The Equal Cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā Is Required for the Realization of the Buddha-Dharma

Śamatha is cessation, and it is also meditative concentration (samādhi); vipaśyanā is contemplation, and it is also wisdom. Only with the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā, with cessation and contemplation working in concert, can great wisdom arise—this is the method practiced by bodhisattvas. Having cessation without contemplation, or contemplation without cessation, leaning to one side alone, one cannot give rise to great wisdom, cannot realize the Buddha's teachings through direct practice, and cannot attain right wisdom; one can only gain an intellectual understanding of the Buddha's teachings and acquire knowledge. These are the latter two of the three unconditioned learnings of precepts, samādhi, and wisdom spoken of by the Buddha, and also two of the six pāramitās of the bodhisattva taught by the Buddha.

If someone sits in meditation cultivating samādhi year after year, yet does not raise the mind to deliberate and investigate the Buddha's teachings, they will never attain realization or liberation. If someone leans toward absorbing knowledge, studying widely and hearing much, yet does not cultivate meditative concentration, with a mind that is scattered and restless, not entering deeply into contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), they likewise can never realize the Buddha's teachings through direct practice; at most they can gain an intellectual understanding of the Buddha's teachings and acquire knowledge, and their mind cannot be liberated, nor can they eliminate the three fetters. Knowledge can never substitute for realization, but laypeople cannot discern this, and most are the unseeing who worship knowledge and scholarship.