How to Practice Chan by Leaving Behind Mind, Consciousness, and Thought (Citta, Manas, and Vijñāna)

Contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and Chan investigation carried out without meditative concentration (samādhi), or with insufficient samādhi, can never depart from the mind consciousness, still less from its analysis, inference, imagination, and speculation. This was the manner of investigating Chan that the past Chan patriarchs most tabooed and opposed—the emotional thinking and intellectual interpretation that the patriarchs frequently reviled and despised. Therefore, if one wishes to investigate Chan apart from mind, manas, and consciousness, so that the result of investigation is more definitive and more grounded in direct perception, one must strive to cultivate samādhi, bringing preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) to fullness, and only then investigate and contemplate the Buddha's teachings. In this way, the manas exerts more effort, which ensures genuine realization rather than mere intellectual understanding by the consciousness.

In contemplative practice and Chan investigation, the more the mind consciousness is used and the greater its role, the more the effect is discounted and falls short of expectations, and the less it works. The more the manas is used and the greater its role, the greater its explosive power, the stronger its staying power, the farther one goes, the deeper the awakening, the greater the power of meditative absorption (samādhi), the sharper the wisdom, the lighter the afflictions, and the more liberated the mind.