Many people in pursuit of physical and mental health are aware of the power of meditation. Practicing meditation as a means of preserving holistic health is an increasingly popular part of modern life. Those who practice meditation regularly are usually calmer and happier. But the benefits go far beyond this. From improving health and unlocking wisdom to opening awareness and liberating the soul, the benefits of meditation are manifold. In this video, Grandmaster JinBodhi, the founder of Bodhi Meditation, explains how regular meditation practice helps us to free ourselves from suffering and improve the overall quality of our lives.
Our holistic meditation method allows everyone to obtain the best knowledge, energy and wisdom to meet their needs. Especially for improved intelligence, I am a good example. When I was young, I was a blockhead, a stupid person. Now, though not very smart, I am much smarter than when I was young. I can remember the road, people, and simple things, and make judgments. To me, intelligence development is the number-one benefit.
Dozens of years ago, in my home country, China, some middle-school and university teachers and I did some experiments: They played the children the mantra and songs I sang and taught them my meditation methods. Usually, those distracted students with minds that easily wander from the body, and who sit there but whose soul is home, or in the park, do poorly at school or get little of what is taught. For a normal student, teaching them 3 times is enough, but distracted students need 30 times.
But through a short period of meditation, their memory improved a lot; their focus and thinking ability also improved significantly. Thus, learning meditation will surely enhance our intelligence. In Asia, books about modern and ancient meditation masters are plentiful. The masters’ talks are full of wisdom, philosophical truths and words that help us leave suffering and gain happiness. Meditation develops our intelligence. It helps seniors delay mental degeneration and youths become smart.
Its use is wide and multiple. It awakens wisdom and our spiritual insight. Sometimes it is hard to tell between wisdom and spiritual insight. Spiritual insight feels amazing. Through analysis, we draw a conclusion, which is usually called wisdom. But spiritual insight is beyond our imagination, analysis and logical thinking.
For instance, once I used spiritual insight to heal a child’s diarrhea. This boy was a teen who had serious diarrhea. No medicine worked for him. After his parents found me, since many people was seeking my help, I didn’t have time to think about what his problem was. I just looked for the cure with my spiritual insight. Instantly, I got an idea: Drink a few bowls of water. At that time, they used a well for water. After drinking the well water, he recovered. The water was unboiled and he took no medicine. He just drank the well water.
Normally, asking a diarrhea patient to drink well water is unimaginable. So his mother opposed it: “What? Let him drink well water?” But the kid accepted it joyfully, “OK. I will drink. Mom, bring the water.” His mom was surprised, but still brought him the water. Simply said, after drinking the water, he recovered. According to common sense for both Westerners and Easterners, giving well water to patients with serious diarrhea just doesn’t make sense. Was my decision from my experiences? No. It is inspiration. I never tried this before. It was the first case for me. Instantly, I got an inspiration: Drink water. Then he recovered. It is as easy as that.
With regards to developing inspiration, some are very interested in it. Through meditation, we can increase inspiration. Once our overall ability becomes stronger, it benefits everything we do. Thus, meditation can develop inspiration, increase and extend our overall ability. In the past, especially prior to 500 years ago, great achievers in each generation were spiritually inspired. You may research: In Chinese history, all recorded people of note were meditation masters. The best known figures, Kongzi (Confucious), Laozi, Xunzi, and Zhuangzi, all end with “zi” meaning “saints”. These saints are meditation masters. Meditation can bring us many benefits.
(Meditation develops our wisdom and inspiration, increasing and extending our overall ability.)
As for its effect on our health, I have been teaching and observing: Meditation’s benefit to health is comprehensive, helping conditions such as rheumatic arthritis, the bone and joint pain, which so many adults have. It is common. Bodhi Meditation helps this type of illness significantly. Everyone can experience such benefit. The human body has many parts, including the bones. Rheumatism is an illness in the bones. Humans also have internal organs. And there is the head. These are the 3 main parts.
For the internal-organ part, people’s healing varies due to different karma. I have heard of successful healing of almost every kind of organ disease here. The healed cases include some severe illnesses, such as liver cancer, pancreatic illness or diabetes, chronic stomachache for unknown reason, heart problems and so on. Skin illness is also included. Thus meditation has multiple effects on illness.
Generally speaking, though it sounds miraculous, I believe many come to practice for a purpose. Say, they want to eradicate their lumbar pain. Though the lumbar pain still exists after one year of practice, other physical problems may be healed. Because people’s physical structures and causes of illness vary.
The recovery also relates to our life, work, diet and habit. If you have lumbar pain, and you still bend your back at work and do labor, then in the process of recovery, the pain may come back again. If your back is recovering, and you have to work the next day, continuing to bend and do labor, then it’s hard to recover. For some people, their illnesses relate to their diet. Say, some have a severe allergy. After practicing for a while, the allergy is gone; but it comes back a few days later. Because they are eating food they are allergic to. If we live a reasonable, healthy lifestyle, then our health could be improved.
Let’s come back to Bodhi Meditation. Its comprehensive healing effect comes from the built-up physical energy. It builds up, strengthens our energy to fight existing illnesses or prevent potential ones. That’s how it works. Bodhi Meditation is usually helpful to our holistic health. If you want to have a better result, practice more. I usually suggest: Since you have learned it, keep practicing. Don’t wait till you are ill; it will be a bit late. It is better to prevent illness than take pills after you fall ill. Also, some illnesses may seem healed, but may only be healed partially; you just don’t feel it anymore. A more serious problem may remain latent. OK, that is my suggestions for you.
(Meditation is conducive to our holistic health. Its effect arises from built-up physical energy.)
If you come to meditate, you feel happy and obtain happiness and health. That is liberation. Also, many people pursue a higher spiritual state, which is also considered “liberation”. Thus, liberation is a general concept. It’s like happiness; there isn’t a fixed definition of happiness. If we feel happy right now, it is called happiness. What is liberation? It is to untie the fetters, the bondage that trap us.
If you are bound because you committed a crime. You lost freedom. To liberate is to be released from the bondage or pressure. This, we call liberation. The bondage includes the suffering of illness, mental suffering, afflictions and pressure caused by poverty, all of which can bring confinement and pressure. If we take them off, unbind them, it is called liberation. When your marriage brings you suffering, you fix the problem through divorce or reconciliation, and you stop the suffering, it’s called liberation.
Liberation is surely related to afflictions, right? Affliction never ends. When it reaches a certain place, does it end? No. It is like a runner reaching the finish line of a race, no matter winning or losing, every day of our lives continues to repeat itself. So liberation never ends. Right after your liberation today comes another affliction tomorrow. Say, eventually you regain your health, then a mortgage issue arises. You finally bought a house, then you lose your job. Another financial issue arises. Once the financial issue is fixed, your children begin to have problems. Problems never end.
Then how to liberate? There are 4 Chinese words used by our ancestors: “See through, let go.” After we see through the laws of matters, we won’t be afflicted by phenomena manifested by them. If we see the truth, we won’t be scared and afflicted. What torments most is nothing but critical illness, death, divorce or breakup. These bring people great distress. However, if we see through these, the hurt is much reduced. The aforementioned is “see through”. Also, you should let go of any suffering including mentally unbearable, miserable feelings. They are natural phenomena, just accept that. So if we see through, we can liberate.
Many things have their natural laws. Thus, when we see through the laws of matters, we will have less affliction.
(Meditation allows us to see through laws of matters so as to reach higher mental liberation.) You are welcome here to learn more often. Such a session offers only a brief introduction. If you want to know more, further learning is necessary. Then you can really grasp and use the teachings.
