3-8-2011 Correct Responses in Meditation

The Art Of Meditation 

By Master Sheng-yen Lu
Translated and published by Lei Zang Si Singapore

This was translated from Grandmaster Lu's 45th book, 坐禪通明法.

CHAPTER 7 - Correct Responses in Meditation

Some people asked me: "Since there may be interference by the devil of the Five Aggregates and hallucination in meditation, photism and phonism are all workings of the god of consciousness, how do we distinguish correct and erroneous responses? How do we know that we are on the right path?" According to my experience in meditation, the concentration lasts a long, long time with a period of tranquility, and you feel a gust of warm air stream all over the body. Please remember that the air stream is not cold air of the Yin; if it is cold, you know something has gone wrong. In meditation, you fell comfortable all over and energetic and happy after it. Such a feeling is the initial response in meditation. 

Secondly, you feel all the world is in a state of stillness-silence reigns supreme; you are sitting between Heaven and Earth, merging with the Universe. The dark and gloomy worlds have changed into worlds of illumination; and you are radiating light, shining upon the worlds, turning them into vast expanses of light. This is the second stage in responses. At this stage, the brow-point has opened and begun emitting gold light. By the stage when the brow-point has opened with gold light, you feel full of vim and vigor, and sometimes you "exhale with a great sound," like the "roaring of a lion." You feel so strong and substantiated that you can just wear a shirt in icy cold seasons, take cold water baths or sleep in the open air in windy and snowy weather. 

In this stage, you need no ceremony to consecrate a statue of a Buddha or bodhisattva; you just breathe out a gust of air, the Buddha statue carved in wood or molded in clay would acquire spiritual powers. If you breathe out some air into water, the water would be good enough to cure illnesses. Such spiritual air can bring anything dead back to life. By the stage when the light at the brow-point can solidify, there will be more miracles-anything in the Universe can show responses once this true air is breathed into them; 

The water can cure illnesses.
Talismans can fly to Heaven.
Consecrated statues assume spiritual powers.
The cultivator can know all causes and effects. 

By the time when your seven openings (eyes, ears, nostrils, and mouth) are all radiating light, they are responding to the Seven Treasures Trees. This shows that your meditation has reached the state whereby you can go to the Western Paradise in a trance. There, you see the ground is as bright as paved with gold dust, and the Heavenly palaces are built with lapis lazuli. You can see clearly all the Dharma realms in the Western Lotus Ponds which are all tangible. When the lights from the Seven Openings can solidify, the gold true Nature will appear, which constitutes the Gold-bodied Bodhisattva. Some people who realized had the following responses: 

In Shaolin Temple (Henan, China), Bodhidharma sat for nine years facing the wall and then could hear the ants talking as loudly as thunders. Some people could hear distinctly what other people were saying a thousand miles away. This is because the spirit is in a valley, every sound echoing clearly around. Meditation practitioners can hear anybody talking distinctly as long as he brings that person into his thought. 

Some people in meditation had white light appearing before their eyes and felt they were sitting between clouds. They could not find themselves because they had transformed into transparent bodies. This is a good sign, and it is called "body of transparency, white in and out." It shows that one's karmic hindrances have all been eradicated. With all this removed, one can ascend to the Heavenly Realms or even the Pure Land of Buddhas without difficulty. 

Still, others felt in meditation that their body had changed into some dense mist which was ascending swiftly, as if they themselves were suspended. This is also a good sign. If you go up, you are going to Heaven. If you sit still for a long time, you can expect to become a Buddha or a celestial being. If the lights at the brow-point condense into pearls and jade and are stored in some part of the body their little grains will condense to become sariras after cremation. The lights at the brow-point has a platinum color, and the dense mist is multi-colored, but they all become sariras. 

The present writer makes bold to say there that I have indeed got correct responses in meditation. If they are vague, blurred, minor responses, I will not take them seriously. One must be confident that he has really got responses, not things in a dream, for experiences in dreams do not count as responses. 

I know of a person, who, after a session of meditation, felt shivering cold, his face grey and pale, enshrouded by some dark mist. He could see gods and ghosts. He could play certain magic tricks, and go to the nether world or Heaven. He could hear gods and ghosts reporting to him and therefore practiced divination. His spiritual powers, however, were negative, which, despite their similarities with the positive powers, belonged to non-celestial practices. Such powers usually result in the fruition of becoming an official in the nether world after death. 

When you get responses in your meditation, I will send you my congratulations as you are going to become a Buddha or a celestial being. However, correct meditation should take place in the right place. This is a very important point. I have written a chapter 'Monks live in a clean realm of cloud and water' in the book On Secret Methods to Transcendental Powers, which is about how to choose a place for meditation. Once the place is chosen, where to set up the shrine is also important. It must be a quiet place, with no other people's interference. 

The shrine should be solemnly adorned. Statues of Buddhas and your personal deity should be installed. There should be also Sutras and Scriptures in the shrine. You can put a sarira pagoda, vajra scepter, and a vajra bell, in front of the statues, or put the instrument of ceremony inside the pagoda. You can place a cleaned conch before the statues which means fulfillment. A more elaborate shrine will have some feathers of the peacock, a vajra sword, or a lotus streamer. Such a shrine can induce immediate reverence and joy in the practitioner who would sit for a long time in its solemn atmosphere. 

The shrine must be in an orderly arrangement and cleaned daily. All containers should be clean and can be of gold, silver, copper, or porcelain. Offerings include water, rice, lamp, flower, incense, fruit, cakes, and candles. The Five Offerings represent the five contacts, the Eight Offerings indicate immovability by winds from eight directions. Each time you make offering, recite the Offering Mantra to empower it. You can visualize a small flower which transforms itself into numerous flowers, forming an unlimited sea of clouds so that all the Buddha lands can receive your offerings. Such offerings can produce wonderful merit. 

The Offering Mantra goes like this: "Na-mo-luo-na-cha-ye-ye, na-mo-bah-chiah-wa-die, bie-cha-sa-lo, bu-lo-ma-da-nee, da-ta-chia-da-ye, ya-er-ha-die, sa-ye-hsin-bu-da-ye, die-ye-ta, om, bien-zi-bien-chi, mo-he-bien-chi, mo-he-bien-chi, mo-he-dee-cha-bien-chi, mo-he-ha-bee-ye-bien-chi, mo-he-po-dee-zhi-da-bien-chi, mo-he-po-dee-mian-zo-ba, hsin-cha-mo-na-bien-chi, sa-er-wa, chia-ma, ya-wa-lo-na, bee-so-da-na, bien-chi, sa-ho." 

We install a seat in front of the Buddha statues. Some people carve the symbol of the Buddha on the seat, some carve a Swastika (use Vajra scepters to form a cross); still others carve an eight-petalled lotus flower. The more careful people put "good-fortune grass" on the seat, the kind of grass that the Buddha sat on during realization, to indicate that the Vajra is never to break, but to bring good fortune all the year round, and that devils dare not make trouble. The cushion is thus put on the grass, with the back raised two inches. Now the seat is properly installed. The present writer always sets a great round mirror in front of the seat, which reflects the seat, but not the Buddha statues. Some secret mantras in Sanskrit are written on the edge of the mirror. This mirror, reflecting the practitioner, has the power to subdue devils. 

Practice meditation when one's original spirit is clear and bright, fresh and happy. Before it, take a bath, put on light clothes or Kasaya, light up some sandal wood incense, then mount the seat. You can sit as long as you please-ten to twenty minutes at first, one or two hours later, or even longer if you are not busy. When you have practiced enough, correct response will appear. 

Correct responses will be attained after long practice,
Since the Buddha and sentient beings are closely related.
When merit and wisdom are accumulated as much as the sea,
The Dharma wheel turns to reveal the Truth.

Amituofo

Lotuschef

Pure Karma

True Buddha School