When the mind is like a wall, one can enter the Path

Question: One night I entered meditative concentration in my sleep. My mind was bright and lucid, and I clearly knew the people, things, and events around me, yet I felt as if these people and affairs had no connection with me at all and could not affect me in any way. It was as if I were in a vacuum, without a single distracting thought in my mind—only one thought contemplating the meaning of the Dharma (I can no longer remember exactly what Dharma meaning it was), like a solitary sun shining alone in the sky without a single dark cloud. At the same time, my whole body and mind felt incomparably tranquil and at ease. I finally realized how comfortable it is to be in meditative concentration! Even after waking, I could still feel that comfort. If one has this kind of meditative concentration, one truly would no longer crave worldly pleasures. That feeling of tranquility and ease is something the pleasures of the five worldly desires simply cannot compare with. I would like to ask the Master: why did such a state, which I have never experienced in waking life, appear in a dream?

Answer: This kind of dream is a state of investigating Chan within meditative concentration—there is both concentration and wisdom, with samatha and vipaśyanā operating together. You cultivated this kind of meditative concentration in past lives; it is preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi). Your manas experienced it in previous lives and has a memory of it. Now your mind yearns for it and wants to experience this state of meditative concentration again, but your present life is rather busy and the conditions for cultivating concentration are not complete, so the manas has no choice but to dream, enjoying in the dream the bliss of meditative concentration and Chan investigation. It seems the manas is rather pitiable and helpless—modern society is so chaotic that one cannot even shut out the clamor of life to single-mindedly cultivate the Path.

In the dream, the mind consciousness was in a lucid state of no-thought, bright and clear, without thoughts; this should have been within preparatory concentration. Meanwhile, the manas was functioning in a state of investigating the meaning of the Dharma, deliberating on the Buddha-Dharma. Only by such deliberation on the Dharma can the fundamental problem be solved and the Path be realized. Investigating Chan is precisely this state: not a single distracting thought in the mind, external objects unable to enter the mind, the mind immovable in its suchness like walls of bronze and iron. Patriarch Bodhidharma said that when the mind is like a wall, one can enter the Path—this is exactly what he meant. If your meditative concentration and contemplation cannot reach this level, do not expect to realize the Path.

This state of deliberation and investigation by the manas can only arise and be sustained continuously under conditions of extreme quietness; only then can one investigate the profound and extremely subtle principles of the Dharma. Therefore, a true practitioner will cut off all external conditions, in absolute solitude and loneliness, alone without companions. Cultivating the Path is a great undertaking done by a solitary one; it cannot be accomplished amid clamor and in company. Those who cannot endure solitude cannot walk the path of genuine cultivation. Meditative concentration can subdue and eliminate afflictions, and can bring tranquility, joy, and happiness—nothing brings more happiness than cultivating the Path. Therefore, those who possess meditative concentration do not delight in worldly dharmas; their minds do not cling to the world, they do not pursue wealth, sensuality, fame, food, and sleep, nor fame and gain, nor do they crave power and status. Being greedy for worldly dharmas is truly unwise conduct.

Some people say that as long as one can contemplate the meaning of the Dharma without distracting thoughts for a dozen or so minutes, one can realize the fruits and awaken to the true mind. Such a claim is simply absurd. With only such a short time of contemplating the Dharma, it is根本 impossible to have any deep and subtle contemplation, nor can one cultivate the state of equal concentration and wisdom in investigating Chan. It is like boiling a large pot of water, which requires an hour: if you boil it for five or ten minutes and then turn off the fire, and continue the next day, even boiling it this way for ten years will not bring the water to a boil. To treat the Buddha-Dharma as child's play like this brings a karmic retribution that is quite unwholesome. If the Dharma were this easy to cultivate and realize, how could there be so many beings in the three evil destinies? People of the world all love to take shortcuts, yet the result of taking shortcuts is that they harm themselves. You reap what you sow; if you wish to achieve anything, you must relinquish body and mind and be willing to put in real effort.