Only by Subduing Coarse Craving Can One Attain Meditative Concentration and Eradicate the View of Self

Liking various forms of entertainment, including music, chess, calligraphy, painting, and all kinds of arts, falls within the scope of craving and attachment. No matter how refined, noble, exalted, or wonderful these may be considered in worldly eyes, no matter how pleasing to the eye, they run contrary to the Path and belong to worldly existence; therefore they are all things of saṃsāra, and clinging to them prevents one from escaping saṃsāra. Moreover, when the mind has craving and attachment, it corresponds to the ghost realm, and at the end of life one will go to the ghost realm to receive retribution. The scope of craving is extremely broad—craving is found almost everywhere. As long as one likes something, cares about it, or grasps at it, it all belongs to craving and attachment. Therefore, whether or not one studies Buddhism, as long as one's wholesome karma is insufficient to be reborn in the heavens or as a human, because of one's various cravings one will almost always first go to the ghost realm to receive retribution, then go to the animal realm to receive retribution; only when the karma of the evil realms is temporarily exhausted and some merit remains will one return to the human world. If one craves the dharmas of the desire realm, one cannot leave the desire realm; if one craves the dharmas of the human world, one cannot be reborn in the heavens, and one may not even be reborn among humans.

The desire for food and drink is the coarsest and easiest affliction to subdue in the human world; it is the first gate of cultivation. If one cannot even pass this gate, other cravings will be even harder to subdue. The myriad faults and errors of ordinary beings are manifested in the bit-by-bit cravings of daily life—craving everywhere, grasping everywhere. Living with such fastidiousness—fastidious about what? Fastidious about everything, unwilling to let any dharma be emptied out, pursuing only the best. Take eating alone: the varieties are endless, and the fastidiousness is immense. But retribution is often contrary to what is sought: gluttony leads to rebirth as a hungry ghost, arrogance leads to a short and small physical body, and so on.

The desire between men and women in the human world is the heaviest craving. If one can subdue it, one can attain the meditation of the first dhyāna; and by eradicating the craving for sexual desire, one can be reborn in the first dhyāna heaven in a future life. If the cravings of human life for food, clothing, housing, use, and travel can be subdued, one can attain preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi), thereby subduing the afflictions of the human world, and after death be reborn in the desire-realm heavens. Those who cannot attain meditative concentration should examine the various cravings within their own minds. Enjoying tall buildings, fine clothes, and exquisite food in the human world comes at a price: once one's blessings are exhausted, one can no longer survive in the human world and has no choice but to suffer in the three evil realms. Therefore, those who enjoy wealth, honor, splendor, and glory should awaken and plan early, see through the unreality of worldly splendor, and not admire vain glory.

Why do all meditative concentrations correspond to the heavenly realms, allowing rebirth in the heavens at the end of life? Beings in the heavens all have corresponding wholesome karma; their minds are wholesome, and their afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion are slight. The desire-realm heavens are mainly summoned by wholesome karma—they are the retribution of wholesome karma, with a small element of the retribution of meditative concentration. The form-realm and formless-realm heavens are mainly the retribution of meditative concentration; without corresponding meditative concentration, one cannot be reborn in the form-realm or formless-realm heavens. Therefore meditative concentration can certainly subdue afflictions and eradicate afflictions. Both the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and seeing the mind and seeing one's nature require at least preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi), and both require subduing the coarse afflictions of the desire realm. Fame and gain, wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep—all are afflictions within the desire realm. A person with such serious afflictions cannot possibly attain meditative concentration, cannot eradicate the view of self, cannot see the mind and see their nature, and even less can attain the bhūmis.

If someone claims to have eradicated the view of self and to have seen the mind and seen their nature, yet still, like an ordinary person, has obvious afflictions of greed, anger, and delusion, then it is not a true eradication of the view of self, not a true seeing of the mind and seeing of one's nature. Worldly people do not understand matters of cultivation and realization, and they tend to overestimate their own and others' cultivation, with many misunderstandings. Because of the view of self, they never misjudge downward, only upward. In the past, some people told me they had eradicated the view of self and had seen the mind, asking me to examine and verify them. They repeatedly explained how there is no self and how everything is empty. But such theories are found everywhere and are easily obtained. Can I, upon hearing these descriptions, necessarily judge whether they have truly realized anything? Of course not. Rather than hearing with the ears, it is better to see with the eyes.

In fact, to judge whether a person has eradicated something or realized something, the most important thing is not to listen to what they say, but to watch what they do—action is the most truthful. So the simplest method of judgment is to examine their words and observe their conduct: observe the person's bodily, verbal, and mental actions, their attitude toward food, clothing, housing, use, and travel, and their attitude toward material form. These are where the coarsest afflictions lie, and they are what must first be changed in the process of cultivation. The slightly subtler afflictions concern one's attitude toward mind and consciousness—one's thoughts and views—and these too must undergo some change; otherwise nothing has been eradicated and nothing has been realized. Since one has realized that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) are without self, has realized emptiness, and clearly knows it is empty and nonexistent, how could one continue to grasp at and cling to the coarse and gross dharmas without letting go and without changing? Testing a person this way is the most direct, simplest, and most effective method. How many people can withstand such a test?