Remember what Dudjom Rinpoche said to me when I was in the middle of a very powerful experience: “Don’t get too excited. In the end, it’s neither good nor bad.” When you experience some extraordinary states, such as seeing the radiant Buddha or an image of the Buddha, or even receiving empowerment and blessings, you should never become attached. If you become attached, you may be influenced by devils.
When positive experiences arise, you may become excited, thinking that you are about to achieve realization. When you see Amitabha Buddha radiating light to pick you up, once you get excited, devils will take advantage of this opportunity to sneak in, because you have become attached. If you become attached, the next time someone appears, it may not be Buddha but a devil disguised as Buddha. You will become more and more immersed in this experience and deeply attached to it. You might go around telling others that Amitabha Buddha has come to pick you up, but in reality, you have already been blinded by devils. So, this is also a dangerous situation. While chanting Buddha’s name, the appearing of the Buddha does not arise from attachment but from bodhicitta (a pure mind that seeks nothing). Only when you chant Buddha’s name with bodhicitta will Amitabha Buddha appear. If you lose bodhicitta and cling to good states (positive experiences), you will be influenced by devils. Therefore, it all depends on your mind. The key to discerning whether the “arrived Buddha” is a true Buddha, a false Buddha, or a devil, lies in your mind. What comes forth is determined by the state of your mind: if your mind is influenced by devils, then what you attract will undoubtedly be external devils; if you are chanting Buddha’s name with genuine bodhicitta, then what you attract will undoubtedly be the authentic Amitabha Buddha. The mind and the object correspond to each other. He knew I was becoming attached to the experience: that attachment, like any other, has to be cut through. What we have to learn, in both meditation and in life, is to be free of attachment to the good experiences and free of aversion to the negative ones. We need to pay special attention to this, both during our meditation practice and in our daily lives. Even though we may not have much experience in meditation, we do have numerous experiences in samsara. In samsara, there are positive experiences, such as gaining wealth and prosperity, as well as negative experiences, such as being diagnosed with a terminal illness and losing family and possessions. How do you confront such adversities? They are also experiences. How do we face these various experiences in samsara? In meditation, there are subtler new experiences, both positive and negative. Whether these experiences are positive or negative, we should use mindfulness to deal with them. Maintain mindfulness and vigilance, and don’t get lost in these experiences.