An Example of the Joint Cultivation of Precepts, Meditative Concentration, and Wisdom

Yaoling's Journal of Śamatha-Vipaśyanā:

1. Over the past two days, I was on holiday, going out for activities and visiting relatives. Each day I tried my best to raise the contemplation of the white bones (white-bone contemplation), visualizing an image of white bones hanging in my mind. When dealing with people and affairs, my state of mind was calm and detached—just conforming to etiquette was enough. I spoke little, stirred up few emotions, and reduced a great deal of affliction; afterward, I did not dwell on anything.  

2. During the day, if one is not stained by too many afflictions, then at night when sitting in meditation and closing the eyes, one finds that the mind is not too scattered and the body and mind are not too tense; thus it is easy to enter the state whether observing the breath or recollecting the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti). If too many attachments arise in the mind during the day, it is like water freezing into ice—at night in meditation one must melt the ice back into water, which again takes a great deal of effort.  

3. "Contemplating the body as impure" is the cause—is not "no mark of self, no mark of person, no mark of sentient beings" precisely the fruit? Is not this passage of the Diamond Sutra precisely teaching "contemplating the body as impure"? Since there is no mark of self or person, then greed, hatred, and delusion have no root—toward whom would one give rise to greed, hatred, delusion, and arrogance? The mind can then easily remain calm and stable.

4. The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra says that this contemplation of impurity and white-bone contemplation is "the dhyāna practiced by the foolish" (bāla-carya-dhyāna). Am I not such a foolish person? I should raise this kind of right mindfulness more often.  

Assessment: This kind of practice perfectly integrates precepts (śīla), meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom (prajñā) together; the results are excellent, and both concentration and wisdom are evident. The manifestation of precepts is that the mind gives rise to no thoughts and no afflictions, one's conduct with people accords with etiquette, and the state of mind is tranquil and peaceful. The manifestation of concentration is a calm state of mind, an undisturbed mind, and the ability to quickly enter the state when observing the breath or recollecting the Buddha. The manifestation of wisdom is, first, the ability to quickly enter the state of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), and second, the ability to use the principles in the Diamond Sutra and the Śūraṅgama Sūtra for comparison and cultivation, subduing oneself and quickly improving one's meditative skill. This achieves using wisdom to guide concentration and using concentration to give rise to wisdom, with concentration and wisdom perfectly fused. Such practice has entered the right track; once precepts, concentration, and wisdom are further strengthened, the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) will begin to take shape.  

There are many people who practice but cannot keep the precepts; when facing sense objects, thoughts arise repeatedly. Many of the afflictions the mind gives rise to are not inflicted by others, but arise groundlessly from oneself—seeing dharmas as truly existent upon an empty realm, thereby giving rise to attachments, with endless disputes over self and others, right and wrong, yet without self-awareness. Even when others remind them, not only are they unconvinced, they even give rise to aversion and resentment. Such people are still far from genuine practice, with the self-nature too heavy. The result of not keeping precepts in this way is that meditative concentration can never be cultivated well no matter what, leading to a lack of wisdom in both worldly dharma and Buddha-dharma. Therefore, afflictions are the natural enemy of wisdom.