【Description】
Is what you see, hear, smell, and taste in daily life real? Do these feelings change after self-cultivation? Can self-cultivation change your understanding of time, space, wealth, fame and fortune, and even the opposite sex?
Grandmaster JinBodhi’s humorous yet profound teachings show the various sensations and feelings of self-cultivation, as well as the perception of the world and matters so that you can eliminate the obstacles on the path of cultivation, avoid detours and make faster and steadier progress.
【You will learn】
- The sensations of the five sensory organs
- How cultivation strengthens perceptive ability
【Featured aphorisms】
- When the body and mind are completely relaxed and enter a state of extreme tranquillity, or merge with compassion from the bone marrow, the “heart scent” will arise, also known as the “spiritual scent”, the “Buddha’s scent”, or the “scent of wisdom”.
- Every life form has its different smell, status, and customary characteristics.
- When humans tune their life to a different frequency, their perceptions and feelings of the world on the same matter will be different than they were in the past.
【Content】
Time? Space?
How Meditation Affects Awareness
(The first question is: What is time?)
Time is a clock.
(Can achieving non-materialization of time solve the question of human life and death?)
This is a good question.
(Ever since the formation of human society, the human lifeform hasn’t changed. If it evolved, what form or result would occur?)
The form of a spirit.
(These are interesting questions.)
Very interesting. A highly talented person! He cares about big issues. In fact, through meditation, you will have different perceptions of time and space. I usually read illustrated books. In the book Wuling’s Stories it is written: “A day in the cave is a thousand years in the outside world.” After staying one day in the cave, he came out to find the world had changed from Qin Shihuang’s time to the Tang dynasty. He couldn’t stand it.
I am not sure if it is fiction or an illusion or alluding to mental illness. Some mentally ill people behave as if under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. Some feel afflicted because of stress at work; they are unhappy with everything. Some think a dog is so cute that it is their most beloved being. They may have the wrong perception of things. So this skewed perception, or a medicated perception, differs greatly from a normal mental state.
Look at the purple flower at the side of the stage, what is it called? An orchid. If in a special state, some women might see it as a handsome man. We see it as a flower, but some may see Prince Charming. Some may see their lost baby. For some women who have miscarried, the trauma is like a shadow, still affecting their mental state. In certain states or while drunk, one might make silly mistakes in judgment.
Of course the state of being drunk differs from medication influences and mental illnesses. Those with mental illnesses, they are not making things up, they truly did see and hear what we did not. A mentally unwell person might say to you, “There is a ghost following you.” Most who hear this will be startled. A hot-tempered, vengeful person might say, “No, you are!” He retorts that there are 2 ghosts following you. He must have good reflexes and math abilities to be able to comment so quickly.
But some people can truly see them. Is what they see real or fake? Today, let’s not draw any conclusions. Once we further our meditation, we should assess our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind. These are our overall awareness, our perceptions and feelings. Do not think our perceptions and feelings are always real.
When I was meditating in my younger days, sometimes I would feel extremely itchy. My master would say, “Don’t scratch.” I insisted, “I have to, it feels like bugs crawling on me.” He said, “Let them crawl.” Sometimes my lower back was so painful that my entire body felt like it would fall apart or collapse. My master said, “Open your eyes.” When I did, I had no pain at all. The pain was gone instantly.
After we take the Level 1 class, we all feel our skin is smooth. Our mind and thoughts are smoother and clearer, right? These are all perceptions and feelings. Are these good or bad? When first meditating, we feel good, but as we progress, new feelings arise. After the first month of practice, we feel our hands are very smooth. We feel happy, right? Our hands are silky and smooth. After 3 months of practice, it gets hard to rub them together. Did we regress in our practice?
Let’s come back to the topic. If we truly practice, all of these things can happen. So our perceptions and feelings will change. Why talk about the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind? What we see is both real and fake. What we hear, smell or taste is both real and fake. Now I have given you just a rough idea, as you haven’t reached that level yet. This retreat is just a few days. It is like a beginner’s healing class. We don’t need to go deeper.
In future practice, you will slowly experience these questions; this will change your understanding of time and space, and even of fame and fortune and the other gender. For some, attraction to the opposite sex might decrease through practicing. Someday, you might think it is nothing special. Without this experience, you feel it is still better to be attracted than not. An ordinary person will think like that. But after further practice, “nothing special” means you have let go. That is why it is different.
These perceptions and feelings hover over us; they vary at different stages. Sometimes, these feelings are deceptive. They are not meant to deceive; it is because you have reached a level that this test has appeared. It is like a seasoned veteran meeting a honeytrap. In your practice, you will meet a similar issue. It will attract you, then mislead you.
Say, your body smells fragrant. Many people have this phenomenon, right? I haven’t mentioned it before so you may not have noticed. After some practice, your body naturally smells fragrant. If you rub your hands, they may smell fragrant without any cosmetics. This is normal. When our body, mind and spirit near a state of absolute calmness, and maintain a state of compassion, we are relaxed from the inside out. When we become one with compassion, the fragrance will emerge. Some call it the fragrance of mind, Nature, wisdom or Buddha-fragrance.
When our practice reaches a certain level, our feelings change or our senses perceive the world differently. We perceive in a way completely different than before. If we reach Grade 3 or 5 of cultivation, our sense of smell may be better than a dog’s. In my youth, during a certain period, I knew if someone had fought the day before. “Hey, kid, how do you know?” I said, “I can smell the argument on you.”
To others I said, “You’ve taken Chinese herbal medicine.” “How do you know?” he asked. I could tell he had taken Chinese medicine 7 or 8 days ago. “How do you know?” he asked. It’s simple. A dog or wolf can smell it. If they could speak, they’d tell you. I’m not a dog, so I just said it. You had Chinese medicine 7 or 8 days ago. The smell is strong and obvious; it remains in your body. Think about it. This is true.
If you had Chinese herbal medicine yesterday, the smell is still strong. A sensitive nose can smell it. “Sister, you took Chinese medicine.” Most people won’t ask you about it. They fear that the person won’t be happy with this question. The Chinese don’t ask it out of courtesy. Your sister asks you, “Did you take medication yesterday?” You say, “How do you know? Can you smell it?” Yesterday’s smell lingers today. What about 7 days ago? Does it still remain? Yes. Only we can’t smell it. The smell has become faint.
If you practice well, your sense of smell will be many times more powerful. You can smell it. It sounds miraculous to you, right? Now I remember in Journey to the West, the Monkey King grabbed some air and smelled it. He said, “Master, there is an evil spirit about.” An evil spirit has its own smell. Humans have theirs. A dog and a pig have theirs. Right? Every animal or life has its own smell or state of matter. Matter has its own features of coming and going. Some say, “Oh, a cold wind is blowing. A ghost is coming.”
20 years ago, I stayed in a Beijing hotel. A foreigner entered the elevator. At first, I smelled a sweet scent, but then I almost vomited at the 7th floor. His cologne almost made me pass out. He wore too much! I couldn’t stand it. So, too much fragrance could kill a person. That time the fragrance almost made me pass out. What I smelled was not a natural fragrance. I knew it was his cologne. Too much and it became unpleasant, overstimulating my nerves. It was like a swiftly slithering snake burrowing into my nerves.
So, after practice, our feelings about the world change. Do illusions arise after we practice? Let me summarize: When we adjust our life frequency to a different intensity, our perceptions or feelings toward the world and the same things change. I hope everyone has such a chance to experience these feelings in the future. If we keep practicing, we will experience them, bit by bit. It is very interesting.
This is a good question, it let me speak so much nonsense. Thank you, all.