Compilation of Daily Discourses
Chapter Eleven: The Contemplative Practice Experiences of the Disciples
I. Only in a State of Samādhi Can the Dharma Be Realized
Ven. Shi Ruyuan's four-foundations-of-mindfulness contemplative experience: Over the past two years I have mainly contemplated the four foundations of mindfulness, practicing the contemplation of impurity and the white-skeleton contemplation. In the past half year, my body has continuously shown various reactions. My grandmaster taught me some methods, such as tapping the head, and also taught me moxibustion and washing my hair with ginger water. Wearing the moxibustion cap has helped a lot, but I have not yet fully recovered; it feels as if wind is drilling into the crown of my head. Now there is still a small patch on the crown about the size of an egg, swollen and uncomfortable like hair being pulled, slightly feverish, yet I feel lightness and ease, and my eyes have also improved a lot.
The house I lived in when I got married collapsed. At first I felt quite sad and regretful, but then I turned my thoughts around: a house is no different from a human body—both will decay and perish—so I let go and released my mind. When I visited my father-in-law at the hospital, I saw that all the inpatients were elderly people, each relying on inserted tubes to breathe. Because lately, whenever I see any material body I give rise to questioning doubt, I immediately contemplated the impurity of the body, keeping the doubt going. Suddenly I was stunned: my mind displayed these old people as one skeleton after another, some lying down, some reclining; then my mind displayed the crushed white bones of my father at his cremation, like dust, and afterward they vanished.
Thinking carefully, relatives are only relatives of this one life, yet they become obstacles to our cultivation. After recognizing this, family affection immediately grew thin, and my mind could settle down to diligent practice. Contemplating with the mind, the essence of things like relatives and the house is also empty and unreal; by arises within, and tears flow involuntarily. Before, learning Buddhism used only the simple mind consciousness—listening,s I have received are immense!
The first evening after returning, while sitting in meditation, incredible responses and feelings appeared in concentration. Now whether walking, standing, or lying, I am in meditative concentration. That day, as soon as I sat down, my head instantly went "boom," as if a large mass of air current was expelled; my mind felt empty and vast, as if something had struck my head fiercely; I was shaken out of concentration. On the second and third days my body was in concentration and could not move; I could not leave concentration. On the third night I was too excited to sleep, and I worried a little: if the following days were all like this, what would I become? These days my thighs have also become sore and swollen; my eyes will not open; I want to get up and walk but cannot move; standing up I feel floaty and unsteady, afraid of falling, as if my cerebellum had lost its balancing function.
On the fourth day it was a little better; I could move, and my legs were no longer sore. Around eleven at night, in concentration, a powerful air current rushed out from my nostrils and shook me out of concentration. I sat for a while to recover, recalling Grandmaster's teachings: do not just sit; move appropriately, practice walking meditation, and investigate the tathāgatagarbha amid the objects you encounter. So I got up and practiced walking meditation, simultaneously contemplating that all dharmas produced by the tathāgatagarbha are illusory dharmas. In an instant I felt the Dharma meanings turning ceaselessly back and forth in my mind; I could not control body and mind to leave concentration, could not perceive the six sense objects outside the mind; only the Buddha-name sound in my mind kept rotating and playing. Such great responses and experiences truly cannot be expressed in language; they can only be received and understood within meditative concentration—with shallow concentration one cannot feel them at all.
The above are the responses and experiences of those days. Now I have recovered; body and mind are relaxed and at ease, and I can normally contemplate the Dharma meanings. Now the questioning doubts or answers appearing in my mind are increasingly clear; even going to the toilet, questioning doubt arises without interruption—doubting who it is whose power drags this wooden-like five-aggregate body of mine to the toilet; doubting how this force exercises its functional wondrous operation on sentient beings' material shells. When eating and drinking, I involuntarily ask: these five-aggregate activities of mine—raising hands and lifting feet, dressing, eating and drinking, holding bowl and chopsticks—who is upholding them? (End of March 2025)
Assessment: Shi Ruyuan's Chan-investigation skill is in no way inferior to the many Chan masters of the Tang and Song dynasties, nor to the Great Vehicle bodhisattvas who investigated Chan in the Buddha's time, because the Chan-investigation skill before realization is the same in every era—nothing new, nothing changed, and the standard and level cannot be lowered. The only difference is that Shi Ruyuan cultivates with me and has learned too much tathāgatagarbha Dharma, too plainly, without needing to spend much effort organizing and systematizing it, relying more on external help, so her self-power appears insufficient; whereas the ancient Chan masters learned the prajñā doctrine rather roughly, far less abundant and detailed, so they had to apply their minds more in investigation, relying more on self-power, and their wisdom developed deeply. Explaining too plainly is not conducive to disciples' Chan investigation; it easily leads to intellectual understanding, affecting disciples' progress on the Path and the arising of wisdom.
But why did Shi Ruyuan not attain intellectual understanding? Look at the questioning doubt she raises: it is like a layer of window paper, pierced at a touch, pointing directly to the central point, to the target of realization, to that moon that never disappears. The reason is that Shi Ruyuan's meditative concentration skill is deep and dense, impossible to pull apart; even demons cannot disturb it, no one can interrupt it. So she did not use the mind consciousness to resolve the doubt, did not use the mind consciousness to reason, guess, speculate, or analyze. If her concentration were shallower and she applied the mind consciousness, she might resolve the answer effortlessly, breaking the mind consciousness's doubt but not the manas's doubt.
Precisely because Shi Ruyuan did not use the mind consciousness to resolve the doubt, did not take shortcuts, but only used the manas to investigate honestly, the doubt that looks like window paper to an enlightened person she herself cannot see through—precisely because she is too sincere, cutting no corners. In such deep and dense practice, one cannot cut corners; when the manas's own doubt is heavy, it simply gives the mind consciousness no chance to resolve it.
Therefore, as long as the skill is deep and the manas's doubt heavy, even if the Dharma meaning is explained very plainly, intellectual understanding can be avoided. Even if the hidden meaning is explicitly told, because of the questioning doubt, the manas will still investigate and verify, practice and realize, and will not allow the mind consciousness to believe and understand. In this way, as long as the skill is in place and the manas has doubt, previous intellectual understanding can be transformed into realization; the clearly understood Buddha-dharma becomes a proof problem—knowing the answer yet requiring the solving process. In the genuine process of investigation, the bodhisattva's disposition matures, thereby giving rise to the merit and wisdom of seeing the Path.
Hasn't Shi Ruyuan explained clearly the methods and process of applying effort in Chan investigation? Hasn't she also pointed out the target of investigation unmistakably? Isn't it just short of stating it outright? Isn't the finger pointing at the moon shining brightly toward the moon? But even so, for many people it is still useless; they cannot get a clue. Why? They have no skill at all; even guessing with the mind consciousness is difficult; even if they guess, it is not accurate, has no effect on their own body and mind, and afflictions remain afflictions.
Most importantly, they lack the Small Vehicle's mind of renunciation, and cannot give rise to the Great Vehicle's bodhi mind; Buddhist cultivation is only a part of these people's lives, while many worldly affairs still occupy an important position; the manas does not value cultivation—how can skill be developed? Each person cultivates and each receives the benefits; no one can substitute for another. So explicitly stating the final result of Chan investigation is of no help to others. It is not that if someone states it explicitly, you can attain intellectual understanding—realization is even more impossible. (April 4, 2025)
V. Jun Ruolan's Contemplative Approach and Experience Regarding the Five Aggregates
A fly lands on my leg; I feel itchiness and annoyance. Actually, the leg is the aggregate of form, a false combination of the four great elements; the itch is the aggregate of feeling—all feeling is suffering, without coming or going; taking the mark and reasoning is the aggregate of perception—the fly is also an illusion; the itch is just a feeling, also an illusion; naming the fly and the feeling and adding meaning is the aggregate of perception. The decision to drive it away, the process of the mind consciousness operating, that time process of feeling is the aggregate of volitional formations; the aggregate of volitional formations arises conditioned on consciousness, also coming with conditions and ceasing with conditions. That which discerns all this is the aggregate of consciousness: consciousness arises from the tathāgatagarbha's seeds, also coming with conditions and ceasing with conditions.
The five aggregates are the combination of causes and conditions, changing impermanently; change that is not constant is emptiness. Attachment brings suffering; even the feeling of suffering is an illusion. All this, being non-constant and without a master, is the nature of no-self.
Looking again at the fly crawling on the leg: the leg's itch is still there, but the inner disgust has vanished; with a light wave of the hand, the fly flies away. The event just happened, yet it seems as if nothing happened. The five aggregates are utterly unattainable; no self exists, no place of self exists. I contemplate the fly crawling on the leg—emptiness facing emptiness; where is anything to be attained? At this moment the mind is not deliberate, a piece of stillness.
This is this disciple's approach to clarifying the theory through concrete examples, so it is quite rough. After the theoretical principles are clear, the disciple will deepen the contemplation little by little without being greedy for more. As Master said, facing phenomena, let the mind consciousness join in as little as possible; contemplate directly. Grasp the core and continue diligently.
Assessment: The approach to contemplative practice is clear. In actual practice, on one hand meditative concentration must be complete; on the other hand, energy must be concentrated on one point; by breaking through one point, one can then use that point to lead to the whole and realize the no-self of the entire five aggregates. To have the most genuine contemplative practice and the most genuine experience, when practicing contemplation one should, as much as possible, follow the methods taught in the Sutra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, contemplating as things are: contemplate whatever there is, contemplate whatever is perceived, without imagining or substituting. How does the Sutra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness teach contemplation? It is direct experience and observation of the various phenomena without engaging the mind consciousness, based on facts, without filling in with imagination. Everyone should savor well such a state of contemplative practice. If one cannot do this, one must deeply cultivate meditative concentration; if the power of concentration is insufficient, everything falls into analysis, direct intuition is scarce, and direct perception is also rare.
In modern Buddhist cultivation, almost all group Dharma propagators teach mind-consciousness contemplation, mind-consciousness experience, mind-consciousness feeling, mind-consciousness realization, mind-consciousness analysis, never touching the cultivation of the manas. The result is not genuine experience and contemplation, not objective contemplation, but subjective analysis, understanding, and imagination added by the mind consciousness, with a great deal of illusory content. Followers simply cannot distinguish whether this is true contemplation, true investigation, true cultivation; they only feel that such thinking is easier, requires less effort, and easily produces results. That is why false attainment of fruits is so widespread. In fact, how could cultivation be so simple and easy? How could so many people of ordinary faculties be transformed into sages?
