How Can Questioning Doubt Truly Arise?

Ru Yuan's (Wei Ru's) Mahāyāna questioning doubt: Nowadays, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, I am generally in samādhi, contemplating the dharma principles familiar in my mind—mainly contemplating the white-bone contemplation in my mind and my own skeleton. I have no interest in people or things outside the mind, nor do I discriminate about them. Once, my daughter pulled me along to the supermarket to buy snacks; all the way to the supermarket I was introspecting, could not clearly hear other people's voices, and had no interest in looking at the people and things around me. When my daughter called me to pick out items, I felt as if my body were wandering about in a dream, unreal; my hands and eyes seemed not to obey me, I could not even pick things out properly, and was absent-minded.

Once, a sentence inexplicably popped out of my mind: "a mechanical wooden puppet—when the mechanism is triggered, forms arise." At the time I had not yet reacted; I just kept repeating it in my mind, feeling that it seemed to have been mentioned in my grandmaster's book. Before, I had not understood what it meant; now this sentence suddenly jumped out, and I pondered its meaning with my mind: it must be using iron men and wooden men, and shadow-play figures pulled along by strings wound around them, as metaphors for the activity of a person's five aggregates, right? The lively hopping about of a sentient being's five-aggregate form-shell is all the wondrous functioning of the tathāgatagarbha's self-nature operating behind it. The wondrous functioning of the tathāgatagarbha is manifested upon all dharmas; all koans and huatou investigation are speaking of the self-nature's wondrous functioning of sentient beings' tathāgatagarbha. So in samādhi, looking at everything seems like being in a dream—unreal, without any feeling at all. Sometimes at night, while still asleep, I am awakened by the mantra being recited in my mind.

When I practiced white-bone contemplation last year, I had some bodily and mental experiences: looking at family members who had once been closest to me, or at the most beautiful people outside, they likewise seemed like a pool of filthy flesh and blood. Sometimes when going to the toilet I would also contemplate that people are all this filthy, the body's nine orifices constantly excreting filthy things; I felt that people were unreal; thinking of it, it felt meaningless and boring, so I no longer sought fine food or fine clothes—good or bad, it made no difference. Recently, whether day or night, whether awake or asleep, I am in samādhi, with dharma principles continuously in my mind.

Assessment: Practicing white-bone contemplation can absolutely eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi). If the skeleton can appear in the mind at all times, it shows that the person is constantly in white-bone contemplation, that is, constantly in samādhi. When the skeleton can manifest automatically and spontaneously, eliminating self-view is a matter of minutes—it may happen anytime, anywhere. Perhaps self-view has already been eliminated, yet she herself cannot feel it, because she lacks the wisdom to discern it, and her mental state and experiences cannot be clearly described either. The key is that Ru Yuan (Wei Ru) should clearly recognize her current state and understand her thoughts and feelings, so that her wisdom and cognition can be judged—whether it belongs to the state of having eliminated self-view, or how far she still is from eliminating self-view. At the moment of eliminating self-view, body and mind both have some corresponding states; if one cannot understand them and treats them as ordinary matters, they are missed.

If a person can constantly be uninterested in external people, things, and affairs, this is not merely the merit of meditative concentration; it is also the merit of wisdom. Generally, only when the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the five aggregates has become quite adept and the mind can accord with emptiness can such reactions appear; or only after self-view has been eliminated can one constantly have such reactions. If cultivation is not yet in place, it is impossible to be uninterested in people and things and unwilling to discriminate. So this state is over ninety percent likely to be the state of having eliminated self-view; the specifics still await observation and understanding.

A sentence inexplicably popped out of the mind: "a mechanical wooden puppet—when the mechanism is triggered, forms arise." This is being in a state of samādhi, a Mahāyāna questioning doubt suddenly bursting forth from the manas, showing that the conditions for Mahāyāna Chan investigation have naturally matured. Being able to spontaneously produce questioning doubt in this way shows that her Mahāyāna wisdom is also quite good; otherwise only the mind consciousness would raise questioning doubt, and the manas would not. The reason the manas can give rise to Mahāyāna questioning doubt is, first, that the Hīnayāna foundation is very solid: being fully confirmed about the non-self of the five aggregates, without any doubt, she then wonders—since the five aggregates are empty, why is there still activity of the five aggregates? Second, the permeation and cultivation of the Mahāyāna dharma has already matured. Therefore, when self-view still exists, or is even still rather heavy, the manas will not raise Mahāyāna questioning doubt; the mind consciousness, however, can, because the mind consciousness can leap across many levels to cognize dharmas through non-valid cognition, whereas the manas cannot do that.

From this we can see that true questioning doubt arises spontaneously within samādhi; it is not chanted out by the mind consciousness like reciting a mantra. It gushes forth from the manas when conditions mature; it is the manas, after knowing that the five aggregates are empty, wanting to understand the mechanical mysteries within the five-aggregate body. This is a natural phenomenon of Mahāyāna cultivation reaching the point where, as water flows, a channel forms—not questioning doubt deliberately and forcedly delivered by the mind consciousness. Only in this way is investigation fast and efficient, without wasting time, and there will be no false or mistaken enlightenment. In such a state of samādhi, seeing one's true mind and attaining enlightenment is only a matter of time.

In the state of samādhi, it is indeed like being in a dream; everything seen is unreal. This state resembles the state after self-view has been eliminated. If some major event previously occurred in body and mind that she overlooked, I cannot now judge accurately. Walking, standing, sitting, and lying down—all within meditative concentration, all within contemplative practice; external states cannot pull her away no matter how hard they try. The concentration is quite firm, the mind like walls of bronze and iron. At this point, entering the Path is a matter of minutes—so it is for both the greater and the lesser vehicles. From here on, barring accidents, attaining enlightenment in this life and becoming a sage bodhisattva is pretty much settled. Others want to enter concentration but cannot, cannot even be pushed in; you, however, cannot be pulled out of it. The difference is considerable. Why such a big difference? There are many factors, which will be revealed slowly later on.

The description in the last paragraph of the experiences of practicing white-bone contemplation shows that the effect of Ru Yuan's white-bone contemplation practice is very significant: she can constantly contemplate that sentient beings are impure, and has fully recognized (or perhaps realized) the emptiness and unreality of sentient beings' five aggregates; her mind has removed greedy thoughts, and she is no longer picky or concerned about food and clothing; whether awake or asleep she can remain in meditative concentration, with the state of samādhi unbroken—her skill is quite good. The state of awakened clarity after eliminating self-view is precisely like this. These states are generally the states one abides in after eliminating self-view. Before eliminating self-view, although meditative concentration may also be quite good, with preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) complete, there are still moments of interruption; only after eliminating self-view, when the mind has become empty, can meditative concentration be continuous and unbroken, constantly abiding in samādhi. These various phenomena show that there is over a ninety percent probability that Ru Yuan has already eliminated self-view; she simply cannot describe it very clearly.

Everyone must remember: apart from the wisdom-cognition within such samādhi, none of it is seeing the Path. Apart from the state of samādhi concentration, neither the greater nor the lesser vehicle can truly see the Path. Even if you have meditative concentration but are not constantly abiding in it, and you believe that your cognition when not in concentration also counts as seeing the Path, that is impossible; with shallow concentration, true seeing of the Path is also impossible—it is all figured out by the mind consciousness, and that does not count.