The Relationship Between Meditative Concentration and Seeing the Path

Meditative concentration (samādhi), beginning from preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi), can counteract afflictions and subdue them. Only when afflictions have been subdued and the obstructions removed or lightened can one attain the first fruit. Although a person of the first fruit possesses only the view-realm realization and has only eliminated the three fetters to be abandoned by view, the elimination of the three fetters necessarily requires preparatory concentration. Although preparatory concentration must be developed through cultivating concentration, it cannot be equated with afflictions to be abandoned by cultivation—they are not the same thing.

The view-realm realization of the first fruit is the view-delusion abandoned at the time of seeing the path; the afflictions of thought-delusion have not yet been eliminated. Although thought-delusion afflictions can only be gradually eliminated after seeing the path through further cultivation of the path, this still belongs to view-realm realization: the more thorough and precise the view-realm realization, the deeper the degree to which self and what belongs to self are eliminated, the emptier the mind, and the lighter the afflictions.

Although the view-delusion of the first fruit is abandoned at the initial seeing of the path, that initial seeing of the path is itself the result of gradual cultivation of the path; without cultivation, view-delusion cannot be eliminated. The content of cultivating the path is the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, and among the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, meditative concentration is one. Without cultivating the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, or if the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment are not cultivated to completion, one cannot see the path, let alone eliminate view-delusion. Therefore, preparatory concentration is a necessary condition that a person of the first fruit must possess in order to see the path.

Before a person of the first fruit sees the path, one must subdue one's previous afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion to a certain degree, so that these afflictions do not affect or obstruct one's seeing of the path. In the course of cultivating the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, the extremely heavy afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion are gradually subdued; the afflictions gradually become thin, the mind gradually becomes pliant, and wisdom gradually becomes clear and bright. All the obstructions, like densely gathered dark clouds, gradually thin out, and only then can the sunlight of wisdom shine through the clouds—thus one sees the path.

The lightness and thinness of afflictions before seeing the path is only relative to one's previously severe afflictions; it is not the degree of lightened greed, hatred, and delusion of the second fruit. There is a difference between the two. Both are spoken of from a relative perspective: although the vocabulary is the same, the connotations are absolutely different, so the two must not be confused.

The Four Noble Truths: the Noble Truth of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering, the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering, and the Noble Truth of the Path to the Cessation of Suffering. Among them, the Noble Truth of the Path to the Cessation of Suffering is the truth of cultivating the path, the theoretical basis upon which it relies. The study and practice of this teaching begins even before the first fruit and continues until one attains the fourth fruit of arhatship. Therefore, cultivating the path does not begin only after seeing the path; it begins from the moment one comes into contact with the Four Noble Truths, from the time one first practices the contemplation of the four foundations of mindfulness. Without cultivation, how could one see the path? Among the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment are the Four Right Efforts: first, to cause already-arisen unwholesome dharmas to be eliminated; second, to cause not-yet-arisen unwholesome dharmas not to arise; third, to cause not-yet-arisen wholesome dharmas to arise; fourth, to cause already-arisen wholesome dharmas to increase. These contents of cultivating the path—cultivating good and eliminating evil—are precisely what counteract sentient beings' afflictions. Only after counteracting and subduing the afflictions, making them light, can one see the path.