lift up his whole body to create joy and happiness from separation, so that everything is universal. So he does not let go, but cultivates…recitation. [This sutra describes the sense of energy produced by the joy of the first meditation body, which is scattered in different places on the skin of the body, just like strings of water droplets jumping. It feels like there are ants crawling or water flowing on the skin. 】
Again, monks! The bhikkhu seeks and waits with cessation, so that his heart is quiet and peaceful, and his heart has an interesting nature, without seeking and waiting, and joy and happiness are born from samadhi, and he lives in the second jhana. He also uses this body to generate joy from samadhi, fullness of joy, fullness and overflow; he lifts his whole body, joy and joy from samadhi, so that everything is universal. Monks! For example, there are pools and springs of water, and there are no water inlets in the east, no water inlets in the west, no water inlets in the north, and no water inlets in the south, and the weather is favorable for showers; When it comes out, the pool is more than full, partly full and partly overflowing with cold water, and the whole pool is like cold water. Yes, monks! A bhikkhu also uses this body to generate joy from samadhi, to be full of joy, to be partially full, to be full, to be overflowing; to lift his whole body, to be born with samadhi to be joyful, to be happy, and to make everything universal. He, if you don’t let go, but practice…recitation. [This sutra describes the feeling of air generated by the joy of the second Zen body, which is like water overflowing from a pool with no outlet, and radiates from the inside of the body to the outside of the whole body. It feels like Qi fills the whole body, no longer the feeling of Qi beating and crawling somewhere. 】
Again, monks! The bhikkhu is free from joy and dwells in the house, with thoughts and correct knowledge, and enjoys happiness from the body. The saints said: “Essence and thoughts are happy dwellings” and live in the third jhana. With this body, the joy of being away from joy is more than full, partly full, partly full and partly overflowing, and when he lifts his whole body, the joy of being away from joy is universal. Monks! For example, in the green lotus pond, or the red lotus pond, or the white lotus pond, the geometry of the blue lotus, or the red lotus, or the white lotus arises in the water, grows in the water, does not come out of the water, and sinks completely to grow. , From the top to the root, it is more full than full, more full than full, more beneficial to cold water, just like the green lotus, red lotus, or white lotus lifting the whole body, the water is all universal. Monks! A bhikkhu, in this way, the joy of leaving joy in this body is better than full, full, and overflowing, and he lifts his whole body so that the joy of leaving joy is universal. If you don’t let yourself go, cultivate…recitation. [This sutra describes the feeling of air produced by the three meditation bodies, which is a mass of air enveloping the whole body, just like a person sinking into a lake that does not flow. At this time, I feel that my whole body is a mass of heart energy, and my body is as soft as a cloud with no boundaries. 】
Again, monks! The bhikkhu’s abandonment of happiness and suffering, and the elimination of all previous joys and sorrows, neither suffering nor happiness, giving up pure thoughts, and living in the fourth jhana. He lives with his body full of pure and pure minds, and he raises his whole body to make all the pure and pure minds universal. Monks! For example, a person sits with a white cloth covering his head and lifts his whole body, and the white cloth is everywhere. Monks! If so, the bhikkhu also sits on this body with a pure and pure mind, and lifts up his whole body. The pure and pure mind is universal. [This sutra describes the four dhyana bodies as having no pleasant feeling and the sense of breath disappears. The equanimity makes the mind more pure and pure, and there is a white light on the head like a cloth covering the head. The heart feels pure and the body feels stiff and unconscious like a stone. If you don’t even know your heart, you have no idea. Those who are in and out of their minds often feel that I am back. 】
8.11.1.10 A10 The Central Sutra of The Southern Tradition: The Great Sutra of Sachagya: The Three Dhyanas Enjoy the Righteousness of the Body
…Ayi Yesana! In this way, I will eat rough food and milk, gain physical strength, be free from desire and unwholesome dharmas, have search and serve, and achieve the first jhāna from the joy of life. Ayyesana! However, the joy of giving birth cannot be tolerated by the heart. I have ceased to seek and serve, and I am pure inside, and my mind is in one place, without seeking or waiting, and I live in joy from samadhi, and I have achieved the second jhāna. Ayyesana! However, if you don’t feel the joy of life in your heart, if you don’t get caught up in joy and live in equanimity, with righteous thoughts and wisdom, you can enjoy joy with your body. What the sages call: “equanimity, mindfulness, and joyful abiding” achieves the third jhāna. And live. Ayyesana! In this way, the joy of giving birth cannot be tolerated by the heart. I want to give up happiness and give up suffering, first to eliminate joy and sorrow, to give up neither suffering nor joy, and to live in the fourth jhana with pure thoughts. Ayyesana! In this way, the joy of giving birth cannot be tolerated by the heart.
8.11.1.11 A11 Moggallana Response of The Southern Tradition Sutras: Three Dhyanas to Feel the Joy with the Body
At that time, the venerable Maha Moggallana lived in the city of Sravasti, and Jiduolin was a garden for lonely elders. Here, the Venerable Moggallana said to the bhikkhus: “Friends, monks!” These monks promised the Venerable Moggallana and said: “Friends!” The Venerable Moggallana then said: “All Friends! I sit here alone and meditate, and I have this thought in my heart: “The so-called first jhana, who is called the first jhana, who is the first jhana? ”
Friends! For the rest of my life, I thought: “Here is a bhikkhu who is free from all desires, free from unwholesome dharmas, seeks and serves, and lives in the first jhāna from the joy born of renunciation. This is called the first jhāna.”
Friends! I am separated from all desires, separated from unwholesome dharmas, seek and serve, and live in the first jhāna by leaving birth to joy and happiness. Friends! I live according to this method, and the thoughts and intentions that arise together with desires are active.
… The second jhana, whoever is called the second jhana, what is the second jhana? Friends! For the rest of my life, I thought: “Here is a bhikkhu, from the cessation of seeking and waiting, there is silence inside, with the singleness of mind, without seeking and waiting, and he has grasped the second jhana of steadiness, joy and happiness. This is called It is called the second jhana.”
Friends! For the rest of the time, there is the cessation of seeking and waiting, there is silence inside, there is oneness of mind, there is no seeking and no waiting, and you can grasp the second jhāna of samadhi, joy and happiness. Friends! I live according to this way of living, and the thoughts and intentions that arise together with the search are active.
… The third jhana, called the third jhana, what is the third jhana? Friends! For the rest of my life, I thought: “Here is a bhikkhu who relies on joy, equanimity, mindfulness and awareness, and feels happiness with his body. It is said that the holy man talks about equanimity, thoughtfulness, and happiness. Three jhanas. This is called the third jhana.”
Friends! Yu Yili is based on joy, equanimity, righteous thoughts, clear understanding, and feels happiness with the body. It is said that the sage talks about those who give up their hearts, those who have thoughts, and those who live happily, and they can grasp and live in the third jhana. Friends! Because I live in this method, the thoughts and intentions that arise with joy are present.
… The fourth jhana, whoever is called the fourth jhana, what is the fourth jhana? Friends! For the rest of my life, I thought: “Here is a bhikkhu who, before giving up happiness and suffering, and because of the extinction of happiness and sorrow, is neither suffering nor happy, he has grasped and lived in the fourth jhana of pure equanimity. This is called the fourth dhyana. Four Dhyanas.” My friends! Before that, from the abandonment of happiness, from the abandonment of suffering, because of the extinction of happiness and sorrow, neither suffering nor happiness, you can reach the fourth jhana of pure equanimity. Friends! For the rest of my life, I live in this way, wanting to get along with happiness, and thinking about it.
8.11.1.12 A12 Nanzhuan Changbu Sutra: Three Zens to feel the joy with the body
[A8~A12 all say that the three dhyanas have the pleasure of the body, but the theory of the Pure Way says that it is the pleasure of the mind]
…Bhikkhus get rid of desires, stay away from unwholesome dharmas, seek and serve, and live in joy and happiness from detachment. When you stop seeking and serving, you will be quiet in your heart, and your mind will become single-minded. Happiness, reach the second jhana and live; let go of joy and live, mindfulness and wisdom, experience happiness with the body, only the saints say: “Abandon this and stay with mindfulness and happiness” and live after reaching the third jhana. Secondly, let go of happiness and abandon suffering, because the joy and sorrow that you have experienced before are all gone, and you will not suffer or be happy, and become pure and pure in giving up thoughts, and live in the fourth jhana. Monks! This is called Zhengding.
8.11.1.13 A13 Miscellaneous Aghan 501 Sutra: The Second Zen is the Holy Moran
At that time, the Venerable’s big eyes told all the monks: At one time, the World Honored One lived in the Kalanda Bamboo Garden in Rajagha City, and I lived in this Qijabori Mountain, and I was alone in a quiet place. Thinking like this: What is holy silence? Repeat this thought, if there is a bhikkhu who rests, feels, and contemplates, and has a pure mind, the samadhi without consciousness and vision produces joy, and the second dhyana is full of abiding, it is called holy silence. Repeat this thought: I should also be holy and silent now, resting, feeling, and contemplating, with a pure heart, without feeling or contemplating, the samadhi produces joy, and I have the ability to live for a long time. After living for a long time, I will feel and observe the heart again. At that time, the World-Honored One knew my thoughts, and appeared in front of me in the Bamboo Garden Vihara in the midst of Qijabori Mountain, and said to me: “Mu Lilian, you should be holy and silent, don’t let yourself be careless.” I have heard the World-Honored One say that when you return to separation, you will have awareness and insight, and you will be pure and single minded. The samādhi without awareness and insight will give birth to joy, and the second dhyana will be fully abiding. So again and again, the Buddha also taught me again and again, you should be holy and silent, don’t let go.
8.11.1.14 A14 Unraveling the Deep Secret Sutra: There is no seeking, but there is subtle receiving and observation
Good man! As for the appearance of seeking and observing the Dharma, if there is a rough observation of samatha and vipasana, it is called seeking and observing samadhi. If there is no gross receiving and observing in that phase, but there are subtle and bright minds receiving and observing samathas and vipasana, it is called non-seeking but serving samadhi. If you do not make any intention to receive and observe the samathas and vipasanas in all the dharmas, it is called the samadhi of no search and no observation.
8.11.1.15 A15 Three Samadhis of the Maha Prajna Paramita Sutra
[This sutra says that there is no seeking but waiting in the middle of the first dhyana and the second dhyana] What is the name of the samadhi of enlightenment and contemplation? Abandoning all desires, avoiding evil and unwholesome dharmas, and entering the first dhyana with awareness and contemplation of the joy of separation from birth, this is called the Samadhi of Enlightenment and Contemplation. What is the name of Wujueyouguan Samadhi? Between the first Zen and the second Zen, it is called the Samadhi of Wujue and Vipassana. What is the name of Wujue Wuguan Samadhi? From the second meditation to the non-existence and non-absence of the samadhi, it is called the Samadhi of Wujue Wuguan.
8.11.1.16 A16 AHAN 176 Sutra of Walking Meditation: About Nimitta
[The actions, appearances, and marks of the nimitta mentioned in this sutra are all different in the four dhyana and eight samadhis. Such a nimitta is not practice. The nimitta is not an in-and-out breath, ten times and other practices. The nimitta is a mental state that can only be known by those who have experienced it, and there is no nimitta for those who have not experienced it. Those who know the nimitta can choose a certain nimitta, and turn their minds to the nimitta to enter that meditation. The following scriptures say that those who know the nimitta will know the advance and retreat of meditation, and those who do not know the nimitta will not know how to advance and retreat] I heard that, for a while, the Buddha traveled to the country of Shewei, and gave it to the lonely garden in Shenglin. At that time, the World Honored One told the bhikkhus: There are really four kinds of walking meditators in the world. What is four? There may be walking meditators who prosper and call it decline, or those who walk meditate decline and say it is flourishing, or those who walk meditate decline and know that decline is true, or those who walk meditate when they are prospering know that flourishing is true.
(1. Those who don’t know the nimitta are advancing but think they are retreating. They don’t know what they are doing, what they are doing, and what they are marking. They only know that my mind is away from the original appearance, and they don’t know how to advance or retreat.)
Why do walking Zen practitioners flourish and decline? [I don’t know the nimitta, advance and think retreat. ] Those who practice meditation are free from desires, free from evil and unwholesome methods, feel and see the joy of leaving life, and attain the achievement of the first jhana. He practiced right thinking in his heart. Then from the first meditation to the second meditation. It is victory and silence. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is far from the truth. More fun. Lost the first Zen. Determination also. Those who practice meditation do not know the truth. My heart is practicing right thinking. Happy silence. Then from the first meditation to the second meditation. It is victory and silence. (Following to the end of the paragraph, it is set as sentence A:) He does not know if it is true. Yu Ru turned back. I lost my mind. This is the case when a walking meditator flourishes and is said to decline.
repeat. Walking meditation practitioners feel and observe that they have rested. Neijing, one heart. No sense, no view. Dingsheng is happy and happy. Get the second Zen achievement. He practiced right thinking in his heart. From the second Zen to the third Zen. It is victory and silence. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is far from the truth. More fun. Lost the second jhana. Determination also. Those who practice meditation do not know the truth. My heart is practicing right thinking. Happy silence. From the second Zen to the third Zen. It is victory and silence. (repeat sentence A)
repeat. A walking meditator is free from desire. Do not want to travel. Righteous thoughts and wisdom while the body feels happy. It is called the sanctuary house, mindfulness, happy dwelling, and room in the holy place. Get the achievement of the third meditation. He practiced right thinking in his heart. From the third Zen to the fourth Zen. It is victory and silence. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is far from the truth. More fun. Lost the third jhana. Determination also. Those who practice meditation do not know the truth. My heart is practicing right thinking. Happy silence. From the third Zen to the fourth Zen. (repeat sentence A)
Again, for those who practice walking meditation, happiness and suffering have ceased, joy and sorrow have already ceased, neither suffering nor happiness, equanimity, mindfulness, and purity can achieve the fourth jhana. He practiced right thinking with his mind, and from the infinite emptiness of the fourth dhyana realm, it was the ultimate quiescence. Those who walk in meditation will think this way, my mind is far from the original appearance, and I am more interested in other places, and I will lose the fourth jhāna, and samadhi will also disappear. Those who walk in meditation do not know the truth. My mind is practicing right thinking, and I am happy and peaceful. From the infinite space of the fourth dhyana, it is the ultimate tranquility. (Repeat sentence A) Repeat. A walking meditator overcomes all sexual thoughts. There is no right to think. Don’t read a few thoughts. There is no amount of space. It is an achievement tour of infinite space. He practiced right thinking in his heart. … (repeat sentence A) repeat. A walking meditator spends all immeasurable spaces. Immeasurable consciousness. It is the achievement tour of the base of immeasurable knowledge. He practiced right thinking in his heart. … (repeat sentence A) repeat. A walking meditator saves all the places of immeasurable consciousness. nothing. It’s a nowhere achievement tour. He practiced right thinking in his heart. …(repeat sentence A) In this way, a walking meditator is flourishing and is said to be declining.
(2. Those who don’t know the nimitta are retreating and thinking that they are advancing. They don’t know what they are doing, what they are doing, and what they are marking.
How can a walking meditator decline and become prosperous? [I don’t know the nimitta, retreat to advance. ]
Those who practice meditation are free from desires, free from evil and unvirtuous methods, have awareness and insight, leave birth with joy, and attain the achievement of the first jhana. Peter thinks about Yu Xiaoxiang. Practice the second path of jhana. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is practicing right thinking. Happy silence. Then from the first meditation to the second meditation. It is victory and silence. Those who practice meditation do not know the truth. I’d rather think about being bored and think about entering the first meditation. You should not think about Yu Xiaowan’s second jhana. (From the end of the paragraph to the end of the paragraph is designated as sentence B) He does not know the truth. If you don’t feel your heart, you will lose your mind. Such is the decline of walking meditation, which is called flaming.
Again, the walking meditator feels that visualization has ceased, inner tranquility, one mind, no awareness, no visualization, samadhi, joy, and attainment of the second jhana. Peter thinks about Yu Xiaoxiang. Practice the third path of jhana. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is practicing right thinking. Happy silence. From the second Zen to the third Zen. It is victory and silence. Those who practice meditation do not know the truth. It is better to think of boredom and think about entering the second jhāna. You should not think about Yu Xiao’s desire to enter the third jhana. (repeat B)
repeat. A walking meditator is free from desire. Do not want to travel. Righteous thoughts and wisdom while the body feels happy. It is called the sanctuary house, mindfulness, happy dwelling, and room in the holy place. Get the achievement of the third meditation. Peter thinks about Yu Xiaoxiang. Practice the fourth path of jhana. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. … (repeat B)
repeat. Those who practice walking meditation will experience the cessation of happiness and the cessation of suffering. Joy and worry are gone. Neither suffering nor happiness, equanimity, mindfulness, and purity. Get the achievement of the fourth meditation. Peter thinks about Yu Xiaoxiang. Practice the way of immeasurable emptiness. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. … (repeat B)
repeat. A walking meditator overcomes all sexual thoughts. There is no right to think. Don’t read a few thoughts. There is no amount of space. It is an achievement tour of infinite space. Peter thinks about Yu Xiaoxiang. Practice the way of immeasurable consciousness. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. … (repeat B)
repeat. A walking meditator spends all immeasurable spaces. The place of infinite consciousness. It is the achievement tour of the base of immeasurable consciousness. Peter thinks about Yu Xiaoxiang. There is nowhere to practice. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. … (repeat B)
repeat. A walking meditator saves all the places of immeasurable consciousness. nothing. It’s a nowhere achievement tour. Peter thinks about Yu Xiaoxiang. Practice the way of neither thinking nor no thinking. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. … (repeat B)
(3. Those who know the Zen form know what they are doing, what they are, and what they are marking, know how their mind is away from their original appearance, and know how to retreat.) How can a Zen person who is declining know that the decline is true? [Know the nimitta, know how to retreat when you retreat. ] What he does, what he looks like, and what he marks when he walks in meditation. (What you are currently doing) saves all places where there is nothing. He does not accept this behavior, does not think of this image and mark, (what he did later) only does not have the corresponding thought of the place where the behavior is absent. The meditator then thinks this way: My mind is farther away from the true nature, and I miss the place where there is neither thought nor no thought. He knows that it is true, so he does not retreat, and his mind does not lose concentration (knowing that he has returned to the original concentration). If a walking meditator declines, he will know that decline is true.
[That is to say, the walking meditator knows that there is no place and the place where there is neither thought nor no thought. These two samadhis are the nimitta of the object (that is, the experience). What you do is to leave this object and go to that object. Thoughts want to reach the target, but the mind does not think of this target, but what you do is in the original position]
repeat. What a walking meditator does, what he looks like, and what he marks. Save all immeasurable consciousness. nothing. It’s a nowhere achievement tour. He is not allowed to do this. Don’t read this phase and mark. The only way to do this is to think about the corresponding thoughts at the place of immeasurable consciousness. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is far from the truth. More fun. Lost everywhere. (repeat C)
repeat. What a walking meditator does, what he looks like, and what he marks. Save all immeasurable spaces. Immeasurable consciousness. It is the achievement tour of the base of immeasurable consciousness. He is not allowed to do this. Don’t read this phase and mark. Only the corresponding thought of the place of immeasurable space will be withdrawn. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is far from the truth. More fun. Lost space. (repeat C)
repeat. What a walking meditator does, what he looks like, and what he marks. Save all lust. There is no right to think. Don’t read a few thoughts. There is no amount of space. It is an achievement tour of infinite space. He is not allowed to do this. Don’t read this phase and mark. Only the thought of the corresponding thoughts of sex, color and music will be withdrawn. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is far from the truth. More fun. Lost space. (repeat C)
repeat. What a walking meditator does, what he looks like, and what he marks. Pleasure ceases, pain ceases. Joy and worry are gone. Neither suffering nor happiness, equanimity, mindfulness, and purity. Get the achievement of the fourth meditation. He is not allowed to do this. Don’t read this phase and mark. Only the third jhāna corresponds to the thought of the original retreat. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is far from the truth. More fun. Lost the fourth jhana. (repeat C)
repeat. What a walking meditator does, what he looks like, and what he marks. Free from desire. Do not want to travel. Righteous thoughts and wisdom while the body feels happy. It is called the holy saying, the sanctuary house, the mind, the happy dwelling, and the room. Get the achievement of the third meditation. He is not allowed to do this. Don’t read this phase and mark. Only the practice of the second jhana corresponds to the idea of thinking, which is originally withdrawn. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is far from the truth. More fun. Lost the third jhana. (repeat C)
repeat. What a walking meditator does, what he looks like, and what he marks. Feeling, watching has stopped. Neijing, one heart. No sense, no view. Dingsheng is happy and happy. Get the second Zen achievement. He is not allowed to do this. Don’t read this phase and mark. Only the thought of the corresponding thought of the first line of meditation is withdrawn. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is far from the truth. More fun. Lost the second jhana. (repeat C)
Repeat this. What a walking meditator does, what he looks like, and what he marks. The law of abandoning desires and evil. Feeling and seeing. Li Sheng is happy and happy. Get the first Zen achievement tour. He is not allowed to do this. Don’t read this phase and mark. Only the thoughts and thoughts corresponding to desires and pleasures are withdrawn. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is far from the truth. More fun. Lost the first Zen. (repeat C)
[Blazing means you know that flaming means knowing that you are happier and peaceful and rise to a level of samadhi, which is the way for beginners to enter concentration. You only know what you are doing and what you are doing but there is no target, so you don’t act according to the known nimitta. Turn your mind to the mark. 】
How can a walking meditator know that the blazing is true when it is blazing? [Know the nimitta, enter into the knowledge. ]
That walking meditation is the dharma of abandoning desires and evil and unwholesome. Feeling and seeing. Li Sheng is happy and happy. Get the first Zen achievement tour. He practiced right thinking in his heart. Happy silence. Then from the first meditation to the second meditation. It is victory and silence. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is practicing right thinking. Happy silence. Then from the first meditation to the second meditation. (hereinafter referred to as sentence D) is victory and silence. He knows it as it is. Then he felt his heart without losing his mind. If a walking meditator is flaming, he will know that flaming is true.
repeat. Walking meditation practitioners feel and observe that they have rested. Neijing, one heart. No sense, no view. Dingsheng is happy and happy. Get the second Zen achievement. He practiced right thinking in his heart. Happy silence. From the second Zen to the third Zen. It is victory and silence. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. My heart is practicing right thinking. Happy silence. From the second Zen to the third Zen. (repeat D)
repeat. A walking meditator is free from desire. Do not want to travel. Righteous thoughts and wisdom while the body feels happy. It is called the holy saying, the sanctuary house, the mind, the happy dwelling, and the room. Get the achievement of the third meditation. He practiced right thinking in his heart. Happy silence. From the third Zen to the fourth Zen. It is victory and silence. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. … (repeat D)
repeat. For walking meditation, happiness and suffering are eliminated, joy and sorrow are already eliminated, neither suffering nor happiness, equanimity, and pure thoughts. Get the achievement of the fourth meditation. He practiced right thinking in his heart. Happy silence. From the fourth dhyana point of infinite space. It is victory and silence. That walking meditator… (repeat D)
repeat. A walking meditator overcomes all sexual thoughts. There is no right to think. Don’t read a few thoughts. There is no amount of space. It is an achievement tour of infinite space. He practiced right thinking in his heart. Happy silence. From the place of immeasurable emptiness, the place of infinite consciousness. It is victory and silence. That walking meditator… (repeat D)
repeat. A walking meditator spends all immeasurable spaces. Immeasurable consciousness. It is the achievement tour of the base of immeasurable consciousness. He practiced right thinking in his heart. Happy silence. From the place of immeasurable consciousness to the place of nothingness. It is victory and silence. Those who practice meditation will do this thought. … (repeat D) ….
8.11.2B. Meditation
8.11.2.1 The in-and-out breathing practice of Ahan 98 Sutra of Mindfulness of Mindfulness in B1
repeat. The bhikkhu sees the body as the body. Bhikkhu. Mindfulness of the in-breath is knowing the in-breath of mindfulness. Mindfulness of breath means awareness of mindfulness of breath. Long-term inhalation means long-term inhalation. If the breath is long, you know the breath is long. When your income is short, you know that your income is short. If the future is short, you will know that the future is short. Learn all body and breath. Feel everything breath out. Learn to stop your actions and breathe in. Learn to stop talking and breathe out. Such a bhikkhu sees the inner body as the body. Look at the outside like yourself. Standing in your body. Knowing and seeing. Knowing and reaching. It is said that the bhikkhu observes the body as the body.
8.11.2.2 B2 Added One Agama Sutra Shravakas: The First Dhyana to the Fourth Dhyana are the Four Music of the Samana
… There is a monk who practices this method of suffering first and then enjoying it. After responding to the Samana, he will get the joy of fruit retribution. What is cloud four. If there is a bhikkhu who is diligent in this method. No evil law. I wish you happiness. The first meditation of wandering mind. Have the joy of Samana. repeat. feel. There is breath watching. There is joy inside. Single-minded. No sense. No view. I wish you happiness. Swim in the Second Zen. It is said to be the joy of the second recluse. repeat. No mind wandering in care. Constant self-awareness. Feel happy. The favorite of all sages. Hunianle. Wandering Mind Three Chans. It is called the joy of obtaining the third recluse. repeat. The joys and sorrows are over. There is no need to worry about it. No pain, no joy. Keep your mind clean. The Four Chans of Wandering Mind. It is said to have the happiness of these four recluses.
(Unfinished, due to the length issue, it cannot be recorded in one page. For the following content, please search “The Road to Dinghui” on this site to see the final appendix)
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