Thoughts, Meditative Concentration, and the States of Devas and Humans in the Three Realms

Greed means craving and grasping; love means fondness and delight. When one no longer feels fondness or delight toward the three realms, love is severed; once love is severed, the karma of the three realms is ended. When desire-greed is severed, the bonds of the desire realm are severed, and one can transcend the desire realm; the first dhyāna of the form realm will necessarily appear, and at the end of life one can be reborn in the form realm heavens. Those with severe sexual desire-greed cannot only not attain the first dhyāna, they cannot even attain the preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) of the desire realm, nor even the coarsest, shallowest concentration of the desire realm—then there is not a trace of meditative concentration at all.

Because any state of concentration is the mind resonating with the realms of heavenly beings, not resonating with the realms of the human world; when the mind's nature is higher than that of humans, one's realm is higher than that of humans. A person who has desire-realm concentration certainly has a mind that has grown indifferent to the desires of the human world; a person who has form-realm concentration has a mind indifferent to the realms of desire-realm humans, ghosts, animals, and desire-realm heavenly beings; a person who has formless-realm concentration has a mind indifferent to the realms of the form realm and the desire realm.

Whether or not one has meditative concentration depends entirely on the mind's thoughts; the moment a thought stirs, concentration vanishes—such is the power of mental thoughts. Those who complain that they cannot cultivate meditative concentration well should examine whether the thoughts in their minds are tranquil, and whether they are too entangled with the people, affairs, and things of the human world, with every thought fixed on human affairs. If the thoughts are not tranquil, then enduring painful sitting and forcibly cultivating concentration is of no use.