The Relationship between Meditative Concentration and the Path of Seeing

Meditative concentration (dhyāna), beginning from preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi), can counteract afflictions and subdue them. Only when afflictions have been subdued, and the obstructions removed or lightened, can one attain the srotāpanna fruit. Although a person of the first fruit has only the view-insight and has only severed the three fetters that are severed through seeing, severing the three fetters necessarily requires preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi). Although preparatory concentration must be developed through cultivating meditative concentration, it cannot be equated with the afflictions that are severed through cultivation—they are not the same thing.

The view-insight of the first fruit is the view-delusions severed at the time of seeing the path; the afflictions of cultivation-delusion have not yet been severed. Although the afflictions of cultivation-delusion are gradually severed only after seeing the path through further cultivation of the path, they still belong to view-insight: the more thorough and complete the view-insight, the deeper the degree to which self and what belongs to self are severed, the emptier the mind, and the lighter the afflictions.

Although the view-delusions of the first fruit are severed at the initial seeing of the path, that initial seeing of the path is itself the result of gradual cultivation of the path; without cultivation, view-delusions cannot be severed. The content of cultivating the path is the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, and one of the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment is meditative concentration. Without cultivating the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, or if the thirty-seven aids are not cultivated to completion, one cannot see the path, let alone sever view-delusions. Therefore, preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) is the necessary condition that a person of the first fruit must possess in order to see the path.

Before a first-fruit person sees the path, one must subdue one's previous afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion to a certain degree, so that these afflictions do not influence or obstruct one's seeing of the path. In the course of cultivating the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, the extremely heavy afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion are gradually subdued; the afflictions gradually become thin, the mind gradually becomes soft and pliant, and wisdom gradually becomes clear and bright. All the obstructions, like densely gathered dark clouds, gradually thin out, and only then can the sunlight of wisdom shine through the clouds—thus one sees the path.

The lightness and thinness of afflictions before seeing the path is only relative to one's previously severe afflictions; it is not the degree of lightened greed, hatred, and delusion found at the second fruit. The two are different: both are spoken of from a relative perspective. Although the vocabulary is the same, the connotations are absolutely different, so the two must not be confused.

The Four Noble Truths: the Noble Truth of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering, and the Noble Truth of the Path to the Cessation of Suffering. Among them, the Noble Truth of the Path to the Cessation of Suffering is the truth of cultivating the path, the theoretical basis upon which it relies. The study and practice of this teaching begins even before the first fruit and continues all the way to attaining the arhat of the fourth fruit. Therefore, cultivating the path does not begin only after seeing the path; it begins when one comes into contact with the Four Noble Truths, and begins when one first practices the contemplation of the four foundations of mindfulness. Without cultivation, how could one see the path? Among the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment are the four right efforts (samyag-vyāyāma): first, to cause already-arisen unwholesome dharmas to be severed; second, to cause not-yet-arisen unwholesome dharmas not to arise; third, to cause not-yet-arisen wholesome dharmas to arise; fourth, to cause already-arisen wholesome dharmas to increase. These contents of cultivating the path—cultivating good and extinguishing evil—are precisely what counteract sentient beings' afflictions. Only after counteracting and subduing the afflictions so that they become light can one see the path.