How Did Lord Guan Do It?

为什么关公能这样？

where does concentration power come from? it comes from cultivating patience. you must endure pain and hardship. do you feel pain? Just ask, “who feels pain?” somebody says, “of course it is me who feels pain! i cannot trick myself.” you cannot fool yourself; isn’t it the same when trying to fool others? That is why you must cultivate concentration power. with concentration power, you will have wisdom. This is real wisdom, not wisdoms learned from books. This is innate wisdom. sitting in meditation, you will suffer. if you persistently endure the suffering, just that is samadhi. if you have samadhi, and someone takes a cleaver and slices a piece of flesh from your body, you will think, “There is no pain; this is no big deal.” This is just like lord guan [of the Three kingdoms period] cutting through the bone to curb the poison. how did he do it? he had samadhi. if he didn’t, how could he have “held a candle until dawn without giving in to temptation” [when he had to spend the night in the same room as another man’s wife]? where did his samadhi power come from? it was from cultivating for many eons.

定力从什么地方修出来？就从「忍」修出来，你要忍痛，要忍苦忍难。痛吗？问一问「谁痛？」有人说：「当然是我痛啰！我不能欺骗我自己。」你不能欺骗自己，你骗人不也是一样的？所以要修定，有定就有智慧，这是真智慧；这个智慧不是在什么书上学来的，这是你本来有的智慧。坐禅就是叫你受不了，你受不了，你再能忍，这就有定力了。好像有人拿把刀来，要把你的肉割下来一块，你要是有定力「不痛，这平常事！」好像关公刮骨疗毒，为什么他能这样呢？就因为他有定力。关公要是没有定力，怎么可以秉烛达旦不欺暗室呢？他定力从什么地方来呢？是多生多劫修来的。