Can One Attain Nirvana by Practicing Meditative Concentration Alone?

When non-Buddhists cultivate the four dhyānas and eight samādhis and reach the samādhi of no-thought (asaṃjñā-samādhi) in the form realm, the mind consciousness disappears. Because there is still the state of the physical body without the mind consciousness, they take this to be real, cling to the physical body without letting go, and thus cannot eliminate the self-view and realize the fruit. In fact, although there is no mind consciousness in the samādhi of no-thought, the manas and the physical body still remain—it is not empty of everything—so it is not the nirvāṇa state of realizing the fourth fruit.

When non-Buddhists cultivate to the state of neither-perception-nor-non-perception (naivasaṃjñānāsaṃjñāyatana) in the formless realm, it seems within that samādhi that the mind consciousness is gone, but in fact an extremely deep and subtle mind consciousness still exists; they simply cannot perceive it themselves, and they take this to be the nirvāṇa state of realizing the fruit. As long as a person does not negate the five aggregates and eighteen realms in their entirety, even cultivating to the highest samādhi in the three realms, they cannot realize the fruit of an arhat. Therefore, for realizing the fruit of an arhat, meditative concentration is only one of the conditions; one must also have the pure dharma-eye wisdom that eliminates the self-view. Nirvāṇa is not realized by relying on meditative concentration alone. After cultivating meditative concentration to the first dhyāna and beyond, as long as one confirms the illusory nature of the physical body and the conscious mind, one can realize the fruit of an arhat. And to have such confirmation, one must also possess consummate contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) wisdom, with both samādhi and wisdom complete, in order to realize the fruit.