What is a great spiritual practitioner? A person who lives always in the presence of his or her own true self, someone who has found and who uses continually the springs and sources of profound inspiration.

As the modem English writer Lewis Thompson wrote:

“Christ, supreme poet, lived truth so passionately that every gesture of his, at once pure Act and perfect Symbol, embodies the transcendent.”To embody the transcendent is why we are here.

When you cultivate the behavioural characteristics we typically call the "virtues" - charitable giving (karma yoga), discipline (commandment keeping), and patience - this practice is in itself a means of cultivating samadhi.

The virtues recognized by all religions, when practiced correctly and to the full, can definitely lead to selflessness and non-ego. That's why they're recognized as "virtues" in the first place. But people also fail to realize another aspect to this: that practicing the selfless virtues is a way to realize detachment, emptiness and non-ego, and thus a means to enter into samadhi. When great saints who had no formal meditation practice were able to exhibit all sorts of superpowers and miraculous abilities, it was because they had entered the road of Tao through this particular aspect.

In fact, perfecting your behaviour is actually the one and only pathway to Tao, and it's a never ending path one follows after achieving Tao as well. This is why the various religions summarize matters through the words,

"love one another, cultivate harmony, do good and refrain from evil." for this summarizes the path in its entirety. The entire cultivation path revolves around cultivating virtues but it's difficult to effect deep and lasting transformative changes in your behaviour unless you also meditate and cultivate the realms of samadhi.

Through virtue alone, you can reach Tao in three aeons of effort, but if you also yourself to meditation, you can achieve enlightenment in this very lifetime. Thus the two practices of good works and samdhi must always go together. Without virtue and merit, you cannot succeed on the path.

In cultivation we often talk about attaining samadhi and various experiential realms, but no matter how profound the states that come to meet us, they are ultimately transient realms that will never stay.

SO in this never ending cosmic cycle of ceaseless change and transformation, the only worthwhile task is to strive to master your behaviour and perfect your inherent virtues; to do what's good and cut off what's evil, to let all unborn good arise, and prevent all unborn evil from arising, and to help others in everyway possible.

The various samdhi are no more than a means in process that enable you to really accomplish these feats, so cultivation, in effect, is all about service.

Hence the process of attaining the Way is the actual embodiment of the Way; the fruit of the path is the practice of the path, the purpose of the path, the basis of the path, the result of the path - it's all about disentangling your mental defilements and perfecting your outward behaviour.

In the Mahayana school, we say that the path to Tao consists of five stages:

• the stage of study and merit-accumulation,
  
• the second stage of preparatory practices
• the third stage of seeing the path
• the fourth stage of cultivating the path
• and finally the last stage of self-realization enlightenment.

All the cultivation schools agree that the first step to enlightenment is accumulating merit and doing good deeds, as examplified in the stages of yama (discipline) and niyama (restraint) emphasized at the start of raja yoga practice. What people often don't realize is that all the chi, mai, chakra, samadhi, kundalini, and other meditative practices we've discussed constitute only the second stage of preparatory practices on the path. They're not the actual stage of cultivation practice, just a preliminary stage of preparation.

Even the various samadhi and dhyanas do not constitute the stage of cultivation practice, and there are all sorts of masters who have attained lots of samadhis and superpower but still lack the merit and wisdom necessary to see the Tao!

You're not yet at the stage of cultivating the path, until you've turned around within to see the Tao

So you basically cultivate all the samadhis and dhyanas, engage in all sorts of meditation methods and sadhanas just to reach this point when you can start working on truly purifying your physical and mental behaviours. That's what cultivation is all about - purifying your physical and mental behaviours, and doing so for the benefit of all beings.

 

Above from 25 Doors to Samadhi, William Bodri

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"At that moment the holy revered White Mahapadmakumara instructed the assembly saying " In cultivation, the key to realizing the Buddha Jewel Sambodhi is a quiescent mind; that of realizing the Dharma Jewel is purity of body, speech, and mind; and that of realizng the Sangha Jewel is refuge in a True Buddha Guru"

WHAT IS GENUINE SPIRITUAL PRACTISE?

[Seattle/ Reverend Hui Jun] (translated by Lester Lim and the TBSN Translation Committee)

There are many forms of spiritual practise: some people prefer to cultivate in the wilderness, others practise under the trees or at the cemetery; some take up vegetarianism, or choose to consume only one meal per day; there are those who sleep in the meditative posture, or abstain from speech for life; others consider winning the Nobel prize or becoming a Buddhist scholar an indication of spiritual accomplishment…..But are these really genuine spiritual practises? How do we determine their authenticity?

His Holiness Living Buddha Lian-sheng, having attained the "Great Rainbow Accomplishment" and understanding the sacred truth behind spiritual cultivation, gave the following sermon at the True Buddha Tantric Quarters on March 10th:

What is genuine spiritual practise?

His Holiness said, "It is very difficult to tell whether a spiritual practise is a genuine one through its external characteristics. The most important indication of a true spiritual cultivation will be the ability of the cultivator to subdue and manage his own Mind. He should dwell in a serene, balanced and unaffected spiritual state. This in turn requires true spiritual capability."

"Meanwhile, a Dharma-cultivator is also able to control his Mind in whatever circumstances which he is facing. He lives independently with a Mind unrestrained by the influences of his environment."

The Grand Master also stressed on the daily practises of a Tantric-cultivator, "A Tantric-cultivator should make offerings during his meals. Putting on clothes must be perceived as a means to dignify oneself, and as a method of casting protective boundary. One practises the Slumber Brilliance Yoga when entering into sleep. Even whilst traveling outdoor, one should continue to cultivate with diligence. Greed, anger and ignorance must not arise in our daily lives, and one should not get furious easily."

"Tantric-cultivation emphasizes on the internal attributes. A Tantric-cultivator is able to emanate the light from his heart, and adjust his Mind to an uncontaminated state. This is true spiritual cultivation."

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Quotes by Jim Rohn

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

To attract attractive people, you must be attractive. To attract powerful people, you must be powerful. To attract committed people, you must be committed. Instead of going to work on them, you go to work on yourself. If you become, you can attract.

We can have more than we've got because we can become more than we are. The big challenge is to become all that you have the possibility of becoming.

You cannot believe what it does to the human spirit to maximize your human potential and stretch yourself to the limit.

Pity the man who inherits a million dollars and who isn't a millionaire. Here's what would be pitiful: If your income grew and you didn't.

The most important question to ask on the job is not "What am I getting?" The most important question to ask on the job is "What am I becoming?"

It is hard to keep that which has not been obtained through personal development. After you become a millionaire, you can give all of your money away because what's important is not the million dollars; what's important is the person you have become in the process of becoming a millionaire.

Income seldom exceeds personal development. What you become directly influences what you get.

FASCINATION

Fascination is one step beyond interest. Interested people want to know if it works. Fascinated people want to learn how it works.

Learn how to turn frustration into fascination. You will learn more being fascinated by life than you will by being frustrated by it.

I'm on my way to the airport to catch a plane that leaves in 45 minutes. The traffic is not moving one inch. I am now fascinated - not frustrated, but fascinated.

But I must admit, it doesn't work every time.

Develop a childlike fascination with life and people.

Quotes by Jim Rohn - Treasury of Quotes

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