What Is Meant by "Investigating Things and Extending Knowledge" (gewu zhizhi)

Contemplative Practice Journal of Bashi'er Kou: Following the method my master taught, I practiced meditative concentration in stillness, starting with observing the breath. After the mind settled down, I placed the thought "the physical body is not me" in my mind and watched it, while entering a state of blankness free from language. Gradually I felt as if the body were drifting away from the knowing mind, as if it could no longer be firmly established. After rising from the seat, my body felt light and at ease, as if awakening from a great dream—no longer as fatigued as before. The only issue was a tight, tingling sensation in my head, which persisted for over ten minutes. I am grateful for my master's teaching. To study Buddhism, one must first resolve to change the habits of one's manas. Having a goal, my mind felt much lighter. 

Assessment: There is a saying: "investigating things to attain knowledge" (gewu zhizhi). It means that as long as the mind is separated from sense objects and does not adhere to or attach to them, it will not be conditioned or limited by them; it will step outside the sense object and turn back to view it objectively, thereby arriving at objective conclusions and views. But when the mind is fused together with the sense object, the mind's wisdom is often obscured by it—one sees only the appearance of the object, not the truth and the facts. 

Contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) within meditative concentration is precisely this "investigating things to attain knowledge": drawing the mind out from the dharma, so as to re-examine and observe the dharma objectively, without language or words, without subjectivity. Gradually there will be objective discoveries different from before; one comes to recognize objective truth, and thereby can give rise to the wisdom of the state of liberation. Subjective initiative belongs to the mind consciousness; objective perception and examination belong to the manas. "Investigating things" means letting the mind consciousness remain still while the manas personally perceives. Only in this way can there be fair, objective, and reasonable discoveries—that things were never actually as one thought, that one had been wrong all along. 

Without cultivating meditative concentration and contemplative practice, one will never attain "investigating things to attain knowledge," will never change the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and self-grasping of the manas, and will forever remain in ignorance and delusion—liberation will then have no date of arrival. This pass of meditative concentration and contemplative practice must be crossed no matter how difficult, and one must resolve to break through it. Only thus can one be worthy of one's lifelong study of Buddhism and of one's many past lives. If you want realization and liberation, there is no other route—only this one path, which cannot be bypassed; sooner or later you must walk it. Walking it early is far better than walking it late, sparing oneself much suffering.