希修 shared a photo.
< 명상, 신통력, 주화입마 >
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부처님도 해탈을 통해 이런 저런 신통력을 얻으시긴 했지만, 신통력은 선정 (정신 집중으로 인한 고요함. 지혜 계발의 조건이지 지혜 자체는 아님)에 수반될 수도 안 될 수도 있는 부산물일 뿐, 지혜의 본질도 증거도 아니라고 초기불교는 가르칩니다. 심지어 타니사로 스님은, 명상시의 특이한 체험들이 '치료 대상'일 수도 있다고 말씀하십니다. 뭐가 보이고 들리고 하는 것이 신통력으로 판명된다 하더라도, integrity, discernment가 먼저 밑바탕이 되지 않는 한 마치 신체 일부만 비정상적 크기로 자라난 것 같은 불균형이라는 의미로 저는 이해합니다.
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유체이탈 비롯 이런 모든 현상들이 지혜의 본질이나 해탈과는 무관하다는 점을 모르면, '기술'과 '영성'을 혼동하는 delusion, 走火入魔, 邪道에 빠지게 됩니다.
냄새로써 질병을 감지한다거나,
생전 처음 보는 책을 펼치지 않고도 투시를 통해 그 내용을 줄줄이 읽는다거나,
귀신이나 다른 세계를 본다거나,
타인의 속마음을 읽는다거나 등등,
뭐 이런 '범상치 않은 감각/능력'을 가진 사람이라고 해서 무조건 '영적으로 우월한' 사람인 것은 아니라는 얘기죠. '영적 우월'의 본질은 신통력이 아닌 integrity, discernment, 그리고 탐진치 제거에 있다는 것이 초기불교의 입장입니다.
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integrity와 discernment에 대해 다른 '영적 전통'들에서도 얘기를 하긴 하지만,
어떻게 해야 이것들을 키울 수 있는지 초기불교만큼 자세하고 구체적으로 설명하지는 않는 것 같습니다.
매 행동 (생각과 말 포함) 사전에, 와중에, 그리고 또 사후에,
누구에게 어떤 피해/스트레스를 초래하는지를 늘 분석해라,
자신 뿐 아니라 타인의 행동 (생각과 말 포함)에 대해서도 어떤 탐진치가 얼마나 들어 있는지를 늘 주의 깊게 관찰하고 정확히 판단해라
(사람 사이의 우열을 비교하기 위한 유치한 목적이 아님),
자신이 뭔가 실수를 했을 때는 그걸 알아차리는 정도로 넘어가지 말고 존경하는 사람에게 반드시 상의해라 (신뢰 받을 만한 누군가에게 자신의 실수를 공개적으로 인정하는 용기를 내지 않으면 결국 자기 자신의 의식에게도 자신의 오류를 감추는, 부정직과 자기기만을 키우게 됨), 등등..
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암튼 어떤 종류의 명상을 하시든, 이런 측면을 늘 기억하셔서 심신의 부작용을 예방하시기 바랍니다.
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"Normalcy"
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1102393016799447&set=a.1042727616099321
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希修
#168. [Source] "Normalcy"
https://www.dhammatalks.org/.../ePubDham.../Section0018.html
[Extract] When we read about other people’s meditation experiences, we like to read about the really dramatic ones: The meditator’s awareness leaves his body and goes wandering around, sees all kinds of visions. Or a meditator discovers a sense of oneness with everything she sees. Everything is beautiful, luminous. These things sound very impressive, something we’d like to try too. But you have to look a little further into their stories, and you realize that those kinds of extreme experiences are things that have to be remedied. They’re problems. They actually get in the way of the goal.
... ... You’re not going off into extremes of harmful behavior because you’re trying to establish a pattern that will carry into your meditation. ... ...
Why do we tend to fall into extremes? In some cases it’s because we want a larger sense of self. We’re tired of being finite people and want a taste of the infinite. ... ... Or we push ourselves into extremes with the idea if we just push a little bit harder, we’ll get over the hump and into jhana, into the transcendent. But these things don’t come from pushing. ... ...
... ... We’re not trying to put ourselves into trances. ... ... You get your mind into all kinds of weird situations, weird perceptions, extreme perceptions. Then you’ve got to get yourself out, because that’s not where you’re going—at least not where you’re going if you’re going anywhere sane, anywhere safe.
... ... If your mind has a natural tendency to go in those directions, you’ve got to learn how to remedy it. ... ...
Sometimes you read that in the stages of insight you get into weird psychophysical experiences.
... ... We tend to think of the stages of jhana as very strong trance states, but actually they’re the mind in a state of genuine normalcy where it’s very perceptive, very clearly perceiving things as they are, as they come as they go, able to see distinctions.
... ... If you don’t really understand monkeys, you become a monkey too. When the monkey jumps around, your mind jumps around with the monkey. But what we’re trying to do here is to stay in a state of normalcy where the monkey jumps, but we don’t jump. We know it’s jumping, but we’re not jumping along with it. ... ...
So we are not trying to induce special experiences. ... ... You try to develop a state of normalcy where the mind can stay still and calm in the face of what it likes, in the face of what it doesn’t like. If that sounds too dull, we may want to try to force something unusual, like obliterating all distinctions between subject and object. But look carefully at that desire. There may be a strong but subtle sense of aversion underlying it, or a strong but subtle sense of passion. It’s not the way of the path. Those passions and aversions are the things you’ve got to learn how to see and uproot. ... ...
So what we are doing is something very normal. What’s unusual about it is that we’re trying to maintain this state of normalcy as consistently as we can throughout the day. That’s really extraordinary. It’s the consistency that makes it special.
[希修] Throughout the early scriptures, the Buddha strongly rebukes any mysticism such as believing in the efficacy of religious ceremonies/rituals, pursuing 'miracles' or paranormal powers and fortunetelling. Unusual visions or psychophysical experiences are not the goals of the Buddhist practice. If you experience them, you in fact have to be wary if anything. They are not at all a measure of spirituality.
[cf.] "Experimental Intelligence"
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1078580192514063&set=a.1042727616099321&type=3&theater
* jhana, concentration, normalcy, 走火入魔.
.
希修
#168. [Source] "Normalcy"
https://www.dhammatalks.org/.../ePubDham.../Section0018.html
[Extract] When we read about other people’s meditation experiences, we like to read about the really dramatic ones: The meditator’s awareness leaves his body and goes wandering around, sees all kinds of visions. Or a meditator discovers a sense of oneness with everything she sees. Everything is beautiful, luminous. These things sound very impressive, something we’d like to try too. But you have to look a little further into their stories, and you realize that those kinds of extreme experiences are things that have to be remedied. They’re problems. They actually get in the way of the goal.
... ... You’re not going off into extremes of harmful behavior because you’re trying to establish a pattern that will carry into your meditation. ... ...
Why do we tend to fall into extremes? In some cases it’s because we want a larger sense of self. We’re tired of being finite people and want a taste of the infinite. ... ... Or we push ourselves into extremes with the idea if we just push a little bit harder, we’ll get over the hump and into jhana, into the transcendent. But these things don’t come from pushing. ... ...
... ... We’re not trying to put ourselves into trances. ... ... You get your mind into all kinds of weird situations, weird perceptions, extreme perceptions. Then you’ve got to get yourself out, because that’s not where you’re going—at least not where you’re going if you’re going anywhere sane, anywhere safe.
... ... If your mind has a natural tendency to go in those directions, you’ve got to learn how to remedy it. ... ...
Sometimes you read that in the stages of insight you get into weird psychophysical experiences.
... ... We tend to think of the stages of jhana as very strong trance states, but actually they’re the mind in a state of genuine normalcy where it’s very perceptive, very clearly perceiving things as they are, as they come as they go, able to see distinctions.
... ... If you don’t really understand monkeys, you become a monkey too. When the monkey jumps around, your mind jumps around with the monkey. But what we’re trying to do here is to stay in a state of normalcy where the monkey jumps, but we don’t jump. We know it’s jumping, but we’re not jumping along with it. ... ...
So we are not trying to induce special experiences. ... ... You try to develop a state of normalcy where the mind can stay still and calm in the face of what it likes, in the face of what it doesn’t like. If that sounds too dull, we may want to try to force something unusual, like obliterating all distinctions between subject and object. But look carefully at that desire. There may be a strong but subtle sense of aversion underlying it, or a strong but subtle sense of passion. It’s not the way of the path. Those passions and aversions are the things you’ve got to learn how to see and uproot. ... ...
So what we are doing is something very normal. What’s unusual about it is that we’re trying to maintain this state of normalcy as consistently as we can throughout the day. That’s really extraordinary. It’s the consistency that makes it special.
[希修] Throughout the early scriptures, the Buddha strongly rebukes any mysticism such as believing in the efficacy of religious ceremonies/rituals, pursuing 'miracles' or paranormal powers and fortunetelling. Unusual visions or psychophysical experiences are not the goals of the Buddhist practice. If you experience them, you in fact have to be wary if anything. They are not at all a measure of spirituality.
[cf.] "Experimental Intelligence"
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1078580192514063&set=a.1042727616099321&type=3&theater
* jhana, concentration, normalcy, 走火入魔.
