The World Of Tzu Chi(Vol.113)

TZU CHI 113 49 REMINDERS UNDER THE SALA TREES With the daily offerings of goat milk from the shepherdess, the prince’s strength slowly returned. However, he was unable to calm his mind and suffered much torment in his spiritual practice. Thus, the sutras tell of how he had to “subdue the ten armies of Mara”. In this context, the “armies of Mara” do not refer to external evil forces, but to the maras in our minds. Ordinary beings usually follow along with whatever happens around them. Then, when we want to calm our minds, those external scenes are like a movie playing in our minds; these are illusory images due to the maras of our minds. The calmer our surroundings, the more those external states will well up inside us. So, before the prince attained Buddhahood, he needed to eliminate those illusory states with wisdom. Turning the wheel of the heart Nowadays, there are many people who experience mental problems as a result of practising meditation, whether hearing voices or seeing things that are not there. These people often think that they have attained the “power of the heavenly ear” and treat these illusory sounds as real. It is very difficult to eliminate these phenomena. Not long ago, there was a girl who was afflicted by this: she suffered greatly, and her mother lamented, “When my daughter goes into meditation, she doesn’t react when someone calls her; all she hears are illusory sounds.” The girl said, “I went to a certain temple and saw many strange things there. I also saw many on the road.” These phenomena had continued to disturb her mind. I asked her how it all started. She said that she went to a certain temple, where someone taught her a method of practice called “listening to sounds without using one’s ears”. When she started her practice, her mind was calm, but later, when she started hearing sounds, she became obstinately attached to them. This is an example of mental problems originating with meditation. Are such illusory states due to external sources? No! These states are created by the mind. If we are even just slightly careless, we too might encounter such states, which will be very troublesome! I told the girl, “Whenever you hear these sounds, you must not deliberately avoid listening to them, but you must also not treat them as real. You should quickly remind yourself to avoid the impulse to go into a meditative state. You must first return to a normal state. Only after adjusting the state of your mind can you meditate again.” A few days later, she came back to do volunteer work. I asked her, “How are you doing now?” She said, “Now I’m very well, very normal!”