The Importance of Simultaneously Cultivating Meditative Concentration and Wisdom

Śamatha is cessation, and it is also meditative concentration (samādhi); vipaśyanā is contemplation, and it is also wisdom. Only through the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā, with cessation and contemplation working in tandem, can great wisdom arise—this is the method practiced by bodhisattvas. Having cessation without contemplation, or contemplation without cessation, leaning to one side alone, one cannot give rise to great wisdom, cannot realize the Buddha's teachings in actual practice, and cannot attain right wisdom; one can only understand the Buddha's teachings intellectually and acquire knowledge. These are the latter two of the three unconditioned learnings of precepts, concentration, and wisdom spoken of by the Buddha, and also two of the six pāramitās of the bodhisattva taught by the Buddha.

If someone sits in meditation cultivating concentration for years on end without raising the mind to deliberate and investigate the Buddha's teachings, they will never attain realization or liberation. If someone leans toward absorbing knowledge, studying widely and learning much, but does not cultivate meditative concentration, their mind scattered and restless, not entering deeply into contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), they likewise can never realize the Buddha's teachings in actual practice; at most they can understand the Buddha's teachings intellectually and acquire knowledge, their mind unable to attain liberation, unable to sever the three fetters. Knowledge can never substitute for realization, but laypeople cannot distinguish between the two, and most are those blind ones who worship knowledge and scholarship.