As practitioners of life cultivation, we practice the Mustang Tuna (deep breathing) Technique and the Mustang Jingzuo Technique (meditation) on a daily basis. Very few of us will go on and practice the Mustang Ruding (Fixation or tranquility) Technique. The Mustang Ruding Technique is a more advanced form of the Jingzuo Technique. The word Ruding is a phonetic translation of two Chinese words, Ru and Ding, which means going into fixation.
The Ruding Practice is a common practice in Zen Buddhism which refers to it as Samadhi. The monks practice Samadhi by sitting upright with eyes closed and mind focused. Sometimes the silence of those who have attained the Way is also called Ruding (Samadhi).
Ruding is one of the three studies and five points of the Dharma body, it can make the mind focus on one situation. As a body of knowledge, it can be divided into conscious samadhi and unintentional samādhi and so on.
There are those who enter into Ruding for Buddhist practice, and there are those who enter into Ruding to wait for the arrival of the saint who will appear in the world after many years. If you want to wake up someone who is in the state of Ruding, it is better to snap a finger at the person.
According to the Records of the Western Regions of the Tang Dynasty, Mahakasyapa was instructed by the Buddha to go into the Ruding state in Jizu Mountain. The debater went into the Ruding state in the Asura Palace in southern India, waiting for Maitreya to be born.
The Great Wisdom Theory also says that those who enter into the Ruding state cannot be harmed by water and fire, and they will not end in life. They become immortal.
In yoga and right-brain meditation, Ruding is similar for entering into an alpha wave state (or transgender consciousness).
The Practice of Ruding Technique Continued
There are several ways to practice the Ruding Technique. The success of Ruding Practice is said to be pre-ordained. We will discuss the most popular way extended by Zen Buddhism here. This particular way to practice is sometimes referred to as Zending, that is, Ruding the Zen Way.
04 Not waiting for an opportunity
As previously discussed, the process of entering into the Ruding state involves changes in breathing, changes in thoughts, and changes in how the body feels pleasure. Many people do not know how to use these changes to enter the Ruding state. Instead, they just sit there peacefully and wait.
They sit there and wait and wait and wait. After a long time, they unknowingly enter into the Ruding state. They do not know when and how they get into the Ruding state. They just think that it is necessary for them to sit for a long time. In fact, if you sit for a long time and then enter the Ruding state, you simply do not know how to enter the Ruding state.
05 In and out of the Ruding state
As practitioners of Life Cultivation, we learn and practice Jingzuo and Ruding. We also learn how to enter and exit the Ruding state.
There are people who do not know how to practice the Ruding Technique. Thus, even if they are in the Ruding state, they do not know how they manage to enter the Ruding state. They just sit and wait foolishly.
Through persistent practice, many monks have entered the first, second, and third Jhana, and some monks have reached the fourth Jhana. However, they have difficulty in finding ways to enter the Ruding state. Why?
It turns out that every time a monk sits down, he always wants to experience the feeling he had the last time he sat in meditation, so he waits and waits for a long time for it to happen. Once the same experience he was looking for comes along, that is it.
This is because the monk does not really know how to enter into the Ruding state and he does not believe that he can do so in an instant.
Why doesn’t he understand?
It turns out that many people ignore the process of entering the Ruding state. Because they do not observe the most important information in the process of entering the Ruding state, they have to wait for the comfortable feeling that they have previously experienced. When the experience occurs, they think: Oh, I am in the Ruding state again.
This shows that they did not closely observe the process of entering the Ruding state, so they end up entering the Ruding state unconsciously every time.
06 The three most important happenings
In Ruding practice, there will come a feeling of happiness, breathing becomes very subtle, and thoughts are also very subtle. Based on these three happenings, we can definitely say that, when we enter the Ruding state, our breathing must change from coarse to fine, the mind from coarse to fine, and our body from no pleasant feeling to having pleasant feeling.
That is to say, during the process of entering the Ruding state, at least three important things are changing, and we should carefully observe the process of changing, instead of waiting for the end results where things have changed.
To be continued.
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Folks, that is all for now. If you think this article may be beneficial to your friends and loved-ones, feel free to forward this article to them. Life cultivation is mostly for older people with declining body health. If you are young and energetic, this may not be your cup of tea. However, if you have family members or friends who are middle-aged or older, they may want to practice life cultivation to maintain a life without pain or medication.
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Stay tuned for the next episode: Ruding Practice Continued.
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