Combining Cessation with Meditative Insight Is the One Remedy for Habit Energies

 

Combining Cessation with Meditative Insight Is the One Remedy for Habit Energies

 

As a matter of fact, the body is the self; being attached to satisfying bodily desires is clinging to the attachment to the self. In your mind, this body, this self, still exists. You feel you are not treating yourself fairly if you don’t have good food to eat, good clothes to wear, and a good house to live in, and this leads to endless desires.

 

It is also said that, when you attain emptiness, you also acquire the non-discriminating cognition. And the purpose of acquiring the non-discriminating cognition is to dissolve the discriminating mind and shatter the attachments produced by the discriminating mind. When you go directly into the non-discriminating state and own that cognition, it is no different than acquiring the non-discriminating cognition. At this stage, experience and prejudice are unable to affect your judgment and perception. 

 

For example, you don’t like people who speak and laugh loudly during a meal. When you go out with friends for dinner, however, you happen to sit next to such people. The noises they make irritate you. You would give anything for them to lower their voice or foot the bill and go, for you can’t have a proper talk with your friends. But if you are now on the beach and can only hear the sound of waves breaking on rocks, which you find romantic, you naturally won’t think it noisy. In fact, neither sound has self-nature and there is no essential difference. What is disturbing your inner peace is your discriminating mind, which prevents you from concentrating on the present moment. When the discriminating mind is gone, likes and dislikes and desires and attachments will disappear therewith.

 

Once you have a right view, you should have corresponding right action; that is, you should act out your enlightenment with your life and your behavior. When you are trying to practice it, you will find that, though you have understood quite a few things in theory, you haven’t achieved it in real practice and that in phenomena you still meet with obstruction. For example, you know there is nothing to be mad about, but when you are scolded, you will still be burning with rage. That shows you are still far from nonobstruction in phenomena.

 

At this point, you need to observe everything in the world with your true mind. Whether you are walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, keep calm and peaceful. Under no circumstances should you have attachments and cravings. You just concentrate and watch, smilingly, the phenomena rise and end; don’t bother too much. When they come, let them come, and don’t crave for or obsess yourself with anything before your eyes; when they go, let them go, and don’t be attached to anything. Let all phenomena be; whatever result they bring about, nothing should affect your peace and happiness.

 

In the storm, a golden flash of lightening splits the sky, wild winds bend trees and grass, and the ground is dotted with puddles, in which is reflected a world upside down. If, at this moment, you are not hampered by your soaking wet shoes and broken umbrella, then you can dwell peacefully in illuminating emptiness and enlightenment and enjoy the coolness and beauty of the storm.

 

After all, rains will stop and winds will cease. Everything in the world has a beginning and an end, just like the storm. With this awareness, even though the rain wets your clothes and wind shakes your body, they can’t disturb the peacefulness and brightness of your mind.

 

It doesn’t matter if your mind wavers a little, because, up to this point, you have only enlightened your mind and seen your nature and seen the emptiness, and you haven’t attained no–self yet. Before the attainment of no-self, you can’t possibly give up bodily desires. When you are hungry, for instance, you desire to eat food. If you have nothing to eat, you will suffer pain and affliction. As a matter of fact, the body is the self; being attached to satisfying bodily desires is clinging to the attachment to the self. In your mind, this body, this self, still exists. You feel you are not treating yourself fairly if you don’t have good food to eat, good clothes to wear, and a good house to live in, and this leads to endless desires. Anyway, at that point, your habit energies are still bountiful and you still have defilements.

 

However, though they are powerful, your brightness is manifest. With the guide of illuminating wisdom, it is as if a lamp is lit up in a dark room. With the illumination of the lamp of wisdom, you are able to see your defilements and habit energies, as if you find the floor of your room covered with trash.

 

You may feel it strange why you are worried about such things and why you didn’t see it when the problem was staring you in the face. The reason is that, before you have enlightened your mind and seen your own nature, the room is in darkness; when you can’t see anything, you think there is no trash in the room. The moment you are enlightened, the room is lit up and you find the room is full of trash. It doesn’t matter if there is any trash; you just get rid of it. After a few years, you will attain the state of non-self. Then, the ripples of your mind will quiet down gradually, your desires will be transformed into wisdom, whose marvelous functions change defilements into bodhi-wisdom, and you will attain great freedom. Even if you work at a slaughter-house, a graveyard, or a brothel, you are able to retain emptiness and thus you will achieve ultimate liberation.

 

But be careful: habit energies can’t be eliminated completely unless in corresponding situations. For example, the habit of being fond of women arises only when you see a beautiful woman; the habit of being greedy for money arises only when you see a lot of money. Therefore, when your true mind is firm, you should plunge into the world, cultivating your mind by means of experiences and enduring as much humiliation as possible. Without experiencing things, you don’t know whether your habit energies have already been corrected. If you can’t correct them when certain habit energies appear, you will lose everything when the fire of habit energies burns the forest of your merits.

 

In the movie Lust, Caution, the Buddhist practitioner has stayed in a cave as still as a stone for three years and three months plus three days. As a matter of fact, he has been in a state of only emptiness, like the immersion of a stone in cold water for three years, which is devoid of merit. In those three years, he was isolated from the outside world, and his habit energies had no opportunity to emerge. Therefore, they weren’t eliminated completely but in dormancy, just like a dormant volcano, which will erupt when the right condition arises. No wonder the practitioner left the order and resumed secular life as soon as he saw a girl after he had left the cave.

 

Why does a practitioner with theoretical understanding retrogress sometimes? Because retaining the true mind is not secure enough; deluded thoughts arise nonetheless. So you have to keep alert all the time and get into the habit of mindfulness so that you don’t follow deluded thoughts. While you retain the true mind, with the observation of your own mind, deluded thoughts disappear instantly. If you can’t keep alert all the time and can’t observe the rise of deluded thoughts in your mind, you can’t help following deluded thoughts and losing your true mind. That is why they say “It is not the rise of deluded thoughts, but the belated alertness, that is to be feared.”

 

But you shouldn’t be overly alert, because excessive alertness leads to nervousness, which is harmful to the tranquility of your mind. While keeping alert, learn to relax. Mahamudra attaches importance to the dual functioning of cessation and observation – the former is meditative concentration, the latter, wisdom.

 

However, the real dual functioning of cessation and observation is subtly different from that understood by some people, because they may interpret it based on their own knowledge and habit energies. Their interpretation is some distance from the reality, and that distance becomes a hindrance to their understanding and utilizing the dual functioning of cessation and observation. We call the hindrance caused by one’s knowledge and subtle nescience “cognitive hindrance.”

 

For example, we have our own criterion for a beautiful woman; even a generally acknowledged beauty won’t satisfy everyone. Or we may take tea for example. I describe the taste of tea as fresh and fragrant, but how can you be sure that the freshness and fragrance you feel is the same as what I feel?

 

    That which you perceive mentally is distant from that which you attain physically. That is to say, enlightenment is distant from liberation. Liberation means you not only perceive that thing in your mind-nature, but taste it in your life; besides, that thing becomes stable and unshakable. That is liberation.

 

After enlightenment, you still need to practice diligently to attain liberation. Enlightenment doesn’t ensure liberation.

 

Notice

 

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第三辑：与灵性好好相处

 

止观双运，才能对治习气

 

实际上，身体就是“我”，执着于满足身体的欲望，就是放不下对“我”的执著。在你心底，这个身体、这个“我”还是存在的，你觉得要吃好、穿好、住好，才“对得起自己”，就会生起无穷无尽的欲望。

 

还有一种说法是，在你证得空性时，也就同时证得了无分别智。而证得无分别智的目的，正是消除分别心，进而破除那些由分别心引起的执著。当你直接进入无分别的状态，拥有那份智慧的时候，就和证得了无分别智是一样的。这时，经验或偏见就不能左右你对事物的判断和感受了。

 

举个例子，你不喜欢吃饭时大声谈笑的人，与朋友外出聚餐时，却偏偏遇到这样的一桌人。那噪音让你非常烦恼，一门心思就盼望着他们说话小声一点，或者快点买单走人，根本没法好好跟朋友说话。但假如你这时在海边，那此起彼伏的，只是海浪敲击岩石的声音，你觉得那很浪漫，自然就不会嫌它吵。事实上，这两种声音都是没有自性的，本质上没什么不同，只是你的分别心在影响你内心的宁静，让你不能专注于当下。分别心消失之后，喜恶和贪执自然就会随之消失。

 

当你拥有了一种正见之后，就要有相应的行履，也就是说，你要用生命与行为来实践你的觉悟。当你实践的时候，就会发现自己虽然在理上明白了一些东西，但是还没有真正证得那种见地，不能遇事无碍。比如，你道理上觉得没什么好生气的，但有人骂你，你还是会火冒三丈，这就是不能遇事无碍的一种表现。

 

这个时候，你要在真心状态下观察世界上的一切。行、住、坐、卧间保持宁静祥和，无论什么时候，都不要执著，不要贪求。你只要凝神观察，含笑看着万象的发生与结束，不要管太多的东西。它来的时候，你就任它来，不要贪图或执著眼前的一切；它去的时候，你也任它去，不要牵挂什么东西。任那世间万象如，造成什么结果都好，都影响不了你的快乐与宁静。

 

暴雨中，金色闪电划破长空，狂风让草木低头，地下遍是一个又一个的水洼洼，水洼洼里面，映出颠倒的世界。假如此时你的心不被浸湿的鞋子、吹断的伞所影响，便可安住于明空觉性之中，享受这风雨的清凉与美丽。

 

毕竟，雨是会停的，风也是会住的。世界上的一切事情，都像这狂风暴雨一样，既有始，也有终。明白这一点之后，雨可以打湿你的衣服，风可以撼动你的身体，但它们都无法改变你宁静、光明的心。

 

即便你的心稍有波动，也不要紧。因为，这时候，你只是明心见性，见到空性，还没有真正地证得无我。没有证得无我的时候，你就无法放下身体的欲望。好比肚子饿的时候想要吃饭，吃不上饭就会痛苦、烦恼。实际上，身体就是“我”，执着于满足身体的欲望，就是放不下对“我”的执著。在你心底，这个身体、这个“我”还是存在的，你觉得要吃好、穿好、住好，才“对得起自己”，就会生起无穷无尽的欲望。所以这时你的习气还很重，烦恼也还有。

 

不过，虽然它们的力量还很大，但是你的光明已经朗照了。有了智慧光明的指引，就如同黑暗的房子里忽然亮起了一盏灯。在这盏智慧之灯的照耀下，你会看清自己的烦恼和习气，就像发现房子里满地都是垃圾。

 

这时你也许会感到奇怪：我为什么要为了这种事烦恼？为什么这么明显的问题，我却一直看不出来？那是因为，在你还没明心见性的时候，屋子里仍然一片黑暗，你什么都看不见，就会觉得屋里没有垃圾。当你明白的一刹那，屋子里就亮了灯，这时你才会发现原来屋里到处都是垃圾。发现垃圾不要紧，把它们清理出去就可以了。若干年后，你就会证得“无我”之境。那时，你的心波就会慢慢平息，欲望也会化为一种智慧，生起妙用，烦恼化为菩提，你就能得到“大自在”。即便身处屠门、尸林、妓院，仍能安住于空性，你就会得到究竟解脱。

 

不过要注意，习气只有对境才能彻底清除。比如好色的习气，只有看到美女时才会生起；贪财的习气，只有看到一大堆金钱时才会生起。所以说，当你的真心状态稳固时，就要到红尘中历练，借事修心，多修忍辱。不遇事，你就不会知道自己是不是真的对治了习气。假如某种习气出现时无法对治，到最后火烧功德林，就什么都没有了。

 

有一部电影叫《色戒》，电影中那修行人在山洞里闭关，修了三年三个月零三天，好像石头一样。其实，他只是进入了一种顽空状态，冷水泡石头般地泡了三年，这样是没有任何功德的。这三年中间，他与外界隔绝了，很多习气没机会生起，也就没有得到彻底清除，还处于休眠期，像活火山一样，遇到天时地利就会爆发。所以，当这个修行人走出山洞之后，见到一位女孩子立马就还俗了。

 

为什么有时理上的明白会退转呢？因为安住于真心状态的这种定境还不牢固，还会有妄念生起。所以你必须时刻保持警觉，形成“观”的习惯，不能随了妄念走。当你安住于真心、观察自心时，一观察，那妄念就没有了。假如不能时时保持警觉，察觉不到自己生起了妄念，就会不知不觉地跟着妄念走，丢失了真心。这也是所谓的“不怕念起，唯恐觉迟”。

 

但也不能过度警觉，因为过度警觉会变得紧张，伤害你的止寂之心。在警觉的同时，还要学会放松。大手印讲究止观双运：“止”，是定；“观”，是慧。

 

不过，真正的“止观双运”，也许跟有的人理解中的“止观双运”有一些细微的差别，因为人们有时会运用自己本有的知识和习气，对“止观双运”进行解释。这个解释跟它真实的本质有一定的距离，那距离就是他们理解和运用“止观双运”时的障碍。我们把这种由所学知识和细微无明造成的障碍，叫做所知障。

 

比如对美女，大家都会自己的标准，即使是公认的美女，也未必能让所有人都觉得她很美。又如喝茶，我用清新、甘香来形容茶味，你咋知道你的清新、甘香和我的觉受是不是同一个东西？

 

心性上悟到的那个东西与身体证到的那个东西，实质上还是有差距的。所以说，开悟和解脱还是有一段距离的。解脱就是不但心性感受到那个东西，生命中也品尝到那个东西，而且，那个东西变得非常稳定，不可动摇，这才叫解脱。

 

开悟之后，再经过苦修，才能解脱，并不是说一开悟就解脱了。

 

声明：本文系文化志愿者试译，非专业人才翻译，错误定然不少，如出现疏漏及错误，敬请读者见谅。如有任何翻译上的建议及修正意见，欢迎及时与我们取得联系，我们会加以校对、修改，并希望有专业才能的朋友也能加入我们志愿者群体中来。

 

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