Cultivation of Concentration and Chan Meditation for Realization of the Way (Part 1)
Section Six The State of Concentration
1. What is the state of concentration? Concentration is a state of mental stillness, primarily referring to the non-movement of the six consciousnesses, while the manas (seventh consciousness) moves minimally, slowly, and subtly. For example, in a state of daze or trance, the conscious mind focuses intently on a single object, fixed upon it without movement, lacking superficial thought processes. Meanwhile, the dharma-object is deeply implanted into the manas, compelling it to devote its primary energy to this dharma-object state. Consequently, the manas is forced to contemplate deeply, thereby enabling wisdom to unfold and thoroughly clarify the origin and essence of this dharma-object state. This is the result of the cooperative effort between consciousness (the sixth consciousness) and manas: consciousness engages in profound and subtle contemplation, while manas calms the spirit to assist contemplation, personally participating in the deliberation, ultimately leading to the manifestation of concentration and wisdom.
Daze, trance, mental blankness, or being stunned—"stunned" implies a state of being dazed and unmoving, while "spirit" refers to consciousness. Thus, "stunned spirit" means consciousness ceases its functions of thinking and analysis. This occurs because consciousness has already grasped the superficial meaning of the dharma-object but cannot resolve deeper issues, forcing it to hand the problem over to the manas for resolution. Consciousness then only needs to maintain focus on the problem. Many significant and profound problems cannot be solved by consciousness alone, necessitating reliance on the manas's inherent experiences and wisdom accumulated over lifetimes. Initially, consciousness clarifies the superficial aspects of the problem and transmits them to the manas. Once the manas grasps the general idea, it will independently contemplate the deeper issues. For instance, upon encountering an old classmate or colleague, consciousness recognizes the person and knows who it is, yet cannot recall the name, making it impossible to address or greet them. At this point, consciousness can take no further action, so the manas must search for the name, continuously pondering and deliberating, while simultaneously causing the six consciousnesses to become speechless (mouth agape), staring fixedly at the other person, doing nothing else. During the dazed state, consciousness may sometimes exhibit faint thought activities to assist the manas's deliberation, but these thoughts remain weak; if consciousness becomes too active, it would break out of the dazed state.
Similarly, many situations in worldly phenomena follow this pattern. When encountering a major problem that must be resolved, consciousness enters a dazed state—moving little, analyzing little, with minimal emotional or intellectual processing. Deep within, the manas suspends this significant matter, enabling it to deliberate clearly and thoroughly, thus revealing the solution. Extending the focused concentration of the dazed state is crucial—the longer and deeper the manas engages, the better, while the less conscious thinking occurs, the better. When causes, conditions, and time are sufficient, there is no worry about failing to realize any dharma. Why do some people fail to comprehend Buddhist scriptures and their meanings, or fail to understand others' language and psychology? It is due to a lack of meditative concentration (dhyāna), resulting in insufficient wisdom to become awakened. The lack of meditative concentration, in turn, stems from a deficiency in merit (puṇya), leading to mental restlessness and superficial thinking.
2. The dazed state is not emptiness, nor is it a state of voidness without a single thought, nor is it a state of mere stupidity. It involves deep mental activity, similar to investigating the huatou (critical phrase) or delving deeply into the meaning of the Dharma. During daze, it is best to bring the manas to clarity through this state, exposing its psychological activities.
When encountering a problem, the eyes may turn upwards and fix straight ahead without moving. Consciousness immediately becomes fixed, rigidly focused, while deep within the mind, it turns and thinks—very deeply, very secretly. Superficially, it appears as if there is no thinking, no thought, but in reality, deep activity is occurring, unmanifested. This is the result of penetrating the manas and mobilizing it: consciousness analyzes little, while the manas applies itself diligently to contemplate the Dharma personally, allowing the potential of wisdom to emerge. This is the principle of investigation (cānjiū).
Some people do not understand what concentration is, nor how to cultivate it or utilize the manas. Essentially, the deeper the meditative concentration, the greater the role of the manas compared to consciousness. Endeavor to involve the manas more in conscious thinking, while consciousness avoids superficial thought—this is called investigation (cānjiū). Wisdom will surely develop through this. Contemplating the five aggregates can sever the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi); investigating Chan (Zen) can illuminate the mind and lead to realization; investigating Buddha-nature can lead to the realization of the illusion-like contemplation (māyopama-samādhi); contemplating the illusory nature of the seven consciousnesses can lead to the realization of the mirage-like contemplation (marīci-samādhi); contemplating all phenomena as like a dream, illusion, bubble, or shadow can lead to the realization of the dream-like contemplation (svapna-samādhi), and so on. All such contemplations can be directly perceived and realized through direct perception (pratyakṣa), absolutely not through mere intellectual understanding or imagination.
3. What Kind of State is Daze?
Question: When the spirit is stunned, the meaning of the Dharma remains with the manas. Fixate upon it, let it deliberate, and try to prolong this process as much as possible. The "thinking" (saṃjñā) of the manas is one of the five universal mental factors (pañca sarvatraga caittāḥ), so this deliberation of the manas exists and operates constantly, everywhere. Is daze simply emptying consciousness to give the manas space and time to deliberate on the meaning of the Dharma? During daze, the manas is certainly deliberating, which can be explained by the five universal mental factors. In the dazed state, consciousness seems blank, devoid of any thought; even television images and sounds cannot interfere. As for duration, it varies in length. Consciousness is focused, restraining the manas, causing it to grasp at objects less. But consciousness also seems inactive—or is restraining the manas the function of consciousness?
Answer: Prolonging the dazed state allows the manas to engage in continuous, deep, and meticulous contemplation, which can give rise to wisdom and effectively solve problems. Daze is also called deep contemplation. Essentially, within concentration, the manas is in a state undisturbed by consciousness. Consciousness remains focused and undistracted, thinking and analyzing little or not at all, thus not disturbing the manas. This allows the manas to also grasp less at objects, concentrating its attention (manasikāra) and deliberation (saṃjñā), enabling wisdom to arise and thereby solve the problem.
During daze, consciousness and manas together focus on the dharma-object, cooperating with the manas, but without much thinking. The manas is not in a state without a single thought; where there is deliberation, there is mental activity. It is through mental activity that wisdom arises. Sometimes, pondering a problem before sleep without resolving it, then waking up the next morning with understanding, demonstrates that the manas continued working and deliberating through the night.
The dazed state involves consciousness; consciousness cannot cease. It is not a state of voidness of consciousness, nor a state without a single thought in consciousness. It is a state of focused consciousness. Focused consciousness is concentration (samādhi); consciousness having deep and subtle thought is wisdom (prajñā). The equal abiding in concentration and wisdom is the state of samādhi. Consciousness focused on the contemplated dharma-object distinctly differs from a state of no-thought or empty voidness. Since it is not the thoughtless state of no-mind, nor a state of idleness, consciousness *does* have thought—it's just that the thought is very deep and subtle, moving very slowly and profoundly, operating in harmony with the manas to contemplate the dharma-object.
