What Are Samādhi and Right Receptivity?

Meditative concentration (samādhi) and right reception are the state of body and mind in which samādhi and prajñā are cultivated in equal measure. When a person encounters a dharma principle and, after setting the mind to deeply contemplate and investigate it, suddenly the mind resonates with the dharma principle, profoundly comprehending its meaning and realizing the deep significance that the dharma principle points to, wisdom wells forth, and the heart feels an inexpressible, boundless joy.

Afterwards, body and mind are light, at ease, and comfortable; in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down one feels as if dwelling in empty space, as if entering a realm where no one is present; the mind is open and spacious, vast and tranquil, thought profound, the mind alert and quick. The qi channels surge up into the chest and shoulders, the back is upright, the chest open, both shoulders sink down, and the body is light as a swallow. The mind is utterly empty, resonating with emptiness, resonating with no-self, resonating with the absence of the four marks; everything seen is felt to be illusory and unreal; contemplation is deep and single-pointed, subtle and clear. A sense of joy continuously flows in the heart, peaceful and serene, no longer with tangled delusive thoughts and floating notions; there is no past, no future, and even the present is not real—the three times are freed into emptiness, and even emptiness does not abide. The heart is broad and kind, tolerant and magnanimous, not contending over others' faults, not reckoning the wholesome and unwholesome, true and false, good and bad (kuśala-akuśala, satya-mithyā, śubha-aśubha), not attaching to form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas; before the five desires one is like a walking corpse; the eight winds cannot move one, as if sitting atop a mountain of jewels.

Samādhi and prajñā must be nourished together, without leaning to either side; if either one is lacking, it is not meditative concentration (samādhi); if either one is biased, it is not right reception. The equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā is the true samādhi, and also the true reception.