Now, let’s come back to the Himalayas and see what Shiva’s doing. We don’t play baseball here. Alright, number twenty-three: “Feel your substance,” meaning your form, your physical being, “such as bones, flesh, blood, all are saturated with cosmic essence.” It is another way of considering that all your nerves and senses are made with (inner Heavenly) Light. It’s very similar. But perhaps He has to make a beautiful poem out of this. So, one sentence by one sentence, He brought the audience, or Devi, into the understanding of spiritual practice. Nevertheless, if He repeated something again and again, it doesn’t do any harm anyhow, because we need repeating. Our karma, our bad habit, has been repeated over many, many thousands of years. So if the Master repeats only a few times of one good thing, it’s not much. Sometimes it’s not even sufficient to wash away all of our residue of garbage.
Alright, number twenty-four: “Suppose… – you can imagine – your form to be an empty room with walls of skin only.” And inside is? Guess. What? Nah! Empty!
Number twenty-five: Now, He remembered Her (Parvati/ Devi), so He reminded Himself that She is great. So, He said, “Blessed One” – Devi is the blessed One. It’s a respected form to call somebody who is so blessed, who is so enlightened, who is so loved by God. That means “the enlightened one.” “Blessed One, as senses are absorbed in the heart, reach the center of the lotus.” Now, I don’t understand this. Do you? No. OK, then let’s forget it. Why should we bother about something we don’t like? I think you understand. What He meant is by physically forgetting yourself, it’s just like all your senses are absorbed in the concentration. “In the heart” means in the concentration. And then, “enter the center of lotus” means enter the center of wisdom. “Lotus” means the purity. The purity of ourselves is the Wisdom Center, is the Real Being, is the Buddha Nature, or the Kingdom of God. That’s why I told you all the names are just the same thing for one unique glory. “Reach the center of lotus” means reach samadhi, reach Buddhahood, reach Buddha Nature.
Now, number twenty-six: Now, “With the unminding mind” means you are not particularly focused on anything. You just sit there “and keep in the middle,” meaning keep centered, “until finally it happens.” What happens? You paint your body all over and become colorful? What happens is, at that time, you become lost. You become lost in samadhi. You’re lost in the essence of the Universe. You become still and all-pervading. All this is just a description of samadhi state, of the state of finding your Self becoming one with God. So, very easy. Easy to say, I mean. I wouldn’t say easily done.
Number twenty-seven: “When you are in the worldly activities, keep attentive between the two breaths, and so practice that until after a few days, you’ll be born anew.” This is just one of those things to reach samadhi. For example, some people, they work very hard, or maybe they are jogging, or they’re doing sport training, and then of course they’re breathing heavily. Now, maybe they even forget the Five (Holy) Names, or forget the Suma Ching Hai Tzu, or forget the Quan Yin (inner Heavenly Sound meditation). Of course, you can’t do Quan Yin (inner Heavenly Sound meditation) when you’re running. So, the only thing the Master suggests for them to do in that case is just to keep centered between the two breaths, in and out. And it’s similar like what He has said before. It’s too many. But never mind. If we repeat again, it doesn’t matter to me. So, if you are training for a few days like that, you become fresh because of the concentration. Because you will feel much, much better, in a very clear state of mind, without thinking of any confused and troublesome things. Then of course, you’ll be like a newborn infant – innocent, clean, fresh and strong.
Now, number twenty-eight: Another method is, you may try to “focus on fire rising through your own form from the toes, until the body burns to ashes,” but not you. He means, just imagine please don’t burn your form because that’s the only thing you have right now. Until you get samadhi, please don’t burn your body temple. What He meant was, try to eliminate all kinds of attachments that belong to this ego self. Now, “I am the President of the United States,” “I am the Congressman of America,” “I am the Chairman of China,” etc., etc., So, such a big position – burn everything to ashes and remain real, remain the only Self, the Buddha Nature, which never dies, is never born, and is always existing. That’s what He meant. And don’t burn yourself and say Master Ching Hai said that. I have to state clearly, otherwise you put all things in my mouth.
So, number twenty-nine: “You could also meditate on the make-believe world as burning to ashes.” Now he burns the whole world “and become being above human.” Right, of course, that’s why people call Him the God of Destruction. He destroys the human body, and He even goes on burning the whole world. My goodness. If the police [had] known Him at that time. You know, huh? Now, just imagine, that’s all. You try to make a world and then burn the whole thing, just to let your mind become used to the ephemeral nature of physical existence. Perhaps that’s the purpose of this meditation method. So that you cannot cling to anything at all, and you cannot hide yourself in any corner of the world, because the whole world is gone. At that time, then, what do you do? Except to rise above the physical existence and become above human, supra-being. That is one of the ways to remind us of the nonexistence of this world, in order for us to put down easily – more easily – and become eager to practice and push our minds more forward into the spiritual freedom.
Just like one of the methods the Buddha has recommended to His disciples, is to pay attention to the defiling aspects of the body, like the secretion of the body, the waste of the body, things like that. And imagine that the body is made of white bones and full of all the nasty and dirty things inside, inside the filthy bag of skin. And if the disciple meditates on such method, he will soon grow disgusted with any physical form passing in front of him, and thus lose the desire for women or men, fame and position, etc, etc. And he will be able to still his turbulent lustful thoughts, and then be able to concentrate more on spiritual practice. In this respect, I think the number twenty-nine meditation method is very similar to that of the defiling body method that the Buddha has recommended to some of His disciples. But in that case, you should also take note that these methods are only for beginners. For those who are still so attached to the possessions of the world, so attached to the outside beauty of women and men. In that case, he should contemplate on this kind of method for a while, or at least when he is having such possessive and lustful thoughts for worldly physical forms and possessions. Until his mind has grown accustomed to centering on the purity of the inside, instead of going around chasing after ephemeral forms of this physical existence.
So, in that case, this is not the main method that we should be practicing every day, but just a passing period of time until our mind gets purified. And then we concentrate on the main method, which is the Quan Yin (inner Heavenly Light & Sound) Method. Now, if you remember in the Surangama Sutra, the Buddha also asked all the Bodhisattvas to recommend Their different methods, so that the disciples can pick and choose what’s the best for them. And then all of Them have spoken about more or less 25 methods, but then everyone has recommended that the Quan Yin (inner Heavenly Light & Sound meditation) is the best, because it’s the most purifying, the strongest, and the most original. But in case you are very disturbed with the worldly senses, which are entrapped in our bodies and it’s very difficult for us to escape, then you should consider contemplating on the defiling form of the body. Or the world, the whole world burning to ashes, etc., method, to still your mind until your mind is calm. Then you can concentrate better on the main Method, which is the Quan Yin (inner Heavenly Sound meditation) Method.
But you should also remember that in the old times, people had more time than now. I wonder why. In the old times, people had less facilities and they had to do everything manually. But how come they had more time? You ask your mother, brother, and father and grandmother, grandfather, they had more time than we do now. They could sit with the neighbors and drink tea all afternoon, and make fire and chat around. But now, today, we don’t have. And we have fast cars, we have television, we have airplanes faster than ever. But the more things we have, the less time we have. Perhaps because we have all these facilities, so we run after them. We must work harder so we can obtain these fast-moving objects. And in the old times, they didn’t have them, so they don’t have to work so hard. They just had enough food to eat, two meals, three meals a day and just a few clothes. They didn’t go anywhere, so they don’t have to show off their cleavage or their waist, 125 like mine. For example. So, there was no need for expensive clothes, for very glorious perfumes, or a very, very elaborate hairdo. And no need for cars either, because they didn’t need to go anywhere. They perhaps had less desire because they didn’t know what does the next city have to offer? They didn’t care. What they didn’t know, they didn’t bother with, they didn’t desire. Is that not so? (Yes.)
Photo Caption: “Divine LOVE Has No Boundary, Human’s Mind Limits the Perception!”
