Only by Observing Precepts and Repenting of Karmic Sins Can One Perfect Meditative Concentration.

The realization of all dharmas truly must take place within profound meditative concentration (dhyāna-samādhi). Without meditative concentration, what one learns is merely knowledge, not genuine wisdom. Therefore, one must attach great importance to meditative concentration and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā).

The reason for insufficient meditative concentration is that the mind is scattered; the reason the mind is scattered is that there is too much grasping and craving. If you gather the mind in and rein it in, meditative concentration will surely arise. Gathering in body and mind requires keeping the precepts; before keeping the precepts, one needs to receive them; and before receiving the precepts, one must repent of all karmic offenses. Once the karmic offenses are eliminated, the obstructions vanish, and the mind becomes pure.

In repentance, the first thing is to change the seeds. Repenting of newly created karma offsets old karmic offenses; the main point is to never commit them again. When the mind consciousness and the manas become purified, this is the result of true repentance. With this result, first, karma is dissolved, and second, one no longer creates it. If there is no such effect, the repentance was not sincere—it was false repentance.

To judge whether karmic offenses have been eliminated after repentance, one must first look at what kind of offense it was, whether light or heavy. For heavy offenses, it is like this: afterward the mind becomes much purer than before, some obstructions are removed, and the pace of cultivation quickens. After repenting of light karmic offenses, the mind likewise becomes pure.