How to Cultivate Meditative Concentration (Dhyāna) Well

Cultivating meditative concentration (samādhi) also requires skillful methods; one cannot sit down and cultivate good meditative concentration merely by forcibly enduring the pain in one's legs. If one's mind constantly engages in grasping at all dharmas, if initial application and sustained examination (vitarka-vicāra) and deliberation within the mind never cease, and the mind is not tranquil, then one cannot sit down to practice, and there will be no meditative concentration. How can one make the mind tranquil so that meditative concentration arises? By reducing the manas' grasping and reducing initial application and sustained examination and deliberation, the mind will gradually become pure, and only then will meditative concentration appear.

The Sūtra on the Samādhi of Sitting Meditation describes many methods for cultivating meditative concentration. Before cultivating concentration, one should first use wisdom to recognize the falseness of all dharmas in order to break the grasping mind; when grasping is reduced, meditative concentration will arise. For example, if someone has craving for family and retinue, one should use a method to break the notion of family and retinue; when the mind has no such thoughts, it will become tranquil and the mind can become settled. If someone is attached to their homeland and home, one must break the notion of homeland; when the mind no longer thinks of home and homeland, meditative concentration appears. If someone has craving and attachment in the mind, one must find a way to subdue that craving; when the mind is free of craving, it becomes tranquil and meditative concentration appears. If someone has anger and resentment in the mind, one must find a way to subdue that anger; when the mind is free of anger and becomes tranquil, meditative concentration appears. Before sitting cross-legged, first find out what afflictions are in your mind, what thoughts are entrenched in your heart, then find a corresponding method to counteract them. After you have convinced yourself, the afflictions and thoughts will no longer arise, and cultivating meditative concentration becomes easy. In this way, relying on wisdom to eliminate the grasping mind, the mind becomes still and enters concentration.

After the mind has been subdued and meditative concentration has arisen, one should then engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation within that concentration to counteract afflictions; having attained meditative absorption (samādhi), one can then eliminate afflictions. Those with heavy anger should cultivate the contemplation of loving-kindness; the Sūtra on the Samādhi of Sitting Meditation contains specific methods for how to cultivate loving-kindness contemplation. If one has heavy greed, one should cultivate the white-bone contemplation; by contemplating a person as a white skeleton, greed disappears. If one has craving for family and retinue, one should contemplate and examine the arising and ceasing of family and retinue, their falseness, their unreliability, and so on. If the mind is always attached to one's homeland and harbors the notion of homeland, one should contemplate and examine the disasters within the homeland, its fragility and unreliability. In this way, meditative concentration can give rise to true great wisdom.

Meditative concentration and wisdom in fact mutually promote and complement each other. With wisdom, observing the impermanent nature of the world will reduce the mind's grasping and scatteredness, making it easier to settle into concentration. Observe what knots and bonds exist in your own mind, then contemplate and analyze how those knots and bonds are contrary to the Dharma; once the analysis is thorough, the knots and bonds will gradually loosen, one will no longer be entangled, and the mind will become still. You must understand what your own mind is thinking; if you do not understand, there is no way to break through those thoughts, and the mind cannot become still. Wisdom must guide meditative concentration: after cultivating concentration, one contemplates again within that concentration, which gives rise to further wisdom—this is called meditative absorption (samādhi). Therefore, with wisdom it is easy to cultivate meditative concentration; without wisdom, it is not easy to cultivate concentration; and with meditative concentration, it is easy to produce wisdom.