Questions and Answers on the Meaning of the Dharma

Answer: Only after Mahāyāna bodhisattvas attain realization and obtain the samādhi that combines meditative concentration with the prajñā wisdom of Yogācāra can they break through beginningless ignorance. Not following the six sense bases involves two kinds of states: one is a samādhi state of meditative concentration alone that screens out the six sense bases; the other is a samādhi state of meditative concentration plus wisdom, in which one does not take the six sense bases as real and the mind does not stir or turn along with them. The first kind of samādhi is not easy to maintain and easily fades away; with the second kind of samādhi, once it is attained, the wisdom will endure forever.

If one is said to have transcended seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, this must necessarily be inseparable from a profound state of meditative concentration; otherwise, one is still within seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing. Above the fourth dhyāna, although there is no seeing or hearing, there is still subtle awareness and knowing. In the concentration of no-thought (asaṃjñā-samāpatti), there is no seeing, hearing, awareness, or knowing of the six consciousnesses; in the cessation of perception and feeling (nirodha-samāpatti), there is likewise no seeing, hearing, awareness, or knowing of the six consciousnesses. Among these states of meditative concentration, only the cessation of perception and feeling is a true samādhi state that combines meditative concentration with the wisdom of liberation. As for the cultivation and realization of the Mahāyāna Dharma, bodhisattvas from the fourth bhūmi onward have attained the profound samādhi of the seed-wisdom of Yogācāra; within profound meditative concentration they can transcend seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, and even when not in concentration they still retain seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing—only that their minds do not stir with respect to the dharmas of seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing.