Our Spiritual Glove -Rev. Zinsan
　

When people hear the word “meditation” they usually envision someone sitting quietly in a meditation hall. If this were the case- that we only practiced sitting meditation- then we would be practicing “dead” meditation. What we need is to practice living meditation. So that every time sense-objects disturb us we never become attached and never change our mind.

Sitting meditation is not the only meditation we should practice. Meditation should be timeless so that we are never limited to a particular time or particular place. In the Diamond Sutra it says, “Therefore, Subhuti, fearless bodhisattvas should give rise to a mind that, while responding, does not abide anywhere.” We should come to understand the details of the methods of practice. As the Great Master Sot’aesan said in the Principal Book, “Even a farmer wielding a hoe can practice zen, as can a blacksmith wielding a hammer, a clerk using an abacus, and an official seeing to an administrative manner; and we can practice zen even while going about or staying at home.”

If people intend to practice genuine zen they should be unmoving like Mount T’ai when in contact with the myriad of sensory conditions. So that, even though we encounter so many problems outside, we are not disturbed or distracted. That is why we should practice both sitting and working meditation.

Last year in Korea, many Buddhist ministers from other countries, gathered together to explore beautiful temples and traditional Korean cultural attractions. Before going on our tour, we stopped by a kimchi (a traditional Korean side dish) factory. All of the Buddhist ministers prepared kimchi together. Preparing kimchi requires one to mix together ingredients such as hot red pepper and soy sauce. However, we were worried that all of these ingredients combined would easily stain our hands and clothes. Therefore, we were required to wear plastic gloves and an apron. This served a dual purpose: to keep the kimchi free from outside contaminations and to keep our clothes and hand free from stains. In the same way, our mind acts as the plastic gloves and apron. It can help us to be free from any contamination we get from outside sense-objects.

There are so many types of contamination and we need to be free from sense objects. Our mind changes due to so many different kinds of sensory conditions. As a final thought, there is one more type of meditation that I would like to share with you. Has there ever been a time when you watched a movie that was so sad that it brought tears to your eyes, yet you still loved the movie? We like to see tragedies even though we weep. We also like to see happy pictures. There are so many emotional changes from outside sense objects. This is similar to the example of Helen Keller who could not hear the music of the G Line Aria, but could feel it through her skin. The music moved her so much that she began to cry. Yet, these were not tears of sorrow, but tears of happiness.

One type of meditation is harmonizing our original nature and never being contaminated by outside sense-objects. It is like having a spiritual glove that protects us from any outside disturbances. Although I am not quietly sitting in a meditation hall, if I have a spiritual glove, then I will be free from the world’s contamination. Through timeless and placeless zen, we have the ability and capacity to deal with all types of sensory conditions. This is why meditation works towards freedom and encourages harmony when we encounter sensory conditions.



http://www.won.or.kr/

More on Meditation:

Value of Meditation

The benefit of meditation, which the Westerners recently discovered, was well appreciated over twenty-five centuries ago in the East. After some practice, many practitioners will experience tranquilized mind, and feel a sense of calm pervades the whole body. It is a mental discipline that eventually leads the mind to its purified state, as the mental impurity is dissolved stage by stage. It is a form of energetic striving leading to self-elevation, self-discipline, self control, and self-illumination. It is a tonic for your heart, because of the therapeutic value for stresses of daily life. The mind will be balanced and full of love and compassion and will age at a slower rate. Your immune system will improve. The heart rate and breathing rate will slow down. The blood pressure will normalize and your use of oxygen will be more efficient.

Buddhist Meditation involves no religious rites or rituals, and it is definitely not borrowed from the Yoga system as some people believe. It is not a form of self-hypnosis. It is the aim of total extirpation of the mental defilements, or at least a means of transcending a state of woe and sorrows. It can be mastered by all except those who are mentally sick or are drug addicts, irrespective of their cultural or religious backgrounds, if they are willing to make the necessary efforts. When the five Precepts are well established, meditation will yield great results and benefits, because purity of livelihood is an essential prerequisite. If we do not succeed in this life time, we may succeed in future lives, like those who successfully attained Nibbana. There is nothing religious regarding the Five Precepts:

To abstain from destroying beings

To abstain from taking things not given

To abstain from sexual misconduct

To abstain from false speech

To abstain from distilled and fermented liquors that cause intoxication & heedlessness

Is there any religion or person who does not agree to the five clauses? When you observe these clauses daily, you protect yourself and others. Won’t our planet earth then be a better place?

During 1970s, University of Massachusetts at Worcester, U.S.A., started a stress-reduction program. This center for Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) still exists today. Visit: www.umassmed.edu/cfm/index.aspx

By sitting still and following the movement of air entering and leaving your nostrils, your electroencephalograph reading will show that gamma waves which are associated with attention and learning are generated. Isn't this good for you?

Your breathing and pulse rate will also slow down. If your breathing rate is 18 breaths per minute, during meditation it will reduce to 15 times per minute. You pulse too will slow down moderately. If you practice vipassana meditation, you will breathe in cosmic energy and breathe out your defilements. This will actually expiate your bad Kamma which you created in the past lives, or during the past in this life.

During meditation, unusual amount of brain activity in the left side of the pre-frontal cortex is going on. It was confirmed that experienced practitioners eventually have an average 5 % thicker cortex. This part of the brain is associated with positive emotions. You will therefore be more alert and happier than the others.

The mental images you see when your eyes are closed are your own creation. They can be anything a person may imagine. These are called Nimittas. For most people, they are beautiful lights of various colors, e.g. while, blue, purple, grey, yellow, orange etc. Sometimes they are bright and unstable, vibrating or flashing and changing shapes, like the clouds.

Some people also see eyes or faces when their eyes are closed. These are very normal and we should not be attached to them for our own safety. If they are too fearful, just open your eyes and they will be gone. These visions or nimittas are hindrances to the development of the mind. Do not be attached to whatever you see. The heavenly beings, hungry ghosts, or ghosts of the dead you see are not real. Just ignore them. If a certain thing appears in front of you every time you meditate, just have a paint brush ready, dip it in ink and hold it while you meditate. When that thing appears, gently mark it with your brush and then open your eyes. What has been marked?

For more advance practitioners, within next few minutes after the nimittas, maybe few hours, days, months, or years, ( depending on how well you have practiced so far) Jhana will happen by themselves later on.

According the Buddha: for one who indulges in Jhana, four results are to be expected: Stream-Winner, Once-Returner, Non-Returner, or Arahant.

If you encounter difficulties, you need to consult experienced practitioners. These people normally do not request money for assisting you. If they do, be aware. It is better to consult those who don't ask for monetary rewards.

Meditation is a form of psychotherapy: mental culture or systematic mental development. The number of psychiatric patients is increasing rapidly and many hospitals can’t cope. Those people ended up in the hospital because they did not know how to cope with stress. They need to relax mentally. They are ambitious. They struggle too hard.

During meditation, you will also be taught how to get rid of longstanding anger and hostility which weaken your lungs and speed up age-related decline. When the lung volume drops, you don’t get enough oxygen. Your energy declines, your immune system weakens, thus sickness and disease start to crop up.

Moreover, women and men in their forties need not be miserable if they care to look after their mental health. I am talking about majority of the people on this planet, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, white, black or yellow. If rich people are not affected, then most people in the United States of America should be very happy. Are they?

Happiness is a state of consciousness that does not depend upon physical appetites, passions, acquisition of material wealth, power, position, fame, or honour. Why do you think a multi-millionaire’s daughter would join the gangsters to rob a bank? Her parents could buy her any material thing on this planet. Surely there was something lacking?

Even though you may be aged 70 or over, you can remain mentally as healthy as a 20-year old if you care to maintain your health. And one of the methods is meditation.

Meditation, if practice persistently, may also prevent you from ending up with diabetes, high blood pressure or cardiovascular problems, because the elasticity of your blood vessels will be improved and your blood toned up, as during meditation, your anxiety and worry will be very much reduced. Gastric ulcers, skin diseases and asthma, if not actually brought about by worry and anxiety, are surely aggravated by them. As a person thinks of compassion, his body system stimulates the cells to generate valuable chemical compounds to produce energy and vitality. So we can say metta has tonic effect on the whole physical constitution.

Meditation may be introduced to children as well, as early as age seven. To counter restlessness and worry, concentration on the breathing will steady and calm the mind.

The following are some of the other benefits of meditation:

Getting rid of your tension and find some relaxation

Calm down your worries and find permanent or temporary peace

Develop the courage to face or overcome your problems

Gain self confidence

Help you to understand the nature of your fears

Help you see the true nature of life (if you are heart-broken)

Help you to be more focused and concentrated in your studies

Help you to have contentment and not to harbor jealousy towards others

Help you to overcome the fire of anger, hatred and resentment

Help you to understand the danger of jealousy

Help you realize how to overcome your dangerous habit

For those who practice meditation on loving kindness, they will enjoy the following benefits:

Have sound sleep

Waken fresh

No bad dreams

Loved by other people

Loved by non-human beings

Protected by devas

Protected from burning by fire, harm by poisons or weapons

Their mind is easily concentrated

Their complexion is clear

Death takes place in a full possession of the senses

If they have not attained one of the higher attainments during this life, they will be reborn in the Brahma World, (Pure Abode)