The Venerable Piṅgiya's Experience of Attaining the Fruit of Realization

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, when the Venerable Pilindavatsa was struck by a poisonous thorn in his body, he gathered his thoughts, and before long his body and mind suddenly became empty, and he realized the patience of non-arising. At that moment, the mind consciousness of the Venerable One must certainly have been gathered in, not engaging with any dharma beyond his questioning doubt, not even engaging with the body, no longer aware of the body's existence. The mental faculty's mental activity was also gathered in; otherwise the mind consciousness could not have been gathered in, for it would inevitably follow wherever the manas engages. Because the manas was gathered in and did not engage with other dharmas, both the body and the conscious mind became empty and ceased to exist. This was not merely an absence within meditative concentration, but also an emptiness in terms of views and understanding—realizing that body and mind are not the self, and attaining the fruit of realization. And the gathering in of body and mind is itself meditative concentration; afterward, an even deeper meditative concentration arose, and the wisdom that body and mind are not self was brought forth.

Without meditative concentration, can true wisdom ever arise? It is impossible. Even if there is so-called wisdom, it is merely dry wisdom, belonging to the sect of mere intellectual understanding. Nowadays there are everywhere such sectarians of intellectual understanding, like Master Shenhua; one wonders whether they are even capable of teaching. When the Sixth Patriarch scolded Master Shenhua back then, it was just like scolding people today; yet people nowadays do not know how to awaken. Their study of the Dharma all rests on the sentiments and interpretations of the mind consciousness, with no way to attain realization.