Meditation and Intellectual Behaviour
Rinpoche discoursed on 1st May, 1994
Rinpoche repeated it in the Vajrayana Association (France) in September, 1994
Rinpoche repeated it again on 27th September, 1999
Uploaded to the Website on 22nd December, 2014 (after about twenty years)
| Introduction | |||
| Buddha Sakyamuni taught His disciples to pay attention to ‘The Way of Wisdom’. Seeds are used as a metaphor for belief while rain is an analogy for ascetic practices and yokes as well as ploughs are similes for wisdom. The Buddha said, “Practitioners ought to be sagacious (wise) so as to exclude all abominable survival conditions.” It is emphasized that wisdom is an indispensable criteria for cultivation and conformity is forbidden. What is exactly the wisdom that the Buddha has mentioned like? | |||
| Content | |||
| 1. | A disciple named ‘Posala’ asked Buddha Sakyamuni, “How’s the wisdom of a person who has dislodged his/her physical state by abandoning the human body so that he/she doesn’t exist both internally and externally?” | ||
| The Buddha answered, “The so-called wisdom does not only mean the accumulation of learning and knowledge. Apart from filling in knowledge, it is also signified simultaneously that there must be the production of ‘qualitative change’ in wisdom or the ability to climb one storey higher (attain a yet higher goal).” | |||
| 2. | To achieve such a goal, there are certainly ‘special’ Practice Method. In Mahayana Buddhism of later generations, wisdom is generalized into one of the ‘Paramitas’. However, at the age when the Buddha was living on Earth, it was necessary to rely on ‘meditation’ to obtain wisdom. What method did the Buddha apply to train His disciples to conduct meditation so as to acquire wisdom? | ||
| In the era of the Buddha, disciples who would like to have achievements had to comply with the special ‘Yoga’ or Zen Meditation and carried out the practices according to the stages of succession. It implied that the Buddha Himself was a great Mahasiddha (Great Achiever) who was proficient in meditation. | |||
| 3. | Having learnt the superlative as well as the most efficient access in ancient yoga teachings, the Buddha put them into practice and attained achievements. Hence, the Buddha employed these methods which were all very special and supernormal to train His disciples. The training of cultivation under the supernormal (extraordinary or beyond common sense) special method is exactly the fixed cultivation-course practitioners have to fulfill so that wisdom can be gained. As a result, ‘meditation’ is established as a necessary curriculum in Buddhism. | ||
| 4. | There are many types of meditation and ‘Samatha (Zhiguan止觀)’ is one among them. | ||
| Zhi (stop) | — | to cease as well as eliminating all psychological effects and concentrate (one’s mind) at a point. | |
| Guan (contemplate) | — | in the depths of one’s mind under the unification of ceasing and eliminating, meditate the Dharma (Buddha) and integrate it with other Dharma (the Universe) to become one. | |
| The characteristic of this Zhiguan is that once a practitioner has achieved Samadhi, he/she will not perceive what is happening in the external world no matter what it is because he/she has already held all kinds of feelings in different spaces (dimensions) together into the inner esoteric mind. Having directed all of his/her sensory organs towards the inner esoteric mind, thus the practitioner has no feeling of whatever happens in the external world anymore. (Hence, Rinpoche often admonishes you for allowing your minds to run around frequently. It will be relatively more difficult to subdue them in the future. It is just like Sun Wukong (also known as the Monkey King. He is a mythological figure in《Journey to the West西遊記》, a Chinese classical novel) whose heart is like a capering monkey while his mind is like a galloping horse (restless and fickle).) | |||
| Buddha Sakyamuni had two disciples named ‘Alama’ and ‘Kalama’. Once they had achieved Samatha (during meditation) when a company of travelling merchants passed by, both of them did not notice any sound from the carts, horses and rows of people going by. Even so, they admired their Guru Buddha Sakyamuni more. It was because at a time when the Buddha was in Samatha, there was lightning accompanied by peals of thunder and two peasants as well as their four bulls were killed on the spot. However, the Buddha who had been in Samadhi did neither feel nor hear anything at all. Though remaining clear-headed in their consciousness during meditation, achievers do not feel or hear anything about external affairs and thus achievers who are in Samatha is something incredible. It is written in volume III of 【Dirghagama-Sutra長阿含經】, ‘the middle part of the second Travel Sutra’: | |||
| The Buddha said, “I have ever travelled to a place called Ayuecun and stayed at a thatched cottage. Once unusual clouds surged and there was also a thunderbolt. Two farmers who were brothers and four bulls were killed. This gathered a large crowd of people together. I happened to go out of the cottage at that time to have a walk by wandering around. A person from the crowd approached me. Having made his obeisance by prostration, the person walked with me. I knew but still asked the person, ‘What is the crowd doing there?’ Instead of answering, he asked a question in reply, ‘Buddha, where were you just now? Were you awake or asleep?’ I answered, ‘I was here (inside the cottage) but I was not sleeping at that time.’ The person exclaimed in admiration as it was rare to hear that one can attain Samadhi in the way like the Buddha did. During the thunderbolt, the sound produced was so mighty that it could be heard between Heaven and Earth but the Buddha still remained tranquil and settled in His meditation, staying awake but did not hear the mighty sound. The person then told me (the Buddha), ‘There were unusual clouds and thunderbolt just now which killed four bulls and two farmer brothers. That is why such a large crowd of people gathered here.’ The person felt peacefulness in his mind and he immediately received the joy of hearing Dharma. He then worshipped the Buddha and left.” | |||
| One has to know that both ‘meditation’ and wisdom have to be kept abreast of each other before it can take effect. This is the so-called Meditation and Wisdom (two of the Six Paramitas). Therefore, Rinpoche exploits your wisdom continuously as well as helping you overcome a variety of psychological disorders. | |||
| 5. | Coaching His disciples to conduct meditation, the Buddha found that their foundations and qualities were different among one another. Hence, He preached or instructed the ways of carrying out meditation according to the gaps among them. | ||
| For disciples with weaker abilities, Rinpoche will adopt an easy teaching that is understandable by anybody. Moreover, he will set personal examples in daily life as teachings and practise earnestly with what he has advocated. The majority of disciples are of this standard and the Eightfold Noble Path is precisely designed for the preaching of this majority of disciples. | |||
| The more advanced method of meditation which cannot be expressed verbally will merely be inherited by very few excellent disciples. | |||
| Conclusion | |||
| It continued to develop sustainably (from the Buddha) to later stages when there was the use of text to propagate ‘the secret of meditation’ by many Patriarch achievers. This included Bodhisattva Nagajuri, Bodhisattva Asanga and Grand Master Kukai etc. In addition, there are also the profound Tibetan Vajrayana Mahamudra大手印 (literally means "great seal" or "great imprint" and refers to the fact that "all phenomena inevitably are stamped by the fact of wisdom and emptiness inseparable) as well as Dzogchen大圓滿法門 (or ‘Great Perfection’, Sanskrit: atiyoga, is a tradition of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism aimed at discovering and continuing in the natural primordial state of being. Dzogchen is the highest and most definitive path of the nine vehicles to liberation.). (All of you seem to learn meditation. However, how about your inner worlds? How are they like? Everybody knows that you are outstanding persons? Ha-ha!) | |||
| Reference materials: | ||
| 佛教金剛乘中心 (法國) http://www.vajrayana.asso.fr | ||
| ＞ | 佛學理論 | |
| ＞＞ | 可下載的佛學論著及金剛乘典籍 | |
| ＞＞＞ | 大手印叢書 | |
| ＞ | 修持法門 | |
| ＞＞ | ● | 學密概念須知 |
| ● | 四部瑜珈 | |
| ● | 無上瑜珈部簡介 | |
| ● | 禪定之種類 | |
| 佛教金剛乘慈善基金會 http://www.vajrayanacf.org.hk | ||
| ＞ | 金剛乘 | |
| ＞＞ | 密教義理 | |
| ＞＞＞ | ● | 九次第定(上) |
| ● | 九次第定(下) | |
| ● | 七支坐法 | |
| ● | 用「安心」六法來維持「息心」 | |
| ＞ | 智慧寶庫 | |
| ＞＞ | 佛學淺談 | |
| ＞＞＞ | ● | 八正道 |
| ● | 禪定是陶冶心智訓練和淨化心靈的心理途徑 | |
| ● | 大阿羅漢入定 | |
| ● | 禪的不可思議 | |
| ● | 禪的簡介 | |
