#platform/youtube #channel/Master-YongHua #playlist/dharma-glimpses  Chan is the more advanced form of meditation from Mahayana. So Mayana stands for big vehicle in Buddhism. So big vehicle refers to the fact it's very powerful. It can help a lot more people than the small vehicle. Buddhism has two parts, two different types of approaches. small vehicle and big vehicle. Small vehicle is where you find in primarily Southeast Asia in like Thailand, Sri Lanka and so forth. You'll find that and they also have their own form of meditation that you can hear about they like to talk about vipasana meditation and so forth. We are maana meditation or chan chan which is where zen is derived from. Zen is the Japanese interpretation of Chinese chan. and so this is very very effective way of training the Asians call it cultivation. It's a foreign concept to westerners. Cultivation refers to the cultivation of our minds. What what does the mind cultivation entail? Cultivate the goodness in our minds which involves shedding the negativity in our mind and nurturing the posit the positive aspects of our mind. And that's how according to Buddhist wisdom our original nature was like and so intrinsically our nature is good is very positive but as we change bodies Buddhist call it revolved in we reincarnation we pick up bad habits don't have to look very far look at the children when they're younger, they tend to be very more positive than us, more innocent, more easygoing. As they get older, they pick up stress, they pick up negativity, they pick up a lot of bad habits in one lifetime. Right there you see the evolution from the goodness and innocence of a child to an adult who is sort of like more skeptical more a lot more negative because that's how we tend to react. We are overwhelmed by the environment. We are conditioned by society to react a certain way and therefore in one lifetime we pick up many many bad habits. Imagine if you were to change bodies after this lifetime. the Buddhist wisdom says you most of us will change simply change bodies go pick take on a different body and then this next lifetime we pick on pick up more bad habits and so forth and so forth. And as chances have that we are here in go force and encountering and practicing chan which is a way to cultivate the mind to restore the mind to its original condition and that's fundamentally what chan is about. If you look at all the negativity in your mind and we practice chan is if you do it right then you see yourself shedding those negative thoughts and with the absence or the reduction of negative thoughts such as stress, such as anxiety, such as what else? greed, such as anger, such as jealousy. All those are negative things that really are not us. It's not our true nature. We simply have an adverse reaction to the outside world. And therefore, therefore there's really no good way to shed it except for through meditation. Okay. So this is what we do. We cultivate the goodness inside of us again. And through this practice here, you you cross your legs and you endure the discomfort. You steal your mind and that's the magic right there. It's that simple. If you simply take the time, okay, and allow yourself, your mind to settle. The mind is like the surface, the water first surface of a pond. And the outside world is like the wind that blows through the pond that creates ripples on the water surface. Those ripples are the the equivalent of your thoughts. Thought arises because we react to the wind to the external noise. Okay, the external stimuli. noises, the smell, the sounds, the criticism and the desires that wells up inside of us and so forth. And therefore, if this is very natural process, you simply stop the wind from blowing and that water the ripples on the water surface there of the pond will naturally die down by themselves. It's physical. And this is the magic of meditation is about you giving your mind a chance to settle. That's all. Of course, there are more techniques to help it speed it up like we teach you to cross your legs. Okay? And build up your concentration. The more you can build up your concentration, the quicker your mind settles because remember the waves are your mind reacting to the external stimuli. Okay, like your heart. Okay. And if you simply allow yourself the time, okay, the opportunity to go into a room, put your life, shield yourself from the wind, for example, okay, then your mind will settle naturally. Does it help? Okay. And there are many methodologies in Hinayana and Mayana small vehicle and big vehicle and how to do it. And in Mayana, we have many more ways and much more effective ways in general. Think of it not just for yourself, but think of it as pollution. If your mind is so negative, you're polluting. You become a poller with your negative thoughts. Remember how when you draw near people who are negative, who are upset, who are so negative that you feel unpleasant, you're being influenced, you're being affected by others negativity. That's pollution right there. That's called mental pollution. You're polluting others with your mind, with your negativity, with your stress, with your anxiety, with your fears. And when you go see a therapist, what does a therapist do? She makes you lie down on a couch and allow you your mind to settle and distract you from your anxiety, from your mental disturbances. That's all they do. It's the same thing in meditation. And meditation is much more effective than that by the way because they simply distract you. They talk to you. They ask question. They allow you to release it. Pollute their offices. Okay? That's what they do here. You don't have to pollute anyone. You simply you simply come to a place like this where because of you learn to concentrate. Okay, you polluting but we are clearing it up for you for everyone. So you have a poller like you and you sit you we meditate with others who can who have much higher levels of of meditation skills than you then the your pollution is is resolved very very quickly. So it's very very useful is for your own well-being. This is so fundamental. You when you stressed out and you have anxiety, people typically find distractions like their drink, like watching TV, listening to music and so forth. All those are distractions. Meditation is the method that directly puts out that mental anguish, mental fire right there. There's a skill that you develop. So it's fundamental skill I feel in life that our parents never taught us, our teachers never taught us. That's something you need to develop for yourself for your own sake. You have to take care of yourself. If not, then you simply like the rest of the the the ordinary people. They ignore it. They they they sacrifice their health. They to go to work and kill themselves. And when they get sick, they go to the doctor and say, "Hey, doctor, I'm sick. Fix it for me." What does What do doctors do? They cut off your arm. They cut off your liver. Huh? That's what they do to fix it for you. All right? Whereas you meditate, you restore your mental and physical health. If you can restore your mental health, meaning get rid of the negative negativity in your mind, those thoughts of anxiety, thoughts of stress, thoughts of anger and so forth. Okay? Your mind is cleaner and therefore magical things happens as well. At the same time, physically you be healthier. What the doctors don't tell you is that your physical health is based on your mental health. Of course, they're not going to tell you that because if they if you knew, you would need to go see them so that they can they can cut off your or your your organs. So meditation is more than that. I just gave you the fundamentals actually. It's a skill where you hone up your concentration. You increase your concentration. That's a objective concentration. The higher level your conc your concentration is, the quicker you're able to flatten your water surface. Remember the water surface of thoughts arising due to the wind. The waves, the ripples happen because of external stimuli. If you simply are able to focus your mind into one spot, that's meditation right there. Concentrate. Put your mind in one place only. Meaning putting the mind in one place means focus on one thought only. Okay? Not two thoughts, not three, not four, only one thought. Then you're able to shed all the negativity a lot faster. It could be instantaneous if you are skilled enough. For example you angry, someone provoked you, you're angry, someone insulted you, you're angry or something happened and you become terrified. And for norm ordinary people, they are basically are a victim. They don't know what to do. They have to wait until you know eventually it wears off. The effect wears off. But if you have some chance skills, you are in the midst of stress because someone in at the office really stresses you out. If you have the skill, you focus on one spot and the stress inside your mind evaporates that fast. So it's extremely practical, extremely useful skill to have if you care at all because if you do not address your stress, you not resolve your anxiety. You are polluting your poller. You're polluting your space. You are affecting others around you. You're a poller right there. So that's why the the chant meditation we're teaching you here is basically fundamentally helping you develop your concentration more and more and more so that you can stop your pollution. Okay, as soon you aware of it. We naturally have adverse reactions, negative reactions to the external stimuli. That's life. There's no point in whining about it and say, "Don't you make it go away. I don't want it." No, it will come to you, okay, naturally because that's part of being alive. That's part of living in society, okay? It will be noise pollution. There will always be people who are who are negative around you. Most people around you are negative anyway. That's a pollution right there. and you don't allow them to affect you at all. Actually, you help them by not adding to the negativity. So that's how we go about with the chan practice with meditation practices. Okay, build that that concentration so that as soon you realize realize that we need to steal our mind and shed it from negative thoughts that's when you focus you go back your your for concentration skill focus on one thing okay and that's how you shed it and there are many ways to to increase your focus in many ways and reciting a mantra is one way one among the multitude of ways we teach in in in chan meditation. You see if the principle of chan meditation put your mind in one place then putting your mind on reciting this mantra would work is also considered meditation as well. Actually it's actually very very effective way of doing it of increasing our concentration because mantras are like secret words from from the Buddha from bodhic sambas that help you increase your concentration okay and and reduce the disturbances you know among other great things that could happen to you. Okay. Why reciting mantras? most of the world know about Tibetans as specialists in reciting mantras. Okay. But actually in Chan we also have this this tantric practices as well. that's for from us as far as we're concerned. we pick up this this these skills from my late Chinese teacher great Masha Shinoa who's actually a specialist in meditation and while reciting mantras this is a good thing to do. All right. A to a to