Cultivation of Concentration and Chan Meditation for Realization of the Way (Part 1)

Section Four　Liberation Is Inseparable from Meditative Concentration

1. The Liberation of Arhats Is Inseparable from Meditative Concentration

Some arhats rely on wisdom for liberation and transcend the three realms; they are arhats liberated by wisdom (prajñā-vimukta). They possess only the first dhyāna concentration, without deeper meditative concentration and without any states of supernatural powers; at the end of their lives they transcend the three realms by relying on their wisdom of having eradicated craving for the three realms, and are not bound by the dharmas of the three realms. First of all, arhats liberated by wisdom have all eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi); after repudiating the notion that the five aggregates and eighteen sense fields are a real and imperishable self, they then attain the first dhyāna concentration, eradicate afflictions, and eradicate all craving and attachment toward the world of the three realms. Not a single dharma in the world of the three realms is an object of their lingering attachment; their grasping at the world of their own five aggregates has been removed. At the end of life they have the ability to extinguish their own five aggregates and enter Nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa).

Another portion of arhats are arhats liberated in both ways (ubhayatobhāgavimukta): they not only possess the wisdom of liberation but also the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, as well as the samādhi of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti); in the end they rely on wisdom and meditative concentration to transcend the birth-and-death cycle of the three realms and attain liberation. Most arhats are arhats liberated by wisdom, who attain liberation without depending on meditative concentration; yet arhats liberated by wisdom do have the first dhyāna concentration, so neither are they liberated without any dependence on meditative concentration. Therefore, if one wants liberation, relying solely on sitting in meditation to cultivate meditative concentration cannot bring liberation, and relying solely on wisdom without meditative concentration cannot bring liberation either.

2. The Importance of Meditative Concentration and Wisdom for Liberation

The four dhyānas and eight samādhis are the concentrations of the four dhyāna heavens of the form realm plus the four formless concentrations; the four dhyānas and eight samādhis are shared by Buddhism and the non-Buddhist paths alike. Non-Buddhists do not understand the principles of Buddhist cultivation and realization, yet they wish to be liberated from birth and death and to escape the suffering of the cycle of birth and death. Because they possess the mind of renunciation and have already cultivated away the five hindrances (pañca-nīvaraṇa), their meditative concentration can reach the highest worldly concentration of the three realms—the concentration of neither perception nor non-perception (naivasaṃjñānāsaṃjñā-samāpatti). The World-Honored One's non-Buddhist teachers, as well as the non-Buddhist disciples whom He converted last, just before His parinirvāṇa, all cultivated to this highest concentration of the formless realm, and at the end of their lives were all reborn in the heaven of neither perception nor non-perception to enjoy heavenly blessings. Yet they still transmigrate within the three realms and still cannot avoid falling into the three evil destinies. Therefore, a person who has only meditative concentration cannot attain liberation from birth and death.

Liberation depends on wisdom; only with wisdom can one transcend the birth-and-death cycle of the three realms. To obtain this wisdom one must follow the principle of liberation taught by the World-Honored One: first, eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), acknowledging that the five aggregates and eighteen sense fields are not self, not different from self, and not mutually contained within each other. One must also know and acknowledge that the meditative states of the various consciousness-minds are likewise not self and not real dharmas. After eradicating the view of self, so long as one's meditative concentration reaches the first dhyāna, one can eradicate craving and attachment, eradicate resentment and anger; with afflictions exhausted, one knows how to transcend the three realms and how to extinguish one's own five aggregates and eighteen sense fields at the end of life. This is what the arhat liberated by wisdom cultivates and realizes.

The principle of liberation is this: hearing the World-Honored One's teachings, one first eradicates the view of self, then relies on one's own meditative concentration to eradicate afflictions; at the end of life one can extinguish one's own five aggregates and enter Nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa). Arhats liberated in both ways possess both liberation by wisdom and liberation by concentration; having concentration and wisdom, they can enter the samādhi of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti), can extinguish themselves at any time—relinquishing their lifespan early or deferring it—their lifespan held in their own hands. They are all great arhats endowed with the three clear knowledges and six superknowledges.

From this it is evident that wisdom is extremely important for cultivating and realizing the Small Vehicle's path of liberation, and doubly important for studying the Great Vehicle to accomplish the Buddha way. In practicing the Buddha-dharma, the main practice is cultivating wisdom: liberation is achieved by wisdom, and buddhahood is achieved by wisdom. But the growth of wisdom requires the power of concentration as an auxiliary means: without concentration it will not do, and with concentration too shallow it will not do either. Without the first dhyāna concentration, one cannot become a person of the third or fourth fruit and cannot attain liberation. Without the first dhyāna concentration and without eradicating afflictions, one is not a person of the third fruit; then even after studying the Great Vehicle and gaining enlightenment, one cannot enter the first bhūmi, cannot become a first-bhūmi bodhisattva, cannot enter the Tathāgata's family, and cannot become a true son of the Buddha. And if a third-bhūmi bodhisattva does not bring forth the four dhyānas, eight samādhis, and five superknowledges, he cannot enter the fourth bhūmi and cannot become a bodhisattva of the fourth bhūmi or above.

It appears, then, that the power of concentration and wisdom are equally important; one must therefore know when to cultivate concentration and what kind of concentration to cultivate so as to aid one's cultivation of the path. If the concentration is shallow, one cannot engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to give birth to wisdom; if the concentration is too deep, the mind sinks into dullness and cannot engage in contemplative practice, obstructing the arising of wisdom. After realizing the third or fourth fruit, if the bodhisattva's mental disposition is rather weak and the resolve for buddhahood not strong, it is easy to take the Small Vehicle's road of Nirvāṇa without remainder; with concentration deep, one careless moment could mean entering Nirvāṇa without remainder, and then there would be no way to accomplish the Buddha way. Therefore, before realizing the fruits and gaining enlightenment, it suffices to cultivate up to the first dhyāna concentration, or to the preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) prior to the first dhyāna; in this way one can still carry out the contemplative practice of both Small Vehicle and Great Vehicle dharmas, and wisdom arises with comparative ease. Upon reaching the fruition of the third bhūmi bodhisattva, one must additionally cultivate the four dhyānas, eight samādhis, five superknowledges, and the four immeasurable minds; only then can one complete the full-mind stage of the third bhūmi and enter the fourth bhūmi.

To engage in contemplative practice and ponder the principles of the Dharma, one must have the skill of preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi). If the power of concentration is insufficient, the mind easily scatters and contemplative practice becomes impossible; or if there is contemplative practice, it is coarse and shallow, lacking depth and subtlety, and the wisdom obtained will not be deep or subtle. If one cultivates the mindless samādhi and remains perpetually in a no-mind state, contemplative practice is likewise impossible. Though the feelings of body and mind are pleasant and afflictions can be subdued, no wisdom is gained; such meditative concentration has nothing to do with practicing the Buddha-dharma. The ancient Chan masters all strongly opposed cultivating the mindless samādhi, saying it was like sitting inside the ghost cave of the black mountain, thinking of nothing at all and accomplishing nothing; with no mind toward affairs and no affairs in the mind, nothing can be accomplished. Even if one gains superknowledges—departing the instant one wishes to depart, being reborn wherever one wishes to be reborn—still nothing is accomplished. Once we understand this principle, we should carefully discern how to cultivate concentration so that attainment is quickest and greatest.

3. Why Can the Mind Attain Great Freedom Through Profound Meditative Concentration?

Meditative concentration is also called "focusing the mind on a single point," and when the mind is focused on a single point, nothing cannot be accomplished. Non-Buddhists can focus the mind on a single point; arhats and pratyekabuddhas can also focus the mind on a single point; the great bodhisattvas can focus the mind on a single point; and the Buddhas can do so to an even greater degree. All can make the mind attain freedom, all can accordingly do as they wish, and all can accomplish corresponding endeavors. However, because the depth of meditative concentration differs, wisdom differs, and the mind's capacity differs, the degree of the mind's freedom differs, and the endeavors accomplished differ accordingly.

Ordinary people understand meditative concentration as a kind of bondage, a kind of restraint—binding the body's head, feet, and limbs, and restraining the mind's free reveries. Yet if the body is not bound and wanders about, its strength dispersed in all directions, there will be no powerful force to transform and change all dharmas; if the mind is not restrained and its reveries scatter at will in the eight directions, there will be no powerful force to direct and create all dharmas. In that case, body and mind will forever be constrained by the environment and will instead be unfree—let alone attaining great freedom.

In the earliest stage of cultivating concentration, the body is indeed bound and the mind indeed restrained. But as meditative concentration gradually deepens, the four great elements of the body undergo change, the vital energy and blood flow smoothly, and one feels very comfortable, no longer constrained by the four great elements of earth, water, fire, and wind, becoming ever more serene and free; at the same time, the mind is no longer bound by the physical body and objective realms, becoming ever more tranquil and joyful, ever more free, and ever more powerful.

Which is the mind that attains freedom and liberation? At the very beginning it is the minds of the six consciousnesses: the five sense consciousnesses, no longer bound by the five sense-object realms within and outside the body, do not feel suffering and pain; the mind consciousness, no longer constrained by dharma objects, does not feel afflictions. Gradually the manas is no longer bound by the realms within and outside the physical body, nor does it indiscriminately grasp at sense objects; it gradually converges on a single point, strength becomes concentrated, and mental power increases. At that point, whatever realm the manas desires, that realm will manifest; the tathāgatagarbha follows and sustains Him, and the manas can then use the six consciousnesses and the tathāgatagarbha to alter all dharmas and transform all worlds. But the deeper the meditative concentration, the smaller the functions of the six consciousnesses become; in the end one can dispense with the six consciousnesses altogether, and the manas, carrying the tathāgatagarbha along, roams at will through the heavens above and the earth below, through the ten periods of time past and present, unconstrained by anything, attaining great freedom—this is liberation.

Therefore liberation cannot be separated from meditative concentration by even a hair's breadth, nor from great wisdom. At the outset it also cannot be separated from the precepts. Although the precepts at first restrain body and mind so that they are no longer as free to do as they please as before, that sort of freedom to do as one pleases is precisely unfreedom: it can create unwholesome karma and summon bitter retribution. Once body and mind grow accustomed to the precepts and no longer create unwholesome karma, they will no longer feel the precepts' constraint; they will feel free anytime and anywhere, no longer sensing the precepts' existence or restriction.

It is like the traffic rules first established requiring traffic to keep to the left: sentient beings, long accustomed to doing as they pleased, walked on the left, the right, or the middle at will, unwilling to keep to the left side; at that time they felt the traffic rules as a constraint, as unfreedom. Once they became accustomed to the traffic rules, they kept left quite naturally, without feeling the slightest constraint; only then is there true freedom, and safety of travel is guaranteed. The so-called freedom of formerly ignoring the traffic rules was in fact unfreedom, and could not guarantee personal safety.

Toward any rule, when unaccustomed one feels it as a constraint; once accustomed, one feels free, with no sense of constraint. Cultivation is about giving sentient beings good habits and wholesome habits, so as to change their former bad habits and unwholesome habits. Good habits and wholesome habits are a form of liberation; bad habits and unwholesome habits are bondage and non-liberation, and bring the suffering of bitter fruits.

Some people are unwilling to receive the five precepts, still less the bodhisattva precepts, fearing the bondage of the precepts. Yet the Buddha said the precepts can bring liberation to sentient beings; they are called the precepts of individual liberation (prātimokṣa). Keep one precept and one is free with regard to that precept; create one less kind of unwholesome karma and body and mind gain one kind of liberation. Accustomed to keeping the precepts, one no longer feels the precepts' existence or restriction and no longer even holds the notion of "keeping precepts"; this is freedom with regard to the precepts—able to follow the heart's desires without overstepping the bounds.

The Buddhas and bodhisattvas, having kept the precepts throughout long, distant kalpas, are long since beyond the precepts' constraint; therefore the Buddhas and bodhisattvas neither keep the precepts nor violate them. The Buddha is one without precepts, and thus is the greatest of the free and liberated. Ordinary beings must pass through the stage of cultivation that includes receiving and keeping the precepts; once accustomed to the precepts, they too will no longer be bound by them and will be as free and liberated as the Buddhas and bodhisattvas.

4. The First Dhyāna Concentration Is Not the Sole Condition for Liberation of the Mind

Merely attaining the first dhyāna is not liberation of the mind, nor can it bring liberation of the mind. Possessing the first dhyāna concentration can only subdue afflictions; it cannot eradicate them, and so liberation of the mind cannot be obtained. The first dhyāna concentration by itself has no necessary connection with liberation. The condition and criterion for liberation of the mind is possessing the merit and benefit of having eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), plus the first dhyāna concentration—neither of the two can be missing.

After eradicating the view of self, within the first dhyāna concentration one can, in due sequence, eradicate the two afflictions of greed-desire and resentment-anger; the mind is then liberated from the desire realm's greed and resentment and is no longer bound by these two afflictions—this is called the anāgāmin, the sage of the third fruit who is liberated in mind. But the delusion of the form realm and the formless realm has not yet been eradicated; when the delusion, ignorance, and afflictions of the three realms have been completely exhausted, then one is the arhat, the sage of the fourth fruit liberated by wisdom. Only Great Vehicle bodhisattvas who are persons of the third or fourth fruit will in the future be qualified to become sages of the first bhūmi and above.

Therefore, without cultivating meditative concentration and without any samādhi state at all, one cannot attain liberation, much less become a Buddha; likewise, without eradicating the view of self, one cannot attain liberation, much less become a Buddha. These two checkpoints, prior to the first bhūmi and the third fruit, must be passed through; no matter what, they cannot be detoured around or evaded, no matter what novelties one cultivates. Even if one expounds the Tripitaka and the twelve divisions of the sūtras so eloquently that heavenly flowers rain down, without passing through these two checkpoints it has nothing to do with liberation or buddhahood, nor anything to do with true realization. No matter how high one's verbal wisdom may be—even up to the stage of Buddhahood—not one of these two checkpoints can be leaped over; both must be traversed. Otherwise it is called lofty and empty talk, having nothing to do with liberation, nirvāṇa, or becoming a Buddha.

The condition for liberation of the mind is having fairly good meditative-concentration skill as a foundation. With the manas abiding in fairly good meditative concentration, through the assistance of the mind consciousness one engages in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), realizes that the five aggregates are illusory, and then eradicates the view of self, no longer stubbornly clinging to the physical body. The manas then gains the most initial liberation, possessing the liberating merit and benefit of the first fruit (srotāpanna).

Liberation is in fact the liberation of the manas: it is the manas that is bound by ignorance (avidyā), and it is the manas that transmigrates through birth and death. If the manas's ignorance is not broken through and only the ignorance of the six consciousnesses is broken through, then at death the manas, dragged along by ignorance, will continue to sink in the ocean of suffering of birth and death; by then the six consciousnesses have vanished without a trace and fundamentally cannot go on to future lives. At that time it no longer matters whether the mind consciousness has ignorance or is without ignorance. Only while the five-aggregate body is alive in the world can the mind consciousness that is without ignorance effectively perfume the manas, enabling the manas also to break through ignorance and be without ignorance. If the mind consciousness has ignorance while the five aggregates are alive, it cannot perfume the manas so as to break its ignorance; the manas will still act as the master, creating unwholesome bodily, verbal, and mental actions, leaving behind seeds of unwholesome karma for future lives, and cannot escape continuing to suffer the misery of the cycle of birth and death.

5. The Four Dhyānas and Eight Samādhis Alone Cannot Free One from the Cycle of Birth and Death

From ancient times to the present there have probably been quite a few people who have cultivated the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, but the four dhyānas and eight samādhis alone cannot enable sentient beings to escape the cycle of birth and death and attain liberation, because they still take some dharma among the five aggregates to be the self and cling to it; consequently they are bound by the very dharma they cling to and cannot attain liberation. When the power of concentration vanishes, they will fall once more, returning to the human world or to the three evil destinies. How, then, can one escape birth and death and attain liberation? Only by eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and self-grasping with the support of quite good power of concentration, and realizing the fruit of liberation, can one transcend the cycle of birth and death and attain liberation—there is no other way.

Why do sentient beings strive so hard to cultivate meditative concentration? It is because they all believe meditative concentration can bring them liberation, not knowing that eradicating the view of self—eradicating the various views of self concerning the five aggregates—is the cause of attaining liberation; not knowing that only by extinguishing the self of the various perceiving minds can one attain nirvāṇa, attain liberation, and exit the cycle of rebirth. Therefore, in studying the Buddha-dharma, obtaining correct knowledge and view is of utmost importance; only by letting the correct principles of the Buddha-dharma guide one's practice and cultivating in accordance with the Dharma can one succeed in cultivation.

6. The Path of Practice Taught by the Buddha

The mode of contemplation taught in the Zuochan Sanmei Jing (Sūtra on Sitting in Meditative Absorption) is precisely contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā); the train of thought is clear, only somewhat coarse. Meditative concentration combined with contemplative practice—cultivating concentration and wisdom in tandem—is sufficient to realize the fruits and attain the various samādhis. When the Buddha was in the world, the bhikṣus' practice was also contemplation within meditative concentration. After hearing the Dharma, the bhikṣus would cultivate meditative concentration on one side and contemplate on the other, and then realize the fruits. That was the path of practice in those days, and it was highly efficient. It was the same in the Tang and Song dynasties: the members of the assembly all had very deep meditative concentration and all knew how to investigate Chan. When the Chan master ascended the hall to give instructions, if the conditions of season and causes were complete, someone would see the mind and see the nature.

Moreover, every one of the non-Buddhists had meditative concentration skill. When they met the World-Honored One, as soon as He expounded the Dharma they could immediately contemplate and engage in contemplative practice, and realized the fruits right then. So do not merely look at the fact that the final step in their realization of the fruit was gaining wisdom the moment they heard the Dharma. Before that, their meditative concentration had already been accomplished, their minds had already been purified, and the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment had already been cultivated; only correct knowledge and view was missing. The World-Honored One's expounding of the Dharma supplied that correct knowledge and view, and so they realized the fruit the very moment they heard it. We should not look only at others' final results; we should observe the process of their cultivation. The process is crucial: without a process that accords with the principles, there can be no correct realization of the fruit.

The Chan patriarchs of the past were all masters of cultivating concentration; every one of them had meditative concentration. The bodhisattvas' six pāramitās had all been perfected and the process of cultivation had all been completed. When the Chan master ascended the hall to give instructions, the disciples seated below would awaken—this is how the fruit appeared. We cannot look only at the results of those who have succeeded; the most important thing is to look at their process of cultivation, including to what degree they had cultivated in past lives, how they practiced, and what kind of foundation they had. For those whose foundation has already been laid, hearing the Dharma is enough for sudden enlightenment on the spot, without the need for gradual cultivation, because previously or in past lives they had already cultivated gradually and that stretch of the road had already been traveled. To excerpt only the final segment of a practitioner's process of cultivation is a serious case of quoting out of context, and it does great harm to people.

Beginners in Buddhism should read more of the Jātaka accounts of the Buddha's previous lives and consider the path of the Buddha's cultivation from his initial resolve onward; this should be a great inspiration to us. To study Buddhism—"studying Buddhism" means one should learn all the dharmas the Buddha cultivated and taught, and walk in the footsteps the Buddha walked.

7. The Reason Non-Buddhists Realized the Fruits So Quickly Was Precisely That They Had Meditative Concentration

The cases recorded in the Āgama sūtras and the cases recorded in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra are all authentic. Indeed, some non-Buddhists, after cultivating the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, upon hearing the Buddha expound the Dharma needed only a few minutes of reflection to eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and self-grasping, becoming great arhats of the fourth fruit liberated in both ways, and then entered Nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa). These non-Buddhists were extraordinary, and the merit of the four dhyānas and eight samādhis was extraordinary. Many of us listen to the Buddha-dharma for an entire lifetime and still cannot eradicate the view of self; those non-Buddhists, possessing the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, needed only a few minutes or even less—not only to eradicate the view of self but also to eradicate self-grasping—and could enter Nirvāṇa without remainder immediately. This is truly inconceivable.

Everyone, think about it: why were their faculties so sharp? It is because in the course of their cultivation of the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, with meditative concentration as deep as this, the mind consciousness was extremely subtle and keen, and the manas had already been subdued; there was only one mistaken view in their knowledge and understanding that had not been clarified and eradicated. Once this wrong view (mithyā-dṛṣṭi) was eradicated, all afflictions and graspings dropped away on the spot—such is the merit of the four dhyānas and eight samādhis. From this it can be seen that subduing the afflictions of the manas is very closely related to the four dhyānas and eight samādhis; meditative concentration is extremely important.

Even if one can read ten thousand volumes yet does not understand their meaning, that is still not true diligence. The fundamental purpose of studying the Dharma is to obtain wisdom, not to amass countless items of knowledge and learning, not to study for the sake of studying, and still less to study for show before others. Therefore, in order to obtain wisdom, what we should do and how we should do it are matters we ought to ponder with care. A student of the Buddha studies the Buddha's mind and conduct; it is not a matter of collecting all of the Buddha's words, but rather, through the Buddha's words, of understanding the Buddha's mind, and then learning the Buddha's mind and emulating the Buddha's conduct. Only in the end can one be identical to the Buddha without difference and be compassionate toward others.

8. The Pragmatic Path-Cultivation of the Ancient Sages and Worthies Was Inseparable from Meditative Concentration

Judging from the cultivation of the twenty-five sages in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the practitioners of the past were very pragmatic in their cultivation; the theory they studied was not extensive. As soon as they had steeped themselves a little in some theory, they would immediately go into meditative concentration to actually contemplate and cultivate it. Their practice centered on meditative concentration and contemplative practice; cultivating concentration and investigating Chan occupied more than eighty percent of their practice. Their cultivation was very solid, so they could quickly realize the truth and attain samādhi; they accomplished results rapidly—many realized the truth, few merely talked about it.

People today are just the opposite: they devote over ninety percent of their energy to studying theoretical knowledge; their ability to recite and memorize is strong, but they lack the ability to cultivate on their own. They do not like to cultivate concentration, and their minds are so cluttered that they cannot develop meditative concentration. Their contemplative practice relies solely on the mind consciousness's emotional conjectures and intellectual interpretations; they believe that knowing much means possessing the Way, and that knowing an approximate answer counts as having realized it, utterly unaware of what the consequences of being a disciple of mere intellectual understanding and of "speaking of food yet never being filled" are. Then they write books and set up doctrines, widely recruiting followers, without the slightest consideration of whether they will mislead their students and lead sentient beings down the wrong path. This is the result of the restless minds and shallow thinking of sentient beings of the degenerate age. Look around: all are mere talkers expounding the truth; one can scarcely find a practitioner who has realized it. The less merit sentient beings possess, the more severe these phenomena become. Speaking much of these matters draws hatred and abuse. To restore the ancient ways and follow the cultivation footsteps of the ancient sages is extremely, extremely difficult; hardly anyone recognizes that Buddhism faces a great crisis, or how severe the unhealthy phenomena are.

In the secular world, in every trade and profession, whoever has achieved success is a person with considerable meditative concentration. Within concentration they are single-minded, attending to nothing else; inspiration and creativity arise easily, and they become geniuses and achievers in the eyes of others. The inspiration and creativity spoken of here generally come from the manas; at first it is only the mind consciousness's conception and emotional-intellectual interpretation, but in the end the mind consciousness can exert no more force, and instead it triggers the manas's wisdom and potential, and an outstanding work emerges. Thinking and creating within profound meditative concentration far surpasses the emotional conjectures and intellectual interpretations of the mind consciousness of ordinary people without meditative concentration—this is the distinctive trait that sets genius apart from ordinary people.