Precepts give rise to concentration, and concentration gives rise to wisdom.

In the sixth volume of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha said: 阿难，汝常闻我毗奈耶中宣说修行三决定义，所谓摄心为戒，因戒生定，因定发慧，是则名为三无漏学。

Vinaya is one of the Tripiṭaka's three collections of sūtras, vinaya, and śāstras; it is the precepts spoken by the Buddha, and it also means subduing one's own mind and subduing the body, speech, and mind—harmonizing the actions of body, speech, and mind. The result of such subduing is that afflictions can be subdued and eliminated, attaining a mind-ground without outflows, so that body, speech, and mind are all without outflows and without afflictions, without afflictive habits, without ignorance, ultimately achieving buddhahood.

Why is restraining the mind the precepts? Which mind must be restrained in order to accomplish the precepts? When the mind is not restrained, the body, speech, and mind will move recklessly and chaotically. With the body, one insists on doing what should not be done, going where one should not go, moving when one should not move; thus, in serious cases, one will create the karma of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, and meditative concentration cannot be accomplished. Even those whose bodily misconduct and reckless movement are minor cannot have meditative concentration, because the body cannot be settled, and meditative concentration is impossible.

When the mind cannot be restrained, the mouth will speak recklessly and wildly, saying what should not be said and what must not be said; in serious cases, there will be false speech, frivolous speech, and divisive speech, stirring up conflicts and disputes, violating the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds. In this way the mind is not tranquil, and meditative concentration is impossible. Even if one does not violate the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds, because the mouth speaks wildly and verbal formations are many, the mind must be thinking wildly; with many mental formations, the mind is not stilled, and meditative concentration is impossible.

When the mind is not restrained, the mental karma is certainly not tranquil: one thinks what should not be thought, deliberates what should not be deliberated, is aware of what should not be noticed, contemplates what should not be contemplated. In this way the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion will inevitably manifest; the water of the mind is turbid—how can there be samādhi?

People one should not think about, one insists on thinking about; matters one should not ponder, one insists on pondering; feelings one should not cling to, one insists on clinging to—how can the mind be stilled? Who should not be thought about? Some people have many emotional attachments, constantly carrying the image of another person in their minds—unshakeable, summoned at will, impossible to erase. How can such a person have meditative concentration? When sitting in meditation, these images will certainly obscure one's own mind, obstructing contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation, blocking tranquility—how can there be samādhi? If one can replace these images with images of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas will bless and support, the mind becomes tranquil, and meditative concentration arises immediately.

Some people do not restrain the mind; matters unrelated to themselves, matters that do not benefit others, are kept in mind thought after thought, never forgotten moment to moment, worrying about everything. The mind is packed full with no gaps; the water of the mind surges and churns, agitated and clamorous—how can there be samādhi? When the mind is not restrained, constantly hanging onto wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep, the conditioned shadows of the six sense-objects layer upon layer; the mind is not empty, with things covering it—how can there be meditative concentration?

Many people complain that they cannot cultivate samādhi well. Then they must examine themselves: what exactly is the reason they cannot cultivate meditative concentration well, what exactly in their minds is obscuring them? Dig these things out and resolve them; when the mind is empty, meditative concentration will naturally be easy to accomplish. What affects meditative concentration is the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion; the mind grasps at worldly dharmas, unwilling to let go, taking everything as real, as useful things—one feels one must grasp them, and would rather die than release these worldly dharmas. How can there be samādhi in this way?

Even after all this has been explained, there are still many people who do not know how to examine themselves, not knowing what exactly is in their minds. Because the mind has long been accustomed to scattering and flowing along with sense-objects, clinging too tightly to them and unable to separate, it cannot leap outside the sense-objects to observe one's own mind. How then can there be the wisdom of observation? How can one observe the afflictions and habits of one's own mind? Only by leaping outside the circle, outside the sense-objects, outside the mind itself, to observe one's own mind, can there be the wisdom of observation, the power of introspection, able to discover what could not be discovered before, and only then can one find ways to counteract one's own mind, turn one's own mind around, and have the power to subdue one's own mind.

What must be done first now is to take the mind away from the sense-objects, so that mind is mind, objects are objects, people are people, things are things; each dharma abides in its own position, having nothing to do with one's own mind. When the mind is detached from objects, the power of awareness and illumination is strong, it is easy to awaken to the true reality of all dharmas, meditative concentration naturally grows, and wisdom naturally arises.

What has been explained above is the principle of samādhi arising from the precepts. Restraining one's own mind is the precepts; the mind not engaging in wrongdoing is the precepts; the mind not thinking wildly, deliberating wildly, moving wildly, choosing wildly, or acting wildly—that is the precepts. This mind mainly refers to the seventh consciousness, the manas. The manas's contact, mental engagement, feeling, perception, and volition can trigger the mental engagement, contact, feeling, perception, and volition of the six consciousnesses, triggering the scattered movement of the six consciousnesses' bodily, verbal, and mental actions. Restraining the manas is equivalent to controlling the master switch of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, equivalent to subduing the general and commander-in-chief; then the six-consciousness soldiers under his command will obediently comply, docile and not moving recklessly—why worry that there will be no meditative concentration?

The most important point in study and cultivation is that wisdom arises from samādhi. "Arise" means to generate and bring forth. The Buddha instructs us that because of the power of meditative concentration, the mind settled in concentration has power, and this power can give rise to and produce wisdom. It is like a kind of force that can push a sprout up out of the soil; pushing out is called arising, called issuing forth. Wisdom is pushed out from the mind, generated and brought forth, by the power of meditative concentration. Without meditative concentration, the mind has no power and cannot grow wisdom.

The treasure the Buddha left us is the threefold training of precepts, samādhi, and wisdom—the threefold learning without outflows. If, because we cannot uphold the precepts and cultivate samādhi, we abandon the first two treasures, saying these two are useless and that one treasure alone is enough—then let us think: are we not prodigal sons? Having ruined the Buddha's family heirloom and cast it aside without care, are we still the Buddha's disciples? If we do not guard the Buddha's family treasure, we are not the Buddha's filial sons and virtuous grandsons. Without the first two treasures, there cannot be the last treasure; and even if the last one exists, it is a counterfeit, not true wisdom.

The precepts, if expounded fully, could never be exhausted. Samādhi, if expounded fully, could also never be exhausted. Wisdom, if expounded fully, could even less be exhausted. In the final analysis, the precepts, samādhi, and wisdom must advance from the shallow precepts, samādhi, and wisdom of the sixth consciousness mind to the ultimate precepts, samādhi, and wisdom of the seventh consciousness, the manas—only this is the true precepts, samādhi, and wisdom. The true precepts, samādhi, and wisdom are the mind's precepts, the mind's samādhi, the mind's wisdom—not merely the bodily and verbal formations of the surface six consciousnesses, not merely the mental formations of the mind consciousness, but a matter of the mental formations of the seventh consciousness, the manas. When the manas's mind is restrained, not engaging in wrongdoing and not moving recklessly, wisdom will inevitably be born. The manas's precepts, samādhi, and wisdom govern all dharmas; ultimately, one will achieve perfect buddhahood precisely through the manas's precepts, samādhi, and wisdom.