What Is the Difference Between the Samadhi of Non-Buddhists Who Do Not Uphold the Precept Against Killing and the Samadhi of Buddhism?

Concentration possesses the blessings of concentration. In the concentration where one does not uphold the precept against killing, the blessings of concentration are diminished. However, as the depth of concentration increases, the actions of body, speech, and mind become fewer and fewer, until one no longer engages in bodily, verbal, or mental activities. Thus, these concentrations attained by non-Buddhists are concentrations that uphold precepts—without upholding, they uphold, naturally possessing precepts. Such precepts are purer than the Five Precepts or the Eight Precepts of Uposatha upheld by Buddhist practitioners, and even purer than the Bodhisattva Precepts upheld by most people.

Because they possess such profound concentration, free from any violation of precepts, non-Buddhists, upon hearing the Buddha’s teachings, instantly contemplate and immediately attain the fourth fruition of Arhatship, without passing through the first, second, or third fruitions. Could Buddhist practitioners match this?

Although non-Buddhist concentration cannot eradicate the view of self or eliminate afflictions, it can subdue the self and tame afflictions. While still tenuously connected to the five aggregates as self and to afflictions, once the Buddha expounds the Dharma, non-Buddhists develop deep faith in the Buddha, genuinely take refuge in the Buddha, and swiftly attain the fruitions. The view of self and afflictions are no longer tenuously connected but are utterly eradicated.

If the shallow concentration cultivated by Buddhist practitioners cannot subdue the self or tame afflictions, then the path to eradicating afflictions remains long and arduous.