The Difference Between Contemplative Practice (Vipaśyanā-Caryā) and Chan Inquiry

Contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) is when there is a dharma present before one's eyes; it is observing while looking at that dharma, observing a dharma that one can directly contact in the present moment. What cannot be contacted cannot be observed; a dharma that is unknown and not yet realized cannot be observed—it can only be investigated and sought after. Investigation (can-ch'an) concerns a dharma not present before one's eyes, a dharma that cannot be contacted, that is unknown and not yet personally realized; one uses a specific Chan-investigation method to seek and search for it, in hopes of seeing it and realizing it.

For example, contemplating the breath uses the method of contemplative practice because the phenomenon of breathing exists in the present moment; any normal person can observe it. Observing a dharma that exists in the present is called contemplative practice. Contemplating the four foundations of mindfulness uses the method of contemplative practice because the four foundations—body, feeling, mind, and dharmas—are dharmas present in the current moment; anyone who understands their content can observe them, and so contemplation of the four foundations of mindfulness is called contemplative practice. But the tathāgatagarbha cannot be approached with the method of contemplative practice, because sentient beings, for beginningless kalpas, have been ignorant, unaware, and unawakened to it; they all hold beginningless ignorance regarding the dharma of the tathāgatagarbha. Since one has not yet seen the tathāgatagarbha, one cannot use the method of contemplative practice; one must use the method of investigation—Chan investigation is required.

Not yet having realized the tathāgatagarbha, one cannot observe it. If one claims to observe it directly, that means one has set up an imagined tathāgatagarbha in the mind; watching this false tathāgatagarbha, one then says the tathāgatagarbha is such and such—all of this is imagination and fantasy, and such so-called observation is self-deception. When one has not yet realized it, it is still unknown; one must, in the very moment of the five aggregates' activity, investigate, seek, and search; one must apply the skill of Chan investigation, not the methods of observation and contemplative practice. Observation before realization treats ready-made theory as actually existent, as if already realized—it is imagining a tathāgatagarbha and then observing it. Investigation, however, goes from not knowing and not seeing to knowing and seeing in the present moment; it is not imagination but true seeing. It means erasing the tathāgatagarbha one already knows and has already learned, treating the tathāgatagarbha as an unknown dharma to explore and seek out. Only upon finding Him can it be called realization.

Observation and investigation are two skills directed in two different directions; they cannot be conflated, much less substituted for one another—otherwise the consequences would be unthinkable. Therefore, to apply effort blindly without thoroughly studying the theory is like a blind person groping and bumping about—easily injuring oneself, highly inadvisable. If one does not value theory and goes astray, one cannot even detect one's own problems while still believing oneself to be correct, and the outcome will be bad. Who would rush along with head down without studying the road signs and map clearly? All the dharma I teach is, for others, theory—it is the road signs and the map, meant to guide everyone on their way. Once you have studied and understood it, setting out on the road, you will not take the wrong path. But if you have not yet understood, do not know or master the method of Chan investigation, and yet plunge into blind, haphazard practice, misinterpreting it yourself and then misleading others—the fault would be grave indeed.