Also, when you meditate, don't meditate wrongly. It is easy to
fall into trance and get posssessed by ghosts if you don't meditate
properly. Meditating wrongly will make you end up become a
medium.
If in your meditation, you don't maintain very strong presence
of awareness, and when you relax, let go, and enter into a trance,
this is where spirits can enter. This is when 'tiao dang' can
happen. You must not let this happen.
If you meditate, follow these instructions:
http://www.jenchen.org.sg/cultivat.htm#stateofmind
Observe the
mind to purify it
We
are all human beings and we all have a mind. We are frequently
‘deceived’ by our minds. For an entire lifetime we are ‘deceived’
and ‘misled’ by our minds without ever realizing it! If the mind is
good, then of course, it is all very well. Such a mind creates a
good person; one can ascend to the heavens or one can perform a lot
of virtuous deeds. What happens if the mind is evil and becomes
defiled? It can drag us to become animals, ghosts and deities, or
descend to hell. This is because our mind is not pure, and
therefore the world becomes a sea of suffering. This suffering
world of ours is called the "Saha World". It means having to endure
and is also called the "World of enduring
sufferings".
If
we all purify our minds, then the world becomes a heaven. Everybody
is very happy and there is no suffering. In learning and practising
Buddhism, the most important thing is to purify our minds. When we
can purify our minds, then naturally there will be happiness in our
world.
To
do that we have to observe the non-arising of the mind. This is
called ‘contemplation of the mind’. When the mind is polluted, then
we cleanse it with the dew of the Buddha. And when our minds have
been purified, then they are the same as those of the Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas. In this way, we will progress very quickly in our
cultivation.
Observing
the mind is very simple. It is like watching out for the mouse.
Everybody dislike mice because they steal our food or they damage
our clothings. An idiom describes this sentiment with the phrase,
‘When the mouse crosses the street everybody goes after it.’
Obviously mice are not welcomed and they have to be dealt with. One
method of dealing with it, is the cat. At the sight of a mouse, the
cat puts his paws firmly on the ground and fixes its steely eyes on
the mouse. On seeing the cat, the mouse trembles with fear, not
daring to make even the slightest movement. Treat your mind as if
it were a mouse and your awareness as the cat. At every moment
observe your mind, in the same way as the cat watching the mouse.
The mouse wants to live and hardly has time to think of its own
safety, let alone of stealing food. If we can observe our minds,
then we will hardly have time enough to treasure our wisdom life,
let alone think of committing evil deeds.
Therefore
when we are learning and practising Buddhism, we need to learn to
"contemplate the mind". In this way, we will very quickly be able
to avoid all evils and do all that are
good.
"Avoid
all evils; do all that are good; purify one’s mind. These are the
teachings of all Buddhas". Besides avoiding all evils and doing all
that are good, we need to purify our thoughts. When our thoughts
have been purified, then the mind is pure. The purpose of learning
and practising Buddhism is to purify the human mind. If the minds
of everyone in the family is pure, then our home is pure; if the
minds of everyone in this society is pure, then our society is
pure; if the minds of everyone in the country is pure, then our
land is pure; if the entire human race in the world is pure, then
our world is as happy as the Western Pure
Land.
Our
mind is like the stealthy mouse, ever watchful of a chance to creep
out to commit evil deeds, and we are not even aware of that. I hope
all of us will keep a cat to watch our minds, so that we can become
Buddha quickly.
................
When you have presence of awareness, your mind will be
bright and not allow the interference of spirits. It is important
to note that if you can't do that (maintain the presence of
awareness), if you cannot maintain presence of awareness, don't
meditate for now. If you fall into an unconscious trance,
it is dangerous.