How to Use Wisdom to Enter Meditative Concentration

After the practitioner has adjusted their breathing, they bring up in the mind the question that needs to be contemplated. After using the mind consciousness to sort out the meaning of the question clearly, one does not analyze, reason, speculate, or imagine, and does not engage the superficial thinking of the mind consciousness. Instead, one mobilizes the manas, planting the question deeply into the heart of the manas, letting the manas hang onto this question. At this time, there are no words, language, or sounds in the minds of either the mind consciousness or the manas. In this way, profound meditative concentration (samādhi) appears, and the power of concentration arises. When the manas is in a state of deliberation (manasikāra) on the question, if the physical body presents no obstruction and there are no scattered thoughts in the mind, the more the manas deliberates, the more focused it becomes, the deeper the meditative concentration grows, the more wisdom opens up and unfolds, the more harmonious the state of body and mind becomes, and the more joyful the spirit feels.

Deliberating on the meaning of the Dharma within such profound meditative concentration is entirely equivalent to profound contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), Chan investigation, and meditative inquiry. One's understanding of the Dharma meaning will become increasingly clear. Once one can deliberate through it thoroughly, the mind will be very resolute, without doubt, having eradicated doubt and perplexity. If one deliberates in this way on the content of eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and on matters concerning seeing the mind and self-nature, once the deliberation and investigation become clear, the three fetters will be severed, and the fetter of doubt will certainly be cut off. If it is merely inferred and conjectured by the mind consciousness, the manas will not understand it, the fetter of doubt will not be severed, karmic obstructions will not be removed, and birth-and-death cannot be ended.

The vast majority of people only know how to use the shallow thinking method of the mind consciousness and do not know how to use the deep deliberation method of the manas. Therefore, they cannot apply effort in Chan investigation and meditative inquiry, resulting in emotional conjectures and intellectual interpretations, with the questioning doubt never extinguished and the fetter of doubt never severed. At the slightest disturbance, their doubting mind blazes fiercely, and the Dharma principles they previously deduced get overturned. Even if not overturned, it is still not genuine realization or personal verification, and thus has no practical use. So nowadays, among those who believe they have awakened to the Way, the proportion of false awakenings is like the purity ratio of pure gold—or even higher, only more, never less. This is the current state of the Dharma-ending age. No matter how many people are unwilling to accept it, this is the fact, corresponding to and matching the spiritual faculties (indriya) of sentient beings in the Dharma-ending age and the circumstances of the era. It cannot be better than the age of the True Dharma or the age of the Semblance Dharma—absolutely not.