How to Induce Meditative Concentration through Wisdom

Use wisdom to induce meditative concentration (samādhi), and one will enter concentration very quickly. The prerequisite is that one's foundation in both meditative concentration and contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) is fairly good, so that upon taking one's seat, one can quickly dispel distracting thoughts and deluded imaginings. One contemplates a dharma principle in the mind, with its meaning clear, and can quickly focus on the deliberation, becoming more and more focused, weakening and eliminating the obvious deliberation of the mind consciousness, while the manas within the mind is still deliberating and pondering—without language, without sound, without words—deliberating very deeply. At the beginning of practicing this, it feels rather forced and hard to endure, but once accustomed, one enters concentration very quickly; body and mind feel extremely comfortable, the whole body is clear and transparent, the mind is lucid, and after emerging from concentration, body and mind are joyful and one's energy is a hundredfold—far more effective than sleep.

During the process of the manas's deliberation, one can observe that the manas does not consult any dharma principles, does not compare them with other dharma principles, and does not guess or imagine; therefore the manas has no mode of deliberation by inference or non-valid cognition—its deliberation is entirely by direct perception. Once it reaches a conclusion, that is wisdom of direct perception, relatively genuine, not easily overturned or regretted, and worthy of trust; deliberation by the mind consciousness is not like this. Because the manas's deliberation has 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, the conclusion transmitted to it, and only after the mind consciousness understands it does it organize the language, forming words and sounds; the language and words thus formed will be very concise, clear, transparent, and apt.

This process is rather complicated and slow, much slower than the mind consciousness deliberating a problem alone; yet although slow, it is deep, thorough, and apt, representing one's genuine wisdom. Therefore, if a person deliberates very much with the mind consciousness, relying primarily on the mind consciousness's deliberation, although he will write articles and give speeches very quickly, and the content will be abundant and miscellaneous, the quality cannot be guaranteed—let alone guaranteed to be wisdom of direct perception; there will be much inference and non-valid cognition, more referenced content; his memory may be very good and his performance may be very good too, but it does not fully represent his genuine wisdom. Hence a good meal does not fear being late, nor does it fear being slow—refined and delicious is the most enjoyable.