Only by Restraining the Six Sense Faculties Can One Practice Buddha Recollection with Uninterrupted Pure Mindfulness

Ru Chun's contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) experience: After reading the chapter on training the manas, I tried reciting the Buddha's name using the method of focused recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti): I sat cross-legged, turned the prayer beads while reciting the Buddha's name, with my eyes watching the turning beads, my ears listening to my own recitation, and my mind consciousness guarding this place without giving rise to other thoughts—very focused. I recited for about 40 minutes, and after finishing, I felt a buzzing in my head. Not long after, I went to sit in meditation. Shortly after sitting down, I heard my recitation of the Buddha's name, my heartbeat, and my pulse interwoven together, sounding very clearly, powerfully, and rhythmically deep in my mind. This sound seemed to form a separate space, blocking out all other information, and it lasted for more than half an hour. Later I felt my mind consciousness begin to intervene, and the sound disappeared.

May I ask, Master: Was this the manas reciting the Buddha's name? Is this method of practice correct? Later I wanted to continue practicing with this method, but I could not recover that state, and I don't know why.

Answer: If it were the manas reciting the Buddha's name, there would be no sound and no inner voice; you would not hear yourself reciting. But the mind consciousness's verbal recitation and mental recitation can be heard by the mind consciousness. Your recitation of the Buddha's name was done jointly by the mind consciousness and the manas. If only the mind consciousness recited, the manas would go chasing after objects and give rise to wandering thoughts. Your recitation practice at this time is neither deep nor shallow—it belongs to an intermediate transitional stage. Only at the end, when the hands, eyes, and ear faculty all stop moving, and one very single-mindedly and soundlessly recollects the Buddha, is that the manas reciting the Buddha's name. But this is already quite good—your recitation practice is not shallow, you have also entered meditative concentration (samādhi), and a preliminary, shallow meditative absorption (samādhi) has manifested.

If you want to recite the Buddha's name more purely and more deeply, you must gather in the six faculties. What is meant by gathering in the six faculties is to control the first five faculties and the first six consciousnesses, letting the manas focus single-mindedly and without confusion on reciting the Buddha's name, soundlessly and silently. When reciting the Buddha's name, the five faculties and six consciousnesses should all be still, yet in your case not only were the hands moving and the body faculty moving, but the eye faculty was also moving, and the ear faculty was also moving. This requires enormous energy to maintain the manas's focus, and it is very difficult—so your level of meditative concentration (dhyāna) is still not deep enough. Reciting the Buddha's name means having the Buddha in the mind; the prayer beads are not the Buddha. Turning them with the hand is not the same as reciting the Buddha's name; watching with the eyes is not the same as reciting the Buddha's name; the sound is not the Buddha either, and listening with the ears is not the same as reciting the Buddha's name. The more auxiliary tools for recitation there are, the more distractions there are.

There are also people who visualize the setting sun while doing tiptoe exercises to train the body—the mind is divided between two completely different places, so how could they have even a trace of meditative concentration? There are also people who contemplate several different dharmas in one day, as if their abilities were extraordinary, but in reality their minds are too scattered, and they simply do not understand what contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) is. Most sentient beings are accustomed to having their six faculties grasp at the objects of the six sense objects (ṣaḍāyatana), unwilling to let go and become single-minded, as if being single-minded would mean losing the other sense objects. They are so habituated to grasping at sense objects, so deeply greedy for them. Thus the six faculties all move at once, grasping at all dharmas, unwilling to relinquish anything. To go against the principles of cultivation is no longer cultivation.