RIGHT MINDFULNESS - part 2
(Authorized by Thich Chan Quang)
First, we go into the method. Right Mindfulness is the method of practicing meditation. From the Buddha’s time until the time of developing Mahayana, there have appeared many methods to instruct people to practice meditation. Our Buddha got Enlightenment without any method, but He taught His disciples with many methods. This was the special wisdom that was owned only by the Buddha. No one in this world has been able to have it. In the primordial time, the Buddha taught the Sangha with the contemplation of breath-in-and-out, contemplation of body and mind, contemplation of sensations. Then He analyzed Five Skandhas (groupings, aggregates), the principle of Impermanence, the principle of Non-ego. His teachings helped a lot of practitioners become Enlightened Ones. After His coming to Nirvana, many Masters later had their own methods to teach their disciples to come into concentration. For example, the Pure Land sect uses the method of chanting Buddhas’ names to concentrate their mind. Zen sect uses many secret Zen words to help practitioners concentrate their minds. Tendai sect practices the method of meditation from low to high. Tantric sect has a strong point of chanting Tantric text. Surangama sect looks back into mind. According to Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, practitioners can see all thing being illusion. Practicing Lotus Sutra, practitioners can get blessings. There are many sects that people all over the world love to follow. So, if we don’t know the foundation of Buddhism, we might think there were many kinds of Buddhism. It’s because when Buddhism has been developed, many Masters have gone further and further from the source of Buddhism and from the basic practice of Buddhism. Later, practitioners have gone away from the foundation, they have only known the branch of the development of Buddhism. Due to being far away from the foundation, Buddhist sects are separately very much different from one another.
A practitioner taking the practice of meditation, looking for Buddha-nature can see the complete difference between his practice and the practice of the Pure Land sect; then he might think there’s another Buddhism. In fact, the two sects have the same basic of Buddhism. There seems to be a difference between a person practicing Tendai sect and a person practicing Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, because they think there are two different sutras, two different methods. In fact, the two seemingly different Sutras come from the only one Sutra of Buddhism. Therefore, we are practitioners who must take responsibility to seek for the basic methods so that we can unite all Buddhist sects altogether. If we can come back to the common foundation, we can find out the only one Buddhism. This is the great ambition of all the Buddhists. We wish to build up the great unity of Sangha, based on the same method of practice. Because of the different method of practice, Buddhists can be easily separated from one another. If the first basic method of practice is different, then there’s no common Buddhism, and it seems like there are many kinds of Buddhism existing in the world.
In the present, there suddenly appear many famous masters who lay down some Buddhist sects more. They set some problems and keep questioning practitioners who would be awakened if they didn’t run mad, or they would run mad if they couldn’t be awakened. Another master set a method of practice called Perception of Illusion. It’s a kind of practice in Right Mindfulness. However, Right Mindfulness of the Buddha is more general. Or other masters set a method of practicing meditation-martial art, it means while practicing martial art, practitioners still keep their minds tranquil. Someone else sets a method of meditation-tea. Practitioners must sit in a right method to concentrate minds, to pour tea down to a cup in Right Mindfulness, to raise a tea cup in the right method, to press hot tea cup against acupoint, to sip perceptively a drop and a drop, then to put it down. Another kind is meditation-calligraphy. People think when they draw calligraphy, they can concentrate their minds to make letters special soul. Meditation-smile is a method of practice, too. Practitioners need to keep their faces smiling all the time so that their minds are always in a peaceful state. Few of methods that people set up today are like the old ones, many of them are wrong. Some methods come from the Buddha’s basic foundation, others are not correct and contradicting to the Buddha’s teachings. We don’t criticize any of them, we only list them out. If anyone wants to try, they can take it.
Above all, we believe completely in our Buddha’s wisdom. If we compare our Buddha’s wisdom with that of all the succeeding great masters, we can find out that the wisdom of our Buddha has been the most transcendent. No one in the world can compare with Him. The Buddha, whose wisdom has been the extremely highest in the three realms and the six ways, taught people the most basic and lowest method of practice: the Four-Fold Stage of Mindfulness that has more enough powerful function for our practitioners to destroy any obstacles in mind than any other methods. The Buddha taught this method very carefully to human beings so that He could receive and lead them all into the practice of the basic method. The Four-Fold Stage of Mindfulness is His most favorite method. To Him, the Four-Fold Stage of Mindfulness is the lowest and most basic method that can save all human beings.
We can talk about the point of comparison: ability and method. People’s abilities are different. Some people’s abilities are high, others’ are low. Methods are the same. Some of them are high, others are low. Of course, people with high ability can practice high methods, while people with low ability can only practice low methods. However, how high is it? How low is it? The number is too abstract. We can only guess. For example, a person who has an ability of level nine should pick a method of level eight or seven so that he/she can concentrate his/her mind. If a person who has an ability of level nine pick a method of level ten, then he/she can hardly concentrate his/her mind. This is the principle.
What is a high ability? What is a low ability? With a simple method, a practitioner can easily and quickly get a good result from his practice, it’s a high ability. A practitioner with low ability needs to be taught very detail, to be corrected every mistake, to be fixed every action, then he can gradually get his mind concentrated. This meticulous method takes practitioners longer to concentrate their minds.
High methods are what masters teach simply, talk little but practitioners can base on it to practice and get a good result. A method with few words is high, while methods with very details is low and basic.
In the old time, Zen masters had high abilities. They can concentrate their minds with a simple sentence.