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The Unrivalled Wonderful Dharma.
2017-10-31 14-21-08 来源: 作者: 点击:次
无敌天下的妙法
The Unrivalled Wonderful Dharma.
目录
禅修传承
坐禅通则
慈悲心观修
慈悲心观修的功德利益
慈悲心观修的方法
次第生活中的慈悲观修
慈悲心观修与慈心三昧
慈修之歌
The Inheritance of Chan Meditation
The General Rules of Sitting Meditation
The Cultivation of a Compassionate Heart
The Merits and Virtues of Compassion Contemplation
The Methods and Steps of Compassion Contemplation Compassion
Contemplation in Daily Life
Compassion Contemplation and Compassion Samadhi
Song of Compassion Contemplation
The Inheritance of Chan Meditation
第二章 坐禅通则
Different schools and sects of Buddhism can be found and they all have rather strict lineages and inheritances.
To practice Chan Meditation, one should learn it from a master who has a clear lineage and possesses practical experience and cultivates honestly and sincerely.
For instance, the “Bodhidharma Chan” of Chinese Chan Sect was founded by Ven. Master Bodhidharma who taught a method known as “Two Entrances and Four Practices”. The “Two Entrances” are entry through principle and practice, while the “Four Practices”refer to the practice of non-vengeance ; the practice of acceptance of circumstances, the practice of absence of craving, and the practice of accordance with the Dharma. These are the basic contents and methods of the Bodhidharma Chan Meditation.
Ven. Master Bodhidharma passed the Chan Methods on to the second patriarch, Ven. Master Huike who did the same to the third patriarch, Ven. Master Sengcan. It was subsequently passed to the fourth patriarch Ven. Master Daoxin, then the fifth patriarch, Ven. Master Hongren, till the sixth patriarch, Ven. Master Huineng. Up to now, the Chan Sect has been passed on for many generations.
From the sixth patriarch, Ven. Master Huineng, like a flower with five leafs, the Chan Sect developed into five branches: Weiyang , Linji , Caodong , Fayan and Yunmen factions. The five branches are based on the Bodhidharma Chan with their own expansions and detailed specifications.
The leading authority of the Chan Sect of modern times, Ven. Master Xuyun (1840 – 1959), lived for 120 years; he received his full ordination at a young age of 19 years. He inherited the Dharma of all the five branches and passed them down.
As for the Linji Branch, Ven. Master Xuyun passed it to Ven. Master Benhuan who became the forty-fourth inheritor. Ven. Master Benhuan is 105 years old now (that was in 2011). (Note: He passed away on April 2nd, 2012).
My master, the Elder Nengxing, stays in Zhengjue Monastery now. At the time of Ven. Master Xuyun invited Ven. Master Benhuan to be the abbot of Nanhua Monastery, Ven. Master Benhuan was only in his 40’s and Ven. Nengxing was in his 20’s. Ven. Nengxing was Ven. Master Benhuan’s earliest attendant. He also learned the Dharma from Master Benhuan and became the forty-fifth inheritor of the Linji Sect. Apart from that, Ven. Nengxing also received the teaching from Ven. Master Foyuan of the Yunmen school of Chan Sect and became its thirteenth inheritor. I received the Dharma from Ven. Master Nengxing and became the forty-sixth inheritor of the Linji school.
The lineage is very strict and cannot be claimed simply. After the sixth patriarch, Ven. Master Huineng, the practice of passing on of mantle and alms bowl was stopped, instead only the Dharma scroll was passed on.
In 1992, I took refuge in Buddhism and learned to meditate. Because of my karmic rewards, I had two meditation masters.
One of them was Ven. Master Nengxing from Fayuan Monastery, Beijing, who initiated my refuge-taking ceremony and later ordained me as a monk. During the Great Cultural Revolution, Ven. Master Nengxing did not resume a secular life but hid in the Shennongjia area to make a living by gathering firewood and baking bricks. After the Cultural Revolution, the president of the Buddhist Association of China, Zhao Puchu, invited him to return to Beijing and served as a member of the association. Later on, many monks who had resumed a secular life during the Cultural Revolution returned to their monasteries, Ven. Master Nengxing played the role of an instructor in monk-hood ceremonies to enable them to re-submit to Buddhist precepts.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Ven. Master Nengxing was acclaimed as one of the ten eminent monks of China. The first one was Ven. Master Haifa from the White Horse Monastery of Luoyang in Henan Province. In 1993, during the consecration ceremony of the Great Buddha Statue of Mt. Dayu in Hong Kong, a three-member delegation from the Mainland China Buddhist association was present. It was headed by Mr. Zhao Puchu and one of them was Ven. Master Nengxing.
The other was the old monk Ven. Master Haiyuan from Beijing Lingguang Monastery. He was also an eminent monk of the Linji Sect. During the Cultural Revolution, the old monk did not disrobe but pitched a thatched shack near the pagoda of “Buddha Tooth Relic” of Lingguang Monastery, guarding the pagoda. In 1993, Ven. Master Haiyuan was already 90 years old.
These two masters of mine have very strong affinity. When Ven. Master Haiyuan passed away, Ven. Master Nengxing presided at the ceremony to see him off. Both the two old masters gave a lot of advice to me on Chan Meditation.
The General Rules of Sitting Meditation
Chan Meditation can bring many benefits to people’s body and mind, and it is the inevitable course towards enlightenment. However, there are some points which must be borne in mind. Otherwise, you will encounter barriers.
Choose a Peaceful and Quiet Place
To practice sitting meditation, one needs to choose a quiet place where one will not be disturbed. It should have good ventilation without being directly blown at by wind. If the windows are not sealed well, you need to sit away from the window because the draughts coming through the window can be very damaging.
Besides, when you are meditating, you should tell your family members or roommates to leave you alone. A sudden thrust is prohibited as it may lead to accidents due to surprises and shocks. When somebody else needs you to attend to something urgent, the person can gently chant “Amitabha” beside you. Upon hearing this, you know what it means and try to get out from the meditating state naturally yourself, rather than receiving the message in a surprising way.
To Avoid the Wind When Sitting Down
Wear loose and comfortable clothes when meditating. It is improper to wear jeans or short skirts.
Keep warm. When sitting for a long time, your pores will open; keep warm by covering your neck, knees and waist to avoid catching a cold.
The old monks (Ven. Masters Haiyuan and Nengxing) advised me repeatedly to keep the neck, spine and knees warm as they are most vulnerable to coldness. It is hard to cure the diseases caused by coldness during meditating. You have to meditate to cure yourself of the ailments.
I still remember the incident which occurred in 1996. I practiced meditation in a school outside the Summer Mountain Resort in Chengde. The classroom was very spacious and it was summer. I was careless. I sat in an interwoven fashion (the full-lotus posture) for about an hour. Suddenly there was a prickling pain at my knees as if pierced by a sharp needle twice. I knew I got a cold but it was already too late. The consequence was that I could not sit in the same fashion for several years but I had to practice sitting meditation from the simple half-lotus posture very slowly.
Later I could sit in the full-lotus posture again. In the summer of 2006, I went to Qingdao. On the way back, there was a lay Buddhist who wanted to give me a ride. But considering that it took three and a half hours on the highway from Qingdao to Boshan, I declined his offer and chose to take a bus to Zibo instead. The air conditioner of the bus was fully switched on. I was used to sit in a meditating position whenever I sit down. As I feared of catching a cold, so I sat in the half-lotus posture. Still, I caught a cold from the ride. Thereafter, I could not sit in the full-lotus posture. It was really a painful lesson. Nowadays I always take leg cover with me whenever I go somewhere. They are the ones that you use to cover your legs. They were invented by me and have a good quality of providing warmth and easily portable.
Here I would like to tell all of you the priority of practicing meditation: avoid wind and keep warm, especially mind your knees. When practicing meditation and learning to sit properly, you need to wear the leg cover to protect your knees, use blanket to cover your waist, and a scarf or high-collared coat to protect your neck from coldness.
The Time Should Be Appropriate
In the past, people mentioned the term “Zi Wu Mao You”. Zi refers to midnight 23:00-1:00, and 23:00 is the beginning of the Zi hours, while 24:00 has already past the beginning of Zi. TV stations regard 24:00 as the dividing point between new and old years. According to Chinese traditional culture, the beginning of a new day should be 23:00. Wu hours are 11:00-13:00, Mao hours are 5:00-7:00 and You hours 17:00-19:00, respectively. Ancient masters and men of great virtues believed that such hours were especially beneficial for meditating practice.
One had better not meditate within an hour after a meal. Doing so half an hour after a dinner is even worse. When one is full, one can become drowsy very easily. Since the blood concentrates in the stomach, there would be less oxygen in the brain, and one would feel sleepy. It is better to meditate more than one hour after meal. Apart from that, it is alright to meditate any other time.
If you do not have a tight schedule, you can meditate anytime you like. But when it rains heavily or there is a thunderstorm, one should stop the meditation session. You need to remember that.
Essentials for Stopping a Meditation Session
Now I am going to teach you how to stop a session. In the first place, rub your hands until they are warm, cover your eyes with the warm hands, then slowly open your eyes. Move your hands over your face as if you are washing it, from the bottom to top, from face to hindbrain. This action should be repeated thrice to five times. The next step is to massage shoulders, arms, elbows, waist and hips, knees, and the ankle area. Stretch your legs and shake them gently before you get up and move around.
You must not tap or hit your body. Since the pores are open after the meditation session, such acts can make the body vulnerable to the invasion of wind and exogenous pathogenic factors.
Adjust the Body: the Seven-Point Posture
For sitting meditation, the Seven-point Posture is usually adopted. It is also called the full-lotus posture. There are seven items to be noted.
(1) One can choose to overlap the legs or interweave them. The latter is preferred, but you should choose according to your own condition. When you overlap your legs, if your left leg is above the right one, it is known as “wish-fulfilling” posture; if your right leg is above the left one, it is known as a “diamond posture”. An interwoven posture is also called a golden posture while an overlapped posture silver posture. The buttocks should be on a mat between 1.5 and 2 Cun (between 5 and 6.6 cm) high. One’s heels should not make legs feel uncomfortable.
When the legs are interwoven, the body can be very steady and the mind can easily calm down. At the beginning some people may find it is difficult to overlap the legs, they do not have to overlap their legs then. The best practice is to remain relaxed and natural.
In an interwoven posture, one ankle has to be placed above the other leg. The position of legs can be changed now and then when they are numb and tired. Someone may find it is difficult to press down the legs. That does not matter. It takes time to make the legs leveled down. I have a disciple who learned meditation from me in 2004. His knees protruded high at first, but gradually he could maintain the interwoven posture. If you keep practicing it, gradually you can adopt the posture as well.
Another thing is that no matter you are practicing the overlapped or interwoven posture, if you put the left shank above today, you need to put the right one above tomorrow when meditating. Both legs have to be practiced alternatively to avoid your spine tilting to one side and to keep the spine upright.
(2) Maintain a proper position of your hands. For a man: put your left hand on your right hand with both thumbs touching each other. This is called the Samaya posture. For a female practitioner: put the right hand on the left one with both thumbs touching each other. This is called Amitabha posture which is adopted by the Amitabha Buddha. The overlapping hands can be gently placed on the legs.
Before the Tang Dynasty, most of male practitioners adopted the Samaya Posture when meditating. Recently, it seems that both male and female practitioners have adopted the Amitabha Posture. According to physiology, it is better for the male practitioners to follow the Samaya Posture with the left hand on the right hand. This will give them a better balance between Yin and Yang.
(3) One’s spine should be upright naturally. When maintaining this posture, the whole body should be relaxed, not uptight nor forced to be upright. 不要塌架。松懈塌架,时间久了就成“罗锅”了。但也不要硬挺。硬挺容易上火,自然竖直就可以了。 One should not be too relaxed, forming an arch with your back. If you practice meditation in this position for a long time, you will become a hunchback. Neither should you force yourself to maintain an upright position. Otherwise you might suffer from excessive internal heat. It suffices to keep upright naturally.
(4) The two shoulders should be at the same level. Drop your shoulders naturally, do not stretch them upwards. One should not try to imitate the behavior described in novels, hide one’s chest and stretch the back like a thief. One should maintain the shoulders at the same level and unfold the chest and back.
(5) Draw the chin in and make the top of your head facing the sky. Do not lower your head,just try to draw in your chin for about one centimeter to make the Baihui Acupoint (GV 20) facing the sky.
(6) Tilt your tongue upward so that it touches the palate gently. There is a small pit in the palate right behind the upper gum. Curl the tip of your tongue to touch this part. We call this “building a magpie bridge” or what traditional Chinese medical doctors describe as “connecting the Ren and Du Meridians”(connect the Conception and Governing vessels) .
(7) Slightly close your eyes. When your eyes are slightly closed, you can remain focused more easily. According to my own experience, if you open your eyes wide, your mind will run wild easily. You can easily enter the meditating state with eyes slightly closed. If you feel drowsy or hallucinate, then open your eyes.
Adjust Your Breath: Comfortable and Smooth
The first thing of meditation is to adjust yourself and relax. It does not refer to your breath, but have everything to do with your state of mind.
The first step is to exhale, breath in through your nostril, breathe out through your mouth, not hurriedly but slowly. At the same time, imagine that all those obstructed places in your body become clear as you exhale.
Then close your mouth and inhale fresh air through your nose. You should do it softly and slowly.
Repeat this exhale and inhale process three or five times.
Then close your mouth and make your tongue reach for the palate. Breathe with your nose. Someone said that when the mouth is closed, the upper and lower teeth should touch each other. But this is not correct. Bear in mind that when your tongue tip is touching the palate, the upper and lower teeth do not touch each other, just close your mouth softly and naturally.
When you are meditating, you should swallow your saliva when it comes out naturally. When meditating, it is no longer ordinary saliva but precious liquid.
Breathe through nose and underbelly rather than the chest. Usually, it is easy for men to breathe through underbelly. Female practitioners prefer to use the chest, they need to practice breathe through underbelly gradually.
Train Your Mind: Stay Focused
After you have adjusted your body and breath, you still need to train your mind. The method is to remain focused and be mindful. You need to focus all your attention, thoughts and mental energy on one subject.
For example, you can focus your attention on your breath, or the anapana-smrti method or the Six Wonderful Gateways. You can also concentrate on listening to some sound; for example, meditation on the organ of hearing or listen to the self nature to attain perfect penetration through the organ of hearing; you can also pay full attention to chanting of Buddha’s name or a mantra. All of these are methods to train one’s mind.
There are various methods to train one’s mind. The key is to stay focused and remain mindful. The secret is “remain concentrated, have a clear mind, be mindful and perfectly clear”. To simplify this secret further, it is “focus, clarity, mindfulness, and penetration”.
In the Manual “Essentials of Dharma Cultivation of Zhengjue Monastery”, the gist is mentioned: the triple thoughts are not available: the past thought is not available, the present thought is not available, and the future thought is not available. Be aware of the present and practice right here and right now.
Ven. Master Daoxin Said So
The fourth patriarch of the Chan Sect, Venerable Master Daoxin instructed disciples on how to adjust the body and calm the mind in his work “The Convenient Dharma Gateway of Calming One’s Mind”. For beginners who want to learn to meditate and calm the mind, they should sit alone somewhere, adjust the body and sit upright, remove the accessories, loosen your belts, relax and stretch the body. Massage yourself seven or eight times until there is no gas left in the stomach, then you will feel a sense of tranquility and peace.
“When the body and mind are relaxed and well-adjusted, one can feel calm and undisturbed. From then on, one will gradually enter into a deep and serene state, focused as well as mindful. ”
Before meditation, after one has undergone the process of adjusting the body and breath and calming the mind, one will feel relaxed and comfortable. Thus, one can stay calmed and focused to reach a serene, deep and carefree state. The breathing will also become lighter, slower and cooler. In such a state, one can convergence oneself physically and mentally; and gradually, the mind will become quiet, smart and clear.
The Cultivation of a Compassionate Heart
In the Sutra of the Great Compassion Dharani, the Great Brahma Heavenly King respectfully joined his palms and asked Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, what are the features of the Great Compassion Mantra?
Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva spoke of ten kinds of heart: the great compassionate heart, the impartial heart, the unperturbed heart, the uncontaminated heart, the empty-view heart, the deferential heart, the humble heart, the uncluttered heart, the non-clinging heart, and the uppermost Bodhi-heart.
These ten kinds of heart are the features of the Great Compassion Mantra. The first one is the great compassionate heart, therefore, the great compassionate heart is of vital importance to the Great Compassion Mantra.
The kind heart is to give living beings happiness, and the compassionate heart is to feel sad about all living being’s sufferings.
There are two main features of Buddhism: one is wisdom, the other is compassion. Wisdom is Buddhism’s essence and compassion is the function. Compassion is the most important virtue of Bodhisattva and one of Buddhism’s features.
Ask you guys a question: Who knows how to practice the compassionate heart?
(A believer replied, “Only after enlightenment, can we truly know that actually everyone has the compassionate heart.)
The compassionate heart is possessed by everyone, and we only know how to practice after understanding the mind and seeing the nature. Then, what shall we do before that?
Ok, today we will talk about the contemplation of the compassionate heart, that is, how to cultivate our compassion.
The Merits and Virtues of Compassion Contemplation
Put Hatred to Rest
“Five Contemplations to cease Afflictions” refers to five contemplating methods of Buddhist Chan meditation to subdue our minds and desires and achieve inner peace.
Five Contemplations to cease Afflictions include Asubha contemplation, compassion contemplation, Karma contemplation, Anapanasati, and Dhatumanasikara. They are methods to put greed, hatred, stupidity, idling thoughts, and attachment to self to rest.
Compassion contemplation is a meditation method to cultivate your compassion towards all living beings , bring them happiness, heal their pain and banish your anger. Compassion contemplation is suitable for everyone no matter he is a beginner or an expert.
Remove Obstacles and Gain Blessings
Compassion contemplation could help us purify our negative karma, reduce negative emotions, overcome obstacles which hinder our practice, and accumulate and gather people’s good karma, blessings and merit. It is the best protection for everyone.
Before we practice compassion contemplation, our enemies or karmic creditors might interfere with us. However, after we practice it, and send our blessings to them, they will stop the interference, and even help us.
Use Positive Energy in the Right Way
Practice of Samatha and Vipassana, will calm down our minds, let us be the masters of ourselves, and increase our power and strength. How to use them correctly?
If you do not know how to use the energy in the right way, you might accomplish the very opposite result. In world history, people changed their minds once they acquired power and strength. Some even destroyed themselves.