Only When Meditative Concentration Is Complete Can One Awaken to the Way According to Conditions

The patriarchs of every generation taught their disciples to cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi). In the past, the Chan halls set up in monasteries were precisely for students to sit in meditation, cultivate samādhi, and practice Chan inquiry. Practitioners of the Tang and Song dynasties all possessed meditative concentration. At that time, sutras were rare and hard to encounter—very seldom could one come across and read them—so Buddhist practitioners could only sit in meditation and cultivate samādhi; hence their power of concentration was excellent. They possessed both samādhi in stillness and samādhi in motion; their minds did not chase external objects but were constantly in concentration. Therefore, when they encountered Chan masters expounding the true meaning of the Buddha's Dharma, they could quickly awaken and enter it. They could also leave this life and take rebirth at any time and place, freely choosing to be born into the family of parents suitable for their study of Buddhism and cultivation.

With such excellent power of concentration, when Chan masters ascended the hall and expounded the Dharma according to circumstances, some in the audience would awaken right there. Buddhist practitioners of the past were engaged in Chan inquiry throughout the six periods of the day and night, constantly contemplating the Buddha's Dharma, so the moment they touched conditions, they could awaken. In those days they did not have too many doctrinal views about Chan methods, nor a great deal of Buddhist theory; they only knew some of the characteristics of the tathāgatagarbha, the true mind of suchness, and having faith in it and accepting it without doubt, they began their Chan inquiry, seeking the tathāgatagarbha. That is why they awakened faster and more easily than people today—precisely because their concentration and wisdom were both complete, and their wholesome roots and merit were also complete. In the past, the language Chan masters used in teaching was rather veiled; what they expressed was not very direct or explicit. If a student's precepts, concentration, and wisdom were not complete, realization was very difficult. Unlike now, when the Buddha's Dharma has already been explained very clearly, yet students still do not understand its essence.

Meditative concentration is shared with non-Buddhist paths. Having samādhi does not necessarily mean one has the Path, but without samādhi, one certainly cannot have the Path. Apart from meditative concentration, it is impossible to accomplish the enterprise of the Path.

A person without power of concentration has a coarse mind and cannot penetrate the deeper principles of the Buddha's Dharma; thus it is impossible to truly and completely eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and awaken to the true mind. Therefore, Chan inquiry requires excellent power of concentration. Before engaging in Chan inquiry, one must first cultivate meditative concentration well, and only then proceed to the inquiry.