How to Reduce Demonic Obstacles?

Question: In meditative concentration, one has already freed oneself from the bondage of the physical body, quietly contemplating the false nature of all dharmas, abandoning the realm of emptiness and consciousness, transcending the two realms of inner and outer, and taking as object the sphere of nothingness. The mind is empty within, with nothing to rely upon, all thoughts do not arise, and there is peace and tranquility. This is the typical sphere of nothingness concentration (ākiñcanyāyatana) among the four formless absorptions — the seventh level of meditative concentration! How profound! Who has already reached such a holy state?

Answer: This is purely the realm of the four dhyānas and eight absorptions, not the realm of a sage, because it does not involve the wisdom of liberation — there is neither the wisdom of eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) nor the wisdom of seeing the mind and realizing one's nature. Pure meditative concentration still lies outside the Buddha's gate, which is why it is called the concentration of non-Buddhists. Quite a few non-Buddhists during the Buddha's time possessed this kind of concentration; meditative concentration was not at all rare back then. Non-Buddhists today can no longer cultivate even somewhat deeper meditative concentration, which is why the present era is called the Dharma-ending age. In the Dharma-ending age, even non-Buddhists are no longer professional — how could the Buddha's Dharma flourish? The reason the Buddha descended in India two thousand years ago was precisely that sentient beings' roots of goodness had matured. Many people sought liberation but did not know how to attain it, all believing that only meditative concentration could liberate one from the suffering of birth and death. So they all cultivated concentration diligently without cease, becoming non-Buddhists outside the Buddha's Dharma. Out of compassion for the people of the world, the Buddha was born into this world, sprinkling the nectar of immortality to eliminate the suffering of sentient beings.

If someone now cultivated the four formless absorptions of the formless realm and manifested supernatural powers, sentient beings who learned of it would worship him madly. If such a person harbored ulterior motives, wanting to dominate Buddhism and do other things to win over sentient beings, ordinary people truly could not resist him and would be helpless — they could not even see through him, let alone have the ability to refute him. If in later ages such a demon comes to disturb the Buddha's Dharma, only a bodhisattva possessing the four dhyānas and eight absorptions and great supernatural powers can refute him, in order to protect sentient beings from entering the demonic path. The Buddha said in the sūtras that all non-Buddhists can only be refuted by a great bodhisattva who has attained the bhūmis; an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva can refute all non-Buddhists, while bodhisattvas from the first bhūmi up to below the eighth bhūmi can only refute some non-Buddhists. Ordinary beings can only bow down and worship non-Buddhists and demons, lacking the wisdom to see through them. Therefore, refuting the false and revealing the true is not something ordinary people can do. The common masses lack the ability to refute the false and reveal the true — it is already quite good if they do not become accomplices. Sentient beings can only broaden their knowledge, increase their rationality, have fewer emotional reactions, and engage in less mindless worship; then there will be fewer openings for demons, and sentient beings will suffer fewer demonic tribulations.