In the Samādhi of Vitarka and Vicāra, Just Meditate

Question: In shallow meditative concentration, one lets the mind consciousness and the manas remain in a very keen state of sustained examination (vicāra). In this keen state of sustained examination, one feels one can faintly "see" one's own body, and can keenly perceive subtle events occurring within a few dozen meters around. The state of the conscious mind being in "sustained examination" is: both the mind consciousness and the manas are highly focused, passively perceiving what is happening around, but the conscious mind does not deliberately attend to or discern the events taking place; it merely knows that these things are happening, similar to that state of "watching coldly from the sidelines, without stirring thoughts." Is this state in accordance with the Dharma? 

Answer: The state of sustained examination (vicāra) is of course meditative concentration, and not shallow concentration at that. The state of initial application (vitarka) is also concentration, but shallower, because the mind stirs a great deal. In the state of sustained examination, the mind does not stir yet still knows; over time, wisdom-based cognition of what is known will arise, and one can see through the dharmas that are known, knowing that dharmas are empty, and then the mind becomes empty, thereby reaching the state of equanimity. Both initial application and sustained examination have an object, and the object must be single-pointed for meditative absorption to appear. Some meditative absorptions lack wisdom, while some contain wisdom; only when there is an object of contemplation within meditative absorption is there wisdom, otherwise there is no wisdom—it is pure concentration. Both initial application and sustained examination are lucid concentration and both belong to right concentration, but at the stage of initial application the concentration is shallow and the mind stirs much, not still enough. The state of sustained examination is the later stage of investigating Chan, the state in which wisdom most easily arises; at this time it is a stage of deliberation (manasikāra/manana) dominated by the manas, with the mind consciousness unmoving, or moving only slightly and subtly. 

Question: If one maintains this state of "sustained examination" in a very quiet environment, one will gradually feel that the surrounding space and time seem frozen, the body seems to be barely there, and the conscious mind seems to float outside the body, quietly "perceiving" everything. After emerging from this state, one finds one's thinking power and perceptive ability considerably stronger than usual—perhaps this is the effect brought about by the conscious mind maintaining focus? As the time spent in this state of "sustained examination" gradually lengthens, one finds the concentration of the mind consciousness and the manas growing ever greater, and the power of awareness ever keener; one also finds the breathing and heartbeat becoming slower and slower, finer and longer, and one truly worries that at some point the breathing and heartbeat will cease and one will die. 

Answer: In the state of sustained examination, the mind consciousness only maintains a knowing, without extraneous thoughts; the manas is undisturbed, and thus deep, subtle, and single-pointed deliberation will arise, and wisdom easily arises. Once the wisdom of the manas arises, one can see through the object of contemplation and see its emptiness, and it becomes easy to realize the Path. If the state of sustained examination has not been reached, the mind consciousness's thinking is active, and the manas's deliberation will be obstructed, and no true wisdom arises. The results that the mind consciousness arrives at through thinking, reasoning, analysis, and judgment will not be deposited into the manas; the manas does not accept them, so no matter what views this person's mind consciousness holds, in the end views remain views and mental conduct remains mental conduct, with no interaction between them, and practice still does not get on track. You see so many people claiming they have attained fruition, seen the mind, and so on, yet their body, mind, and world have not changed in the slightest; on the contrary, their afflictions grow heavier and heavier, and their pride instead blazes up—that is because the mind consciousness has analyzed and reasoned out a principle, but the manas does not accept it; what they think, contemplate, and do remains as before, still the same old person with the same old conduct—the name is the name of a sage, but the mind is the mind of an ordinary person. Then they one after another regress and fall away from the Path—how pitiable.