The Principle of Cultivating Meditative Concentration

Sometimes you want to quietly think things over, yet your ears keep picking up faint noises—insect chirps and so on—which feel a bit noisy and distracting. Why is it that sounds the mind consciousness dislikes hearing still linger and cannot be dispelled? This is the manas's habitual grasping, a purposeless grasping. Its habits are so powerful that the mind consciousness simply cannot control them. Only through long-term cultivation of meditative concentration, immersing the mind in something of great interest, can one screen out the dharmas the mind consciousness does not wish to know. When meditative concentration is deep and the mind consciousness is highly focused, the manas grasps at dharmas that the mind consciousness dislikes and is unwilling to discern; once the manas realizes this, it gradually stops grasping. Knowing that the mind consciousness pays no attention to it, it settles down, and attention becomes concentrated. This is exactly the principle of cultivating meditative concentration: when the mind consciousness no longer complies with the manas, the manas has no choice but to restrain itself and revolve around the mind consciousness; in this way, both become settled in concentration.