Wonderful Tips No solitary retreat before getting enlightened

Wonderful Tips No solitary retreat before getting enlightened

The newly enlightened heart is like a lit candle. We need to protect it carefully from the evil wind. Meanwhile we constantly add more and more firewood of merit. Gradually it grows up as a torch, a bonfire, then as enormous and powerful as fire of Kalpa. Then you come back to the material world, take the test, and verify whether you can really control your heart; verify if your heart can be distracted by all kinds of temptation or not, and then work on your habit energies and deep-rooted frustrations.

Without seeing the true nature, you have no idea of what is the right direction for practice. Any solitary retreat before seeing the true nature doesn’t make any sense. I have saw lots of practitioners who haven’t seen the true nature, but desperately go for retreat. This leads to some serious consequences. Some of them are fascinated by delusions and trapped by devil;  some of them lived a life worse than death; some of them have their families broken up. There was a girl who stays single for religious practice. She secluded herself for two years and completed the creation stage. As she was going to end creation stage successfully, she fought with another people in the retreat room. This shows that her heart didn’t change during the retreat.

Therefore, the sages never encourage retreat at early stage. Mostly, they asked the disciples to understand the true nature first. When the time comes, they did their best to show the true nature to the disciples. Once the true nature was understood, they asked them to retreat. Master Gampopa used to do this. If he was not the right one to show the disciples the true nature, he would even recommend another good knowledge who was capable of it, than the disciple begin the real practice after seeing the true nature. In Chan sect, there are many stories like this.

The retreat could be dangerous when it’s too early, for a practitioner who hasn’t understood the true nature. For he doesn’t have any ideas of what the right way is. So he would easily take detour, or back-head road, even the wrong way. It’s like that, a blind man who has no clue of the direction, but runs fast; he might fall from a cliff easily. Nowadays, there are lots of blind gurus leading their blind disciples. It is described as: bind man riding a blind horse, standing beside a deep pool at dark night.

MingZi In Guangzhou, she wrote an article about retreat. It says: it becomes a longing of modern people to retreat in beautiful forest or holy place. Some of them are exhausted with routine life or work under high-pressure. They seek for some release and they romanticize the retreat as a wonderful vocation or another featured tour. They are just followers of Yoga fashions, for example, take some spiritual courses or meditation courses. Or, some of them don’t think their concentration is strong enough to resist the annoyance in daily life. They escape to peaceful environment to rest their hearts. Some of the practitioners attach great importance to the form of the retreat, so called body detachment. They take it as a sign of heart detachment, the sign of no attachment. So they think every practitioner should go retreat and improve the heart with this persistence. Besides people as above, there is a group of hermits and they are very special group of people---who have unveiled the true nature. They take retreat, because they are qualified by a Chan-sect saying: no retreat unless breaking through the initial hurdle of Chan.

“The retreat before unveiling the true nature doesn’t make any sense. Therefore we can see quarrel and fight in the retreat room. They often seek from outside world instead of their own heart. For example, some people are very serious with retreat, but just this very form, instead of the heart. When frustration arises, they are easily lost totally, and then will want to retreat immediately, basically it’s an escape and they still want to change the condition (instead of heart). Cultivating the heart in certain condition is also a kind of meditation indeed, however the question is that the heart plays the most important part in the practice, instead of body detachment. For example, one fellow practitioner felt that the Yidam provided her empowerment during the retreat. She thought what she felt was real. She overjoyed with tears and she took the feeling as a meditation sensation, even as a sign of accomplishment. Therefore I keep telling the practitioners and the readers to start with the nature of mind first, so-called, liberation upon the understanding. For the practitioners who are still lack of merit accumulation, they can’t help to doubt or think Mahamudra opinion as crazy wit. Or they will think it is not a state that an immortal could reach and it is just too far away from us. They only count on after death or reborn for achievement. Hence, even if they have the chance to practice the Supreme Yoga, they can only touch the surface, not the core.

Of course, enlightenment doesn’t mean that you have great power nor you can maintain the right opinion in your heart. Your enlightenment is like a newly lit candle, which is vulnerable to the evil wind. Therefore we need to build a wall with precepts and we also need to add more and more firewood of merit so that the candle of brightness grows up to a fire of wisdom.

Although you are enlightened, you still can’t control your body with assured capability. It is time for you to stay away from the crowds to practice in a solitary place. Yes, it is time for retreat.

I used to tell a friend: the compassionate heart is the love for all the human beings and, the detachment heart is isolating oneself from the crowds. Once you know the direction for your religious practice, the retreat is necessary.  Sometimes, the detachment of the heart is premised with the body detachment. So we need to retreat for a period of time after seeing the nature. The main reason is that once your root guru shows you the true nature, your understanding in theory can upgrade to thorough enlightenment in practice after certain period of solitary meditation in the retreat. Perceiving the true heart belongs to the understanding in theory, which means you understand what the true nature is in theory. Seeing the true nature is the understanding in practice, which means, besides the understanding in theory, you also recognize it practically (achieve the emptiness and know exactly what it is). Although they share something in common, perceiving the true heart and seeing the true nature are different concept.

For some practitioners who have seen the true nature, their state are not stable and their hearts are shattered. So they need to stay away from the crowds for a solitary retreat. Without robust concentration, the practitioner should stay away from crowds and mediate in a tranquil place, where you can stabilize what you perceived and recognized – the emptiness, and make it strong.

The newly enlightened heart is like a lit candle. We need to protect it carefully from the evil wind. Meanwhile we constantly add more and more firewood of merit. Gradually it grows up as a torch, a bonfire, then as enormous and powerful as fire of Kalpa. Then you come back to the material world, take the test, and verify whether you can really control your heart; verify if your heart can be distracted by all kinds of temptation or not, and then work on your habit energies and deep-rooted frustrations.

Lots of people understand what I have said above. But they can’t help grumbling or feeling irritated when things go wrong. Why can’t they put what they know into practice? The reason is that they haven’t obtained the robust capability yet. In order to get this capability, you need to meditate in solitary. When your concentration is stronger and stronger, your perception will be steadfast eventually. You will know how to fix your problems. At this stage, lots of problems don’t even seem to exist at all.

Yes, ultimately speaking, it is not about identifying the problem then seeking answer, but realizing that there’s no problem at all.

In the eyes of the yogi with pure heart, all the questions are created from discrimination mind. The desire and seeking in worldly Dharma are also from it. All the problems are creation of it. So there is no problem at all for a real yogi.

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第四辑:再送几条锦囊妙计

开悟前不要闭关专修

开悟的心，就像燃着的蜡烛，一定要小心守护，别让邪风把它给吹灭了，然后，不断地为它添加资粮之柴，让它成为一个火把，再变成一个火堆，最后变成宇宙劫火那样巨大而强烈的光明。那时候再出来经受红尘中间的考验，看你在红尘中是不是仍能驾驭自己的心，看看这样那样的诱惑是否还能影响你的心，进而你再对治各种烦恼和习气。

不明心见性，你就不知道往哪个方向修才对，所以在明心见性之前，所有的闭关都没有意义。我见过许多修行人不明心性却死命闭关，最后导致了严重的后果：有的认假成真执幻为实，走火入魔，生不如死；有的家破人亡。有个女孩，为了修行不结婚，她闭了两年生起次第关，在闭关圆满将要出关时，仍是跟关房里的人打起架来。这说明她的心并没有因此而改变。

所以，历代大德不提倡过早专修。他们大多要求弟子先明白心性。当因缘俱足时，就尽量为弟子开示心性。等他们明白了心性，再令其闭关专修。冈波巴大师就是这样。即使自己不能为弟子开示心性，师父也一定会叫他去参访某个能为他开示心性的善知识，待得明白心性之后再悟后起修。禅宗中有许多这样的故事。

对于一个没有明白心性的人来说，过早的闭关专修是很可怕的。因为对于修行之路到底要怎么走，他心里还没有数，这时候就很容易走弯路、走回头路，有时候甚至走错路。就像一个瞎子，不明方向，却一门心思乱跑，这样是很容易掉下悬崖的。时下，多有盲师父带着一群瞎徒弟，正是所谓的“盲人骑瞎马，夜半临深地”。

广州的明子写过一篇谈“闭关”的文章，文中说道：“跑进山林或到圣地闭关修行，成了许多现代人的向往之一。其中，一部分人是，因为生活得太累了，工作压力大想轻松一下，把闭关想象成一次美妙的度假或是别有风味的旅行，追求一下现在流行的瑜伽行为，比如某种心灵课程，静坐课程等等；一部人是，因为觉得自己定力差，敌不过世间烦恼而想从生活中逃脱出来，希望借外境的安宁，让心平静下来；还有一部分修行者把闭关的形式，也就是身的出离定位得很高，认为那是心出离的象征，是‘无执著’的体现，大家都应该去闭关，用这种‘精进’来提高自己的修行功力；此外，也有一些人，他们是很特别的群体——明心见性者。他们之所以选择闭关，可以用禅宗的那句话来解释，即‘不破初关不闭关’。”

“在明心见性之前，闭关并没有真实意义。因此，会在关房里会出现争吵的、打架的。因为不明白修行是心的修炼，常常外求。比如，有人苛求闭关，苛求形式，而不注重在心性上下手。烦恼一来便手足无措，马上就想到去闭关，其实还是一种逃避，还想改变境。借境而修心，也是一种方法。问题是，心还是最主要的，而非身的出离。举个例子，有一位同修她曾在闭关时仿佛感到本尊加持了她，她觉得这些感觉都是真实的存在，于是痛哭流涕，流泪不止，并把此种感觉当作修行的觉受，甚至某种成就的象征。因此，我一直在告诉行者、读者，修行首先要从心性着手，‘见即解脱’。心性资粮不够的人，就总是怀疑，或认为大手印见是狂慧，或认为我离大手印太远，那不是凡人可以达到的境界，无力承担，或把成就推于死后，把希望寄托于往生。因此，就算他修了无上瑜伽，也只是修其形，非修其质。”

当然，明心见性之后，并不等于你就有了大力，也不代表你可以把心中的正见守好。那时，你的觉悟还跟才燃的蜡烛一样，是很容易被邪风吹熄的。因此还需要建立戒律之墙，以防邪风侵入；更需要增添福慧资粮之柴，令此光明之烛，燎原成智慧大火。

因为你虽然开悟了，但在你没有得到坚固之力时，你的心灵还控制不了身体。这时就应该离开闹市，找一个安静的地方修炼，也就是需要闭关了。

我曾对一位朋友说：慈悲心是热爱人类，出离心是远离人群。在明白修行的路之后，闭关是必要的。有时，心的出离是以身的出离为前提的。明心见性之后，需要出离一段时间，主要就是根本师为你开示心性之后，你明白心性之后，如果闭关一段时间，就能把理悟上升为事悟——明心属于理悟，即理上明白什么是心性，明白什么是真心；真正的见性是事上的明白，这时候不但理上明白了，而且事上也见到了，证得了空性，知道空性是怎么回事。明心和见性既有相似之处，又是两个不同的概念。

明心见性之后，有些人是不稳定的，心还散乱着，这时候就需要到远离人群的地方闭关一段时间。定力不坚固的时候，一定要远离闹市，居住在非常安静的地方，宁静的地方，然后慢慢把你体悟到的东西，把你认证到的东西——空性稳定下来，然后再让它坚固。

开悟的心，就像燃着的蜡烛，一定要小心守护，别让邪风把它给吹灭了，然后，不断地为它添加资粮之柴，让它成为一个火把，再变成一个火堆，最后变成宇宙劫火那样巨大而强烈的光明。那时候再出来经受红尘中间的考验，看你在红尘中是不是仍能驾驭自己的心，看看这样那样的诱惑是否还能影响你的心，进而你再对治各种烦恼和习气。

对于前面所讲的内容，好多人都懂，但他们该发牢骚时照样发，该烦恼时照样烦恼。既然道理都懂了，但为什么做不到呢？就是因为他们没有坚固之力。要想得到这种坚固之力，你需要找一个安静的地方专门去修。当你的专注力越来越大时，见地就慢慢地坚固了。遇到问题的时候，你也就自然懂得如何解决。甚至有的时候，很多问题也便不存在了。

是的，了义地说，不是发现问题再解决问题，而是本来就没有问题。

在俱足了清净心的行者眼中，所有的追问都是由分别心产生的。世间法的需求和追求，同样源于分别心。任何问题，也是分别心使然。所以，在真正的行者眼中，其实是没有问题的。

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