The Reason for Rapid Progress in Cultivation (2025-04-20)

Ven. Shi Ruyuan: Every time I am in meditative concentration, I can feel that your blessing power, Master, is so great. In the past I didn't understand what a "magnetic field" was; I only knew that when I went to other places or to other people's sides, my heart felt an indescribable restlessness and discomfort, and I just longed to leave quickly. But when I contemplate the Master's dharma teachings in deep meditative concentration, I can feel a kind of sublime resonance, especially distinct, and my meditative concentration visibly deepens.

The first time I listened to the Master's audio dharma teachings, I was deeply captivated, and my heart felt such dharma joy that I silently made a vow: I must earnestly study the Master's dharma teachings and diligently cultivate meditative concentration. Every time I study the teachings, I distinctly feel the blessing power, a special resonance; my head again becomes soft as before, without any supporting strength, and when walking it is as if I were fixed on the road and unable to move. Fortunately there were others walking alongside me, so I quickly roused my spirits, forcefully and slowly swaying my numb head, and rubbed my somewhat tight eyes and face. Luckily I lived nearby, and before I knew it I had returned to my dwelling.

After returning, it felt like the last time—I felt my whole body about to enter samādhi, and my head and eyes simply could not bear it, so I quickly lay down on the desk, still thinking: will there again be those physical and mental reactions like those several days last time? Although my body and mind could not bear it, inwardly I felt dharma joy, knowing that this was a resonance produced by your blessing, Master, and knowing that it greatly helps my cultivation of meditative concentration and my contemplation of the dharma teachings. The next morning when I woke up and finished sitting, I felt my body light and floating, my mind clear and lucid, and I felt as if my whole body and mind had an inexhaustible supply of strength.

One night I sat quietly the whole night in utter stillness; I could not hear a single sound—my ear faculty felt as if sealed, unable to perceive any movement. It was not until five or six in the morning that I slowly recovered and could hear birdsong, the sound of cars, and people's voices; at that moment my skull felt indescribably clear and unobstructed. It seems I previously heard in the Master's dharma teachings that in profound meditative concentration, investigating Chan is like discovering a new continent, with the mind serene, pure, and at ease; this kind of feeling cannot be understood through thinking with the conscious mind, nor can it be clearly expressed in words.

Now, no matter when, I am always in samādhi; only this time the period of meditative concentration was long, and everything outside felt tranquil as if it had never happened. Apart from hearing the Buddha's name recited both inside and outside the mind and the thought of investigating the questioning doubt, I could feel nothing else, while my mind remained calm and awake. As soon as I sat down, I would unknowingly enter a state of meditative concentration, so I would quickly rise and walk around to practice walking meditation. Now, whether sitting in meditation or in meditation within movement, I always alert myself to use the mind to investigate the dharma teachings that appear in my mind.

The deeper the meditative concentration, the clearer and more lucid the mind becomes, and the questioning doubt that arises can be resolved on the spot. All the activities of this five-aggregate body, whether worldly dharmas or supramundane dharmas, are the wondrous function of self-nature. For example, dragging the sentient being's five-aggregate body about everywhere—breathing, inhaling and exhaling, sleeping, fainting—or everything belonging to the myriad things, whatever species they may be, sentient or insentient, mountains, rivers, and the great earth, flowers, grass, and trees, the blowing of wind and stirring of grass—all worldly dharmas are the functional wondrous operation of the essence of quiescent nirvāṇa. The tathāgatagarbha manifests its wondrous functional operations upon sentient beings' eyes, ears, nose, body, mouth, and mind—upon the six sense faculties. If we wish to be mindful of Him, call upon Him, think of Him, bow to Him, and take refuge in Him, we must seek His wondrous functional operations in all marks and all dharmas.

The reason I was able to cultivate deep meditative concentration is that I never read books indiscriminately. From the very start, the first thing I did in cultivating meditative concentration was to join the four-foundations-of-mindfulness contemplative practice group. At the beginning of cultivating concentration, after just a few breaths of inhaling and exhaling, I would forget the breath, and I single-mindedly and deeply cultivated the recollection-of-the-Buddha samādhi (buddhānusmṛti-samādhi). When I first encountered the Master's audio dharma teachings, I would fall asleep while listening, yet in my dreams I could still hear the Master's voice teaching the dharma. The states in dreams are inherently fragmentary and broken, and I did not understand a single sentence; every time I listened I fell asleep, and I had to wake up and start listening again from the beginning. I remember I listened a total of five times—that is, I listened five times in dreams.

Assessment: Ven. Shi Ruyuan's state is not a mere state of meditative concentration, but a samādhi state possessing both concentration and wisdom. She first had the Hinayana wisdom of eliminating self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), and now she has the Mahayana wisdom of investigating Chan; she is only one step away from enlightenment and realizing the tathāgatagarbha. Now, whether walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, whatever she does, she remains in the state of investigating the tathāgatagarbha. Although there is still some conscious thinking, analysis, and understanding involved, which is somewhat less than ideal, she has already roughly ascertained the general location where the tathāgatagarbha resides—only the reaching out and grasping of it remains. This is unique across the entire internet; a person with such a deep samādhi state cannot be disturbed by any external person or affair.

Ven. Shi Ruyuan has not been studying Buddhism for long; she has known me for only five years and has been in the four-foundations-of-mindfulness group for only four years. After joining the group, her meditative concentration rapidly advanced, and at the same time she studied some related dharma principles. Because of her meditative concentration, although the dharma she learned was not much, it could enter into the manas, so that two years ago she already gave rise to a samādhi state, possessing both concentration and the wisdom of the emptiness of the five aggregates. The white-bone contemplation often appeared spontaneously, and her mind was empty. At that time I did not hold much hope for today's sentient beings, so I did not pay attention to her, nor did I promptly understand and guide her. That Ven. Shi Ruyuan's cultivation progressed so rapidly over four or five years is, first, because she was obedient, and second, because she had few miscellaneous affairs in her mind and not the slightest interest in worldly matters, making it easy to cultivate meditative concentration. And for a person with good meditative concentration, learning something easily enters the manas, easily gives rise to samādhi, and is easy to realize.

In contrast, those who have studied theory for decades are still at the stage of hearing and thinking, without meditative concentration; what they have learned and known cannot be put to personal use, their afflictions pile up, they cannot break free from the bonds of worldly dharmas, and at times they even commit evil karma, even great evil karma. Studying Buddhism this life is of no benefit to them, and the next life is even more uncertain. Broadly studying theory without going deep into actual practice wastes much precious time; mistaking one's guide, and being moreover conceited and arrogant, the price is great. Many people are conceited without reason, with deeply heavy pride, refusing to heed good words. Over many years, without even understanding small-volume texts, they throw themselves wholeheartedly into large-volume texts, unable to honestly assess their own strength and faculties. Not only do they skip over the Hinayana cultivation of the four foundations of mindfulness and directly study Consciousness-Only (Yogācāra), they even want to self-study it—that dharma is absolutely not something an ordinary being has the ability to self-study.