The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, Volume Six

The Buddha said: 阿难，汝常闻我毗奈耶中宣说修行三决定义，所谓摄心为戒，因戒生定，因定发慧，是则名为三无漏学。

Vinaya is one of the Tripiṭaka—the three collections of sūtras, vinayas, and śāstras—and refers to the precepts spoken by the Buddha. It also means subduing one's own mind and subduing the actions of body, speech, and mind, harmonizing the karmic actions of body, speech, and mind. The result of such subduing is that afflictions can be subdued and eliminated, attaining a mind-ground without outflows, so that body, speech, and mind are all without outflows and without afflictions, without afflictive habits, without ignorance, ultimately leading to buddhahood.

Why is restraining the mind the precepts? Which mind must be restrained in order to accomplish the precepts? When the mind is not gathered in, the body, speech, and mind will move recklessly and chaotically. With the body, one insists on doing what should not be done, going where one should not go, moving when one should not move; thus, in serious cases, one will create the karma of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, and meditative concentration cannot be accomplished. Even milder cases of the body moving recklessly preclude meditative concentration, because when the body cannot be stilled, meditative concentration is impossible.

When the mind cannot be gathered in, the mouth will speak recklessly and wildly—saying what should not be said, uttering what cannot be said; in serious cases, one will engage in false speech, frivolous speech, and divisive speech, stirring up conflicts and disputes, violating the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds. With the mind thus lacking tranquility (praśama), meditative concentration is impossible. Even if one does not violate the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds, because the mouth speaks recklessly and verbal formations are numerous, the mind must surely be thinking chaotically, with abundant mental formations; the mind is not stilled, and meditative concentration is impossible.

When the mind is not gathered in, the karmic actions of mind are certainly not tranquil—one thinks what should not be thought, deliberates what should not be deliberated, apprehends what should not be apprehended, contemplates what should not be contemplated. Thus the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion will inevitably manifest. With the waters of the mind muddied, how can there be samādhi?

People one should not think of, yet one insists on thinking of them; matters one should not ponder, yet one insists on pondering them; feelings one should not cling to, yet one insists on clinging to them—how can the mind be stilled? Who are the people one should not think of? Some people have many emotional attachments, constantly carrying the image of another person in their minds—unshakable, summoned at will, impossible to erase. With this, how can there be meditative concentration? When sitting in meditation, these images will certainly obscure one's own mind, obstructing contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation, blocking tranquility—how can there be samādhi? If one can replace these images with images of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, then with the blessing of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the mind becomes pure, and meditative concentration arises immediately.

Some people do not restrain the mind; matters unrelated to themselves, matters that do not benefit others, are kept in mind thought after thought, never forgotten moment to moment, clinging to everything— the mind is packed full with no gaps. With the waters of the mind surging and churning, agitated and clamorous, how can there be samādhi? When the mind is not gathered in, constantly hanging on to wealth, sensuality, fame, food, and sleep, with the conditioned shadows of the six sense objects layered upon one another, the mind is not empty, covered over by things—how can there be meditative concentration?

Many people complain that they cannot cultivate samādhi well. Then you must examine yourself: what exactly is the reason you cannot cultivate meditative concentration well? What exactly is there in your mind obscuring you? Dig these things out and resolve them; when the mind is empty, meditative concentration will naturally be easy to accomplish. What affects meditative concentration is the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion—the mind grasping (upādāna) at worldly dharmas, unwilling to let go, taking everything as real, as useful things, feeling it impossible not to grasp, preferring death to giving up these worldly dharmas. With this, how can there be samādhi?

Even after all this has been explained, there are still many people who do not know how to examine themselves, not knowing what exactly is in their minds. Because the mind has long been accustomed to scattering and flowing along with sense objects, clinging too tightly to them and unable to separate, the mind cannot leap outside of the sense objects to observe its own mind. With this, how can there be the wisdom of observation? How can one observe the afflictions and habits of one's own mind?

Only by leaping outside the circle, outside the sense objects, outside the mind itself, to observe one's own mind, can there be the wisdom of observation, the power of introspection, the ability to discover matters previously undiscoverable, and only then can there be a way to counteract one's own mind, to turn one's own mind around, to have the strength to subdue one's own mind.

What must be done first now is to take the mind away from the sense objects, to remove it, letting mind be mind, objects be objects, people be people, things be things—each dharma abiding in its own position, each having nothing to do with one's own mind. When the mind is detached from objects, the power of awareness and illumination is strong, and it becomes easy to awaken to the true reality of all dharmas; meditative concentration naturally grows, and wisdom naturally arises.

What has been explained above is the principle of samādhi arising from precepts. Gathering in one's own mind is the precepts; the mind not engaging in wrongdoing is the precepts; the mind not thinking recklessly, deliberating recklessly, moving recklessly, choosing recklessly, or acting recklessly—that is the precepts. This mind mainly refers to the manas, the seventh consciousness. The manas's contact, mental engagement (manaskāra), feeling, perception, and volition can trigger the contact, mental engagement, feeling, perception, and volition of the six consciousnesses, triggering the scattered movement of the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses. Restraining the manas is equivalent to controlling the master switch of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, equivalent to subduing the general and the commander-in-chief; then the six-consciousness soldiers under their command will obediently comply, docile and not moving recklessly—why worry about lacking meditative concentration?

The most important point in study and cultivation is that wisdom arises from samādhi. "Arise" means to generate and bring forth. The Buddha instructed us that because of the power of meditative concentration, the mind becomes stable and thus has strength, and this strength can give rise to and generate wisdom. It is like a kind of force that can push a sprout up out of the soil—pushing out is called arising, called emerging. Wisdom is pushed up out of the mind and generated by the power of meditative concentration. Without meditative concentration, the mind has no strength and cannot grow wisdom.
The legacy and precious family estate that the Buddha left us are the threefold training of precepts, samādhi, and wisdom—the threefold undefiled learning. If, because we cannot uphold the precepts and cultivate samādhi, we abandon the first two portions of the estate, saying these two are useless and that one treasure alone is enough, then let us think: are we not prodigal sons? Ruining the treasures of the Buddha's family, casting them aside without care—are we still disciples of the Buddha? Not guarding the Buddha's family estate, are we still the filial sons and virtuous grandsons of the Buddha? Without the first two treasures, can there be the last treasure? Even if the last one exists, what kind of thing would it be—do you know?

As for the precepts, if expounded fully, there would be no end to it. As for samādhi, if expounded fully, there would also be no end to it. As for wisdom, if expounded fully, there would be even more no end to it. In the final analysis, the precepts, samādhi, and wisdom must advance from the shallow precepts, samādhi, and wisdom of the six-consciousness mind to the ultimate precepts, samādhi, and wisdom of the manas, the seventh consciousness—this is the true precepts, samādhi, and wisdom. The true precepts, samādhi, and wisdom are the mind's precepts, the mind's samādhi, the mind's wisdom—not merely the bodily and verbal formations of the surface six consciousnesses, not merely the mental formations of the mind consciousness, but a matter of the mental formations of the manas, the seventh consciousness. When the mind of the manas is gathered in, not engaging in wrongdoing and not moving recklessly, wisdom will inevitably be born. The precepts, samādhi, and wisdom of the manas govern all dharmas, and ultimately one must, through the precepts, samādhi, and wisdom of the manas, achieve final buddhahood.