How to Enter Meditative Concentration (Samādhi) with Wisdom

After the practitioner has regulated their breathing, they bring up in the mind the question that needs to be contemplated. After using the mind consciousness to sort out the question's meaning clearly, they do not analyze, reason, speculate, or imagine, and do not engage the surface thinking of the mind consciousness. Instead, they mobilize the manas and plant the question deeply into the manas's mind, letting the manas hang onto this question. At this point, there are no words, language, or sounds in the minds of either the mind consciousness or the manas. In this way, profound meditative concentration (dhyāna) appears, and the power of samādhi arises. When the manas is in a state of deliberation (manana) 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, the more wisdom opens up and unfolds, and the body and mind become increasingly harmonized, with the spirit growing ever more joyful.

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. The meaning of the Dharma will become increasingly clear in the mind. Once one can deliberate through it thoroughly, the mind will be very resolute, without doubt, having eliminated doubt and perplexity. If one deliberates in this way on the content of eliminating self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) or on matters concerning seeing one's true nature and awakening to the true mind, 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 are unable to apply effort in Chan investigation and meditative inquiry, resulting in emotional conjecturing and intellectual interpretation, with questioning doubt never extinguished and the fetter of doubt never severed. At the slightest disturbance, their doubting mind blazes fiercely, and the Dharma they previously deduced gets overturned. Even if it is not overturned, it is still not actual, firsthand realization, and thus has no practical use. So nowadays, among the many who believe themselves to have awakened, the proportion of false awakenings is like the purity of pure gold—or even higher, only more, never less. Such is the state of affairs in 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 will not be better than the age of the True Dharma or the age of the Semblance Dharma—absolutely not.