Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

has not Buddhist meditation come down from the
Buddha's Enlightenment? How ungrateful we should be
if we failed to acknowledge the source of our practice!
Regarding the Dharma-refuge, Buddhist meditation is
both the practice and way of realization of that Dharma.
As to the Sangha-refuge, the bhiksus and bodhisattvas
are those who have both transmitted and realized the
practices of Buddhist meditation.
An ordinary person not practicing meditation may do
everything in daily life, providing it is not against the
law, and it is fairly easy for many people to control their
bodies and speech to this extent. But the meditator has
more to do. He has to control the mind, which he soon
finds is full of all sorts of impure thoughts and sorrows.
Let us take one sorrow as an illustration: suppose anger
arises. This is likely to be very difficult to control. At
the time of its arising, the meditator has not only
destroyed his own meditation, but also stands in danger
from other outside sources. Our minds are open books
to some gods and spirits and they may be attracted or
repelled depending on the state or level of a person's
mind. A god of say, the pure abodes, may only approach
a meditator when the latter's mind resembles that god's
world of purity; on the other hand, demons will
approach him if his mind is overcome by anger. Some
other bad spirits may be attracted by lust, some by
ignorance (as in seances), and so forth.
A meditator still subject to these sorrows is without any
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