Bodhi Mind Reflection

Finding Meditation

Steve Langford

As I reflect.

I am a believer in a God- a Creator of all things and the Universe.
In my search for God I have gone to church regularly for the past 25 years.
During those years I studied the Bible scriptures and found references to many things that are mentioned in the Bible but not explained in detail or taught to the members.
One of these things is Meditation.

In my 25 years of church, there was never a person who could truly teach me Meditation. I had to search elsewhere to learn Meditation.
I bought many books and audiobooks on the subject.
Words have many meanings and I found that I needed the real experience of Meditation, for me I am more of a visual and hands-on learner.

When I started my search I found Buddha Jewel Monastery, or perhaps I was found.
BJM was offering to teach Meditation classes and I was seeking to learn.

Originally I wanted to learn just Meditation but I didn’t want to be rude so I listened and took notes during the Dharma teachings.
What I found interesting is that some teachings of the Dharma align closely with Christian teachings.
After some time, the Dharma teachings started to give me a deeper knowledge of life, death, cycles, causality,… I know I have much more to learn.
I find that the Dharma teachings are helping my Meditation to be deeper and better. My mind has been strengthened tremendously.

I still struggle at times with Meditation, sometimes I make progress, other times I feel like I’ve lost progress, but I continue on and the Dharma teachings help motivate me to overcome these obstacles, and I continue on.
For example, learning of the “Mara – Death” which is limiting my time here to be a practitioner of Meditation, I am more motivated after this teaching to spend even more time Meditating.
I am pleasantly surprised that the teachings have enhanced my Meditation and now I look forward to deepening my understanding of Dharma as well as my Meditation.

菩提心旅

如我所思

Steve Langford

我是個相信上帝的人 –上帝是宇宙萬事萬物的創造者。過去二十五年來,我持續的上教堂尋找上帝。在那些年中,我研讀聖經,並且試著印證許多在聖經中曾提到但卻未詳述的事項。其中之一便是靜坐。

在我二十五年的教堂經歷中,從沒有任何人可以真正教導我靜坐。我必須從他處學習如何靜坐。我買了許多有關靜坐的書籍和有聲書。但文字總有多重含義,我發現我需要靜坐的真實體驗,因為我屬於偏重視覺和實作的學習者。

最終,我找到了佛寶寺,或者應該說是—我被找到了。在我渴望學習的時候,佛寶寺提供了靜坐禪修課程。

原本我只想學習靜坐,但我不想顯得無禮,所以在佛法開示時我也邊聽邊作筆記。有趣的是,我發現某些佛法的教導,竟和基督教義不謀而合。經過一段時間,佛法讓我開始對人生有更深入的認識,死亡、輪迴、因果等等,我知道我還有很多需要學習的地方。我發現佛法幫助我達到更深層、更美好的靜坐,並且大幅地強化了我的心靈。

靜坐時,我仍時有掙扎。有時自覺進步,有時又原地踏步,但我持續努力,聽經聞法給我克服障礙的動力,讓我能夠繼續向前走。

例如,當學習到「死魔」限制了我此生靜坐修行的時間後,我反而更有動力多花一點時間在靜坐上。了解聽經聞法對我的靜坐有所增益後,現在的我期待在佛法和靜坐上都能有更深入的體認。

EN
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