The Relationship between Afflictions and Meditative Concentration

Question: Is it that after cultivating to a certain level, one becomes more sensitive to the external world, easily perceives others' subtle ill will, and thus becomes prone to losing one's temper?

Answer: It is because your own body's qi mechanism is not flowing smoothly, and your qi and blood are blocked and obstructed, causing emotional discomfort, which gives rise to negative emotions. When you look at others, you mistakenly assume they harbor ill will, but in reality that is not necessarily so—this is the projection and reflection of your own inner emotions. Because of emotional discomfort, when encountering people and situations, you cannot help but want to vent your emotions, and so you easily lose your temper. For some people, at some times, their temperament is easily affected by their physical health; when the body is healthy and the mind is at ease, all bad moods and afflictions will disappear.

By the same principle, only when a person is happy can the mind be open and expansive, and only then can afflictions be eradicated; and meditative concentration (samādhi) precisely produces happiness, allowing body and mind to be comfortable and joyful, and therefore it can eradicate afflictions. Different depths and levels of concentration produce different degrees of happiness, and the levels of afflictions eradicated also differ. Preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) and the concentration of the first dhyāna are concentrations of different levels—one is attained in the desire realm, the other in the form realm. The degree of happiness attained in the preparatory concentration of the desire realm is low, so the afflictions eradicated are shallow; the degree of happiness attained in the first dhyāna of the form realm is high, so the afflictions eradicated are deep.

Why is it that only after sentient beings attain the fruits of realization and then cultivate to the first dhyāna can they eradicate the fundamental afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion? This is because the first dhyāna is a concentration of single-minded joy and bliss. When a person is in this concentration, the mind is extremely joyful and happy, and because of that bliss which transcends the desires of the desire realm and the human world, the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion of the human world are all cast off and eradicated—thus the third fruit is attained.

Although in preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) one cannot eradicate the fundamental afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, one will eradicate a portion of the afflictive confusions of views and thought within the desire realm, and can eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi), attaining the first and second fruits. Therefore, the fruits of the Small Vehicle are related not only to the wisdom of no-self, but also to dhyāna and the eradication of afflictions. Having both concentration and wisdom ensures that afflictions can certainly be eradicated; afflictions are closely related to whether one has concentration and wisdom—with concentration and wisdom there are no afflictions; without concentration and wisdom, delusion arises and afflictions arise. Thus it is said that once the view of self is eradicated and the fruits are realized, those afflictive confusions of views and thought are also eliminated, and one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions become pure, so one no longer commits relatively great evil karma, let alone grave evil karma. As long as a person still commits relatively great afflictive evil karma in the world, with defiled bodily, verbal, and mental actions, one can conclude that this person has not eradicated the view of self and has not attained the fruits of either the Great or Small Vehicle, and even less could they be a bhūmi bodhisattva. No matter how dazzlingly and eloquently they expound the Dharma, as long as their words and deeds are deficient and their defilements are somewhat heavier, one can conclude that this person is an ordinary being (pṛthagjana).