The Venerable Pilindavatsa's Experience of Attaining the Fruit

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 attained the patience of non-arising (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti). At that moment, the mind consciousness of the Venerable One must certainly have been gathered in, not attending to any dharma other than the questioning doubt, not even attending to the body, no longer aware of the body's existence. The mental faculty (manas) also gathered in its thoughts; otherwise the mind consciousness could not have been gathered in, for it would inevitably follow the manas' grasping. Because the manas was gathered in and did not attend to other dharmas, both the body and the conscious mind became empty and ceased to exist. This was not merely the "nothingness" within meditative concentration, but also emptiness in terms of views and understanding—it was realizing that body and mind are not the self, and attaining the fruit of realization. And gathering in body and mind is itself meditative concentration; afterward, an even deeper meditative concentration appeared, and the wisdom that body and mind are not self was brought forth.

Without meditative concentration, can true wisdom be born? Impossible. Even if there is so-called wisdom, it is merely dry wisdom (śuṣka-prajñā), belonging to the sect of intellectual understanding. Nowadays there are everywhere sectarians of intellectual understanding like Master Shenhui, and one does not know whether they can be taught. When the Sixth Patriarch scolded Master Shenhui back then, it was just like scolding people today; yet people nowadays do not know awakening, and their study of the Dharma remains at the level of the mind consciousness' sentiments and intellectualizations, with no way to attain realization.