Commentary on the Samādhi Meditation Sūtra
Chapter Six The Fourth Dharma Gate for Subduing Thoughts and Perceptions
Original text: 若思觉偏多。当习阿那般那三昧法门。有三种学人。或初习行。或已习行。或久习行。若初习行当教言。一心念数。入息出息。若长若短。数一至十。
Explanation: If a person's mind has an excess of deliberative thoughts and ideation, he should practice the dharma gate of ānāpāna meditative concentration (samādhi). Practitioners of this dharma are of three kinds: the first are those who have just begun to practice, the second are those who have practiced for some time, and the third are long-term practitioners. For one who has just begun to practice, teach him to single-mindedly attend to counting the breath — the in-breath and the out-breath, whether long or short — counting from one to ten. Count one on the in-breath (odd numbers) and two on the out-breath (even numbers); whether the breath is long or short, count from one to ten, then begin counting from one again. In this way, cycling round and round without interruption, the mind will gradually settle down and no longer have excessive deliberation, and the body will also become healthy. This is the first of the Six Wonderful Gates: counting.
Original text: 若已习行当教言。数一至十。随息入出。念与息俱。止心一处。若久习行当教言。数随止观。转观清净。
Explanation: For one who has practiced for some time, teach him: when counting the breath, count from one to ten; let the mind follow the breath as it enters and exits, staying with the breath without separation. Then the mind observes the in- and out-breaths, following them — knowing the out-breath as it goes out, knowing the in-breath as it comes in — resting the mind on the breath, not taking other dharmas as object, unifying the mind, attaining meditative concentration and stillness. The mind should not dwell on the counting but should rest on the in- and out-breaths, freely entering and exiting with them; then the mind can be stilled. This is the second wonderful gate: following.
For one who has practiced for a long time, teach him: after the thought of counting follows the in- and out-breaths and rests upon them, one should bring forth the function of contemplative observation, engaging in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), observing one's own mind; in this way thoughts will gradually become pure through stopping and contemplation. These are the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth wonderful gates: stopping, contemplation, returning, and purity.
Original text: 阿那般那三昧。六种门十六分。云何为数。一心念入息。入息至竟数一。出息至竟数二。若未竟而数为非数。若数二至九而误更从一数起。譬如算人一一为二。二二为四。三三为九。
Explanation: The dharma gate of ānāpāna samādhi has six wonderful entrance gates and sixteen sections. How does one count the breath? Single-mindedly attend to the in-breath; when the in-breath is complete, count one. Single-mindedly attend to the out-breath; when the out-breath is complete, count two. If one counts before the in-breath or out-breath is complete, that does not count as counting; one should begin counting from the start again. If one counts to two or to nine and makes an error, begin counting from one again. It is like counting people: one one makes two, two twos make four, three threes make nine.
Original text: 问曰。何以故数。答曰。无常观易得故。亦断诸思觉故。得一心故。身心生灭无常。相似相续难见。入息出息生灭无常。易知易见故。
Explanation: Someone asks: Why count the breath? Answer: Because with the method of counting the breath it is easy to observe impermanence, the concept of impermanence is easily accomplished, and it is also easy to cut off deliberative thoughts and initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra); the mind easily becomes pure, can be single-pointed, and meditative concentration can be developed. Because the ordinary phenomena of the arising and ceasing impermanence of body and mind resemble reality and operate continuously without interruption, when the power of concentration is insufficient it is very difficult to see the true aspect of this arising-and-ceasing impermanence of body and mind. But the arising-and-ceasing impermanence of the in-breath and out-breath is easy to know and easy to see.
Original text: 复次心系在数。断诸思诸觉。思觉者。欲思觉。恚思觉。恼思觉。亲里思觉。国土思觉。不死思觉。欲求净心入正道者。先当除却三种粗思觉。次除三种细思觉。除六觉已。当得一切清净法。譬如采金人先除粗石砂。然后除细石砂。次第得细金砂。
Explanation: Furthermore, firmly tying the conscious mind to the counting of the breath can cut off all thoughts, deliberations, and initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra). These thoughts and perceptions include thoughts of sensual desire, thoughts of anger, thoughts of harming, thoughts of relatives and kin, thoughts of homeland and home, and thoughts of wishing never to die.
If one wishes to purify one's own mind and enter the correct path of the Buddha, one should first remove the three coarse thoughts and perceptions, and then remove the subtle thoughts and perceptions. After the six thoughts and perceptions have been removed, one can attain all pure dharmas. It is like a gold prospector who first removes the coarse stones and sand, then removes the fine stones and sand; in this sequence he obtains fine gold dust.
Original text: 问曰。云何为粗病。云何为细病。答曰。欲瞋恼觉是三名粗病。亲里国土及不死觉是三名细病。除此觉已。得一切清净法。问曰。未得道者结使未断。六思觉强从心生乱。云何能除。答曰。心厌世间。正观能遮而未能拔。后得无漏道。能拔结使根本。
Explanation: Someone asks: What are the coarse afflictions? What are the subtle afflictions? Answer: The perceptions of desire, anger, and harming are the three coarse afflictions; the perceptions of relatives, homeland, and immortality are the three subtle afflictions. After removing these perceptions, one attains all pure dharmas.
Asked again: For one who has not attained the path, the afflictive fetters have not been severed, and the six thoughts and perceptions are very strong, arising from the mind as chaotic thoughts — how can they be removed? Answer: When one has cultivated to the point where the mind wearies of the world, one can correctly and in accordance with reality observe these thoughts and perceptions, and this can obstruct one's own mind from producing such perceptions; but this is not thorough — as for uprooting these perceptions and thoughts, it is merely suppression and subjugation. Later, when one cultivates and realizes the fruit of the undefiled path (anāsrava-mārga), one can pull out these afflictive fetters from the very root.
Original text: 何谓正观
见多欲人求欲苦 得之守护是亦苦
失之忧恼亦大苦 心得欲时无满苦
欲无常空忧恼因 众共有此当觉弃
譬如毒蛇入人室 不急除之害必至
不定不实不贵重 种种欲求颠倒乐
如六神通阿罗汉 教诲欲觉弟子言
汝不破戒戒清净 不共女人同室宿
欲结毒蛇满心室 缠绵爱喜不相离
既知身戒不可毁 汝心常共欲火宿
汝是出家求道人 何缘纵心乃如是
父母生养长育汝 宗亲恩爱共成就
咸皆涕泣恋惜汝 汝能舍离不顾念
而心常在欲觉中 共欲嬉戏无厌心
常乐欲火共一处 欢喜爱乐不暂离
如是种种呵欲觉。如是种种正观除欲觉。
Explanation: What is correct contemplation? Seeing that people with much greed undergo great hardship pursuing various desires; even when they obtain what they seek, guarding what has been obtained is also hardship; when it is lost, the distress arising in the mind is still great suffering; and obtaining the coveted object yet never being satisfied is likewise suffering. Desire is the cause of impermanence and suffering, and also the condition for sorrow and distress; all sentient beings have these afflictions and painful points, and should awaken to greed and desire and then abandon them. It is like a venomous snake entering a person's dwelling: if it is not quickly removed, harm will surely come. The various inverted pleasures of desire have no fixed mark, are not real, and are trivial and without worth.
For example, an arhat endowed with the six superknowledges (abhijñā) instructs a disciple who has perceptions of desire, saying: If you do not break the precepts and do not share a room with women, your conduct of the precepts is pure, yet clinging love entwines without parting, and your mind is filled with the venomous snakes of desire's bonds. Since you know the bodily precepts must not be violated, why does your mind constantly harbor unextinguished fires of desire? You are one who has left home to seek the Buddha's path — why do you indulge yourself like this? Your parents gave birth to you and raised you; your clan and relatives lovingly cared for you and sent you forth to leave home and cultivate the path; all your loved ones wept and cherished you, yet you were able to leave them behind without concern; but your mind constantly harbors greed, indulging desire without satiety, constantly delighting in dwelling amid the fires of desire, unwilling to part with its joys and pleasures even for a moment.
One should, in this way, reproach the perception of desire with various words, and in this way use various correct contemplations to remove the mind of the perception of desire.
Original text: 问曰。云何灭瞋恚觉。答曰。
从胎中来生常苦 是中众生莫瞋恼
若念瞋恼慈悲灭 慈悲瞋恼不相比
汝念慈悲瞋恼灭 譬如明闇不同处
若持净戒念瞋恚 是人自毁破法利
譬如诸象入水浴 复以泥土涂坌身
一切常有老病死 种种鞭笞百千苦
云何善人念众生 而复加益以瞋恼
若起瞋恚欲害彼 未及前人先自烧
是故常念行慈悲 瞋恼恶念内不生
若人常念行善法 是心常习佛所念
是故不应念不善 常念善法欢乐心
今世得乐后亦然 得道常乐是涅槃
若心积聚不善觉 自失己利并害他
是谓不善彼我失 他有净心亦复没
譬如阿兰若道人 举手哭言贼劫我
Explanation: Question: How does one extinguish the perception of anger? Answer: Born from the womb, the mind constantly harbors suffering; therefore it is said that sentient beings should not constantly be angry and distressed. If a practitioner's mind has anger and distress, the mind of loving-kindness and compassion is gone; loving-kindness and anger cannot exist at the same time — the two admit no comparison. If your mind dwells on loving-kindness and compassion, anger and distress vanish. It is like light and darkness, which cannot coexist in the same place. If one wishes to uphold pure precepts yet harbors thoughts of anger, such a person will violate the precepts and forfeit the benefit of the Buddha's Dharma. It is like an elephant entering a river to bathe and then smearing its body with mud — truly an unwise act. All sentient beings constantly have aging, sickness, and death, and the various afflictions lash them like whips, unbearably painful. Why would a good person, out of compassionate concern for sentient beings, add further suffering to them? If anger arises with the intent to harm another, before the harm reaches the other person, one is first burned by the fire of one's own anger.
Therefore one should always have the mental conduct of loving-kindness and compassion, and not give rise to anger, distress, or evil thoughts within. If someone constantly has the thought of practicing wholesome dharmas, such a mind is cultivating the recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti). Therefore one should not harbor unwholesome thoughts. Constantly recollecting wholesome dharmas, the mind is joyful; gaining happiness in this life and likewise in future lives, attaining the path-fruit of eternal bliss — that is nirvāṇa. If the mind still accumulates unwholesome perceptions, one not only loses one's own benefit but can also afflict others; therefore it is said that with unwholesome thoughts, both self and other suffer harm, and others' pure minds are also lost — like a person dwelling in a pure araṇya practice place raising his hands and crying out that robbers have plundered him.
Original text: 有人问言。谁劫汝。答言。财贼我不畏。
我不聚财求世利。谁有财贼能侵我。
我集善根诸法宝。觉观贼来破我利。
财贼可避多藏处。劫善贼来无处避。
如是种种呵瞋恚。如是种种正观除瞋恚觉。
Explanation: Someone asks: Who robbed you? He answers: I do not fear the robbers of wealth, for I do not accumulate property seeking worldly benefit — what robber of wealth could violate me? Because I am accumulating the treasure of wholesome roots and the Buddha's Dharma, when the robber of perceptions comes, I lose the benefit in the Dharma. Robbers of wealth are easy to avoid, with many places to hide; but when the robber of wholesome dharmas comes, there is nowhere to escape. In this way, reproach anger with various words; in this way, use various correct contemplations to remove the perception of anger.
Original text: 问曰。云何除恼觉。
答曰众生百千种 诸病更互恒来恼
死贼捕伺常欲杀 无量众苦自沉没
云何善人复加恼 谗谤谋害无慈仁
未及伤彼被殃身 俗人起恼是可恕
此事世法恶业因 亦不自言我修善
求清净道出家人 而生瞋恚怀嫉心
清冷云中放毒火 当知此恶罪极深
Explanation: How does one remove the perception of harming? Answer: Sentient beings have hundreds and thousands of kinds of illnesses that alternately come to afflict them; the thief of death constantly comes in pursuit, seeking to kill the body of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha); sentient beings constantly sink amid immeasurable sufferings. Since one is a good person, why would one further come to harm sentient beings, slandering and plotting against them? One who lacks a benevolent heart and goes to injure others — before he harms others, calamity befalls himself first. That worldly people give rise to the intent to harm others can still be forgiven, for this is the cause of evil karma within worldly dharmas, and worldly people never claim that they will cultivate goodness and be good people. But a renunciant seeking the pure path who harbors jealousy and gives rise to anger is like releasing poisonous, violent flames amid cool white clouds — know that such evil karma is extremely grave and great.
Original text:
阿兰若人兴嫉妒 有阿罗汉他心智
教诫苦责汝何愚 嫉妒自破功德本
若求供养当自集 诸功德本庄严身
若不持戒禅多闻 虚假染衣坏法身
实是乞儿弊恶人 云何求供养利身
饥渴寒热百千苦 众生常困此诸恼
身心苦厄无穷尽 云何善人加诸恼
譬如病疮以针刺 亦如狱囚考未决
苦厄缠身众恼集 云何慈悲更令剧
如是种种呵恼觉。如是种种正观除恼觉。
Explanation: A person dwelling in a quiet practice place gave rise to jealousy, and an arhat with the superknowledge of knowing others' minds instructed and admonished him, sternly reproaching him: Why are you so foolish? Jealousy can destroy the capital of merit you have cultivated. If you seek offerings, you yourself must strive to accumulate merit and virtue, adorning yourself with abundant merit; if you do not uphold the precepts, cultivate meditative concentration, and extensively study and learn, you will wear the renunciant's robes in vain and destroy the Dharma body and wisdom-life. Doing this shows that you are in fact a wretched evil beggar — why still crave offerings to sustain your physical body?
The hundreds and thousands of afflictions of hunger, thirst, cold, and heat — sentient beings are constantly trapped in these afflictions and ailments; the sufferings and afflictions each sentient being endures in body and mind are endless — why, as a good person, would one further add so many afflictions to sentient beings? It is like a person with diseased sores being stabbed with needles, or like a prisoner in jail undergoing harsh interrogation, with life or death undecided; numerous sufferings entangle the physical body, and numerous afflictions converge upon it — how could a person with loving-kindness and compassion further aggravate his suffering?
In this way, use various words to reproach one's own perception of harming; in this way, use various correct contemplations to remove the perception of harming. This is the dharma gate of cultivating the mind: learn to observe your own mind, learn to reproach your own mind, learn to educate your own mind, learn to guide your own mind toward what is correct; then the mind-ground will become ever purer and ever wiser, and progress on the path will be swift.
