How to Cultivate Meditative Concentration (Samādhi)

There are many methods for cultivating meditative concentration at the beginning. Some of the initial methods for entering samādhi have been discussed in the book Cultivating Samādhi and Investigating Chan to Realize the Path—for example, regulating the breath, and after regulating the breath, performing the motions of prostrating to the Buddha on a prostration cushion; once the body has been properly adjusted, then sitting in meditation, and other such small methods. These are relatively easy to begin with and very practical. The book also explains how the mind should contemplate while sitting in meditation, how to recite mantras or recite sūtras when the mind is especially scattered, in order to adjust the mind, and then, once the mind is settled, how to apply effort in investigating Chan. All these methods are in that book. You can read it and practice step by step accordingly. There are also audio files, which explain things in more detail. Once the mind has settled down somewhat, when you truly wish to eliminate the view of self (ātma-dṛṣṭi), you should practice according to the Sūtra on the Samādhi of Sitting Chan and the Sūtra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. The methods of practice taught in these sūtras cultivate both samādhi and wisdom, and are excellent. Once the four foundations of mindfulness are well cultivated, in the future, for attaining the vision of the path at any gate of the Mahāyāna, you can apply effort according to that method. That method of practice is the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā; as long as the effort is in place, it can guarantee realization of the path and the realization of the Buddha's Dharma.

Some people have cultivated meditative concentration for a very long time; their methods of cultivating concentration may be quite good, and their dhyāna quite deep, but in that concentration it is like a pool of stagnant water, giving birth to no wisdom. Once their power of concentration is good, they no longer wish to do anything, and all day long they enjoy entering samādhi, craving the pleasant feelings of physical comfort. Then they lack the wisdom to investigate Chan; they have no wisdom of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), and their knowledge and view of the Buddha's Dharma remains very shallow. Some people only single-mindedly cultivate concentration without generating awareness and illumination; their wisdom is not good, and at the time of death they too are turned along by karma, because after all they have not eliminated the view of self, have no wisdom for escaping birth and death, and also lack the kind of wisdom that Mahāyāna bodhisattvas have of seeing the true mind and seeing Buddha-nature. In future lives they cannot avoid the cycle of birth and death. Only by using the power of concentration to engage in contemplative practice and investigation can one eliminate the view of self and see the true mind and Buddha-nature; only then can the problem of birth and death be resolved. This is the most important thing. The practice of Buddhist learners today has two extremes: one extreme is to specialize in cultivating concentration without possessing wisdom, unwilling to engage in contemplative practice; the other extreme is to never cultivate dhyāna and samādhi at all, but only use the mind consciousness to study broadly and learn much, or to use the scattered thinking of the mind consciousness, applying effort at the level of intellectual understanding rather than at the level of realization. Only by merging these two extremes together can one realize the Buddha's Dharma.