Maintaining the State of Practice of the Equal Cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā

Question: In order to develop meditative concentration as quickly as possible, is this method of contemplating a photograph of the setting sun a good one? 

Answer: Two years ago I taught how to contemplate the setting sun. That method of contemplating the setting sun mainly involves personally observing the setting sun in the western sky, watching the golden-red sun suspended in empty space like a hanging drum. After watching it, close your eyes and recollect and recall the setting sun you saw with your own eyes. In this way, the memory is still vivid, and the effect of the contemplation is the best; practicing this contemplation is also relatively easy, because after all, it was seen with your own eyes and has a basis, unlike the difficulty of imagining it out of thin air. In fact, all of these contemplative practice methods are more or less the same; it is merely a matter of which one is easier to get started with and which method suits oneself better. 

No matter what method you use, as long as there is one method that enables you to successfully develop meditative concentration and to carry out contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) clearly through direct perception, that is good. As long as the contemplative practice reaches the manas, and the manas can deliberate (manasikāra/manana) with focus, then you have succeeded in your practice. Once you know how to use the manas to deliberate with focus, then when encountering any dharma, you can deliberate with the manas and let the manas realize the dharma; then you can all attain the great wisdom of meditative absorption (samādhi), and be able to practice the dharma you cultivate in a perfectly harmonious and unobstructed way. 

In the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, Sudhana made fifty-three visits. Each time he visited an adept spiritual teacher and received the teacher's instruction, he then investigated within meditative concentration (samādhi), all through the focused deliberation of the manas, without the intellectual understanding of the mind consciousness, and thereby attained the samādhi of the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā, finally cultivating his way to the stage of a bodhisattva of equal enlightenment. Sudhana did not spend time learning so many theories, nor did he devote himself to theory to acquire abundant theoretical knowledge; rather, whenever he sought and obtained a dharma, he would verify and investigate it within dhyāna and meditative absorption (samādhi), and finally attained the profound samādhi of the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā—neither leaning toward concentration nor leaning toward wisdom. Only in this way can there be realization, and it is the most ultimate realization. Therefore, in our practice we should also strive to maintain a state of practice in which Samādhi and Prajñā are cultivated equally—neither wild wisdom nor foolish concentration. Once you have mastered a method, you should investigate it within meditative concentration. If you only study theory one-sidedly, dhyāna will also be very difficult to develop, and as a result, all the theory cannot be digested and absorbed; it becomes blocked in the mind and fosters arrogance.