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

Question: One night I entered meditative concentration while dreaming in my sleep. My mind was bright and lucid, and I clearly knew all the people, things, and events around me, yet I felt as if these people and affairs had no connection with me whatsoever and could not affect me. 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 which meaning), like a solitary sun shining alone in the sky without a single dark cloud. At the same time, my whole body and mind felt indescribably tranquil and at ease. I finally realized how comfortable it is to be in meditative concentration! Even after waking up, I could still feel that comfort. If one has this kind of meditative concentration, one would truly no longer crave worldly pleasures. That feeling of tranquility and ease is something the pleasures of the five worldly desires 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 dream was a state of investigating Chan within meditative concentration, possessing both concentration and wisdom, with śamatha and vipaśyanā operating together. You cultivated this kind of meditative concentration in past lives—it was preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi). Your manas experienced it in previous lives and retains the memory of it. Now you yearn for it in your heart and wish 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 your manas could only dream, enjoying in the dream the bliss of meditative concentration and Chan investigation. It seems the manas is quite pitiable and helpless—modern society is so chaotic that one cannot even shut out the tumult of life to cultivate the Path single-mindedly.

In the dream, the mind consciousness was in a lucid state of no-thought, bright and clear, without thoughts; it should have been in preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi), while 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 not entering 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 deliberating and investigating state of 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 companion or equal. Cultivating the Path is a great undertaking that must be done by a solitary individual; it cannot be accomplished in the midst of clamor and in the company of others. One who cannot endure loneliness 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 all dislike 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 covet power and status. To be greedy for worldly dharmas is truly unwise conduct.

Some people say that as long as one has a dozen or so minutes of contemplating the meaning of the Dharma without distracting thoughts, 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 is it possible to cultivate to the state of the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā 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 boiling the next day, even boiling it this way for ten years you could not bring the water to a boil. To treat the Buddha-Dharma as child's play in this way brings a karmic retribution that is quite unwholesome. If the Buddha-Dharma could be cultivated and realized so easily, 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. As you sow, so shall you reap: if you wish to achieve something, you must let go of body and mind and be willing to put in real effort.