Methods of Practicing Dhyāna in the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment

若诸菩萨唯灭诸幻，不取作用，独断烦恼，烦恼断尽，便证实相，此菩萨者，名单修禅那。 

Dhyāna is a method of Chan meditation, with the goal of realizing prajñā and awakening to ultimate reality. How is ultimate reality realized? It is realized when afflictions are completely severed. Afflictions are precisely all ignorance; without the obscuration of ignorance, the wisdom of prajñā manifests, and ultimate reality is necessarily realized. The Buddha said: All sentient beings of the great earth possess the wisdom and virtuous marks of the Tathāgata, but because of afflictions and deluded thoughts they cannot realize it. The dhyāna method accords with what the Buddha taught, taking the path of practice that severs afflictions to realize ultimate reality. The bodhisattva's method of severing afflictions differs from that of the non-Buddhists and the arhats and pratyekabuddhas, because the bodhisattva knows that all dharmas are like illusions; therefore, in meditation he extinguishes all illusions—every illusory, unreal mark is extinguished and not taken up or attached to. Because he does not grasp at these illusory dharmas, afflictions are gradually severed, the mind attains purity, and he realizes the non-illusory dharma of ultimate reality. 

Of course, afflictions cannot all be severed completely in an instant, nor can ultimate reality be fully realized in an instant; there must be a sequence, steps, and a process. As more and more afflictions are severed, the realization of ultimate reality becomes ever deeper, until afflictions are completely severed and ultimate reality is fully realized, all the way to buddhahood. This means that to realize ultimate reality to a certain degree, one must sever afflictions to that degree and remove obscuration to that degree. By severing the coarsest afflictions, one realizes the most initial prajñā ultimate reality; by severing the fundamental afflictions, one realizes the profound prajñā ultimate reality and realizes true suchness; by severing the habitual tendencies of afflictions, the realized true suchness becomes ever deeper and ever truer. Therefore, without severing afflictions, one cannot realize ultimate reality. If not even the slightest of the coarsest afflictions has been severed, then the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) cannot be eradicated, and the prajñā ultimate reality cannot be realized. 

Many people clamor that bodhisattvas need not sever afflictions, which is tantamount to saying that bodhisattvas need not realize prajñā or realize ultimate reality—becoming wisdomless bodhisattvas. Such beings are not true bodhisattvas; they lack the wisdom and virtue of a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva who does not wish to sever fundamental afflictions, if he still has coarse afflictions, is a bound-in-common ordinary being—seemingly a bodhisattva but not a bodhisattva, lacking the bearing and stature of a bodhisattva, not a model for sentient beings, unable to lead sentient beings toward liberation and to the farther shore of nirvāṇa.

In practicing dhyāna alone, the focus of the entire practice lies in "only extinguishing all illusions, not taking up their functions." Illusory dharmas arise from causes and conditions, arising and ceasing, changing and varying, and have no substantive function. Therefore, the bodhisattva, clearly recognizing this point, neither acknowledges nor grasps at illusory dharmas. Throughout the entire process of practice, he can both eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) and sever the self-grasping, and can also sever the dharma-grasping, realize ultimate reality, realize true suchness, and realize the nirvāṇa of non-abiding. Not taking up the functions of illusory dharmas is precisely severing the dharma-grasping; when the dharma-grasping is completely severed, ignorance and afflictions are completely severed, and one realizes the buddha-ground nirvāṇa of non-abiding. Among the practice methods of the non-Buddhists, there is nothing involving the extinguishing of all illusions, because they do not know that all dharmas are like illusions, nor do they know that the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) are illusory. If arhats and pratyekabuddhas have not studied and cultivated prajñā, they also do not know that all dharmas are like illusions; therefore they cannot extinguish the illusory dharmas, cannot refrain from taking up the illusory dharmas, and cannot sever the dharma-grasping. Only bodhisattvas can sever the dharma-grasping; only bodhisattvas can become buddhas; only bodhisattvas can realize ultimate nirvāṇa.