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.As it is,you soon discover that the mind s activity is like amonkey, never stopping for an instant.The advice thatis traditionally given is to limit this monkey s move-ment.The Chih, in Chih-Kuan means stopping andrefers to stopping the false or misleading activity of themind.To do this  i.e., to tether the monkey mind bypracticing Chih  the first step is to fix the mind on asingle object to keep it from wandering from oneobject to another.Having accomplished this, you lookwithin to contemplate your thoughts.There, you dis-cover anew that they arise in great number and oftenwithout any relatedness, appearing, for the most part,randomly.You also realize that future thoughts havenot yet come.When you ask yourself which of thesethoughts is your mind, you realize that your false mindrises and falls and is, thus, also devoid of reality.Ifyou continue in this way, you become familiar withthis unreality, and your false mind comes to an end byitself; and with the false mind at an end, reality isevident.When you first sit down to practice, your mind is oftenunsettled.This is appropriately called unsettled mind,and to set it at rest, stopping, or Chih, is used.If it is61stopped again and again, the thinking process gradu-ally comes to an end.While meditating, you may findyourself getting drowsy.This is called sinking mindand the way to awaken it is by contemplation, or Kuan,which involves closing your eyes and looking inward,as it were, to the source of your thoughts.There arethree kinds of Kuan, or contemplation: contemplationof the void; contemplation of the unreal; and contem-plation of the mean.Contemplation of the VoidYou look into all things within the universe, from thelargest-including the earth, mountains and rivers  tothe smallest  including your body and mind.Doingso, you perceive that everything changes in everyinstant and is non-existent and void; and when yourmind looks into this voidness, that is called contempla-tion of the void.Contemplation of the UnrealWhen you are familiar with this contemplation of thevoid, you look into your mind or the place, as it were,from which thoughts arise, and you find that eachthought has its object.You then realize that every62phenomenon owes its existence to a union of an innercause and an outer concurring circumstance.Forinstance, a grain of rice sprouts because of the union ofan inner direct cause, which is the seed, with an outerconcurring condition, in the form of the water and mudthat moisten and nourish it.If the grain of rice is notsown and is left in the warehouse, it will never sproutbecause there is only an inner, direct cause without anouter condition.Also, if there are only water and mud,without the seed being sown, they, alone, cannotproduce the sprout because there has been no unionwith an original cause-namely, the seed.Every phe-nomenon in the world is created by the union of directand circumstantial causes and vanishes as soon as theyare separated.This includes thoughts that arise anddisappear in the mind and that cannot be grasped.Suchcontemplation is called looking into the unreal.Contemplation of the MeanThere are two contrasting attitudes connected withcontemplation of the void, on the one hand, and look-ing into the unreal, on the other.When you reach thisstage, your achievement is still incomplete.Havingsucceeded with contemplation of the void, do not clingto the void; and when you have achieved contempla-63tion of the unreal, do not grasp at the unreal.When yousucceed in keeping from the extremes of the void andthe unreal, your non-relying and non-clinging mindwill be extraordinarily clear, and this stage is called,contemplation of the mean.At first glance, the Chih-Kuan Dharma Gate seems toimply diverse or successive stages.In practice, the useof either Chih or Kuan depends solely on the inclina-tions of the mind during meditation.As a matter offact, the purpose of Chih is to return all thoughts toone, the one mind, and that of Kuan is to attain clearinsight into the truth, which is to be free of illusion.When stopping, or Chih, is practiced, it should notstray from stopping.Do not cling to the printed word,but practice intelligently, according to the circum-stances.The breath is the source of life.When the breath stops,the body is just an inanimate corpse.With the nervoussystem no longer functioning, the mind vanishes andlife comes to an end.That is why life is said to bepreserved by the breath, which links the body with themind.Thus, we see that a human being is composed ofbody, breath and mind and that the breath plays theimportant role of uniting the other two components.64The T ien T ai meditation manual, entitled The SixProfound Dharma Gates (T ung Meng Chih-Kuan),focuses on breathing as a comprehensive practice thatmay be preceded by training in the Chih-Kuan method,or it can be used independently of it.The consecutivestages are as follows:1.Counting the breath2.Following the breath3.Stopping (Chih)4.Contemplation (Kuan)5.Returning6.PurificationThe Method of Counting the BreathThe breath-counting method offers two possibilities, asfollows: After you have regulated your breath, so thatit is neither too tight nor too loose, count slowly fromone to ten on either your inhalation or exhalation.Donot count on both.For example, breathing in, countone; then exhale and upon inhaling again, count two,and so on.Your mind soon becomes fixed on theactivity and does not wander as readily.If it wandersoff before you have reached the count of ten, return65gently and without further thought to one, and resumecounting as described above.This is the method ofmeditation known as Breath-Counting.Realization Attained Through Breath-CountingAs you grow accustomed to the method just described,your breath becomes finer and finer, until it seems tobe non-existent.This stage is called Realization ByBreath-Counting.The Method of Following the BreathThis method is both easy and simple: Just focus onyour breath and follow it mindfully, holding on gently,until it is no longer an issue.Then mind and breathbecome one.Realization Attained Through Following the BreathAs it follows the breath, your mind becomes increas-ingly subtle.You may notice, at first, the length ofyour breath; but as it gets more refined it becomesalmost undetectable, and at that point it feels as thoughit is occurring through the pores of your skin.Theeffect on your mind is stilling or calming [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]