True Questioning Doubt Is Born in Meditative Concentration (Samādhi) (2024-08-27)

Ven. Shi Ruyuan: Nowadays, whether I am walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, I am generally in meditative concentration (samādhi), contemplating the dharma teachings familiar to my mind. I mainly contemplate the white-bone visualization in my mind and my own skeleton; I have no interest in people or affairs outside the mind, and I do not discriminate about them. Once, my daughter pulled me along to the supermarket to buy snacks; all the way to the supermarket I was introspecting, and I could not clearly hear other people's voices, nor was I interested in looking at the people and things around me. When my daughter called on me to pick out items, I felt as if my body were wandering in a dream, unreal. My hands and eyes seemed not to obey my commands; I could not even pick out things properly, absent-minded. If I did not rouse my spirit to face people and things, then with a turn of thought I would stand there blankly staring again.

When I practiced the white-bone visualization last year, I had some experiences of body and mind. Looking at family members who had once been close to me, or at beautiful people outside, I felt they were all filthy like a pool of flesh and blood. Sometimes when going to the toilet I would also contemplate that all humans are this filthy, that the body's nine orifices are always discharging filthy things; I felt that humans are unreal, and thinking of them seemed pointless, so I no longer sought fine food or fine clothing—good or bad, it made no difference. Recently, whether day or night, whether awake or asleep, I am in meditative concentration, with the dharma teachings continuously in my mind.

Assessment: Practicing the white-bone visualization can completely eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa). If the skeleton can appear in the mind at all times, it shows that one is constantly in the white-bone visualization, that is, constantly in meditative absorption (samādhi). If the skeleton can manifest automatically and spontaneously, eradicating the view of self is a matter of minutes; one may eradicate the view of self at any time and place. Perhaps the view of self has already been eradicated, yet one does not feel it, because one lacks the wisdom to judge, and the mental state and experiences cannot be clearly described. Only if one can clearly recognize one's current state and understand one's thoughts and feelings can one judge the state of your wisdom and cognition—whether it belongs to the state of having eradicated the view of self, or how far it still is from eradicating the view of self. At the moment of eradicating the view of self, body and mind both have some corresponding states; if one fails to understand them and treats them as ordinary matters, one misses them.

If a person can at all times be uninterested in external people, things, and affairs, this is not only the merit of meditative concentration but also the merit of wisdom—having fully recognized that the world is suffering, impure, empty, and falsely unreal, and having become adept at the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), with the mind able to accord with emptiness (śūnyatā), only then can such reactions appear; or only after eradicating the view of self can one have such reactions at all times. If one's cultivation is not in place, it is impossible to be uninterested in people and things and not want to know anything about them. Therefore, this state is more than ninety percent likely to be the state of having eradicated the view of self; the specifics still await observation and understanding.

The description of the experiences in practicing the white-bone visualization shows that Ven. Shi Ruyuan's practice of the white-bone visualization has been very effective: able at all times to contemplate that all sentient beings are impure, having fully recognized (or perhaps realized) the emptiness and unreality of the five aggregates of sentient beings, the mind has removed greed, no longer being picky or concerned about food and clothing, able to remain in meditative concentration whether awake or asleep, with the state of meditative absorption (samādhi) unbroken—the practice is quite good. The state of awakened clarity after eradicating the view of self is just like this.

These states are generally the states one is in after eradicating the view of self. Before eradicating the view of self, although meditative concentration may be quite good and preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) complete, there will still be interruptions; only after eradicating the view of self, when the mind is empty, can meditative concentration be continuous and unbroken, constantly in meditative absorption. These various phenomena indicate that there is a probability of over ninety percent that Ven. Shi Ruyuan has already eradicated the view of self; it is just that her own description is not very clear. In the state of meditative absorption, everything indeed seems like a dream; looking at everything feels unreal. This state resembles the state after having eradicated the view of self. If some major event occurred previously in body and mind that she overlooked, I currently cannot judge accurately. Your experiential wisdom is insufficient, and your ability to express yourself in words is poor—what can I do about that?

Walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, all in meditative concentration, all in contemplative practice—external circumstances cannot pull you away; the concentration is quite firm, the mind like walls of bronze and iron. At this point, entering the Path is a matter of minutes; it is so for both the Great and Small Vehicles. At this point, barring accidents, attaining enlightenment in this life and becoming a sagely bodhisattva is more or less settled. Others want to enter concentration but cannot get in, cannot be pushed in; you cannot be pulled out of it. The difference is considerable—why is there such a great difference?

Apart from the wisdom and cognition within such meditative absorption, other situations are not seeing the Path. Apart from the state of meditative concentration, neither the Great nor the Small Vehicle can truly see the Path. Even if you have meditative concentration but are not constantly in it, and you believe that your cognition when not in concentration also counts as seeing the Path, that is impossible. With shallow concentration, true seeing of the Path is also impossible; it is all something the mind consciousness figures out, and that does not count.

Ven. Shi Ruyuan: Once, a line inexplicably popped out of my mind: "The mechanical wooden man, when the mechanism is triggered, its marks arise." At the time I had not yet reacted; I was just murmuring it in my mind, feeling as if this line had been mentioned in the Master's books. I did not understand what it meant before, but now this line suddenly jumped out, and I pondered its meaning attentively. It should be using iron men and wooden men, and shadow-play figures pulled about by strings, and so on, as metaphors for the activities of a person's five aggregates, right?

That these five aggregates—the physical shell of sentient beings—jump about so lively is all the wondrous functioning of the tathāgatagarbha's self-nature operating behind the scenes. The wondrous functioning of the tathāgatagarbha is manifest in all dharmas; all koans and all huatou investigation are speaking of the self-nature's wondrous functioning of sentient beings' tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, in concentration, looking at everything seems unreal, as if in a dream, with no feeling at all. Sometimes at night while still asleep, I was awakened by the mantras being recited in my mind.

Assessment: Inexplicably, a line popped out of the mind: "The mechanical wooden man, when the mechanism is triggered, its marks arise." This is the Mahāyāna questioning doubt that the manas suddenly burst forth while in a state of meditative absorption, showing that the conditions for Mahāyāna Chan investigation have naturally matured. Being able to produce questioning doubt automatically like this shows that the manas is deeply tied to the dharma teachings; otherwise only the mind consciousness would give rise to questioning doubt, while the manas would not. The reason the manas can give rise to Mahāyāna questioning doubt is, first, that the Hīnayāna foundation is very firm—being fully certain about the non-self of the five aggregates, without doubt, one then wonders: since the five aggregates are empty, why is there still the activity of the five aggregates? Second, the cultivation and permeation of the Mahāyāna dharma has already matured. Therefore, when the view of self still exists, or is even still quite heavy, the manas will not give rise to Mahāyāna questioning doubt; the mind consciousness, however, can, because the mind consciousness can leap across many levels to cognize dharmas through non-valid cognition, whereas the manas cannot do so.

From this we can see that true questioning doubt arises spontaneously within meditative absorption; it is not murmured out by the mind consciousness like reciting a mantra. It gushes forth from the manas when conditions mature—it is the manas, after knowing that the five aggregates are empty, wanting to fathom the mechanical mysteries within the body of the five aggregates. This is the natural phenomenon of Mahāyāna cultivation reaching the point where the channel is formed when water arrives; it is not questioning doubt deliberately and forcedly delivered by the mind consciousness. Only in this way can investigation be fast and efficient, not wasting time, and there will be no false or mistaken enlightenment. In such a state of meditative absorption, seeing the mind and attaining enlightenment can be expected within days.

However, what Ven. Shi Ruyuan said in the later passage—that behind the seeing of all dharmas there is the wondrous functioning of the tathāgatagarbha—yet being unable to say what that wondrous functioning actually is, clearly shows this is learned externally by the mind consciousness, not her own genuine wisdom and cognition; it belongs to learning words, merely believing very strongly in this principle. But belief is belief and has nothing to do with realization; it cannot be regarded as the wisdom of actual realization. To obtain the wisdom of actual realization, one must investigate within the operation of the five aggregates, investigating as if one did not know there is a tathāgatagarbha, forgetting all the theoretical knowledge about the tathāgatagarbha one has learned.