How to enter the meditation state?

The oldest, most popular, most systematic and practical meditation method-the concept of entering and leaving interest (the concept of counting interest)

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In view of the fact that many bar friends are novices, although the original post contains a small amount of scripture, it is not easy for some bar friends to understand. I will try my best to popularize the content, so that the pre-(pre-) procedure of the interest calculation method can be clearly explained, so that even friends at the middle school level can see it at a glance.

Background of this method

Going in and out of meditation, also known as "the concept of counting interest", is "Anna-like" in Sanskrit, which is the "two manna gates" left by the Buddha before his death. It is the oldest, most popular and most understandable meditation (enlightenment) practice method in Buddhism for thousands of years. According to this practice, not to mention practicing meditation or internal skills, it is more than enough to realize nirvana all the way and jump out of the three realms instead of the five elements.

It is pointed out in Six Wonderful Gates, an important Zen book written by the Buddhist Tiantai wise master in China, that the six levels of the concept of counting interest are: (1) counting interest-counting interest, (2) following interest, (3) deciding or gathering-stopping, (4) knowing-viewing, and (5) returning.

Since this post is aimed at beginners, I only introduce the first three steps, and you can settle down after completing these three steps. I won't introduce the last three steps, that is after I have the basic skills of concentration.

The first three steps are: count the breath, follow the breath, and stop your attention at a point on your body (integrate the method of inner observation and limit this point to the area below your nostrils and upper lip).

Truth needs no embellishment. Practice this rule, don't worry, the method is very simple, that is, you can understand it immediately. For those who are still outside Buddhism or lack interest in Buddhism, you don't need to believe in Buddhism or understand Buddhism. As long as you insist on practicing with integrity, you can achieve according to law even if you can't read. Even if you don't intend to enter the Buddha, meditation can make your heart look like a mirror and your wisdom open; It's not surprising that your heart is like a rock. It will be bad to do things with this mentality!

The length of life is between one breath and one breath. If we can't breathe in one breath, we may go to another world. Therefore, this method uses everyone's breath, starts with breathing, and quietly observes your own breath, thus exploring the physical and mental world and relieving life troubles.

Heart and interest are interlinked, and observing interest is the art of mind control. Breathing itself is the externalization of the mind. The mind stops more and more, and the breathing becomes more and more subtle; Shortness of breath indicates that the mind is getting crazier and crazier.

Breathing is not only the physical level, but also the embodiment of the mind, so this method is a bridge to communicate with the body and mind. In this way, it is easiest to find the truth of body and mind.

So breathing itself is a manifestation of delusion and other thoughts. If you add other methods, it is tantamount to putting your head on your head, making mistakes and making it more difficult to settle down. Especially those methods with obvious religious traces are not easily accepted by people of different religions or cultures. Truth is universally applicable and has nothing to do with religion or culture.

The basic content and practical steps of the concept of access information (counting information concept)

Because people's roots and karma are different, this method will focus on beginners and integrate Vipassana with other interest-bearing methods. I hope friends can refer to it flexibly.

Step 1: Calculate the interest (Bai Fei stage)

(1), first of all, emphasize that you can understand "breathing" as breathing, but in the initial exercise, counting breaths does not mean counting breaths (times). Those who "stop" rest also have a short time between breathing and inhaling. This moment is not breathing, not inhaling, or "breathing". Calculating interest is to calculate this "interest"-the number of stopovers.

When the baby is in the mother's womb, it doesn't need to breathe through the nostrils, but "fetal interest"-breathing through the umbilical cord connected to the mother outside the navel, inputting nutrition and exchanging energy. Therefore, practitioners can achieve the state of "fetal interest" by counting interest, so as to stop the mind like a baby and achieve the state of least delusion and distractions.

Of course, fetal interest is another complicated topic, which will not be discussed in depth in this post. When the yogi often reaches the level of the first meditation, the nostril breathing can stop and he begins to breathe through the tiny pores of the whole body.

Why use "one breath, one breath" as a breath? Why not "breathe" a number and "breathe" a number? Goode said that such a number will have a "stagnant throat" phenomenon, that is, the gas will get stuck in the throat and get sick, so this number method is not used.

In addition, at the beginning of interest calculation, it takes a long time to inhale and exhale. You try to inhale air into your abdomen, because it takes a long time and a long distance to inhale, and it is not easy to have distractions; If you breathe the breath into your throat, it is easy to get distracted because of its short distance (short time) and fast speed, and it is difficult for you to calm down and concentrate.

Ordinary people breathe from the nasal cavity to the throat and exhale immediately; There is a person with a slightly better physical quality who will exhale immediately after inhaling from the nasal cavity to the chest; There is another kind of person who has practice, or who is full of energy although he has no practice. The gas inhaled by such people sinks into the abdomen.

People who inhale air from the nasal cavity into their throats will breathe more times a minute. If you can breathe into the abdomen, the number of breaths in one minute is very small, so this type of person is not easy to be out of breath whether working, running or singing. He can recite more than 30 words in one breath because there is still breath in his stomach when he is reading. People who inhale into his throat need to inhale constantly when reading articles and singing, because the inhalation distance is very short, and they have to inhale again soon after the breath is released.

Now everyone understands this truth. When you sit quietly, you should habitually and consciously sink into your abdomen. Once you get used to this method, even if you don't sit still, even if you are sleeping, the inhaled air will naturally sink into your abdomen. Anyone who has practiced Qigong knows the benefits and importance of sinking abdomen. Only when the air we inhale sinks into the abdomen can physiological energy be easily activated and awakened. At the same time, the inhaled gas will stay for 3~5 seconds after sinking into the abdomen.

Why do you stay for 3~5 seconds? Because if you just inhale and sink into the abdomen, and then exhale immediately, it has no effect at all; If the qi sinks into the abdomen and stays for 3~5 seconds, it will spread and be transported to every corner of the body and reach every nerve ending. As long as you put your breath into your abdomen, it will spread everywhere. He can't stay here completely.

So you put qi into your abdomen, and it goes down to your legs and toes; Go up and go to the top of your head; Upper limbs, hands and fingertips. If you breathe into the abdomen and exhale immediately, then there is no way for physiological energy to be pushed by breath to reach every nerve ending.

One line of qi, one line of blood; Too angry, too bloody. After the physiological qi and blood are unblocked, the body naturally moistens and the physiology is not easy to dry up. Why do some people look like dead wood when they are very young? It is because his qi and blood are not running smoothly and his body is not nourished.

(2) How to calculate? This kind of breathing pause time, have a plenty of breathing to the end, pause; Have a plenty of breath to the end, pause. Do what suits you according to your own situation. I took a deep breath to the end and paused. Because exhaling in one breath is a "spent force" at the end, it is even worse to pause if you are out of breath.

And this pause time can be gradually extended with your practice level (breathing time is getting longer and longer). Of course, Vipassana does not require this, but only requires awareness of natural breathing. But beginners are often impatient, and some people may not be used to introspection from the beginning. Because Vipassana is slow work and fine work, it doesn't accord with beginners' desire for success.

In this way, the interest is calculated, and it is required to count from one to ten, and the cycle begins. One to ten is the best digital stage, otherwise the number is too small, and the heart will be easily agitated and scattered because of the narrow space; If there are too many numbers, your heart will be slack and dizzy because of too much space and too long time. I forgot to count before I counted to ten, indicating that my heart began to disperse and I had to count it again; If you still count above ten, it means that your heart is beginning to sink. Be sure to count it again!

If it still doesn't work, you can use another, more intense interest calculation method. This method of calculating interest is like a farmer measuring grain or pouring beans while calculating quickly. How to calculate? You can count "1111"when you earn money, and "111/kloc-0 when you have high yield. Count "22222" when you earn money and "22222" when you promise ... so count to ten, so your heart has no chance to stop beating. If you have time to think, use this method.

If this method still fails, there is a third way to calculate interest: when we earn money, count "one two three four five six seven eight nine Ten" and when we are productive, count "one two three four five six seven eight nine Ten" ... In short, don't let our hearts have a chance to stop.

The purpose of doing this is to make you form a good habit of neither being scattered nor groggy, because being scattered and groggy are the two great enemies of meditation. In addition, this is also to cultivate your heart and determination to live in the present. Because people have endless troubles and pains, the biggest reason is that they can't live in the present, but look back too much or look forward to the future.

If some people are very demanding of themselves from the beginning, pause for a long time in the middle and obviously have a tendency to hold their breath, I suggest you be realistic. In addition, when you start counting your breath, if you feel suffocated after counting a few times, you may wish to take a deep breath once or twice.

It should be noted that when counting breath, the mind should focus on breath. Counting is just a tool and a convenience, and the mind should not focus on counting.

(3) At this stage, some people will think: Teacher, I wish you didn't teach me to calculate interest. I didn't know I had many delusions until I calculated my interests. I don't think so much when interest is not counted. Taking advantage of my interest will disturb my thinking. In fact, it's because you think a lot, but you don't realize that counting interest makes you realize that you think a lot, and not counting interest makes you think a lot.

Just like there is a stinking ditch in front of your house, you go in and out every day, and you won't feel stinky when you get used to it. One day, your friend came to your house and was smoked back three feet by the gutter, shouting: It stinks! Only then did you realize that this ditch really stinks. As a result, you blame others for asking you to find a gutter in front of your house. Isn't this puzzling?

(4) It should be noted that beginners tend to be very diligent at first because they are eager to succeed. They had to sit quietly for dozens of minutes when they came up, but the result was disappointing. Many people give up this method of calculating interest, thinking that this method is monotonous and has few tricks, and some may be replaced by other methods. But you have to understand that you can't play with simple things, let alone complicated ones.

Therefore, for beginners, the quality of each interest calculation is more important than the quantity and time. Even if you limit your time to one minute at a time, as long as you can take this minute's interest into account, it will bring you confidence and then slowly extend the time. Confidence is firm step by step, not overnight! This is a marathon, not a 100-meter sprint.

Beginners may have headaches, dizziness and difficulty breathing. That's because I'm nervous and eager for success, so I'm so angry that I can't breathe naturally.

The above is the first stage of entering and leaving the concept of interest (calculating interest). At this stage, breathing in and out is obvious and clear, and delusions and distractions are the most important. The most obvious is the "wind phase"-the nose has a sound when it comes in and out. Therefore, as long as we pay attention to the in and out of breathing, we don't have to pay attention to other things, such as whether the sound of breathing is big or small, how big or how small; Whether breathing is long or short, how long and how short it is; Is breathing hot or cold? How hot or cold? Because your mind is too thick to pay attention to more subtle things.

This is the stage of entering the future.

Step 2: Pay interest.

(1), after a period of practice, if you can successfully count one unit-from one to ten-then start the second and third units. You can continue to focus on breathing in this way for about fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, or even half an hour. If you are calm and paranoid, you don't have to count your breath. Why? Because interest is only for beginners, because it will be very uncomfortable when you just change your climbing habits, and delusions and distractions will emerge one after another, so you should treat it as interest.

If you can continue to focus on breathing for 30 minutes or 40 minutes ... because your heart continues to focus, you will find that your breathing is silent, steady, slow and thin, which means that you have entered the second stage-long breathing.

Breathing for a long time means that the whole process of inhalation and exhalation takes longer. At this stage, the mind is already very focused. If you continue to calculate interest, it will destroy this realm, so you can "follow the interest."

In the interest stage, because your mind is focused enough, you have the ability to be more focused. At this time, you should focus on the contact point between the area under the nostrils and the lips (greater than the range of "people").

When the breath is exhaled from the nostril, the heart is clear, and when the breath is inhaled from the end of the nostril, it is also clear. With the breath coming and going, thoughts are tightly bound in this area, and they don't go anywhere else-they are only aware of the breath in this area.

(2) It is very important to focus only on breathing itself!

Breathing itself is breathing, why should we emphasize it? We can do an experiment here. If we try to analyze breathing, we will be able to find many phenomena in breathing. For example, now let you pay attention to the coolness when inhaling, can you? Yes! You will be able to find a cool feeling on your nose or people. If you pay attention to the warm breath, can you? It is also possible. In the same way, you can pay attention to the softness, smoothness, lightness, smoothness and push of breathing.

If the meditator pays attention to the softness, smoothness and lightness of his breathing, then he pays attention to the big, not the breathing. Why? Because softness, smoothness and lightness are the characteristics of big places. If you pay attention to the fluency and flow of breathing, then he is paying attention to water, because flow is a special stage of water. If you are concerned about cold and warm breathing, then he is concerned about fire, because cold and hot are the characteristics of fire. If you are concerned about the promotion, support and strength of breathing, then he is concerned about strong winds, because promotion and support are the characteristics of strong winds. These are not breathing itself!

It is said that some people introduce breath from the nose into the throat, then into the heart, all the way to the abdomen or navel, and then go out from here. He is actually paying attention to the flow of breathing. According to the theory of pure Taoism, the nose is not the beginning, the heart is the center and the navel is the back. It's not like this. It's just that the mind breathes with the contact point between the nose and the head. This is called following.

So there are many phenomena in breathing. If you want to analyze breathing, you can analyze its softness, smoothness, lightness, flow, heat, cold and propulsion. However, these are just four characteristics of breathing, not breathing itself.

Tip: The four "fire, water and wind" mentioned in Mahayana Buddhism refer to the four most basic "attributes" that constitute the human body.

(3) Then, can we put our hearts in the people's areas and practice our ambitions with the help of the feeling of the skin? No way! If you focus on the feeling here, you will focus on the touch of fate.

Our bodies can feel hard and soft, and rough, smooth, heavy and light are the characteristics of "land boundary", which belongs to the touch of fate and is felt through the body. What the body touches is what it touches.

It's very hot now, and our bodies can feel the heat. If you put your hand into the water, you will feel cold. Therefore, the body can feel hot and cold. Cold and heat belong to the world of fire and are in contact with each other.

If someone pats you, or accidentally bumps into the table, you will feel the impact. This is the wind boundary, because the impact and push are strong winds.

So our bodies can touch three fates: earth, fire and wind. If we are aware of warmth, cold, numbness, gentleness and so on. Between people, we are only practicing our sense of skin here, not our ambition. Although it is easy to cultivate the mind, you only need to pay attention to breathing, but because there are too many breathing phenomena, you will take a detour and find the wrong person if you are not careful.

There is a wrong way to tell people to "look at their breath" and look at their breath with their eyes, or "look at their nose and look at their heart with their nose". Because the nose is very close to the eyes, people often unconsciously look at breathing with their eyes. If a meditator asks him to open his eyes while watching breathing, his eyes will be like "cross-eyed", won't they? Watching breathing is a bad habit! After reading it for a long time, there will be many problems, such as tight nose, painful eyebrows, tight forehead, stiff head and so on.

When we can correctly identify the destination of our thoughts, we can focus on breathing itself. Breathing itself is natural, and we should also use a natural heart to perceive natural breathing, not artificial or imaginary. How do we perceive breathing?

At this stage, you should only be aware of the smell of nature and don't try to change it. If you breathe slowly and softly, and even sometimes it is difficult to detect your breathing, don't change your breathing at this time, and don't deliberately take a deep breath to make it obvious.

If some people practice for a long time in the first breathing stage and it doesn't have much effect (that is, breathing is still noisy, unsmooth, heavy and not fine), then let it go. There is no need to change and control breathing. Our hearts should let nature take its course, and we should realize what breathing is like.

Moreover, we have to admit the fact that everyone breathes differently. Some people will breathe faster, others will breathe longer; Some people breathe obviously in the left nostril, while others breathe obviously in the right nostril; Some people breathe obviously here today, and breathe obviously there tomorrow; Some people will feel obvious breathing today, but not tomorrow ... Although they are breathing, everyone's breathing is different, and the same person is different at different times, which is related to physical conditions. But in any case, we should not try to change our breathing, we just need to know how to breathe.

(4) Another point must be noted: the heart should not enter the body with the breath, nor should it leave the body with the breath. It should only be aware of breathing in the area around the nose.

How should we be aware of the breathing around the nose? In this regard, the pure Tao theory gives several examples, one of which is the metaphor of the gatekeeper.

A gatekeeper is guarding the gate. His duty is to check the people who arrive at the door. He has no obligation to those who enter the city, nor to those who leave the city. His duty is just to stick to his post and check everyone who passes through the gate. Similarly, when we focus on breathing, it is enough to realize that breathing through the nose or this area of the person. It is not our responsibility to inhale and exhale. Our responsibility is just to breathe in this area.

There is another metaphor for sawing wood. Just like a man sawing wood, if he notices the saw from one end to the other, his head will keep shaking and he may soon faint. As long as he pays attention to the saw that touches wood and keeps sawing, he can easily and conveniently saw wood.

The same is true of awareness breath, you don't have to follow it in and out. Breathing is moving like a saw; The area around the contact point is static, compared to wood. Similarly, we focus on breathing, as long as we touch this area of people, we can realize breathing.

At the same time, be careful not to be a "stupid janitor"! There is a joke: a rich man hired a servant and said, "I'm going out today, so you should watch the door." "Yes, master!" The servant readily agreed. The rich man left safely. Shortly after the rich man left, a troupe and circus came outside, with a large audience surrounded by gongs and drums. The servant wanted to see it very much, but he thought that his master told him not to. The master told me to watch the door. However, he had a brainwave: "Oh dear! The master told me to watch the door, so I took it down and looked behind. " He did it happily. As a result, the thief ransacked the rich man's house. When the rich man came back, he angrily blamed the servant: "I told you to watch the door, why don't you watch the door?" ! The servant said, master, I did as you said. "You see, I am optimistic about that door. Isn't this door still good!"

Don't be such a stupid janitor! We emphasize: be aware of the breathing in this area. But some people are smart and pay attention to the touch of the skin around them, just like that servant. In Zen master Paw's works, such as True Knowledge and Light of Wisdom, the emphasis is on "the breath of contact". Contact point is attribute, breath is subject!

It must also be noted that when the meditator's concentration is improved, even reaching near-line or safe state, his body and mind will easily feel comfortable, happy and relaxed, and that feeling is very remarkable. If his heart is attracted by these extraordinary feelings and pays attention to them, then he deviates from his meditation practice. It is impossible to enter meditation by paying attention to awareness!

In addition, some people feel hot or cold during meditation. If you have a fever, you should pay attention to your income, not your promise. The air outside your body is colder than your body, so the feeling of income is cold. On the contrary, if your body is cold, you should pay attention to your promise, which is warm. The feeling of hot and cold is in the nostrils. Just feel and pay attention, and in a short time, your health will improve.

Step 3: Holography.

When the inhalation and exhalation of breathing become more subtle and slow, we can focus on holography, that is, we can realize the whole process of breathing from beginning to end, the beginning, middle and end of breathing under the nose and nearby people.

Because when your breath becomes beautiful, your heart should also become beautiful. If the qi becomes thinner, the heart does not become thinner, or if you use the previously thickened heart to experience the subtle qi, then the heart does not correspond to the qi.

If the heart rate does not correspond, the heart is prone to deviation. For example, there is a wooden stick on the ground, and everyone can easily see it. However, if there is a hair or a needle on the ground, it is difficult to see it as long as we are not careful, isn't it? If you want to see clearly, you must be more careful. Similarly, when breathing becomes thinner, the heart also becomes thinner; Only when the heart becomes thinner can we realize the whole process of breathing and its beginning, middle and end.

Just like seeing a snake slip into a tree hole, you can know: this is the head of the snake, this is the body of the snake and this is the tail of the snake. Similarly, when our breath passes through this area, we should also know that this is the beginning, middle and end of income; This is the beginning, the middle and the end of ambition. He can also meditate: beginning, middle and end; At the beginning, during and after ... I kept a clear understanding of the whole process of breathing, including the whole process of income and the whole process of ambition.

Step 4: Take a deep breath.

When breathing becomes more subtle, you can take a breath with concentration when you have nothing.

If you can clearly understand the whole process of breathing, you will find that his breathing is gone and will soon be lost. Many people are confused about this situation because they find that there seems to be no goal in their hearts and they don't know where to focus.

In fact, breathing thinner is a good thing, the thinner the better! However, some people will wonder if he is not breathing. He should not doubt himself! Because it is mentioned in Pure Taoism that there are only seven kinds of people who don't breathe: the dead, the fetus, the drowning person, the stuffy person (the person in shock), the Brahman in the fourth Zen, the person who entered the fourth Zen, and the person who finally died. Meditators should reflect: "I don't belong to any of these seven beings." So, you must be breathing, but it's too subtle to notice. "

At this time, you should not be impatient, let alone change your breathing in an attempt to make it obvious. At this time, you should "wait" for a breath. In other words, he doesn't need to pay attention to breathing, he doesn't need to pay attention to breath, he just needs to know "breath". What is interest? If the meditator can put his finger on his nose at this stage, he will be able to feel that the area is still warm, which proves that the breath is still there. This is the "breath". Of course, this assumption only makes everyone believe that they are still interested, and does not require everyone to really try.

The reason why we translate Ana-na into breath is because the word "breath" can cover the three stages of meditation practice, that is, breath, breath and breath. Breath (breath) in and out of the phase is dynamic, the phase of breath is a little quieter, but there is still a dynamic phase; The rest phase is static.

At this stage, the breath will become very fine, fine to continuous, dense, if there is nothing, looming. This microscopic interest can be called "interest" and is static. In the breathing stage, the meditator should only gently settle his heart in this area of the person and just use "breathing". He doesn't need to find a breath, change his breath, or even care about his income and commitment, as long as he knows "breathing".

Step 5: Zen stage

When breathing and light are integrated, we should focus on Zen. After reaching this level, please refer to the content of meditation by yourself, and this post ends here.

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