More people than ever are integrating meditation practice into daily life. So, what is the main purpose of learning meditation？ How exactly does meditation help with one’s life journey? As the founder of Bodhi Meditation, Grandmaster JinBodhi shares his knowledge of the physical and mental benefits of meditation. “When wisdom and energy are cultivated, every cell will become diamond-like, and life will be different.” Let us listen to Grandmaster JinBodhi explain how meditation energy can create miracles.
“Master, what do we learn in meditation?” Many have asked me this. There are many answers I consider acceptable, but they are not entirely correct.
When I was in Vancouver, some English-speaking practitioners asked me, “What is meditation?” First, we meditate to understand Nature. Is it easy to understand Nature? No. In fact, it is quite difficult to grasp. Do we understand feng shui? No. In the past, Chinese people didn’t like living by the sea. There is a saying: “Only the ignorant live by the sea.” Why is that? Because it is very humid by the sea. Move just a kilometer inland and the air is much drier. There’s a difference of 10 percent. Cultures evolve from era to era. Many cultural changes are blunders.
Do you understand people’s minds? No. Do you recognize your karmic connection with them? No. If you have a connection, you may become friends for life. With others, you are fated to be enemies. It is the fate you’re born with. Some are destined to be your enemies. Say someone annoys you, let me tell you: you will still be enemies in 20 years. There is a reason for the annoyance. Your magnetic fields repel each other.
Our behaviors are used to understand the world. How much ability, intelligence, and time we have to understand the world? Not mentioning fortune-telling, which is harder. Let’s talk about tailoring. To be a good tailor, you need 30 years of experience to make a masterpiece. It is hard. Meditation helps us understand the Universe and the Law of Nature, or the Natural Law.
We need to understand ethical rules, too. It is a misunderstanding to just comply with nature, but ignore man-made rules. For example, “A life for a life and a debt repaid.” Can you ignore the rules? No, you have to follow the rules. So we need to understand ethical rules. Do you understand human psychology? Many people don’t know how to maintain good interpersonal relationships. Our understanding of the world can be accelerated through meditation. That is one of the benefits.
(Benefits of Meditation External: Understanding the Laws of Nature.)
The second benefit of meditation is understanding the inner-self. The first part is about the Law of Nature. The second benefit concerns the inner-self. How do we understand our inner-self? We start with understanding our own thoughts. In other words, we understand ourselves from within.
We use our senses, sight, smell, touch, hearing, etc. to understand the world around us, or to judge people, products, the effect others have on us, or how we are influenced by others. We use our senses to understand this world, but few use them for self-awareness to tell right and wrong. When you make judgements, are you always right? Did you view the world with the right perspective?
When our state of mind is not expansive enough to evaluate things across time and space, our understanding and judgment might be biased. When biases exist, our emotional state and self-expression become skewed. Sometimes we are angry when there is no need to be angry. For example, a couple feels anxious if they are unable to conceive after 3 years. When they do give birth, they get aggravated because of the child. They would complain, “Why does the child not listen?”
The feelings that make us feel troubled or joyful are not real. From the perspective of time and space, your troubles arise from your ignorant state of mind. Your joys are delusions that can be likened to the soap bubbles. Soap bubbles are only a form of air. The sunlight makes them glisten, you think you found a treasure. So, you are joyful. Humans can be emotionally sensitive or responsive. We often respond emotionally due to a split-second perception. This is a key source of our troubles.
We have talked about understanding of the inner-self and the Universe. Why inner-self? Because life situations and illnesses bring us troubled feelings, or boredom, or complaints of no friends. “Such a painful life.” Did you try to make friends? You treated everyone like an enemy. So our mental pain is often caused by ourselves. To step out of such mental ailments, expand your heart.
If you have loved ones, do your best to show them your love. Step out of that lonely feeling and start to love another person, and then love a third one. I am not talking about girlfriends. I am talking about offering more help to friends. Slowly your heart is expanded and the troubles melt away. When we look into our heart, how many problems do we have? I am just scratching the surface here. What is in our heart determines our action.
(Benefits of Meditation Internal: Understanding of Inner-Self)
With a gradual understanding of my teachings and meditation practice, our health starts to improve. The more we meditate, the healthier we are. Sometimes ailments and diseases have causes that we will never know. To heal many diseases, it takes time. So we need to weigh the importance of health versus income. Happiness is not about how much money you have. It is about how you view the Universe and manage your mental world.
After learning meditation, our health will improve as practice time accumulates. Let me tell you now: With the right training, health can be improved. For example, being full of energy. In cases where unbalanced energy causes illnesses, through meditation practice, the balance of energy is restored and health is regained.
There are no perfect humans. We should gain more understanding of the world and accept it wholeheartedly. When you associate with family and friends, do you have high expectations of them? You thought someone was wonderful until you realized his excrement smelled horrible. Accept him as he is. If you were to compare yours with his, you are even. Yes, make it a competition. It sounds crude; however, such crudeness is in everybody. This is a natural phenomenon of being alive.
(Benefits of Meditation: Improve Your Health, Replenish Your Energy.)
You are here to improve your life, right? You all want to be healthier, happier or luckier, so you come here to meditate. After practicing for a short time, we will experience some physiological changes. There are many different reactions. Some diseases are slowly transformed, some will be lessened, and others will be fully gone.
There are other physical reactions. For example, your hands become smooth. Many people with dry skin have never had smooth hands. There are about 10% of the population whose palms don’t sweat. After a month of practice, your hands, feet and body, will start to sweat. Not sweating means there is a blockage. If you can sweat, the meridians in your arms are open. That is how much energy comes from meditation.
It is amazing that many diseases disappeared. Let’s talk about skincare for the elderly. As people age, from 60 onward, many get age spots on their face, arms and body. Many age spots begin to fade after 3 months of practice. Through practice, age spots fade, body gets stronger, aches and pains, and gastrointestinal ailments disappear. If you continue practicing, through the accumulation of energy, your body transforms into a state beyond human comprehension.
This is why many practitioners gain wisdom. Why do you get healthier and finally learn to let go of things after practicing? How come practicing helps you bicker less with your spouse? You feel that there is nothing to bicker about. Why? Your brain has evolved, the thoughts have expanded. Trifling matters used to be obstacles to you. After practicing, you no longer care when someone scolds you, or your colleague gets a raise but you don’t, or even when you get criticized. Nothing seems to worry you. You have a more open heart.
Many of our troubles are caused by minuscule issues. We find that with practice, we become much more big-hearted. When we gain wisdom and energy through practice, all of our cells will shine like diamonds, and our life will have truly changed.
(Meditation changes you inside and out; your lives will be transformed.)
I used to feel like a piece of rotten wood. When I was a child, I had no intelligence at all. You can imagine how difficult it was for my teacher. My teacher would ask us how much is 1 plus 1. All the students answered 2. I would echo 2. When I was asked again, “How much is 1 plus 1”, I didn’t know. “You just said the answer.” “Yes, but I forgot. Whatever you say is the answer.” I was like that.
Once, my mom knew I had a test. She was home from work and I came home to report that I was first in the class. My mom asked if the count began at the top or the bottom. The bottom. The next year, however, I was a little smarter. “Mom, I didn’t come in first this time. I scored 40 points.” “For how many subjects?” she asked. “For 3 subjects.” The perfect score was 100 each. I thought I had done better, earning 40 points for 3 subjects in total.
So don’t look down on yourself, or your kids, or your friends. Feeling inept, incompetent, weak and powerless? With the blessing of Buddha-light and meditation practices, you could become an incredibly successful person in your field or industry, even a superstar. This is quite possible, please believe in yourself. I am the perfect example, living evidence. Thank you.
Meditation can transform all. To those who came here today, this is what I believe. All the examples are to help you understand the parts you can understand about the benefits of meditation. As for the real transformation that Buddha and meditation have brought me, I wouldn’t know how to phrase it. In short, it is to transform useless to miraculous. I hope that everyone here today and all with affinity will achieve the greatest glory possible. Bless you.
