The State of Meditative Concentration

When the eyes remain motionless, staring straight at one spot—whose meditative concentration (samādhi) is this? What causes it, and why does it happen this way? When the eyes are staring fixedly at a certain place, the eye consciousness is definitely in concentration, the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses (pañcavijñāna-sahagata-manovijñāna) is also in concentration, and the solitary mental consciousness does not appear; if it appears, the mind becomes distracted—this can be called "a monkey mind and a horse will." This kind of concentration occurs because the manas fixes the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness on the place where the manas is attending; it is brought about by the manas's mental engagement (manaskāra), and it is the result of the manas's mental engagement directed at this one place. The tathāgatagarbha gives rise to the eye consciousness that discerns only this one place—there is no second, nor a third place. If the manas directs its mental engagement toward material sense-objects in multiple places, the tathāgatagarbha will necessarily give rise to the eye consciousness and the mind consciousness in multiple places, and then the eye consciousness will wander about in all directions.

As for the mind consciousness, when it is absorbed in focused contemplation, this is the concentration of the solitary mental consciousness. The eye faculty may be contacting a certain material sense-object, but the eye consciousness and the mental consciousness accompanying the five sense consciousnesses do not discriminate it. This kind of concentration is also brought about by the manas: the manas wants to figure out a problem, so it lets the mind consciousness become absorbed in focused contemplation, while all other things are not seen, not heard, and not attended to. Therefore, only when the manas is focused can the six consciousnesses be focused and unmoving; the six consciousnesses are mobilized and directed by the manas.