We know that meditation practice aims to solve the issues of life and death (enlightenment) and health problems during the process. Can't we learn it on our own? Why do we need systematic learning? The first issue we need to address is the efficiency of meditation practice. Some people have been practicing for years without significant progress and even lose faith. We should ensure we can reach a beautiful and advanced state at ease whenever we practice meditation. In other words, we should be able to break through each practice; this is what we mean by the efficiency of meditation practice. At least, we need to understand the reasons for the failure clearly. The second issue is the accuracy of meditation practice. What state do you want to achieve in your meditation practice? Accuracy is very crucial. Different meditation states come with distinctive energy statuses. We must aim where we attend to hit. We should be accurate and precise in reaching our intended state. Otherwise, we are not benefiting from using different statuses out of our free will. Only by solving these problems, we can efficiently address issues related to our life, death, and health. To solve our health problems, we do not need to reach an advanced level of meditation practice. How can we achieve this? 1. We must avoid going astray. Whether you are on the right track depends on your understanding of the theory, that is, the understanding of the principles of meditation practice. Without correct and comprehensive cognition, everything else is meaningless. Diligence alone cannot make…

1. Why do we oppose empty talk? Empirical research is done against empty talk. Why do we oppose empty talk? Emptied of experiments and personal experience, a talker only resorts to logical thinking or uses previous knowledge to speculate on new phenomena. This analysis is obviously not beneficial to the study of Dharma, since Dharma is based on strict empirical research, without which it could never be truly understood. So, when we talk about Dharma, instead of explaining empty theories, we need to tell how to practice Dharma, or how to work diligently so as to achieve Buddha’s wisdom. A Buddhist should be highly devoted to empirical practice, observing his mind and finding his own problems. 2. What is empirical practice? Empirical practice is more than empty talk. It is a process in which we do experiments with our mind and body to verify Dharma, constantly discovering and solving our problems, and ultimately achieving great freedom of mind and body. For example, when we practice Zazen, we are constantly finding our mental and physical problems and then solving these problems. We could hardly discover problems in our subconsciousness if we do not have empirical research, not to mention solving these problems and making real progress. Dharma instructs us to enter Buddha’s state and gain Buddha’s wisdom. We could never really understand Dharma unless we do experiments with our mind and body. Here are three metaphors in "Hua Yan Sutra". 1) Without empirical practice, you are like a deaf who is playing music to other people. Music is very beautiful, but…

Who are you? You are the one who could know and perceive. In modern language, thought is the thinker himself. Where are you from? You come from Rulai Zang (Tathāgatagarbha) and you are the origin of the world. Where does Chi come from? It is all generated by you, who are much superior than Chi. There are different levels of Chi, and you possess all of them. For example, by making Chi flow in Sushumna, you gain a superior level of Chi. Returning to that state, you could immediately experience that spectacular flow of energy. Empirical practice is a process of going back, not of creation, which is usually involved in chemistry. When we do a chemical experiment, we add a reagent and have a new thing. This is not the case with empirical research, in which we give up or destroy the current conditions. After this, we could return to the flowing state of Sushumna. Remember we originally possess that state, if not, this return is not possible. So while having empirical practice, we are not adding conditions; on the contrary, we are destroying conditions gradually, to the point where only one condition is left, namely, Rulai Zang, the only real and true thing. In the whole process, you may encounter all kinds of states, encompassing the flowing of Chi in meridians and Sushumna. You only need to adjust your mind to that state, not to clear your meridians or create anything to achieve enlightenment.

The primary concern of human beings is life and death. If we could not solve the problem of death, all our activities are equivalent of waiting for death. Therefore, the study of life and death should be the top priority of all our life. First of all, we should know ourselves. Since many people treat the body as the self, let’s first approach this issue from our body. 1. Life and death of the body Facing death, most people are helpless. They have to passively wait for that final inevitable death. Trying all kinds of ways to numb themselves, they hope their fear for the death could be alleviated. The death of the body could be easily handled by the theory of Buddhist “Interdependent Origination”. “Interdependent Origination”, in modern language, is the theory of conditions, which means that everything in the world is composed of various conditions. If the conditions that compose a thing disappear, the thing no longer exists. Our bodies are like this. Being made up of various conditions, the body will cease to exist if the conditions are destroyed. Heart and lungs are two very important ones. If these two organs do not work, our body will not be able to survive. Therefore, we can control life if we could solve the death of the heart and lungs. According to the theory of “Interdependent Origination”, heart and lungs, as a kind of matter, are also composed of various conditions, flesh composition being the first condition. Besides, when we are suddenly frightened or hear unexpected happy things, our…