How to Practice Chan Meditation with Effort

When the mind consciousness has thoroughly understood the theoretical views and the power of meditative concentration is more or less sufficient, one begins to investigate Chan and engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā). Whether sitting quietly, or walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, one should always maintain a questioning doubt in the mind, being able at all times to contemplate, deliberate, and investigate. During the process of investigation, the mind consciousness first thinks through the framework of the Dharma principles clearly, gets the general direction straightened out, clarifies the content of contemplation, and grasps the basic data needed; then it condenses the Dharma principles into a single point and hands it over to the manas, so that there are no longer any words or language in the mind, as if it were empty. In fact, at this time the manas is not empty; the manas will suspend the Dharma principles in the mind, deliberating and examining them moment by moment, with the questioning doubt in the mind unceasing, extremely diligent. This requires quite good meditative concentration; if the concentration is not good, the mind consciousness's deliberation will arise, and the manas will be unable to penetrate deeply into the Dharma principles, unable to deliberate deeply, let alone practice diligently in an unbroken continuum.

Before investigating Chan, first settle the mind; the power of meditative concentration must be cultivated to a sufficient level. If the mind cannot be settled in a day, then do not investigate Chan or engage in contemplative practice; if it cannot be settled in a month, even less can one investigate Chan and the Dharma. When you investigate with sufficient meditative concentration, the more you investigate, the deeper the concentration becomes; the deeper the concentration, the clearer the thread of investigation. When the concentration is very deep, and the manas has little left of the Dharma principles to investigate, one will enter into profound meditative absorption; after emerging from samādhi, one continues investigating, and the skill is also very effective. Occasionally entering samādhi is also quite good—first enter samādhi and then emerge from it; with meditative concentration present in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, one can very diligently investigate and engage in contemplative practice. The steps of investigating Chan must be taken one at a time, pondering bit by bit; in this way sufficient experience will accumulate, which can be readily put to use in future lives, and others can also draw on and absorb this experience.

All methods and means of cultivating meditative concentration and gathering the mind are nothing other than enabling the manas to realize the Buddha-dharma. Of course, the mind consciousness must first have a certain degree of wisdom and fully comprehend the Buddha-dharma, and then let the manas realize it. If there is no meditative concentration, and one takes the mind consciousness's comprehension as realized wisdom, that is a great misunderstanding. Wisdom not moistened by the water of samādhi is called dry wisdom; dry wisdom means the mind consciousness understands, but the manas does not realize or comprehend it, and it has no actual effect. If problems arise in the course of practice, or one encounters a bottleneck, one must turn back to search the theory, re-examine and correct the principles, find the direction, and then go practice.

Learning the Dharma must be grounded in actual realization. Only with actual realization will the body, mind, and spirit of the living being be transformed, and one's thoughts and views transformed. When the manas comprehends the principles, one's thoughts and views will certainly be transformed, the world will transform accordingly, and all one's conduct and attitudes in dealing with the world will also transform accordingly—this is precisely the purpose of cultivation. One must not think that one has already understood the principles and need not cultivate anything further. If one does not actually cultivate on the basis of the mind consciousness's comprehension of the principles, then in actual affairs one remains as before, still turning along with the afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion, and the result is still falling into birth-and-death and saṃsāra, without liberation.