Why Did the Sixth Patriarch Cultivate Among a Band of Hunters for Fifteen Years After His Enlightenment?

The Sixth Patriarch was pursued and hunted along the way, and only out of necessity did he hide himself among a band of hunters. The environment he was in at that time allowed him only to cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi), but the Sixth Patriarch cultivated samādhi not in order to preserve and sustain the true mind; rather, he contemplated the principle of suchness (tathatā) within samādhi, and thereby attained very profound wisdom of subsequent realization. One who has genuinely realized the tathāgatagarbha has no need to preserve and sustain the tathāgatagarbha—once enlightened, enlightened forever. If one has awakened to the thought-free mind consciousness, then one needs to preserve and sustain the mind consciousness in a state of no-thought, always having to cultivate samādhi to bring the mind consciousness to a state without thoughts and without wandering discriminations; if one does not cultivate samādhi, deluded thoughts arise again—that is not enlightenment. Clearly this is mistaken enlightenment, a tremendous misunderstanding.

This is because they take the mind consciousness in its state free of wandering thoughts as the tathāgatagarbha to be awakened to; when there are wandering thoughts, it is no longer the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore they must rely on cultivating samādhi to preserve and sustain the mind consciousness so that it does not give rise to deluded thoughts, hoping to reach a state where there are no wandering thoughts for a long stretch of time. This is taking the arising-and-ceasing mind consciousness as the unborn-and-ceasing tathāgatagarbha to awaken to—wrong cultivation and wrong enlightenment, an enormous misunderstanding. True enlightenment requires no preserving and sustaining. The tathāgatagarbha never at any time gives rise to deluded thoughts; there is no need to use the mind consciousness to cultivate Him into a state of no-thought, no need to use the mind consciousness to preserve and sustain the tathāgatagarbha's state of no-thought. There is simply no such necessity.

Although one must still cultivate samādhi after realizing the tathāgatagarbha, the purpose is different: the purpose is to attain deeper dhyāna, and then engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) so as to gain deeper wisdom, to lighten or remove afflictions, and to let the mind attain tranquility (praśama). During those fifteen years, the Sixth Patriarch brought forth the fourth dhyāna, brought forth supernatural powers, and brought forth wisdom. He was not preserving and sustaining the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha. Having seen his true mind and realized the tathāgatagarbha, the Sixth Patriarch recognized the tathāgatagarbha forever and would never lose sight of it again. Through cultivating Chan samādhi, he came to more profoundly realize the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, making his own mind more pure and his prajñā wisdom deeper and more expansive.