Cultivation of Concentration and Chan Meditation for Realization of the Way (Part 1)
Chapter 4: The Importance of the Three Studies of Precepts, Concentration, and Wisdom
Section 1: Precepts, Concentration, and Wisdom Are the Key Factors for Realization
1. Precepts, Concentration, and Wisdom Run Through the Entire Course of Practice
When the World-Honored One dwelled in the Sahā world, He often taught His disciples to cultivate and study the three studies of precepts, concentration, and wisdom, repeatedly emphasizing: concentration arises from precepts, and wisdom arises from concentration. The studies of precepts, concentration, and wisdom can bring the mind to the state of being untainted (anāsrava): keeping precepts can make the mind untainted, cultivating concentration can make the mind untainted, and the growth of wisdom can make the mind untainted; taints are ignorance and afflictions. When the mind is untainted, one can attain liberation of mind and liberation through wisdom, with the stages of fruition advancing from ground to ground. After the three untainted studies of precepts, concentration, and wisdom are ultimately perfected, one will certainly become a Buddha.
Before enlightenment, when the three studies of precepts, concentration, and wisdom have been cultivated to a certain degree and correspondingly fulfilled to a certain degree, one can eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) or see the mind and attain realization; going further, by advancing the cultivation of the three studies, one can enter the first bhūmi and attain an untainted mind; by further advancing the cultivation of untainted precepts, concentration, and wisdom, one can advance from ground to ground, up to the eighth bhūmi; with further advancement one can cultivate up to the tenth bhūmi and the stage of anticipation (equal enlightenment), and after further advancing to the complete fulfillment of precepts, concentration, and wisdom, one can become a Buddha. Therefore, the three studies of precepts, concentration, and wisdom, as well as the three untainted studies, are extremely important and are the key factors for accomplishing the Buddha path. Among the bodhisattva's six pāramitās are also included the three perfections of keeping precepts, cultivating concentration, and prajñā wisdom, with keeping precepts and cultivating concentration as the foundational methods of practice, and the attainment of complete prajñā wisdom as the final result.
In the bodhisattva's six pāramitās, the study of wisdom comes after the study of concentration. The Buddha said that wisdom arises from concentration; the attainment of true great wisdom is certainly brought forth by deep and subtle deliberation (manasikāra) and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) within meditative concentration. This is wisdom realized through actual verification, not dry wisdom produced by emotional speculation and intellectual understanding. From attaining the first fruit all the way to becoming a Buddha, the entire process is like this: every intermediate stage is supported by meditative concentration, and every kind of wisdom is the result of meditative concentration.
2. Only with Complete Precepts, Concentration, and Wisdom Can One Attain Realization
The Buddha said: concentration arises from precepts, and wisdom arises from concentration. Precepts, concentration, and wisdom refer not only to the mind consciousness being complete, but also to the manas being complete. For the manas to have the wisdom of eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and the wisdom of seeing the mind, it must also have meditative concentration, investigating and deliberating within concentration on the dharma of non-self, investigating and deliberating on true suchness and Buddha-nature, in order to eradicate the view of self and to see the mind and see the nature.
If the manas cannot personally investigate and deliberate, it cannot accept the principles that the mind consciousness instills into it, and in the end it is only the mind consciousness's intellectual understanding. And for the manas to investigate and deliberate on the principle of non-self, it likewise must have meditative concentration; otherwise it will be distracted and scattered. If the manas lacks meditative concentration, it will drag the six consciousnesses into distraction. When the six consciousnesses are distracted, they constantly discriminate and always report the contents of their discrimination to the manas; the manas must then constantly divide its attention, unable to concentrate on investigation, and cannot produce an ideal result from its investigation.
No method can substitute for meditative concentration. One must be careful with methods of practice based on intellectual understanding. Practicing according to the methods taught by the World-Honored One will certainly not be wrong. All of the Buddha's disciples during the Buddha's time practiced sitting meditation and cultivated concentration, so that in their daily walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, their minds were always deliberating on the Buddha-dharma within concentration. Practitioners from the Tang and Song dynasties, before the Ming and Qing, and before the Republic era, all took sitting meditation and cultivating concentration as their primary practice, and afterwards even in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down they could maintain concentration, with their minds constantly in concentration. In this way their thinking was fine and meticulous, the conditions for breaking through the barrier easily matured, and upon encountering conditions they immediately realized. When we look back today at how they attained the Buddha-dharma, it seems so easy, but little do we know that their foundational practice was quite excellent: their roots of goodness and merit were complete, the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment were complete—of course including complete meditative concentration—their thinking was sharp and clear, and upon hearing a corresponding dharma, they could immediately attain realization.
Among all who teach the dharma, what the Buddha teaches is the most perfect and most ultimate; no one can surpass the Buddha's wisdom. Trusting the Buddha's words is absolutely without error. In whatever era, the Buddha-dharma never changes; the Buddha-dharma is forever applicable to all eras. Reading more Buddhist sutras will increase wisdom, so one will not take detours and will not easily be deceived by others. All the teachings of bodhisattvas, compared with the Buddha's, have deficiencies and leaks, and have aspects that are not perfect and not ultimate; therefore, in our study and practice of the Buddha-dharma, we should still take the Buddhist sutras as the primary basis.
3. The Essence of Precepts, Concentration, and Wisdom
The fundamental purpose of practice is to eradicate ignorance and afflictions and attain liberation; one cannot only fix one's gaze on the stages of fruition. The stages of fruition are a byproduct of practice. Taking the subduing of afflictions and the removal of ignorance as the goal, taking the attainment of great wisdom and immeasurable wisdom as the goal, and taking the salvation of sentient beings as the goal—once this goal is established, it is pure and without obstruction. After the goal is established, one must cultivate the three untainted studies of precepts, concentration, and wisdom.
The essence of precepts, concentration, and wisdom is the precepts of the mind and the concentration of the mind, causing the mind to give rise to wisdom. Precepts mean eliminating greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, and doubt from the mind, eliminating afflictions, eliminating the nature of self, eliminating obstructions, and eliminating ignorance—this is the fundamental function of precepts. When ignorance and obstructions are eliminated and the mind does not give rise to wrongdoing, then there can be concentration. Concentration means fixing the mind so that it does not grasp at objects and is not scattered; only then can the deliberation and contemplative practice of the Buddha-dharma be deep, penetrating, and forceful, and only then can one realize the Buddha-dharma and give birth to wisdom. Wisdom means allowing the mind to be perfumed with correct and reasonable Buddhist principles. When the three are complete, genuine insight will arise, thereby giving rise to great wisdom, attaining liberation and accomplishing the Buddha path, with the ability to liberate sentient beings.
4. Precepts Are the Prerequisite and Foundation of Concentration
Precepts are the prerequisite and foundation of concentration. Cultivating concentration without keeping precepts is like steaming sand and stones to make rice—it is not the basis of rice, and rice can never be obtained. In the Dharma-ending age, those who keep precepts are already very, very few, and those who have obtained the precept substance are already very, very few, because those who confer precepts on others themselves lack the precept substance, or have lost it through violating precepts, and thus others cannot obtain the precept substance from them. Without the precept substance, there is no shielding or blocking effect against the mind that would violate precepts, so when evil conditions appear, one easily violates precepts and creates unwholesome karma.
Therefore, among Buddhist practitioners today, few can accomplish meditative concentration, and the wisdom of contemplative practice is even harder to possess. Most people can only read books and understand the meaning of the dharma; after learning some knowledge, they think they have gained something and realized something, and thus their arrogant mind swells. This benefits neither themselves nor others. Without meditative concentration as the foundation and the necessary and sufficient condition for contemplative practice, actual verification is simply out of the question; one can only, like a three-year-old child, play at verbal Zen, speaking grand principles—speaking until eighty years old and still unable to practice them, with the mind and mouth unable to be consistent.
5. Precepts, Concentration, and Wisdom Are Interlinked and Indispensable
Regarding the crucial part of Buddhist cultivation and verification, the Buddha repeatedly told us: it is the three untainted studies of precepts, concentration, and wisdom. In the study of precepts, one must strictly uphold the precepts; only then can the mind become concentrated; only after the mind is concentrated can there be the wisdom of contemplative practice; when contemplative practice matures, great prajñā wisdom will be born. Having great prajñā wisdom is extremely important, for it can lead to liberation. The birth of prajñā wisdom depends on deep and subtle wisdom of contemplative practice; the acquisition of the wisdom of contemplative practice depends on meditative concentration; and the production of meditative concentration depends on the precepts. The three studies of precepts, concentration, and wisdom are linked ring by ring, all important, each closely connected—none can be lacking, and none can be omitted or discarded; otherwise actual verification is impossible.
After meditative concentration has been cultivated, one must learn to transform it into the wisdom of contemplative practice, being adept at transforming mental states; otherwise meditative concentration remains forever just meditative concentration, no different from the concentration of non-Buddhists—prajñā wisdom is not born, one cannot realize non-self, and one cannot attain liberation and ease. Quite a few people are not interested in sitting quietly, because their minds are too scattered and they cannot sit still, so they have no choice but to rely on concentration in motion. But the mind in stillness is not easy to master, and the mind in motion is even harder to master. Even if concentration in motion is well cultivated, that concentration is shallower than concentration in stillness, the mind is coarse, thinking is not fine and meticulous, and the wisdom of contemplative practice is also crude and shallow, making genuine verification impossible. Therefore, concentration in stillness is both the foundation and the final refuge; great wisdom must be born from concentration in stillness—the patriarchs, Buddhas, and bodhisattvas of every generation were all like this.
When concentration in stillness is well cultivated, thinking becomes keen and deep and subtle; in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down the mind is constantly in concentration, afflictions can be subdued, the mental state is relaxed and joyful, and the mind's thoughts naturally consist mostly of wholesome thoughts. Therefore, concentration in stillness is extremely important; it is the dharma treasure passed down by the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, patriarchs, and venerable masters of the ten directions, and it must be cherished and cultivated well.
6. Concentration Arises from Precepts, and Wisdom Arises from Concentration
In Volume Six of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha said: 阿难。汝常闻我毗奈耶中宣说修行三决定义。所谓摄心为戒。因戒生定。因定发慧。是则名为三无漏学。
Vinaya (毗奈耶) is one of the three baskets of sutras, vinayas, and śāstras; it is the precepts spoken by the Buddha, and it also means subduing one's own mind and subduing body, speech, and mind, harmonizing the actions of body, speech, and mind. The result of such subduing is that afflictions can be subdued and eradicated, reaching a mind-ground without taints, with body, speech, and mind all untainted and without afflictions, without afflictive habitual tendencies, without ignorance, ultimately becoming a Buddha. Why is gathering in the mind taken as precepts? Which mind must be gathered in to accomplish the precepts? When the mind is not gathered in, body, speech, and mind will act recklessly and wildly. As for the body, what should not be done is insistently done, places one should not go are insistently gone to, and when one should not move one insistently moves; in severe cases this creates the karma of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, and meditative concentration cannot be accomplished; even mild bodily misconduct and reckless movement preclude meditative concentration, because the body cannot be settled, and meditative concentration is impossible.
When the mind cannot be gathered in, the mouth will speak recklessly and wildly, saying what should not be said and what cannot be said; in severe cases this becomes false speech, frivolous speech, and divisive speech, stirring up gossip and conflicts, violating the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds. In this way the mind is not pure, and meditative concentration is impossible. Even if one does not violate the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds, because the mouth speaks wildly and verbal formations are many, the mind must be thinking wildly, mental formations are many, the mind is not tranquil and still, and meditative concentration is impossible.
When the mind is not gathered in, the mental karma is certainly not pure: one thinks what should not be thought, deliberates what should not be deliberated, is aware of what should not be aware of, and contemplates what should not be contemplated. In this way the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion will certainly manifest; with the mind's water muddied, how can there be concentration?
People one should not think about, yet one insists on thinking about them; matters one should not worry over, yet one insists on worrying over them; feelings one should not hang onto, yet one insists on hanging onto them—how can the mind be tranquil and still? Who should one not think about? Some people have many emotional attachments, constantly carrying the image of another person in their minds—unshakable, summoned at will, impossible to erase. How can such a person have meditative concentration? When sitting in meditation, these images will certainly obstruct one's own mind, obstruct contemplative practice and deliberation, and block tranquility—how can there be concentration? If these images can be replaced with images of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, with the blessing of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas, the mind becomes tranquil, and meditative concentration arises immediately.
Some people do not gather in the mind: matters unrelated to themselves, matters that do not benefit others, are kept in mind thought after thought, never forgotten moment to moment, worried over in every affair, the mind packed full without a crack. In this way the mind's water surges and churns, agitated and clamorous—how can there be concentration? When the mind is not gathered in, it constantly hangs onto wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep; the shadowy conditions of the six sense objects pile layer upon layer; the mind is not empty, with things covering it—how can there be meditative concentration?
Many people complain that they cannot cultivate concentration well. Then they must examine themselves: what exactly is the reason they cannot cultivate meditative concentration well, and what exactly in their minds is obstructing them? Dig these things out and resolve them; when the mind is empty, meditative concentration naturally becomes easy to accomplish. What affects meditative concentration is the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion: the mind grasps (upādāna) at worldly dharmas, unwilling to let go, treating everything as real, as useful things—feeling it must grasp them, preferring death to releasing these worldly dharmas. How can there be concentration like this?
Even after all this has been said, there are still many people who do not know how to examine themselves and do not know what exactly is in their minds. Because the mind has long been accustomed to flowing out along with sense objects, clinging too tightly to them and inseparable from them, it cannot leap outside the objects to observe its own mind. How then can there be the wisdom of observation? How can one observe the afflictions and habitual tendencies of one's own mind? Only by leaping out of the circle, out beyond the objects, out beyond the mind, to observe one's own mind, can there be the wisdom of observation and the power of contemplative awareness, enabling one to discover matters previously undiscoverable, and only then can one have the means to counteract one's own mind, turn one's own mind around, and have the strength to subdue one's own mind.
What must be done first now is to take the mind away from the objects, letting the mind be the mind, objects be objects, people be people, things be things—each dharma abiding in its own dharma-position, having nothing to do with one's own mind. When the mind is detached from objects, the power of awareness and illumination is strong, it is easy to awaken to the true reality of all dharmas, meditative concentration naturally grows, and wisdom naturally arises.
What has been discussed above is the principle of concentration arising from precepts. Gathering in one's own mind is precepts; the mind not giving rise to wrongdoing is precepts; the mind not thinking wildly, deliberating wildly, moving and choosing wildly, or acting wildly—that is precepts. This mind mainly refers to the seventh consciousness, the manas. The manas's contact, attention, feeling, perception, and volition can trigger the attention, contact, feeling, perception, and volition of the six consciousnesses, triggering the scattered activity of the six consciousnesses' bodily, verbal, and mental actions. Gathering in the manas is equivalent to controlling the master switch of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, equivalent to subduing the general and commander-in-chief; then the six consciousnesses, the soldiers under his command, will obediently comply, docile and not acting wildly—why worry about lacking meditative concentration?
The most important point in study and practice is: wisdom arises from concentration. "Arises" means to generate and bring forth. The Buddha instructed us that because of the power of meditative concentration, the mind becomes settled, and a settled mind has power; this power can give rise to and produce wisdom. It is like a kind of force that can push a sprout up out of the soil—pushing out is called arising, called emerging. Wisdom, by the force of meditative concentration, is pushed out from the mind, generated and brought forth. Without meditative concentration, the mind has no power and cannot grow wisdom.
The treasure the Buddha left us is the three untainted studies of precepts, concentration, and wisdom. If, because we cannot keep precepts and cultivate concentration, we discard the first two treasures, saying these two are useless and that one treasure alone is enough—then let us think: are we not prodigal sons? Ruining the Buddha's family heirloom and casting it aside without care—are we still the Buddha's disciples? If we do not guard the Buddha's family treasure, we are not the Buddha's filial sons and worthy grandsons. Without the first two treasures, there can be no last treasure; and even if the last one exists, it is a counterfeit, not true wisdom.
Precepts, if expounded fully, cannot be exhausted; concentration, if expounded fully, also cannot be exhausted; wisdom, if expounded fully, even less can be exhausted. In the final analysis, precepts, concentration, and wisdom proceed from the superficial precepts, concentration, and wisdom of the six-consciousness mind to the ultimate precepts, concentration, and wisdom of the seventh consciousness, the manas—only this is true precepts, concentration, and wisdom. True precepts, concentration, and wisdom are the mind's precepts, the mind's concentration, and the mind's wisdom—not merely the bodily and verbal formations of the surface six consciousnesses, not merely the mental formations of the mind consciousness, but a matter of the mental formations of the seventh consciousness, the manas. When the manas is gathered in, does not give rise to wrongdoing, and does not act wildly, wisdom will certainly be born. The manas's precepts, concentration, and wisdom govern all dharmas, and in the end one will ultimately become a Buddha through the manas's precepts, concentration, and wisdom.
7. Why Meditative Concentration Is Difficult to Cultivate
In the past, when the World-Honored One was in the world and taught the dharma, He worked simultaneously from the three aspects of precepts, concentration, and wisdom, requiring the bhikṣus to strictly keep the precepts, diligently cultivate concentration, listen widely and think deeply, and diligently practice contemplative practice; the disciples made rapid achievements in precepts, concentration, and wisdom, and many attained the fruits. But in today's Dharma-ending age it is greatly different: the dharma must be taught in reverse—first teaching the meaning of the dharma, then cultivating meditative concentration, and finally studying the precepts, gradually and patiently guiding step by step. Sentient beings must cultivate in reverse: having learned a pile of theory without meditative concentration and contemplative practice, because the precepts are not accomplished, meditative concentration cannot arise, and true wisdom will not be born; what is learned is merely knowledge.
The precepts cannot be taught first; for most sentient beings one cannot strictly demand the precepts, for fear that sentient beings, unable to keep the precepts and fearing the constraints of the precepts, will stop studying Buddhism or be unwilling to receive the precepts. The wildness of the manas is hard to tame, constantly trampling the good fields and crops; if restrained with the whip and rope of the precepts, there is fear the horns will injure people and the hooves will trample the good fields. The whip of the precepts is effective only for those fine horses of gentle and pliant disposition; a fine horse, upon seeing the whip's shadow, can speed onto the right path, whereas a poor horse, even with the leather whip striking its body until the skin splits and flesh tears, remains oblivious.
Many of us complain that meditative concentration is hard to cultivate, but no one knows the reason it is hard, nor do they analyze and investigate it. The factors obstructing the arising of meditative concentration are unknown to anyone, and still less does anyone counteract them and subdue their own minds. Many people, in daily life, are accustomed to having things go according to their own wishes and their own habits, not knowing that their own wishes and habits are neither wholesome nor correct, not corresponding to the habits a practitioner should have, with a great gap remaining. The result of studying Buddhism this way is that no matter how long one cultivates, the precepts are not accomplished, meditative concentration is not accomplished, and wisdom is not accomplished—at most one has dry wisdom, with which one can indulge in verbal Zen and satisfy an oral craving, while actual cultivation and verification are simply out of the question. If, without realizing it, one further creates some unwholesome karma, then the retribution will hardly avoid the three lower realms—a life come in vain, a rare encounter with the supreme Buddha-dharma wasted; the fine meal ultimately did not resolve hunger and thirst, and one remains poor and destitute besides.
8. The Difference Between Fish and Fishing
Giving someone a fish is not as good as teaching someone to fish. What does the fish represent? What does fishing represent? The fish is the fruit; fishing is the method of obtaining the fruit. Give someone a fish, and it ends when the fish is eaten; but teach someone to fish, and having mastered the fundamental skill, they can obtain endless fruits, free from worry about food and clothing in the future.
Fishing is the three untainted studies of precepts, concentration, and wisdom: through keeping precepts, through cultivating concentration, through contemplative practice and investigation, through deliberation, one obtains the wisdom of liberation. The initial wisdom is learned wisdom, wisdom obtained through study; the final wisdom is attained wisdom, the wisdom developed after contemplative practice and investigation—wisdom dug out from one's own heart, belonging to oneself alone, which no one can take away. Learned wisdom, however, vanishes into smoke after death in dim obscurity, its whereabouts unknown.
Without the preceding keeping of precepts, there is no subsequent meditative concentration; without meditative concentration, there is no wisdom of contemplative practice; without the wisdom of contemplative practice, one cannot obtain the fish of wisdom.
