The function and method of meditation

◎ We need tranquility when our minds are wandering and chaos

    Our minds are often influenced by external things and become wandering and messy. Most people do not know how to calm down their minds, and even there are some people can not detect them when their own minds are chaos. Many wrong and unreasonable behaviors are caused by messy minds. Some of our upset and painful feelings are come from the wandering and chaotic mind. Sometimes there are some certain things or ideas rise in our mind continually and although we want to stop them, they still continually emerge; or there are some things in our life make us upset, lose our temper, and lose our self-control; or sometimes  we intent to escape from the world we lived. In fact, in many of these conditions, all we need is to calm down the mind, then we can easily come up with solutions.

◎ functions of meditation

    Maybe we know that we should calm down our minds, but the problem is that our mind is not controlled by ourselves; our minds will not always be able to static down when we want to static down; sometimes our mind are in the state of chaos but we ourselves are unaware of it. In Buddhism, there is a method that has been used and verified for more than two thousand years called "meditation". Meditation can make us think clearly and can generate wisdom, which is a tool that Buddhism uses to be enlightened to the Reality. Not only does it help us to be enlightened to the Reality, but it can also improve our chaotic life and chaotic thoughts, make our everyday life easier and more stable, and then make us get happiness and confidence. The purpose of meditation is to generate wisdom and be enlightened to the Reality in Buddhism. The changes mentioned previously are only "side effects" of meditation. In addition, because meditation can help to calm our minds, therefore meditation also helps us to be healthy; a steady mood will make our body and mind to be in a more balanced state; there are meditators find that after meditation, they can work more efficiently and make less mistakes.

◎ The theory of meditation

    So, what is meditation? The principle of meditation is to focus our attention on some things that do not change too much and do not increase the burden of mind and brain. Through consciously let go of the disordered things in the outside world and the chaotic thoughts in our minds and make our attention being back to the target of meditation, our minds can gradually get rid of interference and become concentrated and clear.

◎ The insight of counting breaths

"The insight of counting breaths" is a meditation method, which makes "observing the breath" to be its target. Look for a place where the light is soft; sit down with the two legs crossed (cross-legged); straighten the back; overlapped the two palms on the lower legs, brace the backs of your wrists on the thigh, put the head straight and the chin slightly inward ...... Or use any other posture that make you be able to sit for a long time; close your eyes and start to observe your breaths. After having observed the breath, pay your attention to the flows of the air below the nostril when you exhale and inhale; then you can start to count your own breathing; generally we count the times of exhaling; begin to count from "one"; when you exhale at the first time, silently count "one" in your mind and at the second time, count "two" and at the third time, count "three" until at the tenth time, count "ten"; and then again from one, until ten; repeat again and again; focus on the breathing and the number you count, slowly make your mind calm down; when you are counting and if the counting is interrupted by the interference of other thoughts or if there is one of the exhalings that you forget to count, then do not hesitate, decisively re-count from one; if you find you count the breathing more than ten, you should also re-count from one; count only when you exhale and perceive the air you exhaled; do not let the number and the breathing not match each other. If you can not do such a cycle from one to ten more than once, it means that your mind is too messy; you can temporarily stop counting the numbers, and silently chant "Amitabha" in mind to coordinate with your exhaling and wait until your mind become a little more stable, then you can start to count.

◎ The obstacles of meditation

    The purpose of meditation is to calm down the mind for attaining wisdom, so do not have the wish of getting some certain states. If some uncommon situations occur during meditation, do not feel puzzled, afraid or curious, like, happy; you should continue to count breaths and should not turn your attention away. Normally these disturbances will disappear by themselves. If they are troubling you all the time, then do not force yourself to continue meditating, but you must know that you have karmic obstacles, and that you need to keep percepts more strictly in your daily life (it will be mentioned later). Furthermore, do not  pursue supernatural powers and miracles because these supernatural phenomenons will not help you to attain any wisdom. If you want to use these magic states to increase your reputation and disciples or to teach others and think that you have become a saint, you will fall into the states of Mara (Shurangama sutra says).

◎ The method of following breaths

    As we become more familiar with the method of counting breaths, the cycle from one to ten will become clear and easy, and you may even notice finer thoughts, or sometimes you will not be able to count breaths; at this time you may switch to the method of following breaths, which is to focus on the breaths coming in and out, not to count the number one time after another any more. When you are following breaths, if the interferential thoughts arise or your attention distracts by other things, do not worry, nervous or care; you just need to focus on the breaths coming in and out again.

◎ meditation and precepts

    Our daily behaviors and thoughts affect our meditations. In our daily life, to restrain our behaviors and thoughts are very helpful to meditation. Greed, anger, and various desires can disturb our minds and keeping precepts can reduce the behaviors and thoughts which disturb our minds. The most basic precepts are the five precepts - no killing, no stealing, no wrong sex relationship, no lying, no drinking, and its purpose is to restrain our greed and reduce the disturbance in our minds so that we can observe the meditating target more clearly in meditation.

◎ "Insight" of meditation

    However, merely counting breaths alone can not attain wisdom, we also need to use the method of "insight". "Insight" has the dual meaning of observing and thinking. When we have made our mind stable and clear in meditation, we should change the method to "insight" - observe the impermanence of the world, observe the rising and distinguishing of the thoughts, observe how everything exists, and observe how our unclean bodies change. In addition, we can think of emptiness, non-self, what is the nature of all things, everything is the manifesting of the mind and so on - the Buddhist theories about the universe and life. To use the method of "insight", you need to study the Buddhist sutras in peacetime, and then when you are mediating, calm down your mind to observe, think, and confirm these theories.
    As we quit the method of counting breaths and begin to use "insight", the mind will gradually become disorder and return to the state before mediating. At this time we should stop using insight and return to the method of counting breaths. Once the mind is again stabilized and clear, and then start using the method of insight again.

◎ Begin to meditate now

    If we can make use of the "insight" to realize some Buddhist theories about the universe and life in meditation, it will also very helpful to our daily life; we will become more open-minded for people and things, will not be attached and will not think too much. Our worries will be reduced and our temper will become mild. These are the "side effects"of meditation.
    Anyone or the believers of any religious can practice meditation. The ultimate goal of meditation is to attain the wisdom of the universe and life, but meditation can dramatically change us and our lives before we reach that destination. Why don't you give yourself a chance to start your meditating practice?

2017. December