Why can the mind attain great freedom when there is profound meditative concentration?

Meditative concentration (dhyāna-samādhi) is also called fixing the mind in one place, and when the mind is fixed in one place, nothing cannot be accomplished. Non-Buddhist practitioners can fix the mind in one place, arhats and pratyekabuddhas can fix the mind in one place, the great bodhisattvas can fix the mind in one place, and the Buddhas can fix the mind in one place even more so. All of them can make the mind attain freedom, can correspondingly act as they wish, and can accomplish corresponding endeavors. However, because the depth of meditative concentration differs, wisdom differs, and the capacity of the mind differs, the degree of the mind's freedom differs, and the endeavors accomplished also differ.

Ordinary people's understanding of meditative concentration is that samādhi is a form of bondage, a form of restraint—binding the body, head, feet, and limbs, and constraining the mind's free wandering. But if the body is not bound and wanders everywhere, its strength scattered in all directions, there will be no powerful force to transform and change all dharmas; if the mind is not constrained and freely imagines in all eight directions, there will be no powerful force to direct and create all dharmas. In this way, body and mind will forever be constrained by the environment, and there will be no freedom—let alone great freedom.

In the initial stage of cultivating samādhi, the body is indeed bound and the mind is indeed constrained. 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 tranquil (praśama) and free. At the same time, the mind is no longer bound by the physical body and sense objects, becoming ever more serene and joyful, ever more free, and ever more powerful. Which mind is it that attains freedom and liberation? At the very beginning, it is the mind of the six consciousnesses: the five consciousnesses are no longer bound by the five sense objects inside and outside the body and thus do not feel suffering, and the mind consciousness is no longer constrained by mental sense objects and thus does not feel afflictions. Gradually, the manas is no longer bound by the environments inside and outside the physical body, no longer randomly grasps at sense objects, gradually concentrates on one place, its power becomes focused, and its mental strength increases. At that point, whatever state the manas wants, that state will manifest; the tathāgatagarbha follows and supports Him, and the manas can then use the six consciousnesses and the tathāgatagarbha to change all dharmas and transform all worlds. But the deeper the meditative concentration, the smaller the functions and roles of the six consciousnesses; eventually one can do without the six consciousnesses, and the manas, carrying the tathāgatagarbha along, can roam at will through the heavens and the earth, through the ten eons and past and present, unconstrained by anything, attaining great freedom—this is liberation. Therefore, liberation cannot in the slightest be separated from meditative concentration, nor from great wisdom. At the very beginning, it also cannot be separated from the precepts. Although the precepts at first can constrain body and mind, making them not as free to act at will as before, that kind of freedom to act at will is actually not freedom—it can create unwholesome karma and invite bitter retribution. Once body and mind become accustomed to the precepts and no longer create unwholesome karma, body and mind will no longer feel the constraint of the precepts, but will feel free at all times and places, no longer sensing the existence and constraint of the precepts.

It is like when traffic rules were first established requiring driving on the left side: sentient beings, accustomed to acting willfully, walked on the left, right, or middle as they pleased, unwilling to keep to the left side, and at that time they felt constrained and unfree by the traffic rules. Once they became accustomed to the traffic rules, they naturally kept to the left side without feeling any constraint whatsoever—only then is there true freedom, and safety of passage can be guaranteed. The so-called freedom of previously not obeying traffic rules was actually not freedom, and could not guarantee personal safety. For all rules and principles, when one is not accustomed to them, they feel like a constraint; once accustomed, one feels free, without any sense of constraint. Cultivation is to make sentient beings develop good habits and wholesome habits, in order to change past 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 can bring bitter fruits.

Some people are unwilling to receive the five precepts, even less willing to receive the bodhisattva precepts, fearing the constraint of the precepts. But the Buddha said that the precepts can bring sentient beings liberation, and thus they are called the precepts of individual liberation (prātimokṣa): by keeping one precept, one is free with respect to that precept; by creating one less kind of unwholesome karma, body and mind attain one kind of liberation. Once accustomed to keeping the precepts, one no longer feels the existence and restriction of the precepts, and no longer has the notion of "keeping precepts"—this is being free with respect to the precepts, able to follow one's heart's desire without overstepping the bounds.

The Buddhas and bodhisattvas have kept the precepts throughout long, distant kalpas, and have long since ceased to be constrained by the precepts; therefore the Buddhas and bodhisattvas neither keep the precepts nor violate them. The Buddha is one beyond precepts, and therefore is the one of greatest freedom and liberation. Ordinary beings must go through the stages of cultivation of receiving the precepts and keeping the precepts; once accustomed to the precepts, they too will no longer be bound by the precepts and will be as free and liberated as the Buddhas and bodhisattvas.