A Tiger and a Cat (Part 3/Final)
| It is without doubt that neither tigers nor cats are able to fold their legs to carry out the Seven-Point Posture (七支坐法), let alone practising Dhyana (a Sanskrit word meaning "meditation")! Thus, one should treasure more for the possession of a human body which is really very precious! All humans possess a human body, yet how many among them can sit cross-legged in a lotus position (盤膝結跏趺坐, Lotus position or Padmasana in a meditative practice)?! |
| If one can achieve doing so, | |
| ● | Is the cross-legged sitting well done? |
| ● | How long can the cross-legged sitting be lasted? |
| ● | It can be lasted for a long time. Then has one ever dozed off (during meditation)…? |
| ● | No, one has never dozed off … Well, is one’s cross-legged sitting just like a piece of boulder placed on a seat (remarks: when a person is said to be like a boulder in Chinese, it means that he/she is senseless, obstinate and inflexible) or not? |
| ● | Does one have any Buddha Dharma in one’s mind? |
| How can a practitioner breakthrough his/her inborn genes inside his/her body so as to attain Buddhahood? |
| Basically, this person has to know how to meditate and carry out Dhyana practice. At least, one should be able to fold one’s legs in a hero/heroine posture (單跏趺坐); the highest ideal is of course the full-lotus posture (雙跏趺坐). Looking at someone’s legs, if they are comparatively sturdy(thick and strong), especially when they are too stout to a certain extent (either the thighs大腿 or the shanks小腿), they are unable to be folded in a lotus posture (regardless of whether it is the full-lotus posture or the hero/heroine one). Since this person fails to sit cross-legged in a lotus position, he/she can never perform Dhyana to achieve Samadhi and consequently, it is impossible for him/her to cultivate the three Nadis and four Chakras which are exclusively found in human body. Whatever one would like to say can always be arranged and expressed in an extravagantly colourful description with praises in superlative terms like flowers drifting down pell-mell from the sky in profusion as one likes. Since the brain that creates such an idea is inside your head and the mouth that speaks it out is on your face, it is hence your personal freedom to choose what to think and say. You can probably harangue how much you are involved in Buddha Dharma, how diligent you have been in learning Buddhism, how you have achieved ‘Siddhi (a Sanskrit word which can be translated as "perfection", "accomplishment", "attainment", or "success")’ or even said that you have already attained Buddhahood. However, which level of cultivation practice have you really achieved after all? The answer is exactly (the proverb), ‘none but only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches’(如人飲水，冷暖自知). Look up the sutras to list out the glorious thirty-two major physical characteristics and eighty secondary ones that Sakka, the World Honoured One possessed with His accumulated meritorious virtue as well as practices for many generations. Besides, take a look to see if the legs of the person concerned are good enough for the folding in a lotus posture as well as the cultivation of Dhyana to achieve Samadhi or not? How good is his/her efficacy in the cross-legged sitting? In fact, the above information which is about practising ‘meditative-sitting and Dhyana’ well is already a major premise on whether one can attain Buddhahood or not. |
| The person concerned may say, “Don’t presume that I can’t sit in the lotus posture as I’m having a pair of stout thighs as well as shanks at the moment. Looking back in the good old days, I had successfully acquired the cross-legged sitting in a full-lotus posture. As said in the Old Saying, ‘Once achieved, the achievement can be retained forever’ (一得永得), I don’t need to continue practising Dhyana any more now!” For the type of people who said something like this, the amount of knowledge he/she has learned in Buddhism is completely shown ! Let alone the profundity of Vajrayana Dharma he/she has acquired! All these are merely rebuttals based on his/her self-justification. If the Dhyana Paramita (Perfection of Meditation) cannot be kept constantly in a practitioner’s brain so as to initiate the Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom), the cells inside (one’s brain) can neither be developed nor activated progressively; on the contrary, they can only follow the aging of human body and die one after the other. Meanwhile, the power of Dhyana of the person concerned will also be lost gradually with the passing of time. Hence, The Six Paramitas in Buddhism has admonished us that our Dhyana practice should always be retained throughout our lives. It is a lifelong Dhyana that is far from the one that is so-called ‘once achieved, the achievement can be retained forever’ Dhyana in which the practice can be stopped hereafter. One should know that once Dhyana practice is stopped, wisdom is also naturally lost simultaneously. |
| Rinpoche thereby teaches us that we should first look at their legs when we are observing either practitioners who practise Dhyana or yogis who study yoga to see if they are excessively thick. If one’s legs are exceedingly thick, it shows that this person seldom carries out cross-legged sitting in a lotus posture; for a person who always sits cross-legged in a lotus position, he/she certainly keeps his/ her legs slender or else he/she cannot be able to sit cross-legged in meditation for a long time. Second, even though it can be estimated from the external appearance of one’s legs that one may probably be able to sit cross-legged in a lotus posture if they are not thick, we must witness it personally to confirm that he/she can really do so instead of solely speculation. If the person can really be able to sit cross-legged in a lotus position, check whether his/her left and right legs are horizontal enough (that is, his/her sinews of thighs are slack and relaxed so that his/her knees are not warped) or not. After that, we should go a step further to see if he/she can sit in the lotus position for at least an hour. We should not merely listen to his/her one-sided story or hearsay from other aspects nor should we use ears instead of eyes. We should stay beside him/her to testify in person if he/she can really perform Dhyana in the lotus position for an hour. Whether he/she can really perform Dhyana in the lotus position for an hour should further be verified by an enlightened Rinpoche as well. |
| As a matter of fact, being able to perform Dhyana in the lotus position for an hour is just the lowest basic standard. If none of the illnesses of meditation like dozing-off, swaying of body or drooping of head and neck etc. does appear during the course of the one-hour-meditation, the Dhyana practitioner can basically be said to have attained certain achievements in his/her meditation in terms of skills and power. After that, further efforts can be made to observe whether he/she is able to perform Dhyana in the lotus position for three hours or not. To view someone who has declared that he/she is capable of sitting in the lotus posture for three hours in the above way, we must always get close to this ‘self-claimed enlightened’ Dhyana practitioner of great virtue. Find a motive to practise Dhyana together with this great virtue or serve to guard and shield him/her during his/her retreat (to seclude oneself for self-cultivation) so that there is a chance to witness the truth (of what he/she has claimed)! |
| Reference materials: | ||
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| ＞＞ | ● | A Tiger and a Cat (Part 1) |
| ● | A Tiger and a Cat (Part 2) | |
