Chapter 5 4. Meditation and mind

What does it mean to "meditate" on something?I know what it means to "think" about something, the mind does it all the time: remembering, analyzing, planning, imagining, and so on.I also know a state of meditation in which the "I" is no longer there, all boundaries disappear into the whole, a disappearance, a absence of weight, light and bliss.But when you tell us, "Go and meditate on it," what does that mean? There is no word in Western languages ​​that can exactly agree with the meaning of meditation. It is a lack of experience and a lack of language.It's like in the East, there are a lot of words that you can't find in the Western Hemisphere, especially in terms of science, technology, and the physical world, so the first thing you have to understand is: We are trying to do something that is almost impossible. thing.

In the East, we have all three words that English has, but we have a fourth word that English or any other Western language does not have, and that reason is not just linguistic, that reason is that they No such experience yet. The first word is "concentration".In the East we call it concentration at one point. The second word is "meditation".In the East we call it thinking, but only about a specific subject, not getting distracted, not going astray, but staying in the same experience all the time, and then going deeper and wider into it, it is "concentration" a development.

The third word is "meditation".In the West, meditation has been a mess since Aurelius (AD 121-180).His book was the first in the west to describe meditation, but he didn't know what meditation could be, so he defined it as a deeper concentration and a deeper meditation, both of which are incorrect of. In the East we have another word "dhyan", it doesn't mean concentration, it doesn't mean contemplation, it doesn't even mean meditation, it means a state of no mind.All three are activities of the mind, whether you are concentrating, contemplating, or meditating, you are always object-oriented, you are concentrating on something, you are meditating on something, you In contemplating something, your process may be different, but the line is clear: it is in your mind, and the mind can do all three without difficulty.

"Diyang" is beyond the mind. This difficulty is not raised for the first time, it has been raised by many people.After Buddha, about 1,800 years ago, his disciples went to China, and they also encountered the same difficulty, and finally they decided not to translate that word, because it was impossible to translate, they directly used the word "Diyang" word, but according to the Chinese pronunciation, it becomes "Zen" (chan).Twelve hundred years ago, when that transmission of light reached Japan, the same difficulty arose again: what to do with "Zen"?Japan also has no equivalent or similar word, so they also decided to use the same word, which became Zen according to their pronunciation.

This is a very strange story, Buddha himself never used the word "diyang" because he never used Sanskrit.One of his revolutions was to use the language of ordinary people instead of that of scholars.Sanskrit has never been a living language, it has never been used by people in the market place, it is the language used by scholars, professors, philosophers and theologians, and there is a gap between the world of scholars and the world of ordinary people. big difference.Buddha was very brave, he didn't use the language he was trained in, he used the language of ordinary people, he used a language called "Pali".In Pali, dhyan becomes ihan, ihan is not far from Zen, and Chan is just in between.

But those who translated the original scriptures describing meditation thought they understood the meaning of "diyang".Most of them are missionaries of Christianity, and naturally they don't understand beyond the concepts beyond their heads.Christianity has never thought of going beyond the mind, so there is no such thing as "diyang", the closest word they can come up with is "meditation", but as soon as you use the word "meditation" , it naturally becomes a meditation on what? The word "quiet meditation" itself is object-oriented, but "Diyang" is not.

When you use the word "diyang", it doesn't mean "diyang what".It just means to go beyond the mind.When you go beyond the mind, you go beyond all objects, you just exist.Diyang is not a process, but a state of existence, not a dichotomy between subject and object, but just a dewdrop slipping from a lotus leaf into the sea. When I am talking to you, I say "meditate on it", I know I am using the wrong word, but why am I using the wrong word because I have only wrong people around me!All those who can't fit in the world, they fit me!But I want to remind you that language should not become a barrier.

Meditation is a state where you are just silent and there is no thought to concentrate on, no subject to meditate on, no object to meditate on, and everything else just disappears.Remember, when everything else is gone, you cannot exist, you are part of something else, just as if light disappears, there is no darkness, and if life disappears, there is no death, they are inherently connected. "I" and "you" can only exist together in some way of co-existence, or we have to disappear together, then what is left is neither you nor me, what is left is the energy of the universe.

Meditation is disappearing into the universe. The mind is the hindrance.The more you concentrate, the more you meditate, the more you meditate on something, you can never get out of your mind.The mind is the dewdrop I have mentioned.So the first thing that has to be understood is: as far as meditation is concerned, only in the East, especially in India, has that word been coined.New words are created only when you have an experience that cannot be expressed in the existing language.For ten thousand years, India has focused all its genius on one endeavor, Diyang.If you use the word "diyang", you don't ask "what do you want diyang?" The word "diyang" itself does not contain duality, diyang just means tranquility, complete tranquility, peace.

Your question makes sense, you are asking, "What does it mean to meditate on something?" It means to meditate on nothing!Never meditate on something else it is not meditation. You are saying, "I know what it means to think about something, the mind does it all the time: remembering, analyzing, planning, imagining, etc." Everyone knows that. "I also know a state of meditation in which I no longer exist." My own understanding is: up to this point you are talking about your own experience of being, beyond this point you are just borrowing words that you have not experienced, and you say: "I also know..." by Who will know?If "I" exists, then "you" also exist.If the experiencer is there, then the experience is there, the duality is still there, you have not gone beyond the mind, you have not attained what you call meditation.

You say: "I no longer exist..." These are beautiful words, you must love them, but you don't know what they mean.This is the point I was talking about last night - Bodhidharma chose as his successor the disciple who didn't answer, because any answer is wrong, any answer means "I'm still here", any answer means Thinking that the mind is still functioning, any answer must be wrong. The person who was chosen as the successor had only tears of joy, and bowed at the feet of Bodhidharma with great gratitude and gratitude, and had nothing to say.The moment you say something you have to use the mind, you have to use the language, and then, naturally, all the errors of language and the limitations of the mind come in. You say, "I no longer exist..." If you no longer exist, then the question should stop here, who is extending the question further?You go on: "All boundaries disappear...", whose boundaries?You are indeed there and see the boundaries disappearing, but if you are there, the boundaries cannot disappear, that is a contradiction in terms, you say: "...disappears and merges into the whole...", have you ever Ever seen any dewdrops shout out to the world "Listen, I'm going to melt into the ocean"?One would just dissolve and have nothing to say, just silence everywhere. But you go on describing all those beautiful words that must have been read or heard by you: "...disappearing into the whole, a disappearance, weightlessness, light and joy..." In whom did all these experiences happen ?You no longer exist!For all these experiences to happen, at least you need, your mind needs, your language needs, and you are asking.If it were an existential experience, you wouldn't say anything at first. I think of a great Zen master, he was sitting by the sea, and a king just passed by, he always wanted to see this Zen master, but he didn't have time, because the state was busy, and there were many worries and wars... This is a Great opportunity, he stopped his carriage and came down to see this Zen master, he asked him, "I don't have much time, but want to know what the main teaching is, I don't want to die ignorant." The Zen master remained silent. The King said, "I can understand that you are very old, and perhaps you are deaf." Master smiled. The king shouted into his ear: "I want to know the essence of your teaching!" The Zen master wrote on the sand with his finger: "Zen." He did not speak. "But that doesn't mean much to me," said the King. "I've heard that word many times. Let me explain it a bit more." The Zen Master replied: "I have lowered for your sake, otherwise the correct answer is the first - when I kept silent. But perhaps you do not know that communication that exists in silence, out of compassion, I write I wrote the word Zen, and now you want me to explain it in more detail, let me try." He wrote "Zen" again in larger characters. The king got a little offended, and said, "What kind of specification is that? It's the same word!" Zen master said: "You must forgive me, because I can no longer lower, just for your sake, I don't want all generations to make fun of me, no one has ever said anything about Zen, and no one can Say anything to Zen." So what have Zen masters been doing for a long time?They create designs and situations where they hope maybe one in a thousand people will get an insight.Those designs are not meditation, those designs are just leading you to a point in your own inner space where suddenly you understand and you say, "Aha!" When you understand the state of meditation, all the method becomes useless.Those methods are just self-serving, created out of compassion, for those who cannot communicate with them a higher truth than the mind. If what you're talking about is your own experience, then there wouldn't be that last part.You say, "But, Beloved Master, when you tell us to meditate on it, what does that mean?" I tell you, "Meditate on it", you can use all the explanations, but there is no "it", There are no meditators either.When I say "meditate on it," I mean just the opposite: without it, there is no meditator, just being.