Precepts give rise to concentration; concentration gives rise to wisdom.

In the sixth volume of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha said: 阿难，汝常闻我毗奈耶中宣说修行三决定义，所谓摄心为戒，因戒生定，因定发慧，是则名为三无漏学。

Vinaya is one of the Tripiṭaka's three collections of sūtra, vinaya, and śāstra; it is the precepts spoken by the Buddha, and it also means subduing one's own mind and subduing the body, speech, and mind—harmonizing the actions of body, speech, and mind. The result of such subduing is that afflictions can be subdued and eliminated, attaining an untainted mind-ground, with body, speech, and mind all untainted and free of afflictions, free of afflictive habits, free of ignorance, ultimately attaining buddhahood.

Why is restraining the mind the precepts? Which mind must be restrained in order to accomplish the precepts? When the mind is not restrained, the body, speech, and mind will move wildly and recklessly. With the body, one insists on doing what should not be done, going where one should not go, moving when one should not move; in severe cases this creates the karma of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, and meditative concentration cannot be accomplished. Even with milder cases of the body acting wildly and recklessly, there can be no meditative concentration, because the body cannot be stilled, and meditative concentration is impossible.

When the mind cannot be restrained, the mouth will speak wildly and recklessly, saying what should not be said and what cannot be said; in severe cases this leads to false speech, frivolous speech, and divisive speech, stirring up conflicts and disputes, violating the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds. In this way the mind is not tranquil, and meditative concentration is impossible. Even if one does not violate the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds, because the mouth speaks recklessly and verbal formations are many, the mind must be thinking wildly, with many mental formations; the mind is not stilled, and meditative concentration is impossible.

When the mind is not restrained, the mental karma is certainly not tranquil—one thinks what should not be thought, deliberates what should not be deliberated, is aware of what should not be aware of, contemplates what should not be contemplated. In this way the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion will inevitably manifest. With the mind's water muddied, how can there be samādhi?

People one should not think about, yet one insists on thinking about them; matters one should not ponder, yet one insists on pondering them; feelings one should not cling to, yet one insists on clinging to them—how can the mind be stilled? Who is it that should not be thought about? Some people have many emotional attachments, constantly carrying the image of another person in their minds—unshakeable, summoned at will, impossible to erase. How can such a person have meditative concentration? When sitting in meditation, these images will certainly obscure one's own mind, obstructing contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation, blocking tranquility—how can there be samādhi? If one could replace these images with images of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, then with the blessing of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the mind becomes tranquil, and meditative concentration arises immediately.

Some people do not restrain their minds; matters unrelated to themselves, matters that do not benefit others, are kept in mind thought after thought, never forgotten moment to moment, worrying about everything. The mind is packed full with no gaps. In this way the mind's water surges and churns, agitated and clamorous—how can there be samādhi? When the mind is not restrained, constantly hanging onto wealth, sensuality, fame, food, and sleep, with the conditioned shadows of the six sense-objects layered upon one another, the mind is not empty, with things covering it—how can there be meditative concentration?

Many people complain that they cannot cultivate samādhi well. Then you must examine yourself: what exactly is the reason you cannot cultivate meditative concentration well? What exactly in your mind is obstructing you? Dig these things out and resolve them; when the mind is empty, meditative concentration will naturally be easy to accomplish. What affects meditative concentration is the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion—the mind grasping (upādāna) at worldly dharmas, unwilling to let go, taking everything as real, as useful things, feeling it impossible not to grasp, even willing to die while clinging to these worldly dharmas. In this way, how can there be samādhi?

Even after all this has been explained, there are still many people who do not know how to examine themselves, not knowing what exactly is in their minds. Because the mind has grown accustomed to streaming out toward sense-objects, clinging too tightly to them and unable to separate, it cannot leap outside the sense-objects to observe one's own mind. In this way, how can there be the wisdom of observation? How can one observe the afflictions and habits of one's own mind? Only by leaping outside the circle, outside the sense-objects, outside the mind itself, to observe one's own mind, can there be the wisdom of observation, the power of introspection, the ability to discover what could not be discovered before, and only then can there be a way to counteract one's own mind, to turn one's own mind around, to have the power to subdue one's own mind.

What must be done first now is to take the mind away from the sense-objects, to let mind be mind, objects be objects, people be people, things be things—each dharma abiding in its own position, each unrelated to one's own mind. When the mind is detached from objects, the power of awareness and illumination is strong, and it is easy to awaken to the true nature of all dharmas; meditative concentration naturally grows, and wisdom naturally arises.

What has been explained above is the principle of samādhi arising from precepts. Restraining one's own mind is the precepts; the mind not engaging in wrongdoing is the precepts; the mind not thinking wildly, not deliberating recklessly, not moving recklessly, not choosing recklessly, not acting recklessly—that is the precepts. This mind mainly refers to the seventh consciousness, the manas. The manas's contact, mental application (manasikāra), feeling, perception, and volition can trigger the mental application, contact, feeling, perception, and volition of the six consciousnesses, triggering the scattered movement of the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses. Restraining the manas is equivalent to controlling the master switch of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, equivalent to subduing the general and commander-in-chief; then the six-consciousness soldiers under his command will obediently follow orders, docile and not moving recklessly—why worry that there will be no meditative concentration?

The most important point in study and cultivation is that wisdom arises from samādhi. "Arises" means to generate and bring forth. The Buddha instructs us that because of the power of meditative concentration, the mind has strength when concentrated, and this power can give rise to and produce wisdom. It is like a kind of force that can push a sprout up out of the soil—pushing out is called arising, called emerging. Wisdom is pushed out from the mind, generated and brought forth, by the power of meditative concentration. Without meditative concentration, the mind has no strength and cannot grow wisdom.

The treasure the Buddha left us is the three untainted studies of precepts, samādhi, and wisdom. If, because we cannot uphold the precepts and cultivate samādhi, we abandon the first two treasures, saying these two are useless and that one treasure alone is enough—then let us think: are we not prodigal sons? Squandering the Buddha's family heirloom, casting it aside without care—are we still the Buddha's disciples? If we do not guard the Buddha's family treasure, we are not the Buddha's filial sons and grandsons. Without the first two treasures, there cannot be the last treasure; and even if the last one exists, it is a counterfeit, not true wisdom.

The precepts, if expounded fully, could never be exhausted. Samādhi, if expounded fully, could also never be exhausted. Wisdom, if expounded fully, could even less be exhausted. In the final analysis, the precepts, samādhi, and wisdom must advance from the shallow precepts, samādhi, and wisdom of the six-consciousness mind to the ultimate precepts, samādhi, and wisdom of the seventh consciousness, the manas—only this is the true precepts, samādhi, and wisdom. The true precepts, samādhi, and wisdom are the mind's precepts, the mind's samādhi, the mind's wisdom—not merely the bodily and verbal formations of the surface six consciousnesses, not merely the mental formations of the mind consciousness, but a matter of the mental formations of the seventh consciousness, the manas. When the manas's mind is restrained, not engaging in wrongdoing and not moving recklessly, wisdom will inevitably be born. The manas's precepts, samādhi, and wisdom govern all dharmas, and in the end, it is necessarily through the manas's precepts, samādhi, and wisdom that one ultimately attains buddhahood.