Cultivation of Concentration and Chan Meditation for Realization of the Way (Part 1)
Section 2: Problems of Mental Thoughts During Quiet Sitting
1. How to Handle Problems That Arise During Sitting Meditation?
When sitting in meditation to cultivate concentration, if there are matters on your mind, the mind is not empty and pure, and the mind keeps attaching without cease, then at such a time it is rather impossible for the mind to be tranquil and sit steadily at ease. Because the manas likes to attach everywhere, when the mind dwells on certain matters, deluded thoughts arise unceasingly; all matters are brought about by the manas's attaching. Therefore, to cultivate meditative concentration well, you must first clean up the thoughts in your mind—first check what matters in your mind have not yet been let go of, and what matters you are still dwelling on. Whatever matters the mind dwells on should first be dealt with and arranged properly, and then the mind should no longer dwell on them; let go of them all, and do not let yourself be affected by these matters. After handling them well, then sit cross-legged in meditation, and the mind can be pure. As long as the manas dwells on even one matter, even if the mind consciousness wishes to become still, it will not be easy; that one matter can affect you.
After finishing the sitting, if there is residual qi in the body, or places where the qi channels are blocked and obstructed, you should find a way to expel the qi. It is best to visualize the qi exiting from the crown of the head, then rub your hands together and rub the crown of your head. When you feel discomfort in a certain place, the qi may be stagnating there; massage that place, then visualize the qi dispersing out from that place. Massage it, unblock it, pat the body, and once the qi goes out, the body will feel comfortable.
If during sitting meditation you easily become drowsy or fall asleep, and you want to change this situation: first, reduce your food intake; do not eat too much, or wait until the meal has been digested to a certain extent before meditating—do not go and meditate right after eating your fill. Those who sit in meditation to cultivate concentration must eat little; generally, being seventy percent full is enough. Eating too much affects meditative concentration; the head easily becomes drowsy, and the mind is no longer clear. Moreover, eating little is also good for the body, reducing the burden on the stomach. If the stomach is always working and churning, it must rub ceaselessly, easily becoming worn and damaged, causing other parts of the body to be worn down as well; so it is better to eat little. Eating a little less food has no adverse effect on the body; eating more, on the contrary, is bad for the body, making the body's organs bear excessive burdens, causing the internal organs to wear out quickly, so one ages quickly and one's lifespan will not be very long.
Second, avoid the times when drowsiness easily occurs. If there is a certain time period each day when drowsiness easily arises, do not meditate at that time; sit at another time instead. Third, when drowsiness arises during sitting meditation, if the mind is rather dull and heavy, you can practice visualization—visualize an interesting state, a scene you are very interested in, to mobilize the mind's enthusiasm and make the mind lively. Because you are interested in this matter, all your attention will be gathered onto this one thing; you will be energized and able to overcome the drowsiness, and then continue practicing according to your original method of cultivating concentration.
Whenever drowsiness occurs, it shows that your contemplative wisdom is insufficient; then you should practice visualization. If your mind is too active and cannot settle down, you can use the method of adjusting the breath, drawing the breath down to the lower dantian. Once the breath reaches the dantian, thinking will no longer be active and there will be no deluded thoughts; at that time, entering stillness and entering concentration are both relatively quick. These methods can be employed anytime and anywhere. When various symptoms appear, you should be adept at using the corresponding methods to adjust and counteract them. Also pay attention to summarizing experience anytime and anywhere; once experience has accumulated, you will have ways to adjust and counteract, and then cultivating concentration will have no obstacles, and entering concentration will be relatively quick.
2. Why Does It Seem That Deluded Thoughts Keep Increasing During Visualization?
Deluded thoughts are by nature false and illusory. If you then go on to counteract these illusory dharmas, the counteracting mind itself is still illusory; while counteracting, the mind is no longer tranquil. Then if you further want to extinguish the counteracting mind, another layer of illusion is added. Illusion upon illusion—when will it ever end?
Visualizing a Buddha image—this is the mind's object; it is the correct practice. Just keep your focus on the object and do not attend to anything beyond the object. It is like setting out for Beijing but becoming enchanted by the scenery along the way, continuously admiring the roadside scenery—when will you ever arrive in Beijing? When there is no meditative concentration, the mind is scattered; because the mind is scattered, one cannot discover that one's own mind is scattered. Only once the mind is reined in a little and becomes a little still can one discover that one's mind was in fact scattered and not tranquil. Making such a discovery shows that the mind has awakened; if one cannot discover one's own deluded thoughts, that mind has not awakened. Is it better to discover the deluded thoughts, or to be unable to discover them?
It is like a foolish person who never knows that he is foolish. When others point out his foolishness, not only does he refuse to admit it, he even gives rise to anger and seeks revenge—is this not even more foolish? Once a foolish person awakens, he will discover that he was in fact so foolish. Only by knowing his own foolishness will he think of ways to counteract it and become wise. If a person does not even know that he is foolish, when will he ever become a bit wiser?
Only when a person is willing to admit his various failings and transgressions is he an awakened person. Once awakened, he will gradually correct his shortcomings and faults, and only then can he begin to make progress. If he does not even admit his faults, how can you expect him to correct them? Then he will simply have to carry his faults along, erring to the very end.
3. What to Do When Hallucinations Appear During Sitting Meditation?
All dharmas are illusory and unreal; even the dharmas we feel to be extremely real are illusory and unreal. Then the hallucinations appearing during sitting meditation are all the more illusory—illusion upon illusion. So there is no need to do anything to deal with or counteract them; simply ignore them, and the illusory states will automatically vanish, and the hallucinations will be gone.
In the past, someone entered concentration while sitting in meditation and saw a person wielding a knife about to kill him. He took that person to be real, and in self-defense, stabbed a knife at that person. After emerging from concentration, he found to his surprise that there was actually a knife wound on his own body, and it was bleeding. He then realized that he had stabbed himself, having been deceived by a false appearance, and felt deep remorse. There have also been people who, while meditating, took the states as real and entered into them, with the result that they were possessed by demons.
In sitting meditation and cultivating concentration, one should hold correct concepts: whatever states and sensations appear in concentration, they are all illusory and unreal; simply ignoring them all, one will remain safe and sound. For a person with a still mind, states do not easily appear during meditation; only when the mind has thoughts and attachments do states easily appear, and only then are there various illusory felt experiences. In daily life, one should train oneself not to attach to marks and not to attach to states, keeping the mind empty and without thoughts; then when meditating, one enters concentration quickly, and states will not appear either.
4. Is There Perception of the External World While in Concentration?
Concentration can be divided into many levels. The coarse and shallow concentration is the desire-realm concentration, in which the mind is somewhat more peaceful, somewhat purer, with fewer scattered thoughts, and the material body somewhat lighter and more nimble. Within this concentration, the six consciousnesses can still discern the six sense objects; there is the six consciousnesses' perception and thinking regarding the six sense objects, and there are also bodily, verbal, and mental actions, so one can interact with people and handle affairs. In the preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) of the desire realm, the mind can think with single-pointed focus and can achieve freedom from scattered thoughts; the mind is purer and the material body more nimble; there is still the six consciousnesses' perception and thinking regarding the six sense objects, and there are also bodily, verbal, and mental actions, so one can interact with people and handle affairs.
In the first-dhyāna concentration of the form realm, the mind is even purer and more single-pointed; among the six consciousnesses, the nose consciousness and the tongue consciousness are absent, and the remaining four consciousnesses of eye, ear, body, and mind can still discern the four sense objects, and there is still perception and thought regarding the four sense objects. While abiding in these several kinds of concentration, one can still interact with people and handle affairs, with slight afflictions and keen thinking. In concentrations of the second dhyāna and above, one can no longer interact with people and handle affairs, because the five consciousnesses are absent; the body cannot move, cannot discern form, sound, smell, taste, and touch, and there can be no bodily or verbal actions.
When meditative concentration manifests during practice, the mind's functions are developed and expanded, and the obstruction of the aggregate of form diminishes. Originally, with the eyes closed, there was darkness before one; now, even with the eyes closed, one can see the brightness before one. In fact, whether the eyes are closed or open, asleep or awake, the tathāgatagarbha transmits the form object through the eye faculty; it merely depends on the discriminating capacity of the consciousness-mind and whether it is obstructed by the aggregate of form. Even during sleep, external form objects are continuously transmitted into the supreme faculty. For example, sometimes in the morning we are awakened by the stimulation of intense sunlight; this is because the form object and dharma object first arise in the supreme faculty, and afterwards the eye consciousness and mind consciousness are born, and so we wake up. When sitting in meditation with concentration present, it is not dark before one's eyes; rather, there is a certain brightness. As for what kind of brightness it is and how bright it is, that depends on the depth of one's meditative concentration.
5. What Situations Constitute Wrong Concentration?
Question: Is concentration without right thinking wrong concentration? Sometimes I encounter a state of dully being unable to turn my thoughts, unable to think, and unable to recollect the Buddha. In such a situation, one should leave it, right?
Answer: Generally, the concentration cultivated by non-Buddhists is called wrong concentration. After non-Buddhists enter concentration, they do not contemplate the truth of liberation, believing that liberation can be attained merely by not giving rise to mental activity within concentration; in concentration they cannot give birth to the wisdom of liberation. Therefore, it is said that entering concentration for long periods without giving rise to thinking, without contemplative practice of the principle of liberation, and without investigating Chan to awaken to the Path—their concentration is not right concentration. However, not having thinking within concentration for a short period does not constitute wrong concentration, because meditative concentration without thinking can subdue body and mind, nourish body and mind, and subdue afflictions; only afterwards can one make good use of meditative concentration to think about and contemplatively practice the Buddha-dharma, and only thus will realizing the fruits be swift.
Meditative concentration is very important: it can clarify and purify one's own mind, subdue afflictions and afflictive obstructions (kleśāvaraṇa), and enable the mind, settled upon the dharma, to give rise to deliberation (manasikāra/manana), thereby giving rise to great wisdom. Concentration is divided into many kinds, and there are also transitions among various levels. At present, simply having concentration is already very precious. After the mind is stable, just find an opportunity to convert the mind into a concentration capable of thinking about the Buddha-dharma. There is no need to deliberately loathe and avoid withered concentration; make good use of the withered concentration to transform body and mind, and then change the mode of concentration. Ordinary people also cannot sustain right thinking for more than ten hours a day—that is very taxing on the mind. Appropriately sitting blankly in a daze is also quite nourishing for the mind, body, and spirit.
Why is it easier to think problems through clearly while sitting in meditation? Because when sitting in meditation there is meditative concentration: the mind is no longer scattered, no longer indulges in deluded thoughts, and the mind's attention is single-pointed. When the mind focuses on pondering a problem, from the mind consciousness's scattered thinking to single-pointed thinking, and then to the manas's deliberation—once the manas deliberates single-pointedly, it can comprehend the root of the problem, and thereby solve the problem at its root.
6. Why Does the Nature of Discernment Grow Weaker the Deeper the Meditative Concentration?
Question: Why, when there is meditative concentration, do the seeds of consciousness flow forth ever fewer, and the discernment of the consciousness-mind grow ever weaker? Who decides to discern, and who decides to discern less or not to discern?
Answer: Because within meditative concentration, the manas, due to the drawing effect of the mind consciousness, is bound to a specific state; thereupon the manas no longer attaches everywhere to other sense-object states. In this way, the tathāgatagarbha does not give birth to the mind consciousness and the five consciousnesses at other sense-object states, and the seeds of consciousness of the six consciousnesses that flow forth are reduced. When the manas also reduces its attaching to the specific dharma object, the seeds of the six consciousnesses—or the seeds of the mind consciousness—output by the tathāgatagarbha become ever fewer; thus the discernment of the six consciousnesses grows ever weaker, to the point of ceasing to discern altogether, and profound meditative concentration appears.
Within meditative concentration, why does the manas decide to discern less and not to discern? Why, when not in meditative concentration, does the manas not decide this way? What is the relationship between the manas and meditative concentration? Meditative concentration mainly exerts a restraining effect upon the manas. The manas goes from passively attaching less to actively attaching less, becoming ever less interested in sense-object states, and thus decides to discern less and not to discern; the discernment of the six-consciousness mind grows ever weaker, and finally discernment ceases. From this it can be seen that the discernment of sense-object states is governed by the manas. By restraining and controlling the manas's attaching nature, meditative concentration can appear; thus meditative concentration is precisely the concentrating of the manas. If meditative concentration only holds the six consciousnesses still without concentrating the manas, the manas attaches everywhere and discerns everywhere; as a result, the six consciousnesses follow the manas, discerning everywhere with intense activity, and then there is no meditative concentration at all. Only when the manas attaches less or not at all and settles down can meditative concentration appear, with the mind steady and harmonious.
7. Meditative Concentration Without Contemplative Practice Is Also Necessary for Cultivation
Question: While sitting in meditation observing the in-and-out breath, in the end only the thought of observing remains, with no object of observation—the in-and-out breath—and I entered concentration for about an hour. Is practicing like this correct?
Answer: That which can observe is the perceiving-aspect (darśana-bhāga); that which is observed is the object-aspect (nimitta). As long as there is that which observes, there is that which is observed; the result of the observation is called self-cognition (svasaṃvitti). If there is observation in the mind yet no breath, then other object-aspects exist. If there is only the observation of the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) without knowing what was observed, this means the mind consciousness has lost its power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala), indicating that one has entered concentration. The purpose of observing the breath is to gather in the mind and settle the mind in one place: first, to attain concentration; second, to give birth to contemplative wisdom, so as to realize the dharma. So if within the observation there is no breath, yet the observation is very good and the mind is very concentrated, a certain purpose has been achieved; there is nothing wrong with this. When the power of concentration is very good, then move the mind back onto observing the breath, continuing to observe the breath, so as to realize that the breath arises and ceases, changes, and is impermanent—it is not self and not what belongs to self.
No matter what kind of meditative concentration—whether a non-Buddhist's concentration or an inner-path concentration—with gathering in the mind as the discipline, just take it and use it. After the mind has been gathered in, then contemplatively practice the Buddha-dharma within concentration; there is nothing blameworthy in this. The four dhyānas and eight samādhis that the Buddha cultivated were precisely non-Buddhist concentrations; then, within the fourth-dhyāna concentration, he contemplated the Buddha-dharma and realized anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi (unsurpassed perfect enlightenment). Without the four dhyānas and eight samādhis shared in common with non-Buddhists, no Buddha could become a Buddha, and ordinary beings could not realize bodhi and become bodhisattvas. It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white; as long as it catches mice, it is a good cat.
Cultivating concentration is for the sake of having the wisdom of contemplative practice; with the wisdom of contemplative practice, one can realize the Buddha-dharma and give birth to great wisdom. There is no need to care about what kind of concentration or how to concentrate; as long as one settles down, that is good—always better than an ordinary person's mind attaching everywhere. Set the goal and head toward it; no need to care whether one travels by water or by dry land—as long as it is a direct route, that is fine. The material body of a non-Buddhist is the same as the material body of a Buddhist practitioner, and the mind of a Buddhist practitioner is the same as the mind of a non-Buddhist who does not study Buddhism. If it is for the sake of subduing the mind, then worldly psychology and physiology apply equally to Buddhist practitioners; subduing the mind is what matters most.
Cultivating concentration is for contemplative practice, and contemplative practice is for giving birth to wisdom. And giving birth to wisdom does not depend on the span of an hour. If one can enter a mindless concentration for an hour, without thinking, yet after emerging from concentration, body and mind are at ease and the felt experiences are extraordinary—throughout the day the body feels comfortable, the mood is pleasant, no afflictions arise, thinking is keen, reactions are quick, one handles people and affairs with great wisdom, possesses cultivation and refinement, and one's character improves—why not do it? Meditative concentration is precisely for subduing the world of body and mind and elevating personal character and cultivation; it both nourishes the mind and nourishes the Path—why not do it?
8. Why Does Contemplative Practice Feel Stuck Halfway Through?
Question: When concentration deepens, does the breath become slow and short, with the interval between breaths growing long? Moreover, recently, when contemplatively practicing and thinking about the meaning of the dharma, it often happens that halfway through the contemplative practice I get stuck there without words and language, feeling somewhat unable to connect with the preceding content of thinking.
Answer: When meditative concentration grows ever deeper, the manas, because of concentration, relaxes its control over the body and no longer controls the breath much, not being very attached to the breath; the breath becomes ever lighter and gentler, the duration of each breath lengthens, and in between it seems as if the breath has stopped—this is mistaken for the interval between breaths being short. Because the breath is slight, one mistakenly feels as if the breath is about to cease; in fact, the time needed for a single breath has lengthened and become very slow, and only then does one feel it to be very slow, very light, and very deep. When it feels as if the breath is about to cease, due to inner tension one will quicken the breath, and only then does one feel the breath to be short. Only in the fourth-dhyāna concentration can the breath cease; before the fourth dhyāna there is still breath, only it may feel as if it is about to cease, with the interval in between lengthened. At this time thinking also ceases; thinking is very slow and feels very tiring, and only when the brain's thinking is emptied does one feel comfortable.
When thinking within concentration and the concentration is deep, the manas is unwilling to attach to any dharma, and the mind consciousness operates very slowly; feeling that the mind consciousness is about to cease, one no longer wants words and language, finding them superfluous and wearisome. When the mind's activities become slower and slower, one is unwilling to think about problems; deluded thoughts are few, and even having deluded thoughts is tiring. When the mind consciousness engages in no activity, the manas's function stands out, because when the mind consciousness's thinking is active, the manas's function is covered up. When meditative concentration is deep, the manas's function stands out, and one will discover that at this time there are no words and language in the mind. But when the mind consciousness has no words and language, the manas as it comes forth likewise has no words and language; when the mind consciousness is motionless or moves little, the manas's function becomes very prominent and evident. His mode of deliberation (manasikāra/manana) is different from the mind consciousness's thinking, so one feels there is no connection.
