Cultivation of Concentration and Chan Meditation for Realization of the Way (Part 1)
Section Four The Benefits of Cultivating Meditative Concentration
I. During morning meditation, upon hearing the "ding-dong" sound of QQ, there is initially mere awareness of the sound without its definition, concept, or any sensation—just simple knowing. This process is prolonged and constitutes the coarse discernment of ear-consciousness. Only afterward does mental consciousness discern, distinguishing it as the sound of QQ, attaching definition, terminology, and sensation. Simultaneously, a lazy reluctance to move arises, accompanied by a slight craving for comfort and a desire to continue sitting—this is the craving of the manas (intellect). Before the ear-consciousness hears the sound, there is the knowing of manas, which is vague, unable to distinguish what the sound is or its content. Only when mental consciousness emerges can it gradually discern the "ding-dong" sound of QQ. If not in meditative absorption, this discernment process is extremely brief and passes quickly. However, in concentration, the mind is very refined, discernment becomes subtle; ear-consciousness, mental consciousness, and manas are all finer than usual. The entire process seems longer, the content more nuanced, and the knowing simpler. The mind is less prone to emotional arousal, making it easier to subdue afflictions.
This is all due to the function of manas. If manas is further subdued, even when the "ding-dong" sound occurs, it no longer seeks to discern what it is. Then ear-consciousness and mental consciousness do not arise; none of the five consciousnesses arise. Without sensation or knowing, one enters the state of the second dhyāna.
During meditation, the mind becomes very refined, perception becomes very clear and objective, free from emotion. This allows one to discover truths usually unnoticed. As long as the mind does not enter into the experience, maintaining simple perception and objective discernment, severing the view of self and realizing the mind will be relatively easier.
A person with meditative concentration has a very refined mind. Subtle discernment allows them to perceive people and matters accurately, grasping the root. When acting, their mind is meticulous, details are thorough, and they learn new things quickly with few errors. They are intelligent and wise. A person with a scattered mind, as one can imagine, is coarse, agitated, careless, and perfunctory.
II. Meditative Concentration Can Subdue the Demons of the Five Desires and Afflictions
The demon king Pāpīyas most dislikes sentient beings cultivating meditative concentration. Because once someone cultivates to the full attainment of access concentration (anāgamya-samādhi), equaling his own concentration, the demon king can no longer control that person. Once someone attains the first dhyāna, they completely escape the demon king's control, and he has even less power over them. Therefore, if anyone obstructs our cultivation of meditative concentration or denies its function, we must be cautious. In this world, the five desires and afflictions are blazing intensely. Without meditative concentration, there is no way to subdue and eradicate afflictions, and the karmic retribution in future lives is fearsome.
III. With Meditative Concentration, Thinking is Clear and Penetrating
If one's line of thought is not clear enough, it may be due to a lack of wisdom and logical thinking ability, or a lack of meditative concentration. One should cultivate more concentration to make the mind single-pointed; thinking will then become clearer to some extent. When concentration power is insufficient, mental thinking cannot follow a single main thread; it scatters in all directions without focus, just as energy channels do not flow along a single line but scatter chaotically within the body. A person with strong logical thinking ability relies on powerful concentration to achieve single-mindedness, like an awl penetrating deeply into a single point. A person without concentration power is like a plank lying flat on the ground, leaving no mark.
If concentration power is sufficient and understanding is also sufficient, one should combine it with the stillness-concentration (śamatha) of seated meditation to strengthen concentration power. Then contemplate the Dharma, contemplate the five aggregates. Afterward, engage in Chan (Zen) inquiry, maintaining the doubt sensation of inquiry in the mind at all times. First sever the view of self, then engage in Chan inquiry to realize the mind.
The purpose of studying the Dharma is for contemplation, and then realization. If one cannot contemplate, it indicates insufficient thinking power, meaning insufficient concentration power. Meditative concentration without contemplative thinking (śamatha-vipaśyanā) cannot contribute much to realizing the Dharma. Therefore, one should learn to cultivate concentration, allowing meditative concentration to fulfill its proper function.
IV. Meditative Concentration Can Open the Functions of the Six Sense Bases
When seated meditation reaches extreme stillness, one may sometimes hear exquisitely beautiful musical melodies in the air. This is what ancient Chinese called "the sounds of heaven" (天籁之音), described in Buddhist scriptures as the singing of celestial beings called kiṃnaras. This approaches the state of the divine ear (divya-śrotra). Meditative concentration can develop the function of the ear faculty, open the mind, reduce the hindrances to discerning sounds, and thus strengthen the discerning function. Meditative concentration can prompt the tathāgatagarbha (Buddha-nature) to gather the subtle particles of sound from more distant places through the ear faculty, allowing ear-consciousness and mental consciousness to hear them, thus manifesting the divine ear. Of course, this so-called "distant" is relative to the body faculty; for the tathāgatagarbha, there is no distance whatsoever. All these sounds are manifested and sustained by the tathāgatagarbha; they are all within it.
The reason sentient beings cannot arouse meditative concentration or spiritual powers is due to the scattered nature of the mind, its tendency to grasp, and the obscurations of greed, hatred, and delusion. What severely obstructs meditative concentration are the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. Whoever has heavier greed, hatred, and delusion suffers more severe obstruction and obscuration; their inherent functions are hindered, and the mind lacks clarity. Originally, we all can become Buddhas and possess a great thousand-world system. But because of the obscurations of greed, hatred, delusion, and ignorance, and the continuous attachment to self, not only do we fail to attain the great thousand-world system, but we also lose the freedom of the human body, pointlessly enduring immeasurable suffering of birth and death—gaining small advantages at great cost, suffering losses that outweigh gains. It is evident that sentient beings, since time without beginning, have been creating foolish karma without realizing it. Sentient beings are all like this, losing the great thousand-world system for the sake of trivial, fly-head-sized gains.
V. Stillness-Concentration More Easily Gives Rise to Wisdom
What is the difference between walking and sitting/lying down? When walking, body-consciousness and mental consciousness must focus on the operation of the physical body; attention is on the physical body and the surrounding environment. The attention of solitary mental consciousness (mano-vijñāna) contemplating Dharma principles is reduced; energy is insufficient, concentration is lacking, thinking is not deep or subtle, and wisdom does not easily arise. In sitting or lying down, the scattering of the conscious mind is less; the attention of solitary mental consciousness is more focused, thinking becomes deeper, subtler, and more detailed, making it easier for wisdom to arise. Therefore, it is said that the stillness-concentration of sitting and lying down more easily gives rise to wisdom. In sitting and lying down, the mind has fewer burdens; one can concentrate energy, think subtly and meticulously, without worrying about what situations might be encountered while walking. Thus, the mind is at peace, and seated meditation more easily gives rise to access concentration and the first dhyāna.
Wisdom arises from concentration (śamatha). This concentration refers to access concentration and the first dhyāna. Therefore, to realize the fruits (of the Path) and attain awakening, one must at minimum possess access concentration. As long as it is not the thought-free access concentration or first dhyāna, when concentration deepens, thinking becomes subtler and more meticulous; there is no problem in opening wisdom and discovering new insights (like a "new continent"). Without meditative concentration, one cannot contemplate; with shallow concentration, contemplation is ineffective, the mind is not refined, and it does not correspond to the Dharma. Therefore, after studying the Dharma, the two practices are meditative concentration and contemplation.
VI. Cultivating Concentration Nourishes the Mind and the Way
In the stillness-concentration of the first dhyāna and access concentration, one can contemplate and reflect on the Dharma. The depth and subtlety of contemplation are far greater than thinking during activity; wisdom opens more easily and penetrates more deeply. In concentrations above the second dhyāna, there is no sensation or knowing; therefore, one cannot contemplate the Dharma. Although there is no thinking while seated in the second dhyāna, after emerging from concentration, contemplation of the Dharma is very deep and subtle. The concentration power during walking, standing, sitting, and lying down is also maintained quite well.
Contemplating the Dharma during seated meditation is without burden; the mind is calm and settled, not restless. After rising from meditation, throughout the day, body and mind are joyful and relaxed, free from afflictions, and thinking is sharp. The stillness-concentration of seated meditation can genuinely nourish the concentration during activities of body, speech, and mind. Cultivating only a little concentration during activity cannot solve fundamental problems, cannot subdue afflictions, and contemplation of the Dharma is neither subtle nor penetrating.
In the Dharma-Ending Age, sentient beings have little merit. Everyone is busy pursuing enjoyment in material life, lacking the time and environmental conditions to cultivate concentration. Therefore, to accommodate themselves, everyone says having a little "concentration-in-activity" (動中定) is sufficient. In reality, this is far from enough; it cannot solve practical problems, makes it difficult to realize the Dharma empirically, results in much lip-service, while the mind remains very restless, and greed, hatred, and jealousy remain very intense.
Sentient beings today live in noisy and turbulent environments. Most people have strong and firm ego-clinging (ātma-grāha), so their contentiousness is intense. They fight and contend with each other, causing the whole society and various groups to become a mess of foul atmosphere, difficult to clean up. This is because sentient beings lack meditative concentration in their minds, cannot suppress afflictions, leading to the flooding of afflictions. Continuing like this, the schism and decline of Buddhism is an inevitable trend; no one can stop the demise of Buddhism. Moreover, this demise will begin internally; internal division within Buddhist groups will cause Buddhism to inevitably perish. Studying Buddhism and practicing without the nourishment of meditative concentration brings no real benefit to body and mind and is of no benefit to the development and future of sentient beings and Buddhism. Therefore, I advise every Buddhist practitioner to learn to sit quietly and nurture the mind. Nurturing the mind is nurturing the Way. It can purify the social environment, purify people's minds, and promote the stable development of the Buddhist cause.
VII. The Four Dhyānas and Eight Samāpattis are not only accessible within Buddhism but also to non-Buddhist paths; they are not divided between Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna. However, the meditative concentration cultivated by Bodhisattvas is far superior to that of non-Buddhists. In the preliminary attainment of concentration, the body may exhibit phenomena of being able to move or not being able to move. Concentration where one can move at will is more flexible; although moving, the mind is relatively single-pointed, with few wandering thoughts. In the state of desire-realm concentration (欲界定), the body has a feeling of lightness; walking is like a gust of wind, without much commotion. The body feels light as if being lifted up, no longer dragging the legs heavily as before.
The body in the first dhyāna is even lighter and more ethereal than this, approaching the feeling of having no body. In the first dhyāna, there is no feeling of body itchiness; it is entirely comfort and blissful lightness (prasrabdhi), feeling indescribably wonderful. Human feelings truly cannot compare to the feelings in the first dhyāna. Precisely because of such wonderful feelings, one no longer enjoys the pleasures of the five desires in the human realm; wealth and lust no longer hold interest. The five desires of the world feel relatively coarse and inferior, and thus one no longer yearns for them.
The bodily sensations in the first dhyāna lack any feeling of heaviness; they are all ethereal and blissfully light. The body floats straight upward; there is no internal sensation of the five viscera and six bowels. There is no feeling of cold or heat, no feeling of fever, no feeling of bodily roughness, no feeling of any discomfort whatsoever. The mind is clear and bright, the spirit refreshed and clear, without dullness. On the contrary, words like "wonderful" and "ethereal" can express the bodily sensations at this time. If there is any unpleasant feeling, that is suffering and affliction, not the meritorious feeling that should accompany the first dhyāna.
VIII. With Meditative Concentration, One Can Sever Doubt and Give Rise to Faith
Insufficient meditative concentration results in shallow wisdom, inevitably giving rise to doubt about the Dharma; the view of doubt inevitably exists. Especially regarding those profound Dharmas, the Dharma of Consciousness-Only (vijñapti-mātratā) and seed-wisdom (bīja-jñāna), everyone will have doubts to varying degrees. Because concentration and wisdom are insufficient, and merit is also insufficient, one cannot realize them empirically or observe them directly (pratyakṣa), so the doubt deepens. Therefore, the Buddha in the Diamond Sūtra (Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra) urged sentient beings to sever doubt and give rise to faith.
When one cannot personally realize it, having doubts is unavoidable. However, one must never draw definitive conclusions. A wrong definitive conclusion constitutes slander (of the Dharma), with severe karmic retribution. A wise person, regarding Dharma principles they cannot personally verify, neither easily affirms nor easily denies, avoiding creating karmic obstacles for themselves.
