The Benefits of Meditative Concentration

If your meditative concentration is insufficient, you cannot contemplate and practice contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the Buddha's Dharma; reading books becomes like viewing flowers from horseback, grasping nothing of the essentials. When cultivating meditative concentration, just go ahead and enter samādhi—do not fear going too deep. Even if the concentration becomes deep, that is fine; after emerging from samādhi, you can then investigate and contemplate the Dharma. With a pure mind and subtle, meticulous thinking, your contemplative practice will be quite effective—far more beneficial than having no dhyāna at all or only shallow concentration. The deeper the concentration, the better. Once body and mind have been transformed within samādhi, coming back to investigate Chan and engage in contemplative practice, you will be extremely effective and everything will come with ease; contemplative practice proceeds very quickly and hits the mark.

When practitioners of non-Buddhist paths cultivated the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, they realized the fruits upon hearing the Buddha preach the Dharma—precisely because they benefited from profound dhyāna. After emerging from samādhi, they heard the Dharma, contemplated, and practiced, and wisdom was quickly born. Those without dhyāna, once they understand a bit of the principles, become complacent; the wisdom of contemplative practice never emerges, and after twenty years they are still treading in place, with no advancement in the Path whatsoever. There are also those who cultivate concentration but covet the states of samādhi, indulging within it, playing with sensations, thinking that experiencing various states is something sublime, not knowing what cultivation is for or what cultivating concentration is for. Such people are merely playing with feelings—it is not cultivation at all.