What is meditation? Talk about a few things regarding meditation

 　
    With the fast development of information in modern society, the temptations that hinder our practice are rapidly increasing, and our minds become complicated, chaotic, and unable to be calm. If we can keep our minds in a state of concentration through meditation, we can get rid of all kinds of temptations, calm the mind, reduce the annoyances, and then develop the ability to understand the truth of life and the universe; once we have this ability, we can get away from various kinds of suffering and get real happiness.
　
    "Meditation" is "by practicing to allow our mind to stablly focus in a state of concentration" in which our mind is not easily pulled away or disturbed by external circumstances or internal thoughts; The trivial things of daily life, various kinds of desires and worries, fears, and various kinds of pain can be temporarily put aside in meditation, and the mind becomes calm, relaxed, but clear and sharp. Such a state is suitable for thinking and observing the Buddhist Dharma and helps us to obtain the wisdom of "how to be away from suffering and get happiness".
　
    In Buddhism, the "four dhyanas" (four root meditations) are very important states. From the first dhyana, the second dhyana, the third dhyana to the fourth dhyana, our mind will enter a state of more and more tranquility in sequence; various kinds of desires will gradually fade, and we will feel the joy of dhyana beyond desire. Then, how to meditate in order to enter into dhyana? There are many methods. The most common ones are the vipasyana of counting breaths and the vipasyana of impurity. Although there are so many methods, the principle is basically the same; the main thing is to let the mind focus on one thing, and continuously draw the mind's attention back to this thing, then the messy thoughts will be replaced by this thing, and we’ll gradually calm down; when the concentration is deep enough, we will enter dhyana. Once we enter dhyana, we will no longer need to stop distracting thoughts with effort, and we will naturally be in a state of concentration; but when we leave the object of meditation, dhyana will also leave with it, this is called "exiting the dhyana". Fortunately, as long as we have entered a certain state of dhyana, the next time we enter it again will be faster; but if we have too strong greed at the time of exiting dhyana, we may lose our ability to dhyana.
　
    Buddhism has the theories of keeping precepts, meditation, and wisdom, which means: by keeping precepts, meditation (dhyana) can be generated, and by meditation (dhyana), wisdom can be generated; therefore, if we want to obtain or maintain meditation, we must keep precepts. The simplest precepts are the "five precepts": don't kill life, don't steal from others, don't have sex with anyone other than your partner, don't tell lies, and don't drink or use drugs, which makes people irrational. Because keeping precepts can prevent us from generating excessive greed, therefore the mind can easily settle down and gain meditation.
　
    The states of meditation have been mentioned in many sutras and abhidharmas, such as: the Shurangama Sutra, Dharma door for explaining the order of zen Paramita, and a little shorter, the Small Samatha and vipassana ... etc. Among them, the "supernatural powers" should be explained. Because the mind in meditation is very focused, so our six sense organs may have amazing abilities: some people can see objects thousands of miles away, some people can hear the voices of others talking far away, and some people can perceive what other people are thinking, some people can know what sentient beings have done in previous lives, but these have nothing to do with the purpose of meditation, so when we meditate, we should not think about getting supernatural powers, even after we have supernatural powers, we should not use them casually.
　
    If the mentality of meditation is not correct, there will be great possibility of being affected by the devil. This is what the saying goes, "going crazy caused by the devil." Some may see things that others cannot see or some may hear the sound that others cannot hear when they are meditating or some may suddenly have very peculiar feelings and states, causing their minds to have greed or aversion and lose their dhyana. These devil states reflect the meditator's mentality when he is meditating. If one does not have greed, craving, or aversion, then the devil state cannot disturb the meditator's mind.
　
    Another thing to be careful about is not to think that you have become a saint or a Buddha when you encounter some good state in meditation. Such meditators are likely to practice in a wrong way —— be influenced by devils and do the things that violate Buddhist Dharma. It will cause that the benefits of meditation have not yet been obtained, but are first controlled by devils.
　
    Meditation can make our body and mind stable and calm. If we can take a little time to practice every day, it will be of great help to our daily life and practice. Would you like to try it?
　

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