Temper Yourself in Daily Life after Enlightenment

Temper Yourself in Daily Life after Enlightenment

As your physical body disappears very quickly from this world. don’t feel happy when you get something and don’t feel sad when you don’t get it. Likewise, there is no need to be overjoyed when you make money or be very depressed when you lose money. That’s the way of the world. Make your mind a bright mirror, which reflects everything in front of it yet itself remains unaffected. A mirror-like mind. Once you are able to perceive your mind this way, you are enlightened.

Human beings always cling to lots of things. For example, when a person is laughed at because his clothes are not beautiful enough, he will feel uncomfortable; when his salary is not as high as those in the same department, he will think it unfair; if his lover is not considerate enough, he will complain, etc., etc. All these are manifestations of attachment. Everyone, more or less, has their own attachments, which bring them endless afflictions.

But through Buddhist practice, all sorts of attachments will vanish gradually. Especially after you have perceived your mind and seen your own nature and have managed to retain the emptiness to some extent, you will find everything in this world is illusionary and dream–like, which will disappear eventually no matter how desperately you pursue them. All attachments will vanish with this very discovery. If, one day, you enter into free-from-conceptual-elaboration yoga, all the afflictive hindrances will be gone, because in that state you will feel strongly that the world is a huge delusion.

For example, if you make a million yuan through speculation in the stock market, you should treat it as a dream and not feel happy. If you lose ten thousand or even a hundred thousand yuan, you should treat it also as a dream and not feel sad. As a matter of fact, whether the stock price goes up or down, it is a huge delusion nevertheless. For it will certainly go down after it has gone up steadily; likewise, it will certainly go up afther it has gone down steadily. Moreover, no matter how much money you have got, it can’t change the nature of life. Life is also an illusionary thing. That’s why we should not attach to it. You are not attached to it because you have understood what it really is. Not to be attached is the antidote to attachment.

You shouldn’t try to escape from external objects that may give rise to your habituated tendencies. Nor should you try to suppress your deluded thoughts, afflictions, and habituated tendencies, for what you try to avoid is what attracts you strongly. Luipa, for instance, overcame the last bit of his discriminating mind by eating fish intestines, which he had hated most. By the same token, if you press a leather ball into the water by force, it will float up once you let go of it. If, however, you leave it alone on the surface of the water and try to find its valve and open it, then the air in the ball will go out and the ball will gradually sink to the bottom of the water.

As your physical body disappears very quickly from this world. don’t feel happy when you get something and don’t feel sad when you don’t get it. Likewise, there is no need to be overjoyed when you make money or be very depressed when you lose money. That’s the way of the world. Make your mind a bright mirror, which reflects everything in front of it yet itself remains unaffected. A mirror won’t feel happy when its shares rise; nor will it feel sad when they drop. It won’t become happy or sad as the outside world changes. A mirror-like mind. Once you are able to perceive your mind this way, you are enlightened.

The so-called “first barrier” according to Chan Buddhism is equal to perceiving one’s mind and seeing one’s nature; “the heavy barrier” is equal to knocking all into one. When you can knock all into one at any time, you have entered into the second phase. What is knocking all into one, then? It means you are able to turn the nature of emptiness into an air-like existence, by means of which you can handle anything naturally at any time, without any logic judgment.

Certainly, it’s not enough. Being able to knock all into one in meditation doesn’t necessarily mean you can do so in daily life. It still needs to be seen whether you can knock all into one when you are in various hostile conditions. For example, can you knock all into one when you come across a beautiful girl or a handsome boy that you love? If someone tells you that he is able to knock all into one even in his daily life – but he still gets angry when someone else slaps his face – then, it’s obvious that he hasn’t knocked all into one.

So, according to Chan Buddhism, when you have knocked all into one, you still need to temper yourself in daily life. In doing so, you need to pay attention to cessation and observation.

The old man who has built the Vajrayogini Cave was seriously sick in bed over ten years ago. He was over seventy then. One day, I went to visit him. He told me he was dying. I said, “No, you won’t die.” And then I told him a method. I asked him to burn a joss stick every morning and then focus his eyes on the burning tip of the stick and think of nothing. Thinking of nothing is cessation, and looking at the tip of the joss stick attentively is alertness and observation. He managed to remain alert with the help of his eyes. That is observation. As a result, fifteen years have passed since then. Now he is almost ninety years old, and in good health.

After thoughts are ceased, eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind all can be used for observation. Observation with eye: e.g., gazing at the tip of a joss stick or an image of Buddha; observation with ear: e.g., listening to music; observation with nose: e.g., smelling fragrance; observation with body: e.g., feeling the wind.

As a matter of fact, people use cessation and observation unknowingly in their daily lives. For instance, when a mother gazes at her sleeping baby, she focuses her eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind entirely on the baby – the feeling of its tender skin, the soft sound of its breathing, the faint fragrance of milk, etc. At that moment, the mother’s mind is in a state of inner peace and joy. The so-called “enlightened mind” is one that resembles how a mother treats her own child: loving, compassionate, yet expecting nothing in return.

Some people are naturally nonabiding and without expectation, but they tend towards moral neutrality. What is moral neutrality? It is quite similar to only emptiness, or “neither good nor evil.” Like hibernating animals, they falls easily into a state of unconsciousness, void of correct mindfulness, void of any merit. No matter how long they practice, their wisdom will not increase.

As moral neutrality is a chaotic, unconscious state, you don’t know what is happening around you, you are not aware of someone talking to you, and you will be surprised if someone slaps you hard. It is because you lack the “perception,” a crystal-clear enlightened nature, which you will acquire when you have perceived your mind and seen your own nature. When you have, you must keep alert in the absence of false thoughts, that is, the “dual functioning of stabilizing and insight meditation. A reliable teacher may remind you to listen attentively to a chirp of a bird in the distance. The purpose is not to let you know that there is a bird chirping far away, but to bring about alertness while you were listening to it. If you understand this, you are free from moral neutrality. Of course, that is not seeing one’s nature yet, but a skillful means of entering the Way. That one has seen one’s nature is testified by changes in one’s body, i.e., qi entering the central channel, as well as understanding it in principle.

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第三辑：与灵性好好相处

开悟后，还要在生活中磨炼

人的肉体很快就会从这个世界上消失，所以得到了不要高兴，得不到也不要悲哀；挣了不要欣喜若狂，赔了不要沮丧。一切就是那么回事。你的心要像明镜一样，虽然能照出一切，但镜子本身是如如不动的。心就像镜子一样，当你有这种觉受的时候，也就明心见性了。

人总是有很多执著。比如，穿得不好看被人耻笑了，心里会不舒服；工资没有同部门的人高，也会不甘心；情人不够体贴，会心生埋怨……这些都是执著的表现，每个人都或多或少有着自己的执著，正是这些执著，给人们带来了无穷无尽的烦恼。

不过，在修行的过程中，各种执著都会慢慢消失。尤其当你明心见性，并且把这份空性“保任”到一定程度的时候，就会发现世间的一切都是如梦如幻的，无论如何追求，最终也总会消失，所有执著都会随着这个发现和体悟而烟消云散。假如有一天你进入前面说过的离戏瑜伽之后，烦恼障就没了，因为这时候你会强烈体会到世界就是一个巨大的假象。

比如你炒股票的时候得到一百万，你要把它当成梦幻不要高兴；赔上几万、几十万的时候也要把它当成梦幻不要忧伤。实际上无论股票升或跌，都不过是一个巨大的幻觉。因为它升完了肯定会跌，跌完了也肯定会升，而且无论你得到多少钱，都不会改变生命的本质，生命也是一种幻化的东西，所以说不要执著它。因为明白这种东西而不去执著它，不要执著，这就是对治。

你不可以逃避那些会让你生起习气的外境，也不能压制你的妄念、烦恼与习气。因为，你想要去逃避的，往往是会对你产生诱惑的东西。那卢伊巴，就是通过长期吃他最讨厌的鱼肠，来克服最后一丝分别心的。这就像，要是你硬把皮球按到水里，手一松它就会弹出水面；假如你任它留在水面，并找到它的气阀所在，把气阀打开，皮球就会被放光了气，然后慢慢沉入水底。

人的肉体很快就会从这个世界上消失，所以得到了不要高兴，得不到也不要悲哀；挣了不要欣喜若狂，赔了不要沮丧。一切就是那么回事。你的心要像明镜一样，虽然能照出一切，但镜子本身是如如不动的。镜子不会随着股票的升而哈哈大笑，也不会随着股票的跌而灰心丧气，它不会随着外面世界的变化而悲哀或者高兴。心就像镜子一样，当你有这种觉受的时候，也就明心见性了。

禅所说的“初关”等于明心见性，“重关”等于打成一片。当你永远打成一片时，就进入第二个层次了。什么叫打成一片？就是说，你能把这份空性变成空气一样的存在，无需经过逻辑判断，任何时候都能自然而然地在它的指导下处理任何事情。

当然这时候还不够。修行中能打成一片，不等于在日常生活中也能打成一片，所以，你还要看自己在遇到各种违缘时是不是仍然能打成一片？遇到心爱的美女或帅哥时，是不是还可以打成一片？如果有人说他在日常生活中也能打成一片，但别人打他耳光，他仍然会火冒三丈，那么这就不是真正的打成一片。

所以在禅的说法中，当你打成一片之后，还要接受日常生活的磨炼。在日常生活的磨炼中，你要注意止和观。

有位修了金刚亥母洞的老人，十多年前卧病在床，无法起身。那年他七十多岁。一天我去看他，他说他要死了。我说不死，然后教了他一个法子，叫他每天早晨起床后上一炷香，什么都别想，只是盯着香炉里燃着的香头。当他什么都不想时就是止，而认真看香头的过程就是警觉和观。他是用眼睛生起了某种警觉，也就是“观”。结果，他又活了十五年，今年已近九十岁了，身体还很健康。

在念头止住之后，眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意都可以观。眼睛的观，比如看香头或者看佛像；耳朵的观，比如听音乐；鼻子的观，比如闻香味；身体的观，比如感受风。

实际上，好多人在日常生活中都会不知不觉地止和观，比如母亲凝视着熟睡中的婴儿时——她心无旁骛，用眼、耳、鼻、舌、身、意感受着有关婴儿的一切，幼嫩皮肤的触感，轻轻呼吸的声音，淡淡的奶香等等，此时她的心里生起祥和宁静的喜悦。所谓的菩提心，其实就像母亲对待自己的孩子，慈爱、悲悯且一无所求。

有些人虽然天生能达到无住无求，但常流于无记。何为无记？无记类似于顽空，类似于“非善非恶”，就像动物冬眠一样，容易陷入一种无意识的状态，没有正念，也没有任何功德，修多久都无法带来智慧的增长。

因为这种状态是无意识、混混沌沌的，所以在无记的时候，你不知道身边在发生什么事，有人跟你说话，你也浑然不知，有人用力拍你，你还会被吓一跳。这就是因为你缺少了明心见性中的“明”，一种明明朗朗的觉性。这时注意，要在无念中生起一种警觉，也就是要“止观双运”。比如，善知识会对你说：注意，听远处的一声鸟鸣。这不是为了让你知道远处有小鸟在叫，而是要你感受听的时候生起的那份警觉。假如你能体会到这一点，就远离了无记。这当然还不是见性，仅仅是一种入道的方便。真正的见性，除了理上的明白外，其实在身体上也会发生一种变化，也就是我们所说的气入中脉。

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