Only When the Power of Meditative Concentration Is Complete Can Contemplative Practice (Vipaśyanā-Caryā) Proceed Well

If you want to contemplate whether the ear consciousness hears a sound first, or the mind consciousness hears it first, and what kind of sound the ear consciousness hears, you must cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi); you need to cultivate both concentration in motion and concentration in stillness. Only when the power of concentration is sufficient can contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) be carried out. It is not a matter of first doing contemplative practice and then cultivating concentration—that would be practicing in an inverted manner. Even if you eventually succeed that way, it is only through the preceding scattered contemplative practice that the mind gradually comes to rest in one place, the power of concentration becomes complete, and then genuine contemplative practice in accord with the Dharma and with reason begins. So it is still concentration first and contemplation afterward; this is called śamatha-vipaśyanā (cessation and contemplation), not contemplation-then-cessation.

If you lack the meditative concentration of sitting meditation (concentration in stillness) and have only very weak concentration in motion, it will not be of much use. Concentration in stillness, such as sitting meditation, can nourish concentration in motion and enable our deliberation (manana) to become very deep and very fine. If we wish to observe and experience the activities of the ear consciousness and the mind consciousness when hearing a sound, we can observe within concentration: when a sound arises outside, you contemplate and observe what kind of vibration the sound produces on the eardrum, and what kind of sound and movement the ear consciousness hears, distinguishing each one clearly. But without the power of concentration, it is utterly impossible to observe this. Moreover, the requirement for the power of concentration cannot be merely ordinary; it must be the kind that is relatively deep and relatively single-minded before such observation can be made. With a loud sound or a faint sound, first observe what the ear consciousness and the mind consciousness each hear, and what effect the sound heard by the ear consciousness has on the eardrum and the ear faculty; then observe the sound heard by the mind consciousness and the sound it feels—what states they are in. If you can discern each of these one by one, you will be able to distinguish whether the ear consciousness arises first or the mind consciousness arises first, and what kind of sense-object (viṣaya) each of the two consciousnesses respectively discerns. Within all these contemplative practices, both concentration and wisdom are currently operating; if either one is lacking, contemplative practice cannot be accomplished. Therefore, in studying and practicing the Buddhadharma, concentration and wisdom must be cultivated equally, with cessation and contemplation held in tandem.