The Method for Directly Realizing Any Dharma Is the Same

Question: Is Chan contemplation (canchan) the only way to see the mind and realize 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 samādhi through hearing, thinking, and cultivation." The "hearing" here certainly refers to hearing the Mahāyāna Dharma, so does the "thinking" here include the manas's investigation of the tathāgatagarbha within one's own mind? If the "thinking" here already includes seeing the mind and realizing 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 person? Or does "thinking" merely mean deep reflection 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, seeing the mind and realizing 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, cultivation, and realization. Chan contemplation belongs to the stage of cultivation, and what follows is realization. From an ordinary person's cultivation all the way to buddhahood, one cultivates precepts, meditative concentration, and wisdom, passing through the stages of hearing, thinking, and cultivation; only the content of hearing, thinking, cultivation, and realization differs in levels—the method is the same.

Among these, what is used in cultivation is the first seven consciousnesses, and at the end of each stage of cultivation, it is always through the manas's deliberation (manasikāra) that one enters samādhi and realizes the Buddha-dharma. There are various ways of speaking about the manas's deliberation; although there are quite a few terms and expressions, in the final analysis it is the manas's deliberation—the method of practice is the same, only the levels of cultivation differ, with the practice being deep or shallow. The "contemplating" (can) in Chan contemplation is investigation at the level of the manas; "Chan" refers to the mind that is the tathāgatagarbha, and the subsequent investigation of the merits, seeds, and functions within the tathāgatagarbha is all called contemplation or investigation. Chan contemplation is the practice and method of the Mahāyāna's seeing the mind and realizing 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 method of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's perfect penetration through the ear faculty encompasses many levels of cultivation methods; when it is cultivated to completion, one becomes an equal-enlightenment bodhisattva, possessing the great wisdom of an equal-enlightenment bodhisattva, not far from buddhahood. From an ordinary person to a Mahāyāna bodhisattva who has seen the mind and realized one's nature requires cultivation over many kalpas: cultivating for one incalculable kalpa to reach the first bhūmi bodhisattva, then cultivating for a second incalculable kalpa to reach the eighth bhūmi bodhisattva, and cultivating from the eighth bhūmi to equal enlightenment also takes nearly one incalculable kalpa. Thus the progressive stages and content of the perfect penetration through the ear faculty almost encompass all the dharmas cultivated for attaining buddhahood—a small method like seeing the mind and realizing one's nature is hardly worth mentioning; it is far too coarse and shallow.

But whether it is the initial and shallow seeing of the mind and realizing one's nature, or the more profound realization of the consciousness-only dharma, the method used is the method of investigation, the method of working with the manas, and in every case it is the joint realization of 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 it cannot exhaustively introduce all the methods for cultivating up to equal enlightenment. Even if there were exhaustive introduction and instruction, almost everyone would be unable to understand it. How could an ordinary person understand the dharma for cultivating to the level of an equal-enlightenment bodhisattva?