The Entry Method of Contemplative Practice

Question: Can the sun-contemplation method from the Contemplation Sūtra (Aparimitāyus-sūtra visualization teachings) be used to cultivate the white-bone contemplation? 

Answer: The cultivation methods of sun contemplation and white-bone contemplation are the same, and their difficulty is about equal—not too difficult. All methods of contemplation and attaining realization are roughly similar. The earth contemplation and water contemplation that follow the sun contemplation are more difficult; the sun contemplation itself is not considered difficult, but contemplation is still not easy—it may take one or two years. Quite a few people have contemplated for two years, and no one has been heard to achieve success; by now they have probably all given up halfway. Genuine cultivation is not that easy; attaining any kind of meditative absorption (samādhi) is not easy. But if one gives up cultivation and continues transmigrating through birth and death, the suffering is even greater. Relatively speaking, cultivating is easier and happier than not cultivating. Whether cultivation is easy also depends on the person—everything depends on human effort. Those who easily give up halfway lack sufficient willpower. If someone has never had any experience of attainment in cultivation and feels the road ahead is bleak, it is usually because they are also not strong enough in worldly affairs; those who easily give up halfway in worldly matters are likewise in the cultivation and realization of the Buddha-dharma. 

The white-bone contemplation requires several years of contemplation; the faster ones can succeed in two or three years, depending on one's spiritual faculties (indriya). In the Sahā world, those with fairly good faculties are extremely, extremely rare. There is also the contemplation of the recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti) through contemplating an image—the methods of practice are all roughly the same. Although the methods are similar and all result in the emergence of meditative absorption (samādhi), because the objects contemplated differ, the realizations differ: those who contemplate emptiness attain the fruits of the Small Vehicle, while those who contemplate the existence of the Great Vehicle attain the fruits of the Great Vehicle. The starting point of Great Vehicle contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) is very high and requires a foundation in Small Vehicle contemplative practice. Successfully completing the sun contemplation has little to do for the time being with attaining the fruits or seeing the mind, but the power of meditative concentration gained is excellent; with this power of meditative concentration, contemplative practice of other dharmas will achieve success quickly. 

In the sixteen contemplations of the Contemplation Sūtra, only at the seventh contemplation can one see the mind; the earlier contemplations cannot lead to seeing the mind. But once the state of meditative absorption (samādhi) appears, rebirth in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī) at the end of life is assured. Accomplishment in the white-bone contemplation can eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and realize the first through fourth fruits. Accomplishment in contemplating an image in recollection of the Buddha is not merely simple seeing of the mind—one may possibly reach the first bhūmi. This must be judged by combining each person's wisdom realization, meditative concentration realization, and various other conditions. The methods of entering contemplative practice are all more or less the same.