The Swift Path: a Meditation Manual on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment by Toh

Author:Toh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Wisdom Publications

Think:

From having made supplications in this manner, streams of five-colored nectar along with light rays descend from the body of the guru-deity above my crown. Permeating my body and mind and also those of all other sentient beings, they cleanse us of the misdeeds and obstructions we have amassed since beginningless time, and in particular those misdeeds and obstructions that prevent us from developing love. The special realization of love is produced in our mental continua.

When you have elicited the experiential realization in love with respect to her, meditate as before on kin such as your father followed by neutral sentient beings, then foes, and finally all sentient beings.

The benefits of meditating on love

It is taught that if you meditate on love in relation to just Jambūdvīpa in this life, you will become a wheel-turning king ruling over Jambūdvīpa; if you produce love in relation to two continents, you will become a copper-wheel-turning king ruling over those two continents;466 if you produce love in relation to three continents, you will become a silver-wheel-turning king ruling over those three continents; if you produce love in relation to four continents, you will become a gold-wheel-turning king ruling over those four continents; if you produce love in relation to the billionfold world systems, you will become Brahmā, the lord of gods; if you produce love in relation to the millionfold or thousandfold world systems, you will become the lord ruling over those world systems; and if you produce love for all sentient beings pervading the limits of space, the result will be none other than complete buddhahood.

In general, our karma is something that can only be created by ourselves. However, as the power of love is extraordinary, it is said that if it is genuinely produced, it will benefit others, as in the case of King Maitrībala,467 and even if it is produced just superficially, it also serves as the best protection. The Bhagavān tamed billions of māras with his meditative stabilization on love. Chen Ngawa told Nyuk Rumpa, “Seriously, there is no way to conquer others except through love.”468 He taught that love thus functions in a way that a person is inspired simply by hearing its name. It is said:

Its merit is not matched by that of

constantly giving

inestimable offerings of every type

to supreme beings in billions of lands.469

And the protector Nāgārjuna also said:

Even if one does not become freed [from saṃsāra],

one will be endowed with the eight excellent qualities of love:

[gods and humans will be friendly,

even nonhumans will protect you,]

one will attain mental bliss and many kinds of happiness,

one will be invulnerable to poison and weapons,

one will achieve one’s goals effortlessly, and

one will be reborn in a Brahmā world.470

And:

The merit of giving food in three hundred clay vessels

thrice daily

cannot match that of

cultivating love for a brief moment.471

The cultivation of compassion

While meditating on the guru-deity above your crown, begin by visualizing migrating beings in despair, such as sheep under the butcher’s knife. Clearly visualize them in this aspect in front of you and reflect as follows:

With their limbs bound, their chests are slit open.

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