The Chan-Contemplation Skills One Should Possess Before Attaining Enlightenment (2025-03-30)

Explanation: Ven. Shi Ruyuan: I am grateful to my master for the blessing He has given me, His disciple, these past days, so that my walking, standing, sitting, and lying down are all within meditative concentration. On the very first night after meeting my master, while sitting in meditation, an inconceivable phenomenon appeared within samādhi. The moment I sat down on the cushion, my head went off with a sudden boom, as if a large mass of air current had been expelled; my mind felt empty and hollow, as if something had struck my head hard, and I was shaken out of meditative concentration. On the second and third days my body remained in samādhi and could not move—I could not come out of samādhi. On the third night I was too excited to sleep, and I grew a little worried: if the following days were all like this, what would I become? These past few days my thighs have also become sore and swollen, my eyes would not open; I wanted to get up and walk but could not move; when I stood up I felt floaty and unsteady, afraid of falling, as if my cerebellum had lost its sense of balance.

On the fourth day things were a little better; I could move, and my legs were no longer sore and swollen. Around eleven o'clock at night, while in samādhi, a powerful current of air burst out from my nostrils and shook me out of samādhi. At the time I just sat there to recover my composure, remembering my master's teaching that I should not merely sit, but should move around appropriately, practice walking meditation, and investigate the tathāgatagarbha in the states I encountered. So I got up and practiced walking meditation, while contemplating that all dharmas born of the tathāgatagarbha are illusory dharmas. In an instant I felt the dharma meanings turning back and forth ceaselessly in my mind; I could not control body or mind to come out of samādhi, and I could not perceive the six sense objects outside the mind; only the sound of the Buddha's name kept revolving and playing in my mind. Such great responses and experiences truly cannot be expressed in words; they can only be enjoyed or understood within meditative concentration—those with shallow samādhi cannot perceive them at all.

The above are the responses and experiences of these few days. Now I have recovered; body and mind are relaxed and at ease, and I can normally engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the dharma meanings. Now the questioning doubts or answers that arise in my mind are becoming clearer and clearer. Even going to the toilet, I can sustain questioning doubt without interruption: I doubt who it is whose power drags this wooden-like five aggregates (pañca-skandha) body of mine into the toilet; I doubt how this power exercises its wondrous functions upon the sentient being's shell of form. When eating and drinking, I cannot help but ask: these activities of my five aggregates body—raising hands and lifting feet, dressing, eating and drinking, holding bowl and chopsticks—who is it that sustains and holds them?

Assessment: The spontaneously arising questioning doubt of Ven. Shi Ruyuan is very powerful. If a bodhisattva's conditions are all complete, investigation takes not the slightest effort—it is a matter of a single layer of window paper. If the manas can continuously hang onto this question, one's Chan-investigation skill is in no way inferior to the many Chan masters of the Tang and Song dynasties. Because the Chan-investigation skill before realization is the same in every case; no matter the era, it has never been updated or changed, nor can its standard and level be lowered. The only difference is that Ven. Shi Ruyuan cultivates under me and has learned too much about the tathāgatagarbha dharma, and too directly, so she need not spend much energy organizing and systematizing it; she relies more on external power, and her own strength appears very insufficient. The ancient Chan masters, by contrast, learned the prajñā doctrine only roughly, far less extensively and meticulously, and so had no choice but to apply their minds more in investigation, relying more on their own strength, and thus their wisdom was developed deeply. Teaching too directly is not conducive to disciples' Chan investigation; it easily leads to intellectual understanding, affecting the disciple's progress on the Path and the arising of wisdom.

Ven. Shi Ruyuan said a passage: "Contemplating that all dharmas born of the tathāgatagarbha are illusory." This phrase is borrowed language, language learned from others; it does not count as contemplation, does not belong to investigation, but belongs to deliberation, thinking, and understanding within samādhi. Not yet having realized the tathāgatagarbha and not knowing how the tathāgatagarbha gives birth to all dharmas, one cannot possibly know specifically how all dharmas are illusory—there is no evidence for saying so. This is called taking the effect as the cause, and is also called conjecture; it is the result of not knowing how to use the manas to hang onto a questioning doubt.

As for the questioning doubts Ven. Shi Ruyuan later raised, they are like a layer of window paper that breaks with a single poke, all pointing directly to the central point, pointing to the target of realization, pointing to that moon that never disappears. This relies entirely on her skill in meditative concentration; her power of wisdom is insufficient, but her skill in samādhi is very dense and continuous—unable to be pulled apart, unable to be disturbed even by demons, unable to be interrupted by anyone. So at this time she did not use the mind consciousness to resolve the questioning doubt through reasoning, guessing, conjecture, or analysis. If her samādhi were a bit shallower and she applied the mind consciousness, she might resolve the result without effort, breaking the mind consciousness's questioning doubt—but the manas's questioning doubt could not be broken.

Precisely because Ven. Shi Ruyuan did not use the mind consciousness to resolve the questioning doubt, but only used the manas to investigate honestly and earnestly, the questioning doubt that to one who is enlightened looks like window paper she herself could not see through—simply because her wisdom is insufficient and she is too honest, never cutting corners. Within such deep and dense skill, it is not easy to cut corners; when the manas itself carries a heavy questioning doubt, it simply will not give the mind consciousness a chance to resolve it.

Therefore, as long as the skill is deep and the manas's questioning doubt is heavy, even if the dharma meaning is taught as directly as possible, intellectual understanding can be avoided. Even if the hidden meaning is explicitly told, because the questioning doubt is present, the manas will still go investigate and verify, go practice and realize, and will not allow the mind consciousness to accept through faith and understanding. In this way, as long as the skill is in place and the manas has doubt, those who previously had intellectual understanding can turn it into realization—turning the plainly clear Buddhadharma into a proof problem: knowing the answer yet requiring the process of solving it. Within the genuine process of investigation, the bodhisattva's disposition matures, and thereby the merit and wisdom of seeing the Path arise.

In her account, Ven. Shi Ruyuan inadvertently explained clearly the method and process of applying effort in Chan investigation, and also pointed out the target of Chan investigation plainly and clearly—she was just short of stating it outright; the finger pointing at the moon was shining brightly, pointing at the moon. But even so, for many people it is still of no use; they cannot get a handle on it. What is the reason? They do not cultivate merit; their merit is severely insufficient, and their skill in meditative concentration is not complete—even guessing with the mind consciousness is difficult, and even if they guess it out, it is not accurate enough, having no effect on their own body and mind; afflictions remain afflictions all the same.

Most importantly, they lack the Small Vehicle's mind of renunciation, and the Great Vehicle's bodhi mind cannot be aroused. The cultivation and realization of Buddhadharma is only a small part of these people's lives; many affairs in the worldly realm still occupy an important place. If the manas does not value cultivation, how can skill be developed? Each person cultivates and each person enjoys the results; no one can substitute for another. Therefore, explicitly stating the final result of Chan investigation is of no help to others—even intellectual understanding is not easy, and realization is even more impossible.