How to Use Wisdom to Give Rise to Meditative Concentration (Dhyāna)

Using wisdom to induce meditative concentration, one enters samādhi very quickly. The prerequisite is that both the foundation of meditative concentration and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) are fairly good, so that upon taking one's seat, one can quickly dispel distracting thoughts and deluded thinking from the mind. One contemplates a point of dharma meaning with clear content, able to focus on the deliberation (manana) very quickly, and with ever-deepening focus, gradually weakening and eliminating the obvious thinking of the mind consciousness, while the manas within the mind continues deliberating and pondering—without language, without sound, without words—deliberating very deeply. At the beginning of this practice, it feels somewhat forced and hard to endure, but once one becomes accustomed to it, one enters samādhi very quickly, and both body and mind feel extremely comfortable, thoroughly transparent throughout, with a clear head. After emerging from samādhi, body and mind are joyful and the spirit is a hundredfold invigorated—far more effective than sleep.

During the manas's deliberation, one can observe that the manas does not consult any dharma meanings, does not compare them with other dharma meanings, and does not guess or imagine. Therefore the manas has no mode of thinking by inference or erroneous cognition/non-valid cognition; its thinking is entirely that of direct perception/valid direct cognition. Once it reaches a conclusion, that conclusion is the wisdom of direct perception—relatively genuine, not easily overturned or regretted, and worthy of trust. Thinking with the mind consciousness is not like this. Because the manas's deliberation involves no language, words, or sound, for the conclusions it deliberates to take the form of language, words, and sound, the mind consciousness must come to help: the mind consciousness must be awakened and the conclusion transmitted to it; only after the mind consciousness comprehends it does it organize language, forming words and sounds. The language and words thus formed will be very concise, clear, transparent, and apt.

This process is rather complex and slow—much slower than the mind consciousness thinking through a problem on its own. Yet although slow, it is very deep, very thorough, and right on target, representing one's genuine wisdom. Therefore, if a person does a great deal of thinking with the mind consciousness, relying primarily on the mind consciousness's thinking, their writing and speeches may be very fast and the content abundant and sprawling, but the quality cannot be guaranteed—much less can it be guaranteed to be the wisdom of direct perception. There will be a great deal of inference and erroneous cognition, more content drawn from references, and memory and performance may be excellent, but it does not fully represent one's genuine wisdom. Hence a good meal does not fear being late, nor does it fear being slow—refined and delicious is the most enjoyable.