‧Written by Sheng-yen Lu‧
(continued from pg A7 , TBN issue # 1207)
In this way, we achieve the goal of breaking foolish grasping to our illusory physical bodies. This approach of installing a mirror to observe ourselves, helps us to recognize the fact that we are products of illusion that are no different from clouds and smoke, the reflection of the moon in water, an illusory dream, or a reflection of a flower in a mirror. When we achieve this state of Ekagrata or One-Pointedness, we attain the three contemplations of Void, Illusion, and the Middle Way.
When I was studying Taoism, my teacher, Taoist Master Qingzhen of the Qingcheng Sect, secretly taught me a method. His method starts with lighting up two sticks of incense that are about two-and-half feet directly away from one’s left and right eyes. Next, with eyes half closed, one rests on a cushion and stares at the burning red tips of the incense. Gradually, one can imprint the red tip image in one’s spiritual eye [the inner vision at the center of our head]. I feel that this method is very efficient because as our eyes lock onto the red tips of the brightly glowing incense, the image merges into one spot at the center of the spiritual eye. At this stage, a tingling sensation is felt around the spiritual eye, followed by a feeling of firmness in the area. All of our senses become concentrated at the spiritual eye, which corresponds with the key to mastering the “Major Practice of Meditation on Attaining Realization through the Spiritual Eye.”
I have been practicing this method of concentration for many years, and it is a wonderful approach to focus the mind. Ekagrata Medita- tion can be performed according to one’s preferences. If you feel that a certain approach suits you better, then you should adopt that practice, so long as you achieve the goal of focusing the mind with self-control. If one is not interested in Ekagrata, then it would be a fallacy for one to claim that one has attained the Way. If an individual has not cultivated One-Pointedness Meditation, then one’s mind would be subject to the influence of one’s impure consciousness. One’s mind will fluctu- ate like waves in the great ocean that do not have a moment of peace or tranquility. One’s mind will be like a pail of water contaminated with color pigments and sewage that can never become clear. Thus, if a person cultivates the Way with a defiled mind, he will never attain anything.
The difference between the mundane mind and sacred mind is that the mundane mind tends to fluctuate, whereas the sacred mind is tranquil. The mundane mind is constantly engaged in discursive thoughts, craving wealth and sex only. In this way, the individual is constantly losing essence and vitality until old age and death. He or she is consumed with negative karma that draws him or her to the realms of hell, hungry ghosts, or animals. Mahamudra, on the other hand, helps one to realize one’s self-nature. It raises the psychic heat, holds the mind in contemplation and stills the thoughts. Hence, it is a supreme practice that constantly turns the dharma wheel.
When a cultivator practices the Ekagrata Meditation, he or she eventually can reveal the “light of original nature.” It is like the moon’s reflection in clear water, untouched by all things and uncontaminated. One arrives at a point of unattachment to all external conditions, and one achieves the state of non-arising of thoughts.
At this time, there is no contamination arising from the six faculties of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, and one’s self-nature is untouched by the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and thought. Though a cultivator’s physical body may be in the world, he or she is not bound to the world. Thus, one abandons the perceptions of a self, a being, a life, or a soul. When one reaches this spiritual state, that which is considered the sun, moon, and stars are non-existent to one, and experiences of human emotions are non-existent as well.
(to be continued)
