The nine levels of Chan meditation
Last week I a most profound instructional lectures about Chan’s view on causes and effect and why people suffer. Because it was in Chinese some of the meaning was lost in translation. However I understood enough to capture the gravity of the talk. I made the mistake of thinking about it rather than first capturing the lecture. The end result was much of the lecture has not dissipated from mind, and only the core remains. So not to make the same mistake again, today, I heard from the same Chan teacher about the “Roadmap for Chan”. How I wish this talk was recorded, and later translated into English. The knowledge shared was profound.
Essentially the roadmap identified the reason why people suffer, and how people can eliminate the suffering through nine stages of meditative progression. The part that has me jazzed is the realization that Buddhism and Chan has spent the last 2500 “figuring-out” why people are people. Why people feel suffering, get angry, and any range of negative emotions. It has been my personal belief that life is difficult because everyone who has lived on this planet has been subjected to the law of diminishing natural resources. We all have to fight to survive. Natural resources are limited, and we strive with each other to claim our share of the Earth’s natural resources. Since the planet is not overly abundant, then humans are constantly worried about their lives and of the future–of deprivation, starvation, and competition. It is precisely the wanting of things tangible or intangible/temporal that creates or re-enforces the survival skills we all possess.
Chan meditation is meant to put down those desires in exchange for mental clarity, unobstructed by the “need” to own things. Ever wonder why people are selfish? It is essentially baked into us from birth.
The basis of the nine step program identifies the level one achieves after prolonged meditative practice. In my mind, as the Dharma Drum Mountain teacher started to describe these, I had the distinct feeling that the concept of Truth underlies the entire meditative escalator. Without truth, you cannot have peace in your mind. Truth is essence; power. Lacking truth means you can never improve.
(more to add soon)
