Two Approaches to Cultivating Calm Abiding

Question: Does cultivating śamatha mean using the manas to watch over a single thought and keep it continuously unmoving, or does it mean having not a single thought arise in the mind? 

Answer: "Śamatha" (止) means to stop, to cease, to halt — that is, meditative concentration (samādhi), being settled and unmoving. Who stops whom, and who settles whom? It is the body that stops and the body that settles, thereby causing the sixth and seventh consciousnesses to stop and settle; mainly it is to make the sixth and seventh consciousnesses stop and settle. When bodily activity ceases, the body consciousness and mind consciousness will gradually cease their activity — but this is not extinction; there is still perception, only very faint. Once the six consciousnesses stop moving, the seventh consciousness can no longer move either, because the six consciousnesses do not follow along, and the seventh consciousness, having no alternative, also comes to a stop. However, because of the seventh consciousness's special status and function, He must attend to dharmas and to the body; it is only that He attends to fewer dharmas and moves rather faintly.

If the mind consciousness attends to a single thought without moving, there is still a thought, and this belongs to the domain of contemplation (vipaśyanā). When the mind consciousness contemplates, the seventh consciousness, the manas, will necessarily attend to the dharma that the mind consciousness is contemplating; over time, the manas will also come to contemplate. Once the manas contemplates with focus, one has entered the correct path, and sooner or later one will see the true facts of reality — this is the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the four foundations of mindfulness. 

As for "not a single thought arising," this means the mind consciousness no longer has thoughts and no longer contemplates; it has completely ceased and is unmoving. The seventh consciousness, the manas, cannot completely cease and be unmoving — there must be thoughts; what matters is what one is thinking about and whether that thinking is single-minded. If one can be single-minded and still has questioning doubt, then one is engaged in meditative investigation. This can serve as a deep-level method of investigating Chan, but it is rather difficult to cultivate; most people cannot handle it well, and it is not as easy to manage as contemplative practice in the state where the mind consciousness has awareness. However, the more difficult a method is to cultivate, the more effective the skill becomes, and the easier it is to enter the Path and realize the Path. Once the Path is realized, one's wisdom and realization will be very high.