乾县铁佛寺移动版

QUESTION: How long should I meditate for?

ANSWER: It is good to do meditation for 15 minutes every day for a week and then extend the time by 5 minutes each week until you are meditating for 45 minutes. After  a  few  weeks  of  regular  daily  meditation  you  will  start  to  notice  that  your concentration gets better.

QUESTION: What about Loving-Kindness Meditation? How is that practiced?

ANSWER: Once you are familiar with Mindfulness of Breathing and are practicing it regularly you can start practicing Loving-Kindness Meditation. It should be done two or three times each week after you have done Mindfulness of Breathing. First, you turn your attention to yourself and say to yourself words like ‘May  I  be well and happy. May I be peaceful and calm. May I be protected from dangers. May my mind be free from hatred. May my heart be filled with love. May  I be well and happy.’ Then one by one you think of a loved person, a neutral person, that is someone you neither like nor dislike, and finally a disliked person, wishing each of them well as you do so.

QUESTION: What is the benefit of doing this type of meditation?

ANSWER: If you do Loving-Kindness Meditation regularly and with the right attitude, you may notice very positive changes taking place within yourself. You will find that you are able to be more accepting and forgiving towards yourself. You will find that the feelings you  have  towards your  loved  ones  increases.  You will find yourself making friends with people you used to be indifferent and uncaring towards, and you will find the  ill-will or resentment you  have towards some  people will  lessen and eventually be dissolved. Sometimes if you know of someone who is sick, unhappy or encountering difficulties, you can include them in your meditation and very often you will find their situation improving.

QUESTION: How is that possible?

ANSWER: The mind, when properly developed, is a very powerful instrument. If we can learn to focus our mental energy and project it towards others, it can have an

effect upon them. You may have had an experience like this. Perhaps you are in a crowded  room  and you get this feeling that someone  is watching you. You  turn around and, sure enough, someone is staring at you. What has happened is that you have picked up that other person's mental energy. Loving-Kindness Meditation is like this.  We  project  positive  mental  energy  towards  others  and  it  may  gradually transform them.

QUESTION: Are there any other types of meditation?

ANSWER: Yes. The last and perhaps most important type of meditation is called vipassana. This word means ‘to see in’ or ‘to see deep’ and is usually translated as insight meditation.

QUESTION: Explain what insight meditation is.

ANSWER:  During  insight  meditation a  person tries just to  be aware of whatever happens to them without thinking about it or reacting to it.

QUESTION: What is the purpose of that?

ANSWER: Usually we react to our experience by liking or disliking it or by letting it trigger thoughts, daydreams or memories. All these reactions distort or obscure  our experience so that we fail to understand it properly. By developing a non-reactive awareness we begin to see why we think, speak and act the way we do. And of course more self knowledge can have a very positive effect on our lives.  The other advantage  of  practicing  insight  meditation  is  that  after  a  while  it  creates  a  gap between  our  experience  and  ourselves.  Then,  rather  than  automatically  and unconsciously reacting to every temptation or provocation we find that we are able to step back a little, thereby allowing us to decide whether we should  act or not and if so, how. Thus we begin to have more control of our lives, not because we have developed an iron will but simply because we see more clearly. (责任编辑：admin)