The Method for Realizing Any Dharma Is the Same

Question: Is Chan contemplation (canchan) the only way to awaken to the true mind and see one's nature? I notice that in the Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's Dharma gate of perfect penetration through the ear faculty, there is no mention of Chan contemplation, but there is one line: "That Buddha taught me to enter meditative concentration (samādhi) through hearing, thinking, and cultivating." Here, "hearing" certainly refers to hearing the Mahāyāna Dharma, so does "thinking" here include the manas's investigation of the tathāgatagarbha within one's own mind? If "thinking" here already includes awakening to the true mind and seeing one's nature, why is it also said that the perfect penetration through the ear faculty can be practiced starting from the level of an ordinary being? Or does "thinking" merely mean deep pondering and questioning doubt—entering the four dhyānas and eight samādhis with an inquiry into wisdom, and then, within the profound meditative concentration of the first dhyāna or even above the second dhyāna, awakening to the true mind and seeing one's nature through the manas's personal contact and realization?

Answer: Your thinking is a bit disordered; you have not sorted out the relationship between Chan contemplation and the stages of hearing, thinking, cultivating, and realizing. Chan contemplation belongs to the stage of cultivation, and what follows is realization. From ordinary being to Buddhahood, one cultivates precepts, meditative concentration, and wisdom, passing through the stages of hearing, thinking, and cultivating; it is only that the content of hearing, thinking, cultivating, and realizing differs in levels of depth, while the method is the same.

Among these, what is used in cultivation are the first seven consciousnesses, and at the end of each stage of cultivation, it is always through the manas's deliberation (manana) that one enters samādhi and realizes the Buddha-Dharma. There are various ways of speaking about the manas's deliberation; although the terms and terminology are numerous, in the final analysis it is simply the manas's deliberation—the method of practice is the same, only the levels of cultivation differ, with the depth of practice varying. The "contemplating" (can) in Chan contemplation refers to investigation at the level of the manas; "Chan" (Zen) refers to the mind that is the tathāgatagarbha. Subsequently, investigating the merits and seed-functions within the tathāgatagarbha is all called contemplation or investigation. Chan contemplation is the practice and method of the Mahāyāna's awakening to the true mind and seeing one's nature to attain the patience with non-arising, and it is also the practice and method for realizing Consciousness-Only and attaining the patience with the non-arising of dharmas.

The practice of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's perfect penetration through the ear faculty encompasses many levels of cultivation methods; having completed it, one becomes a bodhisattva of the highest stage (sattvākṛtyā), possessing the great wisdom of such a bodhisattva, not far from Buddhahood. From an ordinary being to a Mahāyāna bodhisattva who has awakened to the true mind and seen one's nature requires cultivation over many kalpas: cultivating for one incalculable kalpa to reach the first bhūmi, then cultivating for a second incalculable kalpa to reach the eighth bhūmi, and from the eighth bhūmi to the highest stage also takes nearly an incalculable kalpa of time. Thus, the stages and content of the ear faculty's perfect penetration practice encompass virtually all the dharmas cultivated for attaining Buddhahood, so a small method like awakening to the true mind and seeing one's nature is hardly worth mentioning—far too coarse and shallow.

However, whether it is the initial and shallow awakening to the true mind and seeing one's nature, or the more profound realization of Consciousness-Only dharmas, the method used is the method of investigation, the method of working with the manas, and in every case the joint realization by the manas and the mind consciousness. The introduction to the practice method in the chapter on perfect penetration through the ear faculty is very brief and cannot exhaustively detail all the methods for reaching the highest stage. Even if there were detailed introduction and instruction, almost everyone would be unable to understand it. How could an ordinary being understand the dharma for cultivating to the level of a bodhisattva of the highest stage?