How Can One Enter Meditative Concentration Quickly

When meditating, if one contemplates the meaning of the Dharma, one enters samādhi faster than by silently reciting the Heart Sutra and mantras, and the samādhi is deeper; it is faster than entering samādhi by regulating the breath, and faster than entering samādhi by any other method. This is true for those of sharp faculties whose afflictions are mild and whose wandering thoughts are few, because such people already have a foundation in meditative concentration, so the preliminary methods can be omitted. But for beginners in samādhi who are heavily prone to mental wandering and whose minds are busy with many thoughts, the more they contemplate, the more scattered their minds become. Without meditative concentration, contemplation is just scattered thinking—a scattered mind full of disordered thoughts—so they should wait until they have a foundation in samādhi before contemplating. When I sit down on the cushion and cross my legs, I use no preliminary method at all; I go directly into deep contemplation. There is no thinking by the mind consciousness—it is all deliberation (manana) by the manas. After crossing my legs, I first focus on the Dharma that needs to be contemplated, and then I settle upon that Dharma without moving, without a single wandering thought. This is the state of investigating Chan through the manas.

The manas deliberates deeply and slowly, but thoroughly; the mind consciousness thinks quickly and shallowly, neither thoroughly nor penetratingly. Thinking by the mind consciousness is a preliminary method, whose purpose is to prompt the manas to deliberate; at the very beginning, this is a stage that must be gone through. In the manas's deliberation and investigation, there is almost no knowledge to be gained, and one's store of knowledge does not increase, yet it is very interesting—there is a profound flavor of exploration, a delight of dimly, vaguely being on the verge of discovering something. What is developed is the wisdom within one's own field of mind; this wisdom is not obtained from outside—what is obtained from outside is only knowledge. At this level, one no longer feels tired. I can sit for a whole morning, or even a whole day; it is only when there are worldly concerns weighing on my mind that I have to come down from the cushion.