The Mystery of Contemplative Practice and Chan Meditation

When eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), the mind consciousness must first supply the manas with all the evidence and data, then the mind consciousness should deliberate less and exert less effort, accommodating the psychological activity of the manas, letting go and allowing the manas to deliberate and weigh things on its own, letting Him verify certain facts Himself. If the manas feels the facts are still insufficient, the evidence still inadequate, or the data still not enough, then the mind consciousness engages in deliberation and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) again, gathering more data to hand over to the manas, and the manas deliberates and weighs things deeply once more. In this way, with the mind consciousness continuously supplementing data and materials from the side, the manas can continuously process them, continuously refine its deliberation, and finally arrive at a solid, well-evidenced conclusion—and thus the fruit of realization is attained.

If there are many matters that need to be dealt with and the mind consciousness must emerge from meditative concentration (samādhi) to discern the six sense objects, the manas can still work quietly, never ceasing its investigation whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, and can even continue working whether dreaming or dreamless at night. When the manas truly feels a matter is of great importance, it may decide to forgo sleep and food, neither sleeping nor eating, because the manas wants to be diligent; these activities of eating and drinking affect the manas's focused contemplation, and He would be distracted by daily trivialities, so He will decide to reduce other activities of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) to ensure that He is not distracted. During sleep, without the mind consciousness assisting from the side, the manas lacks sufficient data and material and cannot begin the investigation, so the manas decides not to sleep and not to let the mind consciousness cease.

In the investigation of all dharmas, at first the manas cooperates with the mind consciousness's deliberation and analysis, assisting the mind consciousness in gathering all kinds of data and materials; once the mind consciousness has gathered materials sufficiently for the manas to make use of, the mind consciousness should then cooperate with the manas's deep and careful deliberation, cooperate with the manas's processing and integration work, cooperate with the manas's examination and filtering work, letting the manas expend more mental effort while the mind consciousness is less active—then the investigation can be completed very quickly.

To make the mind consciousness less actively deliberative and let the manas deliberate more, one must cultivate meditative concentration; only within concentration can the manas's focused investigation be guaranteed. Although He cannot be completely fixed on one object, it is enough that He can be fixed on a very few dharmas: apart from the dharma meaning that requires focused investigation, He need only briefly discern other things, without affecting His own investigation. Thus contemplative practice must take place within concentration; the mind consciousness must not engage in emotional speculation and intellectual understanding, but should make much use of the manas's deliberative nature, giving full and effective play to the manas's deliberation, personally realizing that the five aggregates are without self. This is the secret of contemplative practice and Chan investigation.

Therefore, if the manas does not realize the dharma, seeing the mind and awakening to enlightenment is impossible, and likewise eradicating the view of self is also impossible. In investigating Chan and practicing contemplation within concentration, the use of the mind consciousness's deliberation should be minimal, and the use of the manas's deliberative nature should be maximal—this is the secret of investigating Chan and practicing contemplation.

Without the cooperation and assistance of the mind consciousness, the manas can still investigate and deliberate on dharma meaning; it only takes a longer time, and who knows when it might happen. But the prerequisite is that the mind consciousness must hand over the content of its deliberation and the data to the manas; only when the manas has something to follow in its deliberation can it deliberate clearly and attain realization. For example, at night one ponders a problem and, without solving it, falls asleep. After a night's sleep, the moment one opens one's eyes the next morning, inspiration appears, and one suddenly understands the previously unsolved problem. This shows that throughout the night, the manas was working and deliberating. Before sleeping at night, one leaves a question for the manas, and upon waking in the morning the answer is obtained—quite a few people have had similar experiences.

Another example: sometimes a problem one has deliberated on may not yield an answer at the time, so one goes off to attend to other matters; on the surface it seems the matter has been forgotten and the mind consciousness is no longer considering it, but then at some unpredictable moment, an answer suddenly appears in the mind—this is because the manas has been quietly deliberating behind the scenes all along, and finally deliberated out a result. Cultivation means making much use of the manas; only cultivation through the manas is true cultivation, and only then can one realize all dharmas and obtain all wisdom.