Sutra of the Divination of the Effects of Good and Evil Actions (Volume Two)

Original text: 若学习真如实观者，思惟心性无生无灭，不住见闻觉知，永离一切分别之想。渐渐能过空处，识处，无少处，非想非非想处等定境界相，得相似空三昧。得相似空三昧时，识、想、受、行、粗分别相，不现在前。从此修学，为善知识大慈悲者守护长养，是故离诸障碍，勤修不废，展转能入心寂三昧。

Explanation: If one practices the contemplation of true suchness, one should contemplate the unborn and unceasing nature of the mind-nature, gradually no longer abiding in seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing, forever departing from all notions of discrimination. One's meditative concentration will gradually be able to pass through the states of concentration such as the sphere of infinite space, the sphere of infinite consciousness, the sphere of nothingness, and the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, and attain a samādhi resembling emptiness. When one attains this samādhi resembling emptiness, the aggregate of consciousness, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of volitional formations, and the coarse marks of discrimination no longer appear before one; only the subtle discrimination of the mind consciousness remains. From then on in one's cultivation and study, there will be great good spiritual teachers of great compassion who protect and nurture one; therefore one can depart from all obstructions, diligently cultivate without ever ceasing, and in this way successively enter the samādhi of mental stillness.

Original text: 得是三昧已，即复能入一行三昧。入是一行三昧已，见佛无数，发深广行，心住坚信位，所谓于奢摩他、毗婆舍那二种观道，决定信解，能决定向。随所修学世间诸禅三昧之业，无所乐著。乃至遍修一切善根菩提分法，于生死中无所怯畏，不乐二乘。以依能习向二观心最妙巧便，众智所依，行根本故。

Explanation: After attaining this samādhi, one can then immediately enter the samādhi of one practice. After entering this samādhi of one practice, one can see countless Buddhas in samādhi, and thereby give rise to the vast and profound great bodhisattva conduct, with the mind abiding in the stage of firm faith; that is, one has decisive faith and understanding of the two contemplative paths of śamatha and vipaśyanā, and can proceed decisively toward them. Whatever worldly dhyāna and samādhi practices this person cultivates, he does not delight in or cling to them; he does not take pleasure in or attach to the states of samādhi, abandoning each state as soon as it is attained. Finally, he cultivates through all the partial-realization methods of the bodhi path, possessing all roots of goodness, no longer having any fear amid birth-and-death, not delighting in the Two Vehicles, and not seeking nirvāṇa. This is because he relies on the most wondrous, skillful, and expedient method of cultivating the two contemplative minds of śamatha and vipaśyanā, for these two methods of contemplating the mind are what all wisdom relies upon, and are the fundamental methods of practice.

Original text: 复次，修学如上信解者，人有二种，何等为二？一者利根，二者钝根。其利根者，先已能知一切外诸境界，唯心所作，虚诳不实，如梦如幻等，决定无有疑虑，阴盖轻微，散乱心少，如是等人，即应学习真如实观。其钝根者，先未能知一切外诸境界，悉唯是心，虚诳不实故，染著情厚，盖障数起，心难调伏，应当先学唯心识观。

Explanation: Furthermore, among those who cultivate and study the aforementioned faith and understanding, there are two kinds of people. What are the two? One is those of sharp faculties, the other is those of dull faculties. Those of sharp faculties have already known beforehand that all external states of realm are created by the mind alone, false and unreal, like a dream, like an illusion, and so forth; their minds no longer have any doubt or hesitation about this, the obscuration of the five-aggregate body is slight, and their scattered mind is minimal. Such people should practice the contemplation of true suchness, contemplating that all dharmas are the self-nature of true suchness.

Those of dull faculties originally did not know that all external states of realm are entirely created by the mind consciousness, and did not know that these realms are false and unreal; their mind of craving and attachment toward the realms of the six sense objects is thick, the obscuration of the five aggregates arises constantly, and their minds are difficult to subdue. Such people should first cultivate and study the contemplation of mind-only consciousness, contemplating that all realms of experience are manifested by the conscious mind.

The contemplation of mind-only consciousness is the contemplative practice of observing that all realms of the six sense objects manifest due to the discrimination of the deluded mind; without discrimination there are no realms. It belongs to the basic, shallow level of contemplative practice. The contemplation of true suchness belongs to the deeper level of contemplative practice, contemplating that all dharmas are born from and manifested by the self-nature of true suchness, and are all true suchness. These two methods of contemplative practice yield different states of wisdom.