The Method of Cultivating Śamatha in the Sūtra of Perfect Enlightenment

若诸菩萨唯取极静，由静力故，永断烦恼，究竟成就，不起于座，便入涅槃，此菩萨者，名单修奢摩他。The first method of solely cultivating śamatha is the method of cultivating śamatha (calm abiding), that is, the method of cultivating meditative concentration (dhyāna). Relying on meditative concentration, one sequentially eliminates all afflictions, and without even rising from one's seat, one can enter nirvāṇa. This is the practice of bodhisattvas. Of course, bodhisattvas practicing would not take up nirvāṇa without remainder; ultimately they realize the non-abiding nirvāṇa (apratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa) of the buddha-stage, becoming the nirvāṇa of an ultimately accomplished Buddha. Here there is a key question: these bodhisattvas practice only meditative concentration, making the mind tranquil and extremely tranquil, and relying on the power of this tranquility, they forever eliminate afflictions. This means that as long as the mind is extremely and utterly still, so that all scattered thoughts and deluded notions are extinguished, afflictions are thereby eliminated—even all afflictions are eliminated. Is it not said that meditative concentration alone cannot eliminate afflictions? Why is it said here that bodhisattvas who cultivate concentration and take up tranquility can eliminate all afflictions?

The pure meditative concentration cultivated by non-Buddhists (tīrthikas) cannot eliminate fundamental afflictions; it can only subdue coarse and heavy afflictions of the branches and leaves—the major and minor secondary afflictions. In later generations, when the meditative concentration fades away, relying on the fundamental afflictions, the branch-and-leaf major and minor secondary afflictions will arise again. This is because the non-Buddhists, in their meditative concentration, lack the wisdom of liberation; the mind is not completely emptied—there remains a part that is not empty, and the emptying is not thorough. Therefore fundamental afflictions cannot be eliminated; only coarse and heavy afflictions can be eliminated, which is called subduing afflictions. With the merit of having subdued afflictions, if non-Buddhists reflect a little on the Buddha's teachings, they can eliminate the self-view and fundamental afflictions and enter nirvāṇa without remainder. Thus the merit of meditative concentration is still extremely great—a still mind can give rise to wisdom.

Arhats and pratyekabuddhas, because they possess the wisdom of liberation, attain an emptiness in meditative concentration that is more thorough, purer, and deeper than that of the non-Buddhists, and therefore they can eliminate fundamental afflictions as well as the major and minor secondary afflictions; only they cannot eliminate the habitual tendencies of afflictions. Bodhisattvas, however, not only possess the wisdom of liberation but also the wisdom of prajñā and the seed-wisdom (zhongzhi) of Yogācāra; the emptiness they attain in meditative concentration is even more thorough and complete than that of arhats and pratyekabuddhas. With the power of this emptiness, they can exhaustively eliminate all afflictions, including the habitual tendencies of afflictions. Afflictions are ignorance; when afflictions are exhausted, ignorance is exhausted; when ignorance is exhausted, the ultimate buddha-fruit is attained, realizing and entering the ultimate non-abiding nirvāṇa (apratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa).

The bodhisattva's elimination of afflictions is a permanent elimination—no affliction, no ignorance will ever arise again. Just as gold refined from gold ore will never again be mixed with impurities, this is the merit of the mind reaching stillness and utmost stillness. Taking up nothing among all dharmas, ignorance is exhausted; when not a single dharma is taken up, there is no ignorance. There is no need to again confront and counteract afflictions as conditions arise; introspecting one's own mind amid the crowd, one directly abandons the myriad conditions, lets go of the myriad dharmas, lets the mind empty out directly to the very bottom—emptied purely, emptied thoroughly—and then enters nirvāṇa. This is the method of bodhisattvas solely cultivating śamatha alone.