How to Reduce Demonic Obstacles?

Question: In meditative concentration, one has already freed oneself from the bondage of the physical body, quietly contemplating the illusory nature of all dharmas, relinquishing space and consciousness, transcending the two realms of internal and external, and taking as object the sphere of nothingness. The mind is empty within, with nothing to rely upon, all perceptions cease to arise, and there is peace and tranquility. This is the typical sphere of nothingness (ākiñcanyāyatana), the fourth of the four formless absorptions—the seventh level of meditative concentration! How profound! Who has already reached such a sacred state?

Answer: This is purely the realm of the four dhyānas and eight absorptions, not the realm of a noble one, because it does not involve the wisdom of liberation. It possesses neither the wisdom of eliminating self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) nor the wisdom of seeing one's true mind and awakening to one's nature. A purely meditative state still lies outside the Buddha's gate, which is why it is called the concentration of non-Buddhists. During the Buddha's time, quite a few non-Buddhists possessed this kind of concentration; meditative concentration was nothing rare at all back then. Today's non-Buddhists can no longer cultivate even moderately deep meditative concentration, which is why this era is called the Dharma-ending age. In the Dharma-ending age, even the non-Buddhists are no longer professional—how could the Buddha's Dharma flourish? The reason the Buddha descended in India two thousand years ago was that sentient beings' roots of goodness had matured. Many people sought liberation but did not know how to attain it, all believing that only meditative concentration could liberate one from the suffering of birth and death. So they all cultivated concentration diligently without cease, becoming non-Buddhists outside the Buddha's Dharma. Out of compassion for the people of the world, the Buddha was born into this world, sprinkling the nectar of immortality to eliminate the suffering of sentient beings.

If someone today were to attain the four formless absorptions of the formless realm, with supernatural powers manifesting, sentient beings who learned of it would worship him madly. If such a person harbored ulterior motives, wanting to dominate Buddhism and do other things to win over sentient beings, ordinary people truly would be unable to resist, helpless, unable even to see through him—how could they have the ability to refute him? If such demons come to disturb the Buddha's Dharma in later ages, only bodhisattvas endowed with the four dhyānas and eight absorptions and great supernatural powers can refute them, in order to protect sentient beings from entering demonic paths. The Buddha said in the sūtras that all non-Buddhists can only be refuted by great bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis; an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva can refute all non-Buddhists, while bodhisattvas from the first to below the eighth bhūmi can only refute some of them. Ordinary beings can only bow down and worship non-Buddhists and demons, lacking the wisdom to see through them. Therefore, refuting the deviant and revealing the true is not something ordinary people can do. The masses lack the ability to refute the deviant and reveal the true; it is already quite good if they do not become accomplices. Sentient beings can only broaden their knowledge, increase their rationality, have fewer emotional reactions, and less mindless worship; then the demons will have fewer opportunities, and sentient beings will suffer fewer demonic ordeals.