Why Does the Practice of Insight in Meditative Concentration Generate Wisdom and Attain Liberation?

Question: How can observation generate wisdom? For example, when observing the breath, in the initial stages one can only observe the dynamic traces of breathing, merely enhancing attentiveness without generating wisdom. Only when one enters deep meditation to the point where coarse breathing ceases does one realize that the breath is impermanent. Yet everyone knows that human breathing will eventually stop; it is impermanent. Another example is the contemplation of skeletons. Without meditative practice, everyone understands that one day, human bones will turn to dust and return to emptiness. What I don’t understand is why one needs to contemplate truths that are already widely known? What wisdom is gained from this?

Answer: The conscious mind understands everything, but what use is such understanding? The conscious mind understands that one should not harbor greed, hatred, or delusion, and that creating karmic actions out of afflictions will lead to negative retributions. Yet what use is such understanding? The conscious mind also understands how to attain Buddhahood, but what use is that? What problems do all the understandings of the conscious mind ultimately solve? The key lies in the fact that the manas (the root mind that governs bodily, verbal, and mental actions) does not understand. How can the manas refrain from creating karmic actions tainted by greed, hatred, and delusion? How can it choose the correct path and goal for practicing the Dharma? If the manas does not understand that activities of the five aggregates, such as breathing, are impermanent and subject to arising and ceasing, how can it realize the selflessness of the five aggregates? If the manas does not realize the selflessness of the five aggregates, how can it create pure karmic actions free from self-attachment? Without pure karmic actions, how can one attain Buddhahood? Although the conscious mind understands that humans ultimately become skeletons, the manas does not. It clings to the body, takes it as the self, and perpetuates the cycle of birth and death.

Therefore, without diligent practice of meditation, without diligent observation of the breath, and without diligent contemplation of skeletons, even if the conscious mind understands everything, one will ultimately fail to realize selflessness and gain liberation. All meditative practices and contemplative efforts serve to permeate the manas, prompting it to understand. Once the manas understands, the wisdom state of samadhi arises. With this wisdom, the mind is liberated, wisdom is attained, and Buddhahood is achieved through wisdom. If the manas does not understand, there will be no wisdom state of samadhi, and liberation cannot be attained. If one does not wish to cultivate concentration or diligently engage in contemplation, and is content merely with the intellectual understanding of the conscious mind, they are no different from ordinary beings bound by karmic obstructions and the cycle of birth and death. Without changing their karmic seeds, they will still suffer retributions in the cycle of birth and death upon death.