I just came back from Master Sheng-Yen's retreat, and I took some notes of his last two lectures. For those who are practicing this method, this may be helpful for you.
THEORETICAL EMPTINESS
Developed from dependent origination
Impermanent and emptiness lead to no self
EXPERIENTIAL EMPTINESS
1)If the mind is like an ocean, waves and wind won’t affect you
2)Emptiness is expressed as the following:
a.Living out each moment, without given rise to deluded (e.g. judgmental) or wondering thoughts
b.When deluded thoughts arises, do not try to suppress, extinguish, or reject them
c.Do not engage in analyzing the deluded thoughts
d.When you are in a state where deluded thoughts disappears, do not take it as enlightenment
3)Don’t mistaken and psychological (oneness) or physiological states (relaxation) as emptiness
4)See things as they are
5)The goal is to empty self-attachment, not the environment
IMPORTANT POINTS THE HUOTUO METHOD (Master Sheng-Yen summarized all his lectures during the retreat with the following)
1) Use “Wu” for long term practice. Any other HUOTUO can be used as short-term practice
2)Where it saves power is the entry point. There is no need to prepare your mind, boy, environment, breath to practice the method. Any situation is a good situation to practice. The best entry point is any difficult situation, such as too fatigue, too much distressful thoughts, etc.
3)Have confidence and determination of the method
4)Don’t grasp, reject, or analyze any psychophysiological states (whether these states are pleasant or not)
5)Don’t have any expectation of enlightenment.
6)Enlightenment is having non-self attached wisdom
7)Compassion will naturally arise when wisdom arise
8)Most importantly, all of us should cultivate compassion and loving-kindness.
5 comments:
thanks for sharing this. the "Happiness" book by Ricard mentions very similar points
I have heard Ricard's speech twice so far, he is not a bad speaker.
thanks for taking notes and sharing, pete!
1) and 2) in the method section are particularly helpful. 5) is kinda hard to do... sort of like the paradox of "don't think of the monkeys." nevertheless, all are worth practicing.
still mulling over the concepts of "great compassion" and the two kinds of bodhisattva paths, which we heard from the precept ceremony. the first one, "thinking solely for others" seems daunting at first, but it can actually works sort of like a huatou and has helped me release my grasp on personl negative feelings. "無" and "為眾生" are simply the two sides of the same concept. pretty cool hey! :)
Yes, Anny you now see the matrix:).
Many people changed their huatou for good (even when people used it 6-7 years) after the retreat.
To me the two kinds of bodhisattva paths were also a bit like "don't think of a white elephant." This reminded me what Alan Watt said: "if wisdom is to see that form is void, than compassion is to see that void is form."
awesome quote!!!
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