Cultivation of Concentration and Chan Meditation for Realization of the Way (Part 1)

Section 2: The Mind Consciousness Is Not the Target to Be Realized

1. The Goal of Studying Buddhism and Cultivating Practice Is to Give Rise to Prajñā Wisdom

The fundamental goal of studying Buddhism and cultivating practice is to realize the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, thereby seeing the mind and seeing one's nature, giving rise to prajñā wisdom, becoming a Mahāyāna bodhisattva, and then developing various contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) wisdoms, so that one can ultimately attain buddhahood. The essence of prajñā is precisely the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha; all Buddhist sūtras revolve around the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore, the tathāgatagarbha is the key to attaining buddhahood and the principal consciousness. After realizing the eighth consciousness, the source of all dharmas, one can comprehend the five "how unforeseen is self-nature (svabhāva)" statements spoken by the Sixth Patriarch, and then one knows the origins and workings of all dharmas, both mundane and supramundane. When ignorance is eradicated, prajñā wisdom opens up.

The mind consciousness is very easy to discover and observe. Realizing the mind consciousness does not enable one to know the true reality of the dharmadhātu; if fundamental ignorance is not broken, the great wisdom of prajñā will not arise. Therefore, this is not the fundamental goal of studying Buddhism. By observing the nature of the mind consciousness and eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) associated with the mind consciousness, one will no longer mistake the mind consciousness for the true mind, the eighth consciousness, when seeking realization. Once one understands the natures of the seven deluded consciousnesses, one can locate those seven deluded minds, and realizing the remaining one, the eighth consciousness, will not be too difficult. The principles of all eight consciousnesses are important and must all be understood; only then will wisdom become ever deeper and subtler, and ignorance ever thinner. Not knowing even one dharma is ignorance. When ignorance is completely eradicated, one possesses omniscience/wisdom of all aspects (sarvākārajñatā) in full; the mind is entirely luminous, with no dharma not thoroughly understood, and one becomes a Buddha.

2. Why the Sixth Patriarch Cultivated for Fifteen Years After His Enlightenment

The Sixth Patriarch was pursued and hunted along the way, and had no choice but to hide among a band of hunters. The environment he was in at that time only allowed him to cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi), but the Sixth Patriarch's cultivation of concentration was not for the purpose of maintaining the true mind; rather, he contemplated the principle of suchness (tathatā) within meditative concentration, and thereby attained very profound wisdom acquired after enlightenment. A person who has genuinely realized the tathāgatagarbha does not need to maintain it; once enlightened, enlightened forever. If one has realized the thought-free mind consciousness, then one needs to maintain the mind consciousness's state of no-thought, always having to cultivate concentration to make the mind consciousness reach a state of no-thought, without wandering thoughts. If one does not cultivate concentration, deluded thoughts will emerge again — that is not enlightenment. Clearly, such "enlightenment" is mistaken enlightenment, a tremendous misunderstanding.

This is because they take the mind consciousness in its state without wandering thoughts as the tathāgatagarbha to be realized, holding that when there are wandering thoughts it is not the tathāgatagarbha. Therefore they must rely on cultivating concentration to maintain the mind consciousness free from the arising of deluded thoughts, hoping to achieve long periods without wandering thoughts. This is taking the arising-and-ceasing mind consciousness as the unborn-and-unceasing tathāgatagarbha to be realized — wrong cultivation and wrong enlightenment, a tremendous misunderstanding. True enlightenment requires no maintenance; the tathāgatagarbha never has moments of deluded thoughts arising, and there is no need to use the mind consciousness to cultivate it into a state of no-thought, no need to use the mind consciousness to maintain the tathāgatagarbha's thought-free state. There is simply no such necessity.

Although one must still cultivate concentration after realizing the tathāgatagarbha, the purpose is different: the purpose is to attain deeper dhyāna, and then engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to gain deeper wisdom, to lighten or remove afflictions, and purify the mind. During those fifteen years, the Sixth Patriarch cultivated the fourth dhyāna, cultivated supernatural powers, and cultivated wisdom. The Sixth Patriarch was not maintaining the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha; having seen the mind and realized the tathāgatagarbha, he recognized it forever and would never lose sight of it again. Through cultivating Chan concentration, he gained an even more profound comprehension of the tathāgatagarbha's nature, making his own mind purer and his prajñā wisdom deeper and subtler.

3. When Hearing Sounds, One Should Recognize the True Mind

When listening to sounds, the ear consciousness is involved, the mind consciousness is involved, and at the same time the seventh and eighth consciousnesses are also involved; these four consciousnesses are all formless and without marks. If one wishes to awaken to the Way while hearing sounds, one must clearly distinguish which is the eighth consciousness, which is the seventh consciousness, which is the mind consciousness, and which is the ear consciousness. Amid the combined operation of these consciousnesses, one must clearly distinguish the true mind from the deluded mind; after distinguishing them, recognizing that true mind is seeing the mind and enlightenment.

If merit (puṇya), meditative concentration, and the power of wisdom (prajñā-bala) are all insufficient, one will often take the deluded for the true, mistakenly taking the mind consciousness as the true mind, the eighth consciousness, to be realized, or taking the combined operation of several consciousnesses as the operation of the eighth consciousness alone — a very great misunderstanding. In a false enlightenment there is also a feeling-experience of emptiness; the mind can be purified a bit, one can see some people, affairs, things, and principles as empty, can understand a tiny bit of the Buddhist sūtras, and can even apply the principle of emptiness — but one simply does not know how the eighth consciousness concretely produces the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), the seven consciousnesses, and all dharmas. Those who are wrongly enlightened absolutely cannot know this. This is the dividing line between true enlightenment and mistaken enlightenment; truly, an error of a hair's breadth leads one astray by a thousand miles.

Both the mind consciousness and the eighth consciousness are formless and without marks, and they have certain similarities. Ordinary people slightly purify the mind consciousness, so that there are no scattered thoughts or delusions, no fluctuations of mental activity, and it can clearly and lucidly perceive all the realm-marks within and outside body and mind; they then take the mind consciousness in this lucid state to be the originally thought-free, non-cognizing, pure eighth consciousness — thus misidentifying the "master of the house." No matter how lucid the mind consciousness is, no matter how non-cognizing it is, as long as the mind consciousness exists, there is the knowing that knows the realms of the six sense objects; or if the mind consciousness has attained concentration, there is also the knowing that knows the state of concentration — therefore it is not the eighth consciousness. It is only that one's own mind consciousness is rather deluded and can hardly introspect the state it is in at that moment, and so one takes this to be the non-knowing of the eighth consciousness, thereby concluding that one has realized the eighth consciousness — this is a tremendous misunderstanding.

In fact, when the mind consciousness becomes very subtle, its power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala) also becomes very weak; moreover, because Buddhist practitioners do not understand the nature of the mind consciousness, the phenomenon of mistaking the mind consciousness for the true mind, the eighth consciousness, is extremely widespread. Nowadays, people who consider themselves enlightened are everywhere, but after many years, their wisdom remains at its original level, still marking time in place, with no advancement; they still cannot understand the Chan koans, still cannot understand the sūtras, and even if they feel they understand them, it is only the mind consciousness's intellectual interpretation.

Therefore, I urge those who consider themselves already enlightened: for the sake of the great matter of birth and death, quickly turn back and examine what exactly your realization is. Check it against the sūtras, carefully analyze and determine again the nature of the mind consciousness and the nature of the eighth consciousness, strictly distinguish the various differences between the true mind and the deluded mind, and then strive to perfectly fulfill the necessary conditions for being a bodhisattva. Once all the necessary conditions for being a bodhisattva are fulfilled, then engage in Chan investigation anew, in order to truly enter the gate of Buddhism and become a bodhisattva in the true sense.

4. The True Mind and the Deluded Mind Can Never Be Converted into Each Other

Seeing the mind and seeing one's nature is not turning deluded thoughts into the true mind. The deluded mind is forever the deluded mind, and the true mind is forever the true mind; the two cannot be converted into each other. Many people always want to cultivate the mind into a state of no-thought, believing that this thought-free mind is the true mind — this is a great, great mistake. Through cultivation, the mind consciousness can indeed become thought-free, but no matter how thought-free it is, it is forever the mind consciousness and cannot become the true mind. Regardless of whether we have thoughts or not, the true mind is always operating. The Fifth Patriarch said: 要见性，轮刀上阵也见。This means that if one has awakened and seen one's nature, one should be able to see Him at every moment whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down; it is not necessarily the case that one can only see one's nature when there are no thoughts. When there are no thoughts, that is when the thought-free mind consciousness is easiest to see, and the true mind is not easy to see.