The Principles and Goals of Cultivating Meditative Concentration (Samādhi)

For ordinary people, the mind consciousness ceases and is interrupted only after falling asleep, when no consciousness seeds are generated; at all other times the mind consciousness exists, and its consciousness seeds have never been cut off. It is merely that the consciousness seeds are distributed across various dharmas and are not concentrated, so the power of discriminating wisdom is poor, wisdom is weak, and deliberation is not meticulous. Practicing meditative concentration causes the consciousness seeds of the mind consciousness to flow onto a few dharmas or a single dharma, so the power of discrimination is great and wisdom is strong. This is one aspect. On the other hand, it can also cause the manas to attend to and grasp at fewer other mental sense-objects, settling on a few mental sense-objects; attention becomes concentrated, the mind becomes meticulous, deliberation (manasikāra) becomes clear, wisdom can arise, and thereby the Dharma is realized.

For example, as the body faculty slowly moves, the mind consciousness concentrates on the activity of the body faculty, and the manas also attends to the activity of the body faculty, thereby tethering the manas. In this way, the manas focuses on the activity of the body faculty and grasps at fewer things, so the tathāgatagarbha rarely manifests other mental sense-objects, not letting the manas scatter its attention. At this point, the manas and mind consciousness will discover that the activity of the body faculty is mechanical, like a puppet—this is not me; it moves involuntarily, so it is fundamentally not me—and thus the view of the body (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) will be eradicated. In fact, the mind consciousness has long known that the body is not me; one need not practice meditative concentration to know this—it is only that the manas cannot be certain in its heart. Practicing meditative concentration is precisely to make the manas settled, so that it can focus on deliberating on exactly how valid the conclusion reached by the mind consciousness really is. The manas needs to observe directly (pratyakṣa) to verify the mind consciousness's conclusion. In the process of the body faculty's slow movement, the manas finally observes that the mechanical body faculty is not me and does not belong to me, and thus there is the sudden awakening of the Small Vehicle—a sudden great enlightenment.