Dharma Q&A

Question: If one does not follow the six sense bases (ṣaḍāyatana) and in an instant transcends seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, does that break through the beginningless ignorance?

Answer: Only after Mahāyāna bodhisattvas attain realization and obtain the meditative concentration (samādhi) that combines meditative concentration with the prajñā and Yogācāra wisdom can they break through the beginningless ignorance. Not following the six sense bases involves two kinds of states: one is a state of meditative concentration (samādhi) that merely blocks out the six sense bases, relying on meditative concentration alone; the other is a state of meditative concentration (samādhi) that combines meditative concentration with wisdom, in which one does not take the six sense bases as real and the mind does not move or turn along with them. The first kind of samādhi is not easy to maintain and easily fades away; once the second kind of samādhi is attained, the wisdom will endure forever.

If one is said to have transcended seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, it must necessarily be inseparable from a profound state of meditative concentration; otherwise one remains within seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing. Above the fourth dhyāna, although there is no seeing or hearing, there is still subtle awareness and knowing. In the samādhi of no perception (asaṃjñi-samāpatti), there is no seeing, hearing, awareness, or knowing of the six consciousnesses; in the samādhi of cessation (nirodha-samāpatti), there is likewise no seeing, hearing, awareness, or knowing of the six consciousnesses. Among these states of meditative concentration, only the samādhi of cessation is a true state of samādhi that combines meditative concentration with the wisdom of liberation. As for the cultivation and realization of the Mahāyāna Dharma, bodhisattvas from the fourth bhūmi onward have attained the profound samādhi of the seed-wisdom of consciousness-only (vijñapti-mātratā); in profound meditative concentration they can transcend seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, and even when not in meditative absorption they still retain seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing—only their minds do not waver with respect to the dharmas of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing.