How Is the Samadhi State Generated?

Question: When I visualize the setting sun, I feel warmth in my eyes and a faint sense of yellow light, but without a distinct outline. It feels like a hazy glow. What causes this?

Answer: This is an illusion arising from manas (the mental faculty). Whatever manas conceives, the tathagatagarbha (Buddha-nature) compliantly manifests, and thus we perceive it accordingly. Our five aggregates (form, sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness) are precisely illusions fabricated by the deluded thinking of manas. For instance, the phenomenon of "pointing to a stone and calling it gold" occurs because, when manas in a state of exceptionally deep samadhi (meditative concentration) intensely desires gold where none originally exists, the tathagatagarbha has no choice but to manifest gold for you. Originally, we do not possess the trichiliocosm (a universe of three thousand great thousand worlds). However, when a Bodhisattva reaches the eighth stage (bhumi), with immensely powerful concentration and wisdom, if manas desires the trichiliocosm, the tathagatagarbha compliantly manifests the trichiliocosm out of nothingness. Therefore, the principle that "all phenomena are created by mind alone" signifies, on one level, that the tathagatagarbha directly creates and manifests for us. But what does the tathagatagarbha base its manifestation upon? It manifests precisely according to the conceptions of manas. If one can grasp the conceptions of manas, one can fulfill wishes as desired. If manas conceives of wholesome things, wholesome things are created; if manas conceives of unwholesome things, unwholesome things are created. For example, if manas harbors greed, hatred, and delusion, the tathagatagarbha manifests the suffering of birth, death, and rebirth within the six realms of samsara. Is the thinking of the conscious mind (vijnana) useful? The thinking of the conscious mind must influence manas, causing manas to conceive the same thought, for it to be effective. If it does not cause manas to conceive the same thought, the thinking of the conscious mind has no effect. This is the fundamental principle.

Regarding our illnesses, if the body truly has cancer, but my manas firmly believes there is nothing wrong, maintaining a mind that is carefree and empty, then the cancer will disappear. If your mind truly believes it does not exist, the tathagatagarbha withdraws the four great elements (earth, water, fire, wind) constituting that cancer, and the cancer ceases to be. All phenomena arise from the mind's conception—this is the principle.

Visualizing the setting sun, conceiving the setting sun in the mind, will eventually lead to the achievement of the samadhi state of the setting sun. Whether your eyes are open or closed, the setting sun will be present, as real as actual perception. This is manifested compliantly by the tathagatagarbha according to the conception of manas. The crucial point is how to transform the thinking of the conscious mind into the conception of manas. Once the conception within manas becomes unshakable, the scene of the setting sun will immediately appear before you. All samadhi states are cultivated in this manner. Cultivate one, and you will be able to cultivate two or three, then four or five, until countless samadhi states manifest, and the world itself transforms.