Buddhist Practitioners Should Skillfully Utilize Delusive Thoughts

How many people, in the course of learning Buddhism, are constantly battling with wandering thoughts, believing that if they eliminate wandering thoughts, they will realize the Buddha's teachings. Yet even if one battles wandering thoughts for a hundred years and subdues them, in the end one still does not understand the Buddha's teachings; without the arising of wisdom, there can be no liberation.

The correct method of practice is to let the manas shift its attention to contemplating the Buddha's teachings; then wandering thoughts will naturally decrease. By shifting attention and shifting the object of grasping, practice can succeed quickly. Constantly fussing back and forth over wandering thoughts is of no benefit to practicing the Buddha's teachings and gaining wisdom. The most direct method is to change the object to which the mind grasps—from grasping at worldly dharmas to grasping at the Buddha's teachings—transferring one's attachment to worldly dharmas onto the Buddha's teachings, changing one's interests, changing the objects of craving, and converting the petty cleverness of worldly intelligence and eloquence in worldly dharmas into the wisdom of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the Buddha's teachings. In this way, meditative concentration and wisdom will immediately appear—why worry about not attaining the Path? Those skilled in learning Buddhism should be good at making use of wandering thoughts; not crushing thoughts to death, but knowing how to transform thoughts—transforming them into thoughts of contemplating the Buddha's teachings, so that every thought and every moment is on the Buddha's teachings, every thought and every moment is the Buddha's teachings. In this way, meditative concentration and wisdom will be accomplished.

If one battles wandering thoughts every day, this is no different from the practice methods of non-Buddhist paths, and moreover one fundamentally cannot catch up with the profound meditative concentration of those non-Buddhists. In the past, non-Buddhist practitioners cultivated concentration and attained the four dhyānas and eight samādhis, and also developed the five superknowledges; but because they had not yet eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), they still took some dharma among the five aggregates and eighteen realms as self, as real; their wrong views and inverted views were not broken in the slightest. Based on such wrong views, they could not avoid the cycle of birth and death in saṃsāra.

Even if one can enter concentration for as long as eighty thousand great kalpas, after emerging from concentration after eighty thousand great kalpas, one will still fall into the three evil destinies and still cannot avoid the suffering of birth and death in saṃsāra. It is precisely because of the wrong view of grasping at self that sentient beings create karma and undergo birth and death in saṃsāra. If the view of self is eradicated, the bond that binds oneself is untied, and one can be assured of not entering the three evil destinies. In practice, breaking wrong views and gaining correct knowledge and views is extremely important; otherwise, even after practicing for immeasurable kalpas, one is still walking the wrong path, unable to return to the right path, and cannot attain liberation.

As long as one's merit is complete, one's goal is correct, and one's method is appropriate, attaining enlightenment is not such a difficult thing. Each person's faculties (indriya) are different, so the methods of practice differ. Those who from childhood have liked tranquility (praśama), liked solitude, and have relatively few interests and hobbies will cultivate concentration relatively quickly; even without sitting in meditation, their minds grasp at little, and their energy is concentrated. As soon as they encounter the Buddha's teachings, they can single-mindedly contemplate the Buddha's teachings and go deep into them. After they have been steeped in the correct knowledge and views of the Buddha's teachings for a period of time and have acquired correct knowledge and views, they will understand the method of investigating Chan and spontaneously and consciously begin to investigate Chan. Conversely, some people sit in meditation for ten or twenty years and still cannot single-mindedly contemplate the Buddha's teachings, do not know how to engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the Buddha's teachings, and cannot distinguish whether a dharma is correct or wrong, or its level.