Meditation Technique

Spiritual guidance is via a true Living Master. A Living Master will guide you the way to the Truth, help to resolve the problems in the spiritual path and practice, as well as to overcome the obstacles you meet in the daily mundane life.

Questions ansered by Master Ching Hai regarding meditation exercises:

Q: I heard on some of Your tapes that You recommend not mixing practices. Perhaps You can clarify for us what You intended by that.

M: Only when it has anything to do with breath control; that is all. Otherwise, there is not much there. For example, there are many kinds of so-called meditation. People say anything is meditation, so we are confused. But actually there are different types. There is a kind of mantra practice; they recite something. People also call that meditation, so that's confusing. People tell you to pay attention to your breathing- you breathe in and breathe out, and that they also call meditation. Some people say you have to pay attention to the solar plexus, the abdomen, all the time; that they also call meditation. Fine, there is nothing wrong with that.

But we abuse the word "meditation" too much and confuse people; because otherwise, I would say that everyone meditates anyhow. This morning when some of the television interviewers said, "We are not used to meditation; we don't know what is meditation, and you tell us to meditate," I said "Yes, you meditate all the time; some people meditate on money, some people meditate on girls, some people meditate on drugs when they don't have enough of them." That's their meditation. When you pay attention to something to a very extravagant degree that is when you meditate.

Therefore, I say to you, "Be concentrated, be one-pointed with my teachings". That's why you get the best results. If you meditate on my teachings and meditate on money at the same time or meditate on a mantra at the same time, of course, you are divided and that's very logical. I am not a dictator. I just tell you what is good for you. Whatever you want to do, you have to pay all your attention to that point. Whether you meditate, you fix the car, or you drive a taxi, if you don't pay attention, you will get into trouble.

That's very simple, but people think I am forbidding you this and that. No, everything I tell you is just good advice as a duty of a teacher. Whatever you know, you have to tell them. Of course, you make the choice. If you don't follow my advice, it's okay. You are responsible for your actions, the success of your meditational practice. But I am responsible to tell you what is good for you, so don't misunderstand that it's a kind of prohibiting or dictating. Everything I tell you is the age-old essence of a practitioner who wants to get away from all the traps of this materialism and rise above this mind-matter controlling power so that he can realize there is something greater than his own body and his own machine brain, the computer.

That's it. All of these are kind of secret codes, secret methods, to speed yourself on the highway of spirituality. There is nothing dictating about that because if you don't do it, I will never say anything to you. I will never scold you. I will never ring you and say, "Hey, you didn't do it." Or I will never check up on it. It's all your choice. The path of freedom is a path of responsibility, self-responsibility, so I never impose anything. Just to suggest, just to tell you, "This is a good way. If you do it, you surely will get that. If you don't, okay, you'll get half or maybe three quarters."

Q: Master, just now when I was meditating on the Sound, my whole body vibrated vigorously. I was sitting on this rock; I toppled and fell down, and then woke up. (M: Do you feel comfortable?) I'm feeling very comfortable. I had a headache yesterday, but now it has gone.

M: Sometimes, the vibration is stronger than we are, so we cannot get used to it. The moment we get used to it, we become stronger than it. Then we will feel very natural. It is as though a person has been starving for a long time, not having enough to eat and suffering from malnutrition. If he is suddenly given a lot of food, he may swallow too fast, resulting in indigestion. That is why we have to meditate seriously and regularly. When we have gotten used to meditating for a longer time, it will become a very ordinary practice, and we won't even be aware that we are meditating.

Why does a baby cry when he is born? In the mother's womb, he was immersed in water like a fish. When he suddenly emerges into our world, his skin gets in touch with the air for the first time and he has to begin breathing with his lungs. Therefore, it hurts and is very uncomfortable all over; that's why he cries. As he cries, he has to use his lungs, and then he will get used to our world. He now understands that there is no more water, that it has been replaced by air. He will get used to it slowly.

Our spiritual practice is similar to the situation of the baby. As we practice more diligently, we will get used to the higher vibrations. These vibrations are much higher than ours and that is why we are unaccustomed to them. A newborn baby also cannot get used to our comfortable and free-living environment; instead, he is accustomed to the dark and confined environment in his mother's womb. Therefore, when he is just born, he feels scared and unsafe, as if he has lost everything.

Similarly, it is not difficult for us to be liberated; the only problem is that we have to get used to the free and liberated state. When we eventually get accustomed to it, we will not want to come back to this bodily prison again. Sometimes in meditation, we enter deep samadhi and go to very high dimensions; we feel absolutely free and unrestricted. However, because of our unpaid karma and unfulfilled obligations, and the fact that we still have lessons to learn in this world, we have to come back to this physical body. The moment we are drawn back, we feel extremely frustrated and agonized; the feeling is so bad that we may cry.

There are difficult moments on our spiritual path. When karmic hindrances come, we really have to exert our greatest effort to overcome them. Suppose a baby refuses to go out because he has lingering feelings for the safety of his mother's womb. Would it be good for him? Though the environment is more familiar, safe, comfortable and warm, he cannot grow in there! He will only make trouble for himself and his mother. Therefore, he had better go out when it is time to be born.

During the process of delivery, the baby has to squeeze through the narrow and bony places in his mother's body, which can be quite painful. It is as though his head has to squeeze through two stone gates and is going to split open; it is really difficult. So you see, even such a tiny baby must make the breakthrough when the time comes. Originally, he lives like a fish in his mother's womb where there is no air, no sunshine and no material contact. After he is born, he has to live in a totally different world where everything is just the opposite! Anyway, it is good for him to force the exit; it may be uncomfortable outside, but it is still better than hiding inside indefinitely, because it is not his permanent abode in there.

In spiritual practice, we may sometimes encounter obstacles; we may feel very exhausted and want to quit. There are also times when we are battered hard by our karmic hindrances. However, we ought to stand up again, because we are human beings! We ought to be brave, and act like a hero! We just cannot lower our heads and surrender to the situation every time or give in to our insignificant obstacles.

Yesterday I read you the story "The Journey to the West". The first part of the book describes a group of monkeys, some old and some young, some very clever and so on. However, none of them dared to go beyond the waterfall just because they dreaded getting wet. What they didn't know was that there was a paradise behind the waterfall - a very beautiful cave. Whoever went in could live in that brilliant and comfortable cave. Being adults, if we fail to constantly think about making breakthroughs, then we are weaker than babies! Where can we put our pride then? Therefore, remember that we must not lose to the babies, as they are also very brave!