Master Jingzong Answers Questions about the Purpose of Life
淨宗之聲 - 人生目的問答
(Continuation 3/5 to answer the question: How can we attain real happiness in the Land of Saha?)
The second kind of happiness is internal happiness, which is a kind of joy experienced during meditation. “Accepting the joy experienced during meditation as nutritious food” is not the same as the external happiness received by the satisfaction of the Five Desires - money, lust, fame, food, and sleep. It is a kind of feeling of bliss, peace, and purity experienced internally through meditation.
Sentient beings who have false, assorted, confused, and scattered thoughts do not have such feelings. The happiness of the Five Desires is within the scope of the Desire Realm, and it belongs to the lowest grade.
The joy of meditation can reach the heavens of the Matter Realm, or even as high as the heavens of the Non-Matter Realms, if their skills in meditation are very high. This is what we have been taught , but have not actually experienced these states.
Some genuine practitioners, who have experienced the joy or bliss of meditation, no longer crave the satisfaction of the Five Desires, because they are of different grades. The satisfaction of the Five Desires can cause us to commit offenses, due to confused and inverted thinking, and even the joy of meditation is also not the ultimate.
Some of those who experience the joy of meditation may become arrogant, and even aim at becoming immortal beings. These psychological changes can spoil the joy of the meditative state, because they cannot detach from it, and they dwell within the Three Domains forever. Even if they are able to temporarily reach the Fourth Dhyana Heaven, they are still unable to leave the Three Domains.
(3/5 completed. To be continued tomorrow)
第二種樂叫內樂。內樂就是內在的,以佛法講就是禪定之樂,“禪樂為食”。
不是依據外在的五欲——財色名食睡,是內在通過禪定的經驗感受到一種喜樂、平安、清淨。
一般妄想紛飛、雜亂散念的眾生,很少有這樣的感受。五欲之樂是在欲界的範圍之內,屬於最低級的。
禪定之樂可以到色界天,當然,如果禪定功夫非常高的,可以到無色界天。這些我們也是聽聽而已。
有些真正修道的人有了禪悅、禪樂,根本就不稀罕世間的五欲之樂,因為不是一個級別、一個層次的。五欲之樂會造罪,迷惑顛倒;禪悅之樂也不究竟。
一般人得到禪樂,他也會起驕慢,甚至想成為一個神仙,或者沾染在這種禪的境界當中,就 沒辦法脫離,永遠在三界之內。即使到了四禪天,仍然還在三界之內,不能出離。
Namo Amituofo!
