..续本文上一页the Venerable Master give me information or help me to find inner knowledge about the subject of meditation

　　 Can he offer anything that would help me with my practice of meditation so that I will understand more clearly the teachings of Buddhism and the teachings of other religions I”ve studied

　　Ven. Master: Well, first of all, literally in Chinese; you "strike up" a meditation and so the answer is, if you want to meditate you have to like to be hit, to be struck. You have to be able to endure the pain if you really want to meditate. And when you are not meditating, you have to be patient. If people hit you, if they scold you, you have to take it, to the point that when the Eight Winds blow, you have to endure them, you do not want to be turned by them. Years ago I had a high school teacher disciple who had taken refuge with me. He came to me and said, "I have students who are really impossible to teach, they don”t listen to me at all. What can I do with them

　　"

　　I then gave him a method that was efficacious; it really worked. It was a mantra, he first one ever transmitted in English. Would you like to know what the mantra was

　　 I won”t keep it from you; it is not a secret. This is the mantra:

　　"Patience, patience,

　　Gotta have patience,

　　Don”t get angry

　　Swo Pwo He."

　　Then he came back to me and said, "Shr Fu, This mantra really works!". I believe you haven”t met the person who asked for this Dharma. His name is Doug Powers. If you truly want to study meditation, then you have to learn to be patient. You have to be patient with the pain and with the cold. You have to be patient with the heat, with the wind, and with the rain. In every situation, you have to be patient. You also have to be patient when the Eight Winds blow.

　　What are the Eight Winds

　　 Praise, and ridicule, pain and joy, profit and loss, fame and infamy.

　　So, whatever situation happens, don”t be turned by it. When people praise you, don”t think it”s fantastic. Don”t say, "Oh, I should go thank that person for saying such nice things about me!" If people ridicule you, you shouldn”t be turned by that either. And no matter how much pain or misery you meet., you have to endure that, too, and not be disturbed by it. When happy states arise in your meditation, you shouldn”t be moved by them, either. Don”t let it be that if good things happen, you are happy and if bad things happen, you get upset.

　　Don”t be turned by either pain or pleasure. And if people slander you and say bad things about you, there”s no need to get angry. If you have a good reputation, you need not be attached to that either. For example, Su Tung-po,the Chinese poet, got really angry when the Patriarch Fo Yin said two words to him. We shouldn”t want to imitate him.

　　Student: Would you tell me the difference between patience and just enduring something

　　 Are they the same, or is patience something different than just enduring it, just taking it

　　Ven. Master: With patience you keep your even temper; you don”t blow up. That is patience. Also, when you meditate, if you cannot take a bit of pain, it shows you cannot be patient. Patience and endurance are similar in meaning. However you can keep the bomb from going off, that is the most important thing.

　　Prof. Akpinar: I think there is a difference in English between the two. To endure means to be tough. To be patient means to have a good disposition. Endurance is a physical thing more or less, whereas patience is something soft, a disposition that goes along with things.

　　Ven. Master: Please ask if you have more questions. Otherwise, I must leave.

　　Student: Would the Master enlighten me to this: when one meditates, who or what is the meditator

　　Ven. Master: You find out.

　　Student: You said that when we meditate, we s…

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