The Ling Jiou Mountain (LJM) 2020 Spring Retreat for a 49-day Advanced Meditation stays the course of the principal LJM ideology of ‘Compassion & Chan’. Founding Abbot, Dharma Master Hsin Tao, says that tranquility is the mightiest energy of the universe in the context that meditation is not a religion, but a good way to get to know oneself and one's physique. There are already one too many adversities, sufferings, and tormentings. And if our ideas are not good, we ourselves cannot be stable. We need to learn about the Buddha's way to quench desires and fixations. We can find tranquility inside by way of meditation, which enables us to re-discover ourselves and helps sow the seeds for awakening and uncork the bottle for life's wisdom. 

In the face of impermanence, life is minute and frail. The 1720 plague claimed 100,000 victims, as did the 1820 cholera, whereas the 1920 Spanish Flu wiped out 100-Mn lives. Presently, it is the COVID-19 that is causing a global restlessness bordering fear. Dharma Master Hsin Tao has instructed the Four Buddhist Assemblies to work harder in merits for positive karma and to study the Dharma as well. The 49-day meditation retreat runs between February 10 and March 29, with a hundred-plus monastics and lay Buddhists entirely dedicated to the practice of meditation and mantra-chanting. Their daily focus is meditation and chanting the Heart of Shurangama Mantra in their collective prayers for blessings for the sentient beings. As of February 19, the cumulated numbers are respectively 20,210,976 chants of the said Mantra and 82,199 minutes of meditative practice.

There is a usual phrase in classic scriptures that roughly translates to ‘verify in time’ and means that orderly mindfulness can be attained through focused work and in given time and space. The solemn and austere Yuan Tung Hall in the LJM Wusheng Monastery with its magnetic field of tranquility attracts many meditation practitioners from the world over year in and year out. Practicing meditation in a sacred space alongside many focused and hard-working practitioners registering remarkable advancement. The collective frequency thus creates a powerful resonance with the location's positive energy that helps those present open up toward their original selves and return to the core of their spirituality. Such has been the intent and rationale behind the advanced annual LJM meditation retreat. Dharma Master Hsin Tao stresses that the retreat is not for the physique alone, but for the heart and mind as well, and only when all these karma, genes, thoughts and ideas, memories, positive karma, and good deeds and thoughts are interconnected via our individual meditation it is possible to steer the Earth away from negative energies and escape ailment, sufferings, catastrophes, and calamities. Everyone is best advised to embark on that journey by taking up an LJM offer of either a 3-day or a 7-day meditation retreat to rid ourselves of the hustles and bustles of the secular world.

Here is what Dharma Master Hsin Tao says about a retreat: upon entering the hall of meditation our heart and mind must leave behind all activities whatsoever, whether it pertains to Dharma or any other forms. To do that, the four-step Peace Meditation is best equipped to help rein in our heart and mind, and these are: regulate the breathing, purify the heart for inward-reflections, actively conscious about breath-in and -out, and listen to the tranquility. These four steps allow us to rein in the heart that otherwise is forever restless like a hyper monkey, so that the heart gets used to being confined to the regulations. Moreover, that the heart gets to appreciate the stationary state over time, with an increasing level of clarity on the rise as well. That is what meditation is all about.

The world of senses, however, is apt in fermenting in us the liabilities of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and mistrust that overshadow our original Buddha-nature. Venerable Master Hsin Tao reminds followers to purify such named liabilities acquired from a world of senses and return to the realm of spirituality. Only a true heart of spirituality can ignite the frequency that jumpstarts a penetrating resonance with the ultimate energy that prevails in all sentient beings. Only then it can be appreciated that all beings exist in an inter-dependence, and that life itself is an existence of a diversified symbiosis.

The Dharma is precious yet readily accessible, and to appreciate it is to first self-examine ourselves. What better ways, then, to do that by practicing meditation? When we can reflect on ourselves internally and are crystal clear with our thoughts, we comprehend how precious Dharma is.
Dharma Master Hsin Tao puts it succinctly as follows: "What does it mean that the Dharma is precious? Dharma is the Way, and it is orderly and clear. To attain Nirvana and to achieve the state of non-arising and non-ceasing, the prerequisite is for the Dharma to that end to be clear and comprehensible. What is Nirvana? It is our heart and mind. But why has our heart not attained Nirvana? Because we have not yet clearly comprehended the essence of the heart, nor its forms and appearances. The lineage of our Peace Meditation is derived from the Way of Buddhas with the keyhole otherwise concealed - which means we at LJM have the Dharma to see through to and comprehend the true heart inside and out, which remains concealed or disguised in most cases. Similarly, we are all born with Buddha nature. But what is the Buddha nature? It is non-arising and non-ceasing. It's the wonderful mind of Nirvana. The form of reality has no form. There is nothing to own, to obtain, to abdicate."

Finally, Venerable Master Hsin Tao reminds us all that Chan meditation, good karma, and spirituality are all very important, and that they impact one another in a world gone international and global. In the face of impermanence, we can ward off pandemics by upholding positive thoughts. The Master and LJM bless you with peace and good health.