Part 3c.2 - How to establish samadhi by becoming familiar with this

2.a) The virtues of samadhi

How, by becoming familiar with this, are the virtues of samadhi established? Though the mind possesses these virtues primordially, when they are obscured by defilements, they do not appear. Meditating in shamatha and vipashyana, we have an opportunity to purify all these obscurations. When the false conceptions of mind subside into space:

Whenever the nature of mind, of primordial purity,
Is temporarily pure of false incidental conceptions,
The nine absorptions and the powers of miracle,
As well as the various higher perceptions will be there.
Countless clouds of samadhi are spontaneously present.

When the incidental false conceptions of mind are temporarily purified, a host of good qualities are established, such as the nine absorptions.

2.b) Explanation of the nine absorptions

2.b.1) What are they?

When the mind, with desire to be in its natural place,
Meditates one-pointedly in a state of samadhi,
With discursive thought and analytic discernment,
And bliss and well being, the first dhyana has arisen.

When nondiscursive meditation so analyzes,
That luminous mind of bliss and well being is the second.

When meditation is neither discursive nor analytic,
Steeped in bliss and well-being, the third dhyana has arisen.

Then when meditation has gathered in its bliss,
There is the fourth, with all the benefits of well being.

Here are mind with the wish for cessation, the four dhyanas, and the five formless attainments. These nine samadhis are the nine ultimate absorptions. Here, the mind of desire becomes one- pointed. The above-described union of shamatha and vipashyana exists here as the wisdom of complete non-thought. By meditating within it, the mind of bliss, luminosity, and complete non- thought of wisdom are attained from the desirable support of being a human being. The support is, more particularly, attaining human birth with the freedoms and favors.

Then as for the mind of dhyana, From the divisions of access and the main meditation, access is the preparatory stage. It is said that some do just the main meditation. Also it shold be understood that each dhyana is said to be the access to the next.

When the mind rests one-pointedly, there is access to the first dhyana, which can handle anything. It has the discursive thought that we should meditate. By joining this to resting in complete non- thought, together with analytic discernment of the peak of mindfulness, there is the real object of meditation, the wisdom of non-thought. It examines thoughts and the boundary of meditation and post-meditation.

As for the second dhyana, from the access of the first, we join non-thought only to analytic discernment without examination by discursive conceptual thoughts. The main object is luminosity and non-thought.

As for the third dhyana, from the access of the second, transferring there by being without either examination of discursive thought or analytic discernment, the special main object, non-thought, arises.

As for the fourth, from the access of the third, together with well being and bliss attained by

samadhi, the special object arises. The Middle Length Prajñaparamita says:

The first dhyana has discursiveness and discrimination.
The second discriminates without discursiveness
The third’s attention is neither discursive or discriminating.
Attention gathered in well-being is the fourth.

2.b.2) How the mind attains formless dhyana

As for the mind of dhyana:

Then the mind is pure translucency like space.
This attains the ayatana^[1] of limitless space.

Then there is mind, without the complexities of all dharmas,
Attaining the ayatana of limitless consciousness.

Then simplicity apprehends no mind or appearance,
Attaining the ayatana of nothing whatever.

Mind freed from complexities of existence and non-existence,
Is within the realm of neither existence nor non-existence.^[2]

Then there is cessation of the mental nature
Composed of all the different complexities of the kleshas.
This is when the peace of nirvana is attained.

Then, from the support of dhyana, there arise the special formless minds. First there is realm of limitless space. As all dharmas are pure like space, there is steady attention to the undefiled essence. Limitless consciousness is mind-only. There is attention on limitless mind, without beginning and end.

As for nothing whatsoever, because of non-conception or non-thought, the mind sees nothing at all. The peak of samsara is attention to mind beyond all extremes of existence and non-existence.

In cessation, all the complexities of mind cease. The commentary on the Madhyamakavatara says:

Cessation occurs because all complexities of the mind cease.

To classify, from the mind examining and analyzing there is discriminating cessation. Not examining, resting in dharmata is non-discriminating cessation. However, the cessation of the bodhisattvas, because of compassion, still looks after sentient beings. The Madhyamakavatara says:

Though this is indeed samadhi of all-inclusive cessation,
Compassion remains, arising for helpless sentient beings.

It may be asked, “But then complexities don’t cease, do they?”

In the compassion of the wisdom of complete non-thought, complexities do not exist. The Middle Length Prajñaparamita says:

Within the nine ultimate absorptions, there is the goal, “I should produce absorption.” In general in the dhyanas of ordinary beings and noble ones, aside from attaining the great fruition of the mind of equal space, there is the bliss of shamatha. Having thought, “All dharmas are like space,” within that state, from the subsiding of the engagements of mind, we are impelled into the formless states of mind up to the peak of samsara.

Noble ones, in particular, by the wisdom of vipashyana, attain the unified nature that does not grasp dharmas as “me” and “mine.” Having attained the mind of a great being, by attaining the supreme wisdom whose meditation sees as far as Akanishta, they pass beyond suffering to nirvana. Within this mind are all the virtues of the formless dhyanas. Though these samadhis are included within it, the mind does not have the individuating characteristics of those realms.

Therefore, noble ones of the great vehicle do not fixate the arising of these realms.

2.b.3) The way of practicing the nine absorptions

As just explained:

Then at the end we practice the skills of these nine absorptions
Either in order, or out of order on the spot.

We shall have the knowledge, both for ourselves and others,
Of all the actions done in former and later lives.
We shall know the places where their minds will go.
Having completely eliminated the obscurations,
We shall see their deaths and births and transmigrations.
We shall manifest one and many emanations.
Because there are no kleshas, we shall have the wisdoms
That know the nature of dharmas and also their extent.
We shall see buddha fields filled with the buddha’s children.

By meditating on the ultimate samadhis the formerly unknown eyes and higher perceptions become unobscured. There are miraculous displays, and the virtues of leaping up from bhumi to bhumi. Having seen the buddha fields, we listen to the Dharma there, perfect the accumulations, and so forth. Finally, from the three ways of meditating on these objects, as for the yawning lion, having meditated upward by stages in the four dhyanas and four formless attainments, also meditate by stages downward as if climbing up and down a nine-runged ladder. The Middle Length Prajñaparamita says:

If it is asked, “What is the samadhi of the yawning lion of a bodhisattva mahasattva?” it is like this. Fully attain the first dhyana. After saying, “I am resting there,” after that, it is taught that after that one goes from cessation and the peak of samsara back down to the first dhyana.

As for the lesser sudden approach, after having meditated upward on the dhyanas, formless attainments, and cessation, jump back down to the first and meditate there.

From the two sections of the greater sudden approach, going up to cessation in order, meditate on the first dhyana. Having meditated on cessation, do likewise in each up to cessation. Having entered into each, meditate on them by turns. As for entering into non-meditating mind, having arisen from cessation, produce the mind of non-meditation. So gradually meditate down until the first dhyana.

Similarly the way is taught that without the first dhyana, entering into the second, we should go upward to cessation, and meditate downward on each one. Then leave out the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, all eight, up to the eighth. Then meditate downward on each one. The Abhisamayalankara says:

In the nine dhyanas including the stage of cessation,
Both having gone and come in a twofold way,
Desire that realizes consciousness
Will grasp the border of non-meditation.^[3]

As for the sudden approach, among the dhyanas
Having skipped the first and second and third,
The fourth and fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth,
Go up to cessation in different ways.

The eyes and higher perceptions have been discussed above.

2.c) The time of attaining the three samadhis

At the time of attaining the special samadhis:

By fully realizing appearance as illusion,
The state is gained of the illusion-like samadhi.
Since disturbance is pacified, the mind is free from torment.
Then there is the samadhi like a spotless moon.
In a single equality no dharmas are perceived.
There is the samadhi like a cloudless sky.
There will be countless hundreds and thousands of such samadhis.

The single disk of the sun, by dispelling darkness is called the “light-maker”. By radiating light rays, it is the “one with a thousand lights.” By making lotus blossom, it is called “the friend of the lotus.” It has many such different names. Similarly, when appearance is realized as illusion, one- pointedness on that is called the illusion-like samadhi. Pacifying the darkness and torment of the kleshas is the spotless moon samadhi. Realizing that all dharmas are like space is the cloudless sky samadhi. By the manifold increase of the virtues of these and other samadhis, within a single mind, these and hundreds, thousands, and countless others are attained. The illusion-like samadhi and so forth are taught in the sutras.

2.d) Briefly the relationship of vipashyana and shamatha to samadhi is taught

In regard to that,

Vipashyana is the meaning of total realization,
And proper shamatha will grasp this one-pointedly.
So retention and samadhi are in spontaneous union.

The words and sense of the Dharma, well realized by discriminating vipashyana, are one-pointedly grasped in our being by shamatha. As for vipashyana, within that retention or keeping, shamatha is resting in samadhi. The Blossoming Wisdom (ye shes rgyas pa) says:

Vipashyana is the keeper
Of the gate of Dharma.
Shamatha is samadhi.

Regarding that keeper, the Tantra of Practicing Well (legs par grub pa’i rgyud) says:

It is called “keeper,” because it keeps in three ways.
Words and meaning and both, as well as good karma,
Are kept from damage. Because of so keeping these,
That is the reason that it is called their keeper.

By that the details of the subject are completed.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Literally source of proliferation, skye mched, which has a negative connotation like the spread of fire or plague. This space is still a non- thing dharma.

[2]:

Usually neither perception not non-perception.

[3]:

The nine dhyanas have a particular focus, so they are to that extent consciousness rather than wisdom without reference point.