The Method of Entering Contemplative Practice (vipaśyanā-caryā)

Question: Can the sun contemplation method from the Contemplation Sutra (Aparimitāyus Sūtra) be used to practice the white-bone contemplation?

Answer: The practice methods of the sun contemplation and the white-bone contemplation are the same, and the difficulty is about the same—not too difficult. All methods of contemplative visualization for attaining realization are roughly similar. The earth contemplation and water contemplation that come after the sun contemplation are more difficult; the sun contemplation is not that hard, but visualization is still not easy—it may take one or two years. Quite a few people have practiced the visualization for two years, yet no one has been heard to succeed; perhaps they have all given up halfway by now. Genuine practice is not that easy; attaining any kind of meditative concentration (samādhi) is not easy. But if one gives up practice and drifts through birth and death, the suffering is far greater. Relatively speaking, practicing is easier and happier than not practicing. Whether practice is easy also depends on the person—everything depends on human effort. Those who easily give up halfway lack sufficient willpower. Those who have never had any experience in practice and feel the road ahead is vast and uncertain are often not strong enough in worldly affairs either; those who easily abandon things halfway are the same in the cultivation and realization of the Buddha-dharma.

The white-bone contemplation requires several years of practice; the fastest can succeed in two or three years, depending on one's spiritual faculties. In the Saha world, those with fairly good faculties are far too few. There is also the contemplation in the dharma gate of recollection of the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti) through visualizing the Buddha's image; the methods of applying effort are all roughly similar. Although the methods are similar, all of them result in the appearance of samādhi. But because the objects of contemplation differ, what is realized differs: those who contemplate emptiness attain the fruits of the Small Vehicle, while those who contemplate the existence of the Great Vehicle attain the fruits of the Great Vehicle. The starting point of Great Vehicle contemplative practice is very high and requires a foundation in Small Vehicle contemplative practice. Succeeding in the sun contemplation has little to do for the time being with attaining the fruits or seeing one's true mind, but the power of meditative concentration (dhyāna) gained is excellent; with this power of meditative concentration, contemplative practice of other dharmas will be accomplished very quickly.

In the sixteen contemplations of the Contemplation Sutra, only at the seventh contemplation can one awaken to the true mind; the earlier contemplations cannot bring about awakening to the true mind. But once a state of samādhi appears, rebirth in the land of bliss (Sukhāvatī) at the end of life is assured. Accomplishment in the white-bone contemplation can eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) and realize the first through the fourth fruits. Accomplishment in the contemplation of recollecting the Buddha through visualizing his image brings not merely simple awakening to the true mind—it is possible to reach the first bhūmi. This must be judged by combining each person's wisdom realization and meditative concentration realization, along with all other conditions. The methods of entering contemplative practice do not differ much.