The Importance of the Equal Cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā

Śamatha is cessation, and it is also meditative concentration (samādhi); vipaśyanā is contemplation, and it is also wisdom. Only with the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā, with cessation and contemplation working in concert, can great wisdom arise—this is the method practiced by bodhisattvas. Having cessation without contemplation, or contemplation without cessation, leaning to one side alone, one cannot give rise to great wisdom, cannot realize the Buddha's teachings through personal verification, and cannot attain right wisdom; one can only achieve intellectual understanding of the Dharma and acquire knowledge. These are the latter two of the three undefiled learnings of precepts, samādhi, and wisdom spoken of by the Buddha, and also two of the six pāramitās of the bodhisattva that the Buddha taught.

If someone sits in meditation cultivating concentration for years on end without raising the mind to deliberate and investigate the Buddha's teachings, they will never attain realization or liberation. If someone leans toward absorbing knowledge, studying widely and hearing much, yet does not cultivate meditative concentration, so that the mind is scattered and restless, and does not penetrate deeply into contemplative practice, they likewise can never realize the Buddha's teachings through personal verification; at most they can achieve intellectual understanding of the Dharma and acquire knowledge, their mind cannot be liberated, and the three fetters will not be severed. Knowledge can never substitute for realization, but laypeople cannot discern this, and most are the unseeing who worship knowledge and scholarship.