How Is the State of Meditative Concentration (Samādhi) Generated?

Question: When I visualize the setting sun, my eyes feel hot, and I vaguely sense a yellowish glow—though without any clear outline, just a blurry mass of light. What is the reason for this?

Answer: This is an illusion of the manas. Whatever the manas thinks of, the tathāgatagarbha manifests accordingly, and that is what we have; our five aggregates are all imagined forth by the manas. For example, pointing at a stone and calling it gold—there is no gold before your eyes, but if the manas, in very deep meditative concentration, insists that there must be gold, the tathāgatagarbha has no choice but to transform gold for you. We originally had no trichiliocosm (three-thousandfold great world system), but when an eighth-ground bodhisattva's meditative concentration and wisdom are both very powerful, the manas thinks of having a trichiliocosm, and the tathāgatagarbha, in accordance with that, manifests a trichiliocosm out of thin air. Thus all dharmas are created by the mind alone—this refers, on one hand, to the tathāgatagarbha directly transforming and creating things for us; but according to what does the tathāgatagarbha transform and create them? It creates them according to the thinking of the manas. If you grasp hold of the manas's thinking, you can have things go as you wish: if the manas thinks of good things, good things will be created; if the manas thinks of bad things, bad things will be created. For example, if the manas has greed, anger, and delusion, the tathāgatagarbha will transform and create the suffering of birth and death in the cycle of the six realms of rebirth. Is the thinking of the mind consciousness of any use? The mind consciousness's thinking must influence the manas so that the manas thinks the same way for it to be effective; if it does not lead the manas to think likewise, the mind consciousness's thinking has no effect. Such is the principle.

As for our illnesses: if the body truly has cancer, and my manas simply decides there is nothing to worry about, letting the mind loose and empty, the cancer will disappear. If your mind believes it is not there, the tathāgatagarbha will withdraw the four great elements of that cancer, and the cancer will be gone. All dharmas arise from mental thinking—this is the principle.

Visualizing the setting sun—when the mind thinks of the setting sun, in the future one will accomplish a state of meditative concentration (samādhi), and with eyes open or closed, the setting sun will be there, as if real; this is manifested by the tathāgatagarbha in accordance with the manas's thinking. The key is how to turn the mind consciousness's thinking into the manas's thinking. Once the manas's thinking becomes unshakable, the scene of the setting sun will appear right before your eyes. All states of meditative concentration (samādhi) are cultivated in this way. Once you accomplish one, you will accomplish two and three, even four and five—boundless meditative concentrations will all manifest, and the world itself will change.