Chan Series - Part 2
Real Meditation Is No Meditation

By Chang Jie
01/11/2009

On Sunday, January 11, 2009, Venerable Guo Xing, Abbot of the Dharma Drum Retreat Center and Chan Meditation Center gave a talk entitled, "Real Meditation is No Meditation" for the second of the Chan lecture series.

Venerable opened the talk by stating that, to ordinary people, real Buddhist practice may be defined as meditation, prostrations, and reading sutras.  Can mundane activities, such as everyday chores and work, or arguing with someone, be considered Buddhist practice?

This may really depend on oneís attitude and mindset at the time.  If you scold someone with no sense of self, and if the situation requires it, then you are being compassionate.  You can test yourself by checking to see if you can switch your attitude completely from one moment to the next, from anger to that of gentleness.

This may really depend on oneís attitude and mindset at the time.  If you scold someone with no sense of self, and if the situation requires it, then you are being compassionate.  You can test yourself by checking to see if you can switch your attitude completely from one moment to the next, from anger to that of gentleness. 

When we meditate during a retreat, we are constantly reminded to let go of wandering thoughts. When we are not practicing on the cushion, we do not tell ourselves, "I am having a wandering thought, so I should not follow it."  We actually follow our thoughts.

Ordinary people think sitting on the cushion is true practice.  But true practice is cultivating the precepts, concentration and wisdom in order to achieve bodhi mind.  Every activity is real practice and every place is the Chan Hall.

During retreat, the goal of most people may be to have a concentrated mind and enter a state of tranquility and peace.  This samadhi practice will help reduce emotional ups and downs and deal with minor vexations, but probably will not be as useful for bigger problems, such as those of life and death.  For example, if someone is pointing a gun at your head, will you be able to just relax and focus on your breathing?  If you donít transform your mindset and understand that all phenomena are illusionary, impermanent, and composed of the five skandhas, you will probably not be able to deal with problems because you will think they are real.

The term "wandering thought" in English does not quite capture the Chinese term.  We do not know where thoughts come from or where they are going, so we call them "wandering' but in the Chinese, the term is actually "illusionary" thoughts.  If you donít think of them as illusionary and think they are real, you will follow them and create more thoughts.  The term "illusionary" does not mean fabricated or not real.  "Illusionary" means all things exist because of causes and conditions arising and perishing, and are impermanent and ever-changing.

Thoughts are comprised of the five skandhas.  Dualistic thoughts give rise to vexations.  Venerable advised that we treat everyday phenomena as not concrete or permanent but as images projected by the mind or as merely a skandha or form.

To summarize the main points of the talk, Venerable encouraged the audience that during daily practice, it is good to cultivate samadhi so that the mind is more stable, concentrated, and not as easily affected by emotions.  But it is very important to perceive that all five skandhas are empty and that everything that we perceive is illusionary and impermanent.  If we cultivate wisdom and transformation of the mind, when life and death situations occur, we will have the power to deal with them.