The first time I meditated, I sat in a half-lotus position, with my hands resting casually on my knees and a playful, almost game-like attitude in my heart. After closing my eyes for just a few seconds, my body and mind suddenly became wonderfully clear and serene. Before my eyes, a series of beautiful images … Read more
When I was twenty-three, I had completed what might be called the four stages of an ordinary woman’s life: schooling, working, marrying, and bearing a child. My life was peaceful and serene. When my son was ten months old—I remember it was the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival—I bought a few packs of sandalwood incense … Read more
Part One: My Journey of Cultivation In most people’s eyes, everything a person does has some motive and goal. I want to write out my cultivation experience for only one purpose, and that is out of a need born of a kind of love. This love did not arise at any particular time or from … Read more
Author: Yang Ning All living beings possess the wisdom and virtuous characteristics of the Tathagata , but cannot realize it due to discrimination and attachment. This is the wisdom of the dharma body Vairocana Buddha ; this wisdom is exactly the Mind of the Dharma Realm. Author May 20, 2008 Part One: Flowers in the … Read more
… It was the third day after New Year’s. Wu Aizhen had just seen off a few visiting friends and was arranging the flowers they had brought into two large vases when the telephone rang sharply. It was Zheng Meiqin. “Dr. Wu, I knew you’d be working overtime again. I have huge, wonderful news: I’m … Read more
The next afternoon, after attending to some trivial matters, Ding Yiming began leafing through Wu Aizhen’s third diary, Record of a Hundred-Day Retreat in the Zhongnan Mountains. October 4 In morning sitting meditation, an awareness arose in samadhi that I had never left the “hall of the Buddha‑Dharma,” that I had never been born at … Read more
He turned to Wu Aizhen’s second diary, “Journey to Tibet.” May 22 Today I shared a chartered car with others to return to Chengdu from Larung Gar Buddhist Academy. The driver kept chanting mantras the whole way (he said it was the mind mantra of Padmasambhava). The road was fairly open at first; I sat … Read more
Heart of the Dharma Realm · Part II: Like the Moon On New Year’s Day, Ding Yiming had three days off. He had declined his friends’ invitation to travel together. After breakfast, he went into his study, wanting to use these three days to read Wu Aizhen’s cultivation journals. Zheng Meiqin had been paging through … Read more
After one year and seven months, Wu Aizhen returned to City A and stood before her window. In her eyes, the world of emotion and the ocean of desire had vanished. Ordinary people were doing ordinary things, yet everything was miraculous: seeds sprouted, babies smiled, flowers bloomed, the old milkman delivered the milk on time, … Read more
A few days later, Wu Aizhen left City A. Shouldering her pack, she set out on her cultivation journey once again, resolved to systematically organize, practice, and realize each of her teacher’s daily teachings. In the year that followed, Mount Tai, Mount Wutai, Tibet, and the Zhongnan Mountains all bore witness to her brief retreats. … Read more
