From Precepts Arises Concentration; From Concentration Arises Wisdom

In the sixth volume of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha said: 阿难，汝常闻我毗奈耶中宣说修行三决定义，所谓摄心为戒，因戒生定，因定发慧，是则名为三无漏学。

Vinaya is one of the Tripiṭaka of sūtras, vinayas, and śāstras; it is the precepts spoken by the Buddha, and it also means subduing one's own mind and subduing body, speech, and mind, harmonizing the actions of body, speech, and mind. The result of such subduing is that afflictions can be subdued and eradicated, attaining a mind-ground without outflows, with body, speech, and mind all free of outflows and afflictions, without afflictive habitual tendencies, without ignorance, ultimately attaining buddhahood.

Why is gathering in the mind the precepts? Which mind must be gathered in to accomplish the precepts? When the mind is not gathered in, body, speech, and mind will move recklessly and wildly. The body does what should not be done, goes where it should not go, moves when it should not move; thus, in serious cases, one will create the karma of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, and meditative concentration cannot be accomplished; even with milder disorderly and reckless bodily conduct, meditative concentration is still impossible, because when the body cannot be stilled, meditative concentration cannot arise.

When the mind cannot be gathered in, the mouth will speak recklessly and wildly, saying what should not be said and what must not be said; in serious cases, there will be false speech, frivolous speech, and divisive speech, stirring up gossip and disputes, violating the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds; thus the mind is not tranquil, and meditative concentration is impossible. Even if one does not violate the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds, because the mouth speaks wildly and verbal formations are many, the mind must certainly be thinking wildly, with many mental formations; the mind is not stilled, and meditative concentration is impossible.

When the mind is not gathered in, the mental karma is certainly not tranquil; one thinks what should not be thought, deliberates what should not be deliberated, perceives what should not be perceived, contemplates what should not be contemplated; thus the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion will inevitably manifest. With the mind's water muddied, how can there be meditative concentration?

People one should not think of, yet one insists on thinking of them; matters one should not ponder, yet one insists on pondering them; feelings one should not cling to, yet one insists on clinging to them—how can the mind be stilled? Which people should one not think of? Some people have many emotional attachments, constantly carrying the image of another person in their minds—unshakable, summoned at will, impossible to erase. How can such a person have meditative concentration? When sitting in meditation, these images will certainly obscure one's own mind, obstructing contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation, blocking tranquility—how can there be meditative concentration? If one can replace these images with images of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, then with the blessing of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the mind becomes tranquil, and meditative concentration arises immediately.

Some people do not gather in the mind; matters unrelated to themselves, matters that do not benefit others, are kept in mind thought after thought, never forgotten moment to moment, clinging to everything in the heart, the mind packed full with no gaps. With the mind's water surging and churning, agitated and clamorous, how can there be meditative concentration? When the mind is not gathered in, constantly clinging to wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep, with the conditioned shadows of the six sense objects layer upon layer, the mind is not empty, covered by things—how can there be meditative concentration?

Many people complain that they cannot cultivate meditative concentration well. Then you must examine yourself: what exactly is the reason you cannot cultivate meditative concentration well? What exactly in your mind is obscuring you? Dig these things out and resolve them; when the mind is empty, meditative concentration will naturally be easy to accomplish. What affects meditative concentration is the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion; the mind grasps (upādāna) at worldly dharmas, unwilling to let go, taking everything as real, as useful things, feeling it must grasp them, preferring death to releasing these worldly dharmas—how can there be meditative concentration?

Even after all this has been explained, many people still do not know how to examine themselves, not knowing what exactly is in their minds. Because the mind has long been accustomed to scattering after sense objects, clinging too tightly to them and inseparable from them, it cannot leap outside the objects to observe its own mind. How then can there be the wisdom of observation? How can one observe the afflictions and habitual tendencies of one's own mind? Only by leaping out of the circle, out beyond the sense objects, out beyond the mind, to observe one's own mind, can there be the wisdom of observation, the power of contemplation, able to discover what could not be discovered before, and only then can one have the means to counteract one's own mind, turn one's own mind around, and have the power to subdue one's own mind.

What must be done first now is to take the mind away from the sense objects, so that mind is mind, objects are objects, people are people, things are things; all dharmas each abide in their own dharma-position, having nothing to do with one's own mind. When the mind is apart from objects, the power of awareness is strong, and it is easy to awaken to the true reality of all dharmas; meditative concentration naturally increases, and wisdom naturally arises.

What has been explained above is the principle of meditative concentration arising from the precepts. Gathering in one's own mind is the precepts; the mind not committing wrongs is the precepts; the mind not thinking wildly, deliberating wildly, moving wildly, choosing wildly, or acting wildly—that is the precepts. This mind mainly refers to the seventh consciousness, the manas. The manas's contact, attention, feeling, perception, and volition can trigger the attention, contact, feeling, perception, and volition of the six consciousnesses, triggering the scattered movement of the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of the six consciousnesses. Gathering in the manas is equivalent to controlling the master switch of bodily, verbal, and mental actions, equivalent to subduing the general and commander-in-chief; then the six consciousnesses, the soldiers under his command, will obediently comply, docile and not moving wildly—why worry that there will be no meditative concentration?

The most important point in cultivation and study is that wisdom arises from meditative concentration. "Arises" means to generate and bring forth. The Buddha instructs us that because of the power of meditative concentration, the mind has strength when concentrated, and this strength can give rise to wisdom. It is like a kind of force that can push a sprout up out of the soil; pushing out is called arising, called emerging. Wisdom is pushed out from the mind, generated, by the power of meditative concentration; without meditative concentration, the mind has no strength and cannot grow wisdom.

The treasure the Buddha left us is the threefold training beyond training (aśaikṣa) of precepts, concentration, and wisdom. If, because we cannot keep the precepts and cultivate concentration, we abandon the first two treasures, saying these two are useless and that one treasure alone is enough—then let us think: are we not prodigal sons? Ruining the Buddha's family heirloom and casting it aside without care, are we still the Buddha's disciples? If we do not guard the Buddha's family treasure, we are not the Buddha's filial sons and descendants. Without the first two treasures, there cannot be the last treasure; and even if the last one exists, it is a fake, not true wisdom.

The precepts, if expounded fully, cannot be exhausted. Concentration, if expounded fully, also cannot be exhausted. Wisdom, if expounded fully, even less can be exhausted. In the final analysis, the precepts, concentration, and wisdom of the superficial mind consciousness must reach the precepts, concentration, and wisdom of the seventh consciousness, the manas, at the root—only this is the true precepts, concentration, and wisdom. The true precepts, concentration, and wisdom are the mind's precepts, the mind's concentration, the mind's wisdom—not merely the bodily and verbal actions of the surface six consciousnesses, not merely the mental formations of the mind consciousness, but a matter of the mental formations of the seventh consciousness, the manas. When the manas's mind is gathered in, not committing wrongs and not moving wildly, wisdom will inevitably be born. The manas's precepts, concentration, and wisdom govern all dharmas, and ultimately one must, through the manas's precepts, concentration, and wisdom, attain final buddhahood.