Clear and Penetrating Thought in Meditative Concentration

If one's line of thinking is not clear enough, it means one lacks meditative concentration (samādhi); one should cultivate more concentration to make one's thinking clearer. When the power of concentration is insufficient, the mind consciousness's thinking cannot follow a single main thread, and it will become distracted in all directions, without focus. It is like qi channels not running along a single line but darting about everywhere in the body. A person with strong logical thinking ability relies on powerful meditative concentration to achieve single-pointedness, like an awl driven deep into one point. A person without the power of concentration is like a wooden board lying flat on the ground, leaving no trace.

If one's power of concentration is sufficient and one's knowledge and views are also sufficient, one should combine them with the stillness-based concentration of sitting meditation to strengthen the power of concentration, and then engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the Buddha's teachings, contemplating the five aggregates (pañca-skandha). After that, one should investigate Chan, always keeping a questioning doubt of investigation in mind. First eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), then investigate Chan to see the mind.

The purpose of studying the Dharma is precisely to engage in contemplative practice and then to realize it. If one cannot engage in contemplative practice, it shows that one's power of thinking is not good enough—that is, one's power of concentration is not good enough. Meditative concentration without contemplative cultivation cannot play much of a role in realizing the Dharma. Therefore, one should learn to cultivate concentration, so that meditative concentration can play its proper role.