Cultivating Samadhi and Prajna in Tandem Without Straying from the Path

To progress more swiftly in Buddhist practice, one must first clarify the principles of cultivation, distinguish between the methods of cultivating concentration and those of investigating Chan, and then identify the current focal point of practice to avoid wasting time.

If one seeks to subdue the arising and ceasing transformations of the first five consciousnesses and the mental consciousness, preventing them from discerning and experiencing the objects of the five senses, this is the method of cultivating concentration. Through such concentration practice, after enhancing the power of samādhi, one must still use the five consciousnesses and mental consciousness to observe sensory objects, investigate them, and recognize the true nature of sensory objects and the world of the five aggregates, thereby attaining wisdom. Only with such realized wisdom can one liberate themselves from the suffering of birth and death, achieving the ultimate aim of practice.

After attaining meditative concentration, one must engage in contemplative practice. The Hinayana path contemplates the five aggregates and eighteen elements as suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self. The Mahayana path, building upon Hinayana contemplation, investigates "who sees forms, who hears sounds, who investigates Chan." Contemplation and Chan investigation inevitably involve observing and focusing on sensory objects, yet with greater concentration, directing attention without distraction toward unnecessary dharmas.

Practice must not imitate non-Buddhist paths by fixating solely on concentration, blindly ignoring and disregarding all phenomena in the surroundings, for this will not lead to the arising of wisdom. At the verge of Buddhahood, ignorance of even a single dharma constitutes delusion, rendering enlightenment unattainable. Non-Buddhists may attain mental stillness, remaining unmoved by any circumstance, even entering samādhi for eighty thousand kalpas, oblivious to all matters, dull and inert. Yet upon emerging from samādhi, when negative karma manifests, they fall directly into the Avīci Hell. Śākyamuni Buddha’s own teacher met such a fate; after the Buddha’s enlightenment, he sought to liberate him but could not find him—what a pity. Even if all people in the world combined their efforts, they could not match the mental stillness of such a non-Buddhist. But of what use is it? Failing to comprehend the truth of the world, unable to attain liberating wisdom, they remain inevitably trapped in the struggle of birth-and-death轮回. Therefore, in Buddhist practice, one must balance concentration and wisdom, cultivating precepts, concentration, and wisdom together to avoid deviating from the path.