Only by Upholding Precepts and Repenting Karmic Sins Can One Cultivate Meditative Concentration Well

The realization of all dharmas truly must take place within profound meditative concentration (dhyāna). Without meditative concentration, what one learns is mere 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 a scattered mind, and the reason for a scattered mind is much grasping and craving. Gather the mind in, and meditative concentration will surely arise. Gathering in body and mind requires keeping the precepts; before keeping the precepts, one must receive the precepts; and before receiving the precepts, one must repent of all karmic offenses. When karmic offenses are eliminated, 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, and the key is never to 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 does not create it again. If there is no such effect, the repentance was insincere—a 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, one must repent earnestly; 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.