[Mind Contemplation Series] 1: Those Who Contemplate the Mind Attain Ultimate Liberation

As a method of liberation handed down by the ancients, contemplating the mind (Guanxin) has always held a vital position in Buddhism. Buddhist sutras state: "Those who can contemplate the mind attain ultimate liberation." This indicates that mind contemplation is a swift, safe, and effective method. Even in today's fast-paced life, contemplating the mind remains an effective way for us to achieve inner peace and spiritual liberation.

However, many people find that when they first begin learning mind contemplation, it is difficult to settle down and quiet the mind, making practice difficult to sustain. It must be noted here that the ancients often possessed profound spiritual foundations and could thus contemplate the mind directly; whereas modern people live at too rapid a pace with chaotic thoughts, so they must first calm their minds before they can enter the state of mind contemplation.

In fact, practitioners often overlook a crucial point here: eastern ancients usually had deep foundations, allowing them to contemplate the mind directly, while modern people experience an excessively rapid pace of life and agitated thinking, so one must first bring the mind to calmness before contemplation is possible.

During meditation, a state of "bodily emptiness" (shenkong) arises, wherein the practitioner can very clearly perceive the arising and ceasing of their own thoughts. Beginning mind contemplation at this moment will proceed very swiftly. Therefore, whether mind contemplation can be sustained and whether it can succeed rapidly depends fundamentally on whether you practice contemplation after experiencing bodily emptiness. Why is this so? We have specifically analyzed this theoretically in another article. Contemplating the mind after bodily emptiness enables one to swiftly realize the Tathāgatagarbha and attain the state of awakening.

For this reason, Master Miaojing as well as Theravada masters shared the experience that attaining awakening is actually easier than attaining the first dhyāna. This may come as a great surprise to you, but from our empirical practice, the masters were speaking the truth. Therefore, one must attach great importance to contemplating the mind.

Meditative absorption (dhyāna/samādhi), in essence, is the intense concentration of thought, which reduces the natural vitality and flexibility of the mind. In the past, many masters possessed formidable meditative concentration, yet struggled to attain awakening. Only when a particular circumstance arose would they suddenly awaken — such as upon seeing peach blossoms, hearing the braying of a donkey, or scalding a hand with hot tea. All of these required breaking through the one-pointedness of meditative concentration to realize. Moreover, many who enter deep absorption often become attached to the bliss of meditation and no longer seek awakening.

Therefore, eminent masters of the past remarked: "Meditative absorption is operating inside a ghost cave," and "Dead water cannot harbor a dragon" — here, the "dragon" refers to the living vitality of our thinking. Shakyamuni Buddha reached unimaginable heights of meditative absorption in his time, yet did not attain awakening through it alone; in the end, he awakened upon seeing the morning star. Through his own practice, he demonstrated to us that contemplating the mind allows greater personal mastery and is more likely to succeed. Entering deep absorption was an expedient when other means failed. His single-minded highlighting of mind contemplation apart from conventional absorption practices is sufficient to demonstrate its paramount importance.