What to Do When Hallucinations Occur During Meditation

All dharmas are illusory and unreal; even the dharmas we perceive as extremely real are unreal and illusory. Therefore, the hallucinations that appear during meditation are even more illusory—illusion upon illusion—and there is no need to do anything to deal with them or counteract them. Just ignore them, and the illusory states will automatically disappear, and the hallucinations will be gone. In the past, someone entered meditative concentration while sitting, and saw a person wielding a knife to kill him. He took that person as real, and in self-defense, stabbed at that person with his knife. After emerging from concentration, he found knife wounds on his own body, and he had even bled. He then realized he had been deceived by a false appearance and felt deep remorse. There have also been people who, while meditating, took the states they saw as real and entered into those states, and as a result fell into demonic influence. When practicing meditative concentration while sitting, one should hold correct views: whatever states and sensations appear in concentration, all of them are illusory and unreal—ignore them all, and you will remain safe and sound. For a person with a calm mind, states rarely appear during sitting meditation; only when the mind has thoughts and attachments do states easily appear, giving rise to all kinds of illusory feelings. In daily life, one should train oneself not to attach to signs, not to attach to states, keeping the mind empty without thoughts; then one will enter concentration quickly when sitting, and no states will appear.