Master Xuyun=虛雲; Samādhi=禪定; The Four Kinds of Food=四食; Maitreya=彌勒; Consciousness and Wisdom=識智
摘要
According to The Chronicle of Master Xuyun, the Master had three experiences of longdwelling in samādhi—one for eighteen days, and two of nine days’ duration. Master Xuyun has remarked that his eighteen-day samādhi experience on Zhungnan mountain (Dec. 1901- Jan. 1902) at the age of 62 was not intentional, as one cannot enter samādhi with such an intention; but neither was it unintentional. He used the Chan practice of ‘Observing the Head Phrase’ to answer questions about how to enter samādhi, but he did not address the issue of surviving long-dwelling experiences without sustenance. According to the Abhidharmamahā-vibhā?ā-?astra, beings in the desire realm require ‘sequential physical food’ to sustain the existence of the bodily elements. The Cheng weishi lun liaoyideng 成唯識論了義燈 asserts that when long dwelling in the ‘concentra tion of cessation’, life is sustained by the three kinds of spiritual food, namely ‘consciousness’, ‘sensory food’, and ‘volition’. But both the Abhidharma-mahā-vibhā?ā-?astra and the Tattva-siddhi-?āstra presume the absence of all the four foods (‘sequential physical food’, ‘consciousness’, ‘sensory food’, and ‘volition’) during ‘concentration of cessation’. This article will discuss Master Xuyun’s long-dwelling from an historical perspective and investigate the practical considerations of surviving so long in such a state.
