Pure Mountain Tao

The Buddha obtained the highest spiritual enlightenment through meditation. Thousands of years however before his birth on earth, hundreds of sages and seers of ancient India and China not only achieved the highest states and conditions through meditation, they have also formulated the ways and means of practicing meditation properly.

Practice of meditation is universally prevalent. It is the method which the greatest among the geniuses of the world, and the saints and sages, have unconsciously, spontaneously resorted to.

As all of you have already chosen the path that leads to becoming one with the Way, you are blessed. Depending upon the amount of the purity within your heart, the extent of your freedom from all the depressive and complicated earthly affections and ties, the wisdom and knowledge in you, the intensity of your desire for the Tao, the number of disciplines you assign to your inner nature, the freedom from lower, human, mental, nature you enjoy, you will experience Tao, in daily life.

Many of you are familiar with the many forms of meditation. There is a way of emptying the mind. One meditation method prescribes your constant gazing upon the flame of a candle. There is a method of meditation which urges you to count your breaths, or focus your attention upon the inhalation and exhalation. In this manner there are many types of meditation, meditation upon special objects, and so on. 

Meditation will make us a better person each day. Remember, it is not an overnight change. The change comes slowly, like drops of water filling a bucket. People who claim sudden change are victims of a placebo effect. Change takes time and time takes time. In time my friends, meditation will transform our nature. Meditation will purify the mind and deepen our spiritual awareness . We need that type of meditation which will  grant us more illumination into ourselves, make us wiser each day, enable us to endure the difficulties of life, and behave in a way which is characteristic of those who know the Way. 

With us, meditation should be something that evolves and improves our inner nature, increases the serenity of our inner being, expands our inner consciousness, liberates us from samsara, and turns and formulates the whole of our inner character. 

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There are thousands upon thousands of students 
who have practised meditation and obtained its fruits. 
Do not doubt its possibilities because of the simplicity of the method. 
If you can not find the truth right where you are, 
where else do you expect to find it?

Dogen