3-8-2011 The Light of the Third Eye

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 11 - The Light of the Third Eye

There are many monks and Taoist priests of long standing who have misgivings about "spiritual powers." Whenever they hear that someone has seen something, they would give a snort of contempt, believing that someone has been led astray by devils and has hallucinations. Naturally, in "seeing something," there may be illusions caused by nerve disorders and there are people who try to please the public with claptrap. When facts are mixed with falsification, it is hard to distinguish the sham from the genuine.
The rejection of the Third Eye by many monks or Taoist priests is due partly to the difficulty to tell the sham from the genuine and partly to the fact that some practitioners have not yet reached the state of the Third Eye. Since they are not in that state, they think it is impossible. Thus ignorance often gradually develops into malicious slanders on those who have realized.
For example, back at home, many monks only too often say: "That man is out of his sense." Some Taoist priests often say: "There is no such thing under Heaven!" Other people often say: "Yah, the gentleman who talks about gods and ghosts." Still others say: "Ah, you mean that man. He is the Number One Swindler in the whole world. He says he can go to the Western Paradise of Great Bliss. What a lie! I don't believe that."
There are too many people who cursed me or criticized me in newspapers and magazines by quoting me out of context. Lay people accused me, intellectuals cursed me, masters and Taoist priests cursed me -- which became louder and louder. They drove me to the United States. They went on criticizing me.
To tell the truth, even if people of the world curse me, I have practiced to the point of not getting angry. Some people might say that this boy has become insensitive and gotten used to curses. That is not the case. The real reason is that among all the people in this world, I am the only one who has got the truth, who knows that there are indeed six transcendental faculties, and who knows how to practice to attain them. I am the prophet. Even if people nailed me on a cross as they did to Jesus, I would be still convinced of my truth, for I have indeed realized and I am not afraid of death. For me, death only means the death of my physical body, but my original spirit is a Buddha.
I feel deeply that be it a Buddhist master or a taoist priest or any practitioner for that matter, he must be born in the Buddha's Pure Land, or become a celestial being. If there is the slightest doubt, he will be sure that he is not practicing the Right way or not effectively enough, and that he needs improving. Frankly, he must be absolutely certain that he can accomplish his way before he passes away. Only this can be considered successful.
If in his lifetime, he only teaches the public and lectures on the Sutras, does good deeds and offers alms, builds temples and chants the Buddha's name, but has never realized in his practice, it is hard to say that he can attain the fruition of Buddhahood or Bodhisattvahood. To my knowledge, he is better than a lay man in that he may go to Heaven to enjoy himself, but he cannot be said to be fully enlightened. Today the monks and priests who criticize the acquisition of the Third Eye are mostly secular monks and secular priests, and do not know how to achieve perfect realization.
I have always been advising other people to practice hard for enlightenment. If you don't practice but hope for perfect realization, you will get nowhere -- nothing comes so cheap in this world. It is utterly useless to criticize other people's realization. Why don't you also try and see what happens? When one of these days you also become enlightened and get to know that what Sheng-Yen Lu says is true, you will stop cursing me and instead come to prostrate before me, asking me to be your guru. Honestly I don't like to appear superior to others. If, when you have realized, you do an obeisance to the sky three times, chanting "Namo Guru bei, I take refuge in the Holy Red Crown Vajra Guru," I will be quite content.
This book, The Art of Meditation is a great set of important teachings which will show you how to acquire the Third Eye. For example, a lay man is a secular animal walking on two legs. On the surface he is alive, but his original spirit is dead. Now, I can use this method to bring your original spirit to life, and enable it to communicate with the Living Buddha. Using the meditation method, conditioned by my great Bodhicitta resolve, I have passed these teachings to all sentient beings. I use these secrets (of body, speech, and mind) to communicate with the Three Secrets of the Buddha.
My teachings, like a thunder strike, can strike a living body to death, and can bring a dead original spirit back to life, enabling the practitioner to feel immediate responses and see the truth. After a period of cultivation, not only can he acquire the Third Eye, but also attain the six transcendental faculties, achieve self-mastery of the original spirit and obtain Buddhahood in this life. This is what really counts.
Many Buddhst masters and Taoist priests criticize me, saying there is no such thing in this world. Now I explain as follows:
The light of the naked eye -- light of the secular men, seeing nothing. So they say there is no such thing in the world.
The spiritual light -- light of the self-nature of the enlightened, like a huge torch of wisdom, seeing things other cannot see.
Practitioners with only the light of the naked eye are pitiful, because they have no idea about the wonderful use of the Third Eye. All their life, their cultivation and recitation of the Buddha's name stay on the surface and as a result, without realization, they are totally ignorant of the mystery of mysteries. Having renounced home-life, they are no different from house-holders. Knowing nothing about the mind-mudra (the absolute mind-essence transmitted from master to disciple), they work hard on superficial imitations. Without the transmission of the mind-essence, even if you attain birth in the Buddha's land by fluent recitation of the Buddha's name, you will still have to study my "Mind-mudra for Universal Luminosity." Only then can you acquire Buddhahood or Bodhisattvahood.
The greatest shame is that monks of extremely narrow vision and with no spiritual lights, laugh at those who have got spiritual lights and regard its existence as impossible. They should know that such grave doubts constitute the demarcation line between the Buddha and ordinary human beings. With doubt or suspicion, on can never go to the Buddha's Land, whether he is an Exoteric, Esoteric, or Taoist. I sigh with deep feeling that such monks cannot become Buddhas in their present life. I feel sorry for them.
I believe that Sangha is indeed one of the Three Jewels. The earlier term, "harmonious Sangha" was a name of respect to show that three monks were cultivating together in a quiet site, discussing things over and making great efforts. According to the Buddha's teachings, one's mind must be pure and all thoughts must be pure, this makes the Sangha a Jewel. Monks represent pure belief, pure volition, pure practice, pure thought, pure acts, pure precepts, and skillful use-- these constitute genuine renunciation of home life. A Buddhist monk is one with a resolve of Bodhi, or the incarnation of a Bodhisattva who is willing to come to liberate the suffering beings. He is supposed to be a fine example for the sentient beings as well as their supervisor, who uses forty-eight thousand Dharma doors to expel 48 thousand kinds of worries. If most monks are able to do all this, they naturally form the treasure Sangha, who, living in the dirty and vicious world, transcend the Three Realms and never get contaminated. Such monks should be respected.
But now the times have changed. Some of these monks left home for various reasons other than spiritual cultivation. For example, they left home because they suffered some setback in their relationship with their girl friends, or because they failed in their business, or because their children would not support them in old age, or because of poverty and illness, or because they came to redeem a vow, or because they had a mental disorder, or because they have a solitary proclivity, or because they wanted to escape from military service, or because they are old. At first, they didn't know the real purpose of leaving home; if they got to know what it means to be a monk later, it would be acceptable. If they never understand it and don't practice diligently, only trying to escape from worldly troubles, they all deserve a sound beating. For there is no use in their home-leaving, only to increase their sins; they go to the Avici Hell to suffer interminable pains, never to be born again.
Buddhist monks must practice the authentic Dharma. They should be well versed in the 12 volumes in the Three Divisions (sutra, precepts, and commentaries) of the Buddhist doctrines. With each correct thought, you are one step forward along the Buddha's teachings; when every thought is correct, you are enlightened on the Buddha's teachings. Monks should study the correct insight and right wisdom and energy in authentic practice for final enlightenment. They should on no account slander the correct Dharma and correct insight, or criticize the correct wisdom, or often use abusive language against others. They should not indulge in wrong ideas or unhealthy thoughts, such as labeling others' realizations as false because they themselves have not realized. All this goes against the correct Dharma.
What I want to tell my readers is that: by following my "art of meditation" in your cultivation, you change your naked eye-sight into spiritual light, and grow the Third Eye at the browpoint; as long as you earnestly practice meditation for a hundred days, you will certainly have spiritual responses. As we know, after a hundred days' practice the best air slowly gathers at the brow-point; when there is enough of it, the Yang fire will appear. This fire in water is what the Taoists call "water and fire benefiting one another." When there is enough fire, the spiritual light will automatically emerge. The original spirit controls the fire going up and down so that the original Yang (positive) gradually does not show itself with the air only coming in without going out, until there is only the substantial. When sufficient substance has accumulated, the practitioner becomes a Buddha, who can see everything and have all spiritual responses without seeking them.

Amituofo

Lotuschef

Pure Karma

True Buddha School