The Difference Between Logical Reasoning and Chan Meditation

Logical reasoning is inference (anumāna); direct perception is straightforward and immediate — it is right here and now, requiring no further comparison or analysis. "Logic" (逻) and "reasoning" (推) both belong to comparison and analysis, and "辑" also belongs to comparison and analysis; the original meaning of the character 辑 is to properly arrange boxes of varying sizes and lengths on a cart, and thus it requires analyzing and comparing how well the cart body and the boxes match.

In investigating and practicing Chan, there is no language or words. When the questioning doubt is at its most intense, upon encountering a condition or touching a state, one suddenly corresponds and awakens in an instant — slapping one's thigh, "That's it!" — and thus one finds one's birth mother. If one still uses logical reasoning and says: "Ten years ago my mother was forty years old; ten years later my mother should be fifty. This person's age is about the same as my mother's, so she should be my mother" — the result is mistaking a stepmother for one's mother. At the time of death, one regrets it, but it is far too late. Logical reasoning is all a mental activity of the consciousness; whatever the consciousness alone recognizes is a stepmother; only what is recognized by following the manas is the birth mother.

Whether or not the mind consciousness is in meditative concentration, it can engage in logical reasoning, and the result is understanding a principle; whereas attaining the fruits of realization and seeing the mind both require possessing preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi), so that one can investigate single-mindedly, and the result is sudden enlightenment. Logical reasoning, however, does not require much meditative concentration — a brief moment of concentrated thought suffices, and the degree of meditative power required is very low. Therefore, the wisdom of logical reasoning is weak and inferior, incapable of attaining the fruits of realization or seeing the mind. When meditative concentration is deep, the mental activity of the consciousness becomes restricted and cannot proceed normally; when the questioning doubt is extremely intense, the consciousness's mental activity also weakens. The better the meditative power, the weaker the function of the consciousness, the stronger the function of the manas, and the deeper and subtler the wisdom of direct perception.