How to Practice Chan by Separating from Mind, Consciousness, and Thought

Contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and Chan investigation without meditative concentration (samādhi), or with insufficient meditative concentration, can never depart from the mind consciousness, let alone from the mind consciousness's analysis, inference, imagination, and speculation. This was the method of investigating Chan that the past patriarchs of the Chan school most tabooed and opposed—the emotional thinking and intellectual understanding that the patriarchs frequently scorned and disdained. Therefore, if one wishes to investigate Chan free from mind and mental consciousness, so that the result of the investigation is more ultimate and more a matter of direct perception, one must strive to cultivate meditative concentration, bring the preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) to fullness, and then investigate and contemplate the Buddha-dharma. In this way, the manas exerts more effort, which will ensure realization rather than mere intellectual understanding by the mind consciousness.

In contemplative practice and Chan investigation, the more the mind consciousness is used and the greater its role, the more the effect is discounted and falls short of expectations, the less effective it is. The more the manas is used and the greater its role, the greater its explosive power, the stronger its staying power, the farther one goes, the deeper one's enlightenment, the greater the power of meditative absorption (samādhi), the sharper the wisdom, the lighter the afflictions, and the more liberated the mind.