Why Can We Never Attain Meditative Concentration When We Sit in Meditation to Cultivate Samādhi

Why is it that when we sit in meditation and cultivate samādhi, we can never enter concentration, and why is our meditative power so shallow? It is because the manas refuses to settle down and its grasping never ceases. The mind worries about everything and cannot let go. This is ignorance (avidyā): the mind believes there truly is an external world, that people, affairs, and things truly exist, and so the mind cannot break free from them. Thus, during sitting meditation, the manas is always grasping at everything, stirring up various matters, and the mind consciousness must then discern these matters, so the mind cannot be at peace, cannot settle into concentration, and still less can it extinguish wandering thoughts. If there were no ignorance, and the manas did not grasp or cling and did not produce mental sense-objects, the mind consciousness would have nothing to discern, and settling the mind into concentration would be very easy.

All the people, affairs, and things seen within concentration are also produced by the manas's grasping, and are also illusory. If you do not cling to these people, affairs, and things, those states will gradually fade away, and the concentration will deepen. Remember the words the World-Honored One once told us: "All marks are false and illusory." If you remind yourself of this at all times, you can reduce grasping; when ignorance grows thin, samādhi becomes easy to cultivate.