###What do Zen Masters teach? Do they teach Zen? Let's find out!^archive
Fiftieth Case from the Blue Cliff Record: Yunmen’s Every Atom Samadhi
Originally I went through this case with GreenSage, unpolishedmirror and surupamaerl. It was a great conversation, so I thank them immensely for taking the time to talk to me.
This is the last case from this series I will post here until I get to the 100th. I feel like I’m saying goodbye to my hometown or something. Don’t worry, we’ll still call each other all the time! Ha!
Case
>“A monk asked Yunmen, “What is every atom samadhi?” > >Yunmen said, “Food in the bowl, water in the bucket.”
astrocomments:
-Yuanwu says about the monk’s question, "All the monks under heaven make their nests here." Which reminds me of this classic bit by Foyan,
>In my school, there are only two kinds of sickness. One is to go looking for a donkey riding on the donkey. The other is to be unwilling to dismount once having mounted the donkey. > >You say it is certainly a tremendous sickness to mount a donkey and then go looking for the donkey. I tell you that one need not find a spiritually sharp person to recognize this right away and get rid of the sickness of seeking, so the mad mind stops. > >Once you have recognized the donkey, to mount it and be unwilling to dismount is the sickness that is most difficult to treat. I tell you that you need not mount the donkey; you are the donkey! The whole world is the donkey; how can you mount it? If you mount it, you can be sure the sickness will not leave! If you don't mount it, the whole universe is wide open!
I know that sickness. I have been on a weeks long conversation with Lin Seed about it. It wasn’t until Lurkersim casually said something that I saw it. Who knows if it was what Lin Seed was trying to say, but it is definitely the thing I got out of it. It’s not that I need to get things out of my interactions, but there was obviously something about what Lin was saying that was making sense, even if I couldn’t put my finger on what.
It’s related to my Zen study, which for a bit there got me a little overeager to come here and "question people to death" or something like that. I don’t think I was that bad or anything. Though you are free to disagree. The thing is
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On wikipedia it states Samadhi is oneness with the object of meditation. I am able to stay in this state quite easily for days through self inquiry. However theres still some mind activity and prefferences/aversions. I am guessing prefferences/aversions never really go away but mind activity ceases in moksha?
What is the difference between the two? Also is liberation being able to reliably attain samadhi or is liberation moksha?
It seems that Jhana/Samadhi is heavily emphasized in Theravada (except the dry insight lineages). But in one of the posts, someone from I think Tibetan buddhism mentioned that Samadhi/Jhana is not given any importance. Rather teachers from Tibetan tradition say that there is too much risk of ending up in heavenly realms so It's rather a waste of time. Is this true?
Also in thervada, if one attains stream entry, one has to go through 7 life times until one is fully liberated. Is "7 life time" thing also mentioned in Mahayana/Vajarayana?
Thanks!
Can anyone explain the differences between these two? They seem to refer to the same thing for the most part - a sort of gathered concentration.
I understand with TMI we are cultivating samatha, but in reading other books on mediation I see samadhi referred to a lot and I’m not sure if these terms are somewhat interchangeable or if I’m missing something.
Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi. Trans. Taigen Dan Leighton.
With Total Trust Roam and Play in Samadhi
>Empty and desireless, cold and thin, simple and genuine, this is how to strike down and fold up the remaining habits of many lives. When the stains from old habits are exhausted, the original light appears, blazing through your skull, not admitting any other matters. Vast and spacious, like sky and water merging during autumn, like snow and moon having the same color, this field is without boundary, beyond direction, magnificently one entity without edge or seam. Further, when you turn within and drop off everything completely, realization occurs. Right at the time of entirely dropping off, deliberation and discussion are one thousand or ten thousand miles away. Still no principle is discernible, so what could there be to point to or explain? People with the bottom of the bucket fallen out immediately find total trust. So we are told simply to realize mutual response and explore mutual response, then turn around and enter the world. Roam and play in samadhi. Every detail clearly appears before you. Sound and form, echo and shadow, happen instantly without leaving traces. The outside and myself do not dominate each other, only because no perceiving [of objects] comes between us. Only this non-perceiving encloses the empty space of the dharma realm's majestic ten thousand forms. People with the original face should enact and fully investigate [the field] without neglecting a single fragment.
One young upstart wrote in big bold letters on my last post that Zen Masters don't use Indian words. What a strange person. Another assured me he knew I would never attain enlightenment. What a very strange place.
>Empty and desireless, cold and thin, simple and genuine, this is how to strike down and fold up the remaining habits of many lives. When the stains from old habits are exhausted, the original light appears, blazing through your skull, not admitting any other matters.
Each excerpt has been building one on the other: clean, see, enter, remember the root, illuminate. Now, we have the certainty of a Zen Master to observe. Hongzhi focuses on roaming and playing, with the "bottom of the bucket fallen out," going on to "immediately find total trust." It is not clear whether this is a further instruction or a logical conclusion, but it is said that this is accomplished by means as have been discussed, and "when y
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Do you know any tecniques or any relevant sutta about maintaining samadhi during the day for the individuals who is working in a job which requires a lot of thinking?
Venerable ajahn sumedho and ajahn amaro use the sounds to enter deep stages of samadhi. I dont understand how can someone listen to sound and focus as sounds is dynamic, it changes in loudness and frequency. I thought only static objects can be used to enter samadhi like kasinas.
I would like to use the inner sound to reach samadhi as my tinnitus is quite loud but it dosnt bother me, its actually quite calming. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I'm particularly looking for books, but videos, websites etc. are also appreciated. :)
Thanks in advance!
Are they the same thing? I want to hear your thoughts on this.
So i was practicing a lot of anapanasati.. basically just being aware of the breath and ignoring all thought.
For a second i experienced nothingness. No senses. Pure consciousness. Pure thoughtless void.
Satori i think. Turiya? Turiya is blissful, i felt no bliss.. sounds like i had a glimpse of enlightenment (samadhi).
Thoughts?
"From darkness they proceed into darkness
Never hearing the Buddha's name."
-Lotus Sutra
“For what reason, Śāriputra, do you think that buddha is called Amitābha?
Śāriputra, the Buddha’s light shines boundlessly and without hindrance over all the worlds of the ten directions."
-Amitabha Sutra
"With my divine power I will display great light,
Illuminating the worlds without limit,
And dispel the darkness of the three defilements;
Thus I will deliver all beings from misery".
-Larger Sutra on Amitayus Buddha
N7 Great Strength Bodhisattva: the element of perception.
O1 He tells how he was transmitted the dharma by a Buddha of old.
"Dharma prince, Great Strength, together with fifty-two Bodhisattvas of similar rank, arose from his seat, bowed at the Buddha's feet, and said to the Buddha:
I remember when, as many aeons ago as there are sands in the Ganges, a Buddha called Limitless Light appeared in the world. In that same aeon there were twelve successive Thus Come Ones; the last was called Light Surpassing the Sun and Moon. That Buddha taught me the Buddha-recitation Samadhi.
Suppose there were a person who always remembers someone else, but the someone else he remembers has entirely forgotten about him. If two such people were to meet, even if they were to see each other, they would not take notice. They would not recognize each other.
If two people remember each other until the memory of each is deep, then in life after life they will be together like a form and its shadow, and they will never be at odds.
Out of pity for living beings, the Thus Come Ones of the ten directions are mindful of them as a mother remembers her child. If the child runs away, of what use is the mother's regard? But if the child remembers his mother in the same way that the mother remembers the child, then in life after life the mother and child will not be far apart.
If living beings remember the Buddha and are mindful of the Buddha, certainly they will see the Buddha now or in the future.
They will never be far from the Buddha, and their minds will awaken by themselves, without the aid of expedients.
A person who has been near incense will carry a fragrance on his person; it is the same in this case. It is called an adornment of fragrant light.
**On the causal ground I used mindfulness of the Buddha to enter into patience with the non-production of dharmas. Now in this world I gather in all those who are mindful of the
... keep reading on reddit ➡"Vanished the veils of light and shade,
Lifted every vapor of sorrow,
Sailed away all dawns of fleeting joy,
Gone the dim sensory mirage.
Love, hate, health, disease, life, death:
Perished these false shadows on the screen of duality.
The storm of maya stilled
By magic wand of intuition deep.
But ever-present, all-flowing I, I, everywhere.
Planets, stars, stardust, earth,
Volcanic bursts of doomsday cataclysms,
Creation’s molding furnace,
Glaciers of silent X-rays, burning electron floods,
Thoughts of all men, past, present, to come,
Every blade of grass, myself, mankind,
Each particle of universal dust,
Anger, greed, good, bad, salvation, lust,
I swallowed, transmuted all
Into a vast ocean of blood of my own one Being.
Smoldering joy, oft-puffed by meditation
Blinding my tearful eyes,
Burst into immortal flames of bliss,
Consumed my tears, my frame, my all.
Thou art I, I am Thou,
Knowing, Knower, Known, as One!
Tranquilled, unbroken thrill, eternally living, ever-new peace.
Enjoyable beyond imagination of expectancy, samadhi bliss!
Not an unconscious state
Or mental chloroform without willful return,
Samadhi but extends my conscious realm
Beyond the limits of the mortal frame
To farthest boundary of eternity
Where I, the Cosmic Sea,
Watch the little ego floating in Me.
Mobile murmurs of atoms are heard,
The dark earth, mountains, vales, lo! molten liquid!
Flowing seas change into vapors of nebulae!
Aum blows upon vapors, opening wondrously their veils,
Oceans stand revealed, shining electrons,
Till, at the last sound of the cosmic drum,
Vanish the grosser lights into eternal rays
Of all-pervading bliss.
From joy I came, for joy I live, in sacred joy I melt.
Ocean of mind, I drink all creation’s waves.
Four veils of solid, liquid, vapor, light,
Lift aright.
I, in everything, enters the Great Myself.
Gone forever: fitful, flickering shadows of mortal memory;
Spotless is my mental sky, below, ahead, and high above;
Eternity and I, one united ray.
A tiny bubble of laughter, I
Am become the Sea of Mirth Itself."
- Samadhi, a poem by Paramahansa Yogananda
CHÁNH ĐỊNH - SAMADHI (phần 2)
Hỏi: Nếu hành giả có chánh niệm thì phiền não ngừng lại không?
Trả lời: Ngưng lại ngay vì trong chánh niệm có chánh kiến đi theo nên phiền não phải giảm. Rất nhiều vị tập thiền định khi tâm yên, vắng lặng là hôn trầm đến. Hôn trầm có mặt vì tâm muốn hưởng cảm giác vắng lặng an ổn này. Một cách âm thầm bên trong tâm vị này nói: “tốt quá, đã quá”. Nghĩ vậy là tham đã xuất hiện, tinh tấn tuột và ngồi chỉ có ý hưởng sự an lạc thôi.
Tương tự như mấy tay ghiền ma túy. Khi sử dụng ma túy những người này thấy phê lắm (thăng hoa). Họ biết rất rõ ma túy cho họ cảm giác thế nào và đắm chìm vô đó để hưởng sự kích thích, khoái cảm mà thứ này mang đến.
Một đôi khi tâm của thiền giả cũng tương tự như tâm của những người ghiền xì ke. Vì vậy ngồi chỉ tỉnh táo một chút lúc đầu, nhưng 20 hay 30 phút sau đó là gục lên xuống như gà mổ. Tâm bây giờ rất mê mờ. Thiền tập tuột dốc. Tâm của người này đắm chìm vào trạng thái yên ổn, vắng lặng. Tâm không có một chút trí tuệ nên phiền não sanh lên.
Ngay cả khi dùng đề mục hơi thở (amapana anti) trong một thời gian dài, tâm cũng tự động dính mắc (thích đối tượng này). Nhiều người dính mắc vào đề mục, không có đề mục đã tập quen là không thiền được. Tâm không muốn đề mục nào khác.
Hỏi: Đây có phải là vấn đề của những người tập samatha (thiền định)?
Trả lời: Đúng vậy. Khi không có trí tuệ và đã sử dụng một đề mục quá lâu, tâm sẽ dính vô đó.
Hỏi: Đó là lý do phải mở tâm ra quan sát nhiều đối tượng khác nhau? Phải vậy không?
Trả lời: Không, cái chính là chánh niệm phải đi theo trí tuệ mới được. Có trí tuệ thì không dính mắc. Bằng không thì chỉ có ghi nhận hay biết chứ không có văn hay tư tuệ đi kèm. Khi chỉ ghi nhận (không có trí tuệ) trong một thời gian lâu sẽ có tâm dính mắc.
Hỏi: Ngay cả khi hành giả mở tâm quan sát nhiều đối tượng khác nhau cũng có tâm dính mắc hay sao?
Trả lời: Không có trí tuệ là dính vào đề mục ngay. Tôi muốn nhắc tất cả là khi lựa một đối tượng nào: hơi thở, phồng xẹp đừng có giữ trong đầu cái ý là đối tượng này hay tốt. Đối tượng không xấu, không tốt, nghĩ là đối tượng này hay, kia tốt là tâm đã dính mắc vào đối tượng rồi. Si tin là đối tượng tốt, trí tuệ không tin như vậy. Trí tuệ thấy đối tượng chỉ là đối tượng, không xấu, không tốt. Vì vô minh nên mới cho đối tượng là tốt, trí tuệ không nghĩ như thế. Đối tượng làm sao mà tốt khi nó sanh diệt liên tục.
Hỏi: Khi đức Phật còn tại thế, chư tăng (thường là trước mùa an cư) đến gặp Phật xin một đề mục để tu tập trong
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I want to know how long it will take to enter samadhi if your mind is thoughtless? I want to know some estimate time because some time ago I think I heard about it by someone, but now I have forgotten.
And please those who don't know the answer, please stay away, I have been troubled by trolls and idiots who are good for nothing. They comment making fun of you and don't even answer the question.
