Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

"Ask for whatever you want and I shall give it to you."
Even demons, being sentient beings, may be impressed
by one's great compassion and then go away. Once
when I was practicing in my hermitage, a friend of mine
asked me how my practice was progressing. I told him,
"I practice to gain supernormal powers so that I may
save others." He told my guru this, who said, "He
should not desire such powers, or demons may come."
When I was told this, I replied, "In my (realization of)
voidness no demons appear, and in my practice of the
bodhicitta and great compassion, I do not fear them. I
want only to help and to save them." My friend always
remembered this answer and told others of it.
This is the general treatment of demons according to the
Mahayana; that is, not treating them as enemies, as one
does in the Hinayana. In the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra,
it is said: "The kings of demons who appear in this
world are not really such but are great bodhisattvas who
help you in reverse." I have written a hymn of praise to
all demons on how they render help to the meditator.
We cannot translate it here as it is very long. Mr.
Chen picked up the Chinese book and showed us
many pages of characters.
The general idea is this: the demon of death helps one to
practice impermanence meditations, and through their
practice one gains the benefit of diligence. With the
demon of disease, if one knows how he appears, one
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