How Can One Enter Samādhi Quickly?

When meditating, if one contemplates the meaning of the Dharma, one enters meditative concentration faster than by silently reciting the Heart Sutra and mantras, and the concentration is deeper; it is faster than entering concentration by regulating the breath, and faster than entering concentration by any other method. This is true for those of sharp faculties whose afflictions are slight and whose wandering thoughts are few, because such people already have a foundation in cultivating concentration, and the preparatory methods can be omitted. But for beginners in concentration whose minds are heavily prone to grasping at objects and full of scattered thoughts, the more they contemplate, the more chaotic their minds become; without meditative concentration, contemplation is just scattered thinking—a chaotic mind of scattered thoughts—so they should wait until they have a foundation in meditative concentration before contemplating. When I sit down on my cushion and cross my legs, I use no preparatory methods at all; I enter directly into deep contemplation. There is no thinking by the mind consciousness—it is all deliberation (manasikāra) by the manas. After crossing my legs, I first focus on the Dharma that needs to be contemplated, and then I settle upon that Dharma without moving, without a single wandering thought. This is the state of the manas investigating and probing in Chan.

The manas deliberates deeply and slowly, but thoroughly; the mind consciousness thinks quickly and shallowly, neither thoroughly nor penetratingly. Thinking by the mind consciousness is a preparatory method, whose purpose is to trigger the manas's contemplation; at the very beginning, this is a process that must be gone through. In the manas's deliberation and investigation, there is almost no knowledge to be gained, and one's store of knowledge does not increase, yet it is very interesting—there is a profound delight of exploration, a pleasure of vaguely feeling that something is about to be discovered. What is developed is the wisdom within one's own field of mind; such wisdom is not obtained from outside—what is obtained from outside is only knowledge. At this level, one no longer feels tired; I can sit for a whole morning, or even a whole day. It is only because there are things weighing on my mind that I have to come off the cushion.