The fifth of the Six Paramitas is meditation or dhyana. In the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra, there is the phrase: “Don't abide in dharmas, abide in prajnaparamita.” This means that one should not abide in any dharma (phenomenon), but one should abide in non-scattered mind, one that has ‘no taste’. A non-scattered mind does not abide in samadhi (deep meditative concentration), nor craves the bliss of samadhi. This is the meaning of ‘no taste’. It is important to understand that dhyana is not necessarily the same as samadhi, although it includes samadhi. Master Tsungmi talked about five levels of dhyana, including the dhyana practices of both the Indian and Chinese traditions. We will briefly describe the five levels without going into great detail.
First Dhyana Level
First, there is the outer path dhyana, practiced by non-Buddhist schools and religions where the most important goal is to attain samadhi. In this samadhi state one avoids influences and conflicts within one’s body, mind, and the environment, and abides in the bliss of samadhi. Their highest aspiration is to enter some kind of heaven. One can say that the Indian yoga or Chinese Daoist practices belong to this category.
Second Dhyana Level
The second dhyana is the dhyana of ordinary beings who have learned about the Buddhadharma and the laws of causes and effect (karma). People practicing at this level place great emphasis on samadhi and abide in it, taking it to be liberation. Often what they experience is just the unity of body and mind, of the inner and outer environments, of previous and following thoughts. This is often described as being one with the universe. In their samadhi, they experience the four dhyana heavens of form and formlessness, including the dhyana heavens of thought and no-thought. They experience a kind of emptiness, but not the true emptiness of genuine wisdom. Thus they will often mistake the four dhyana heavens as the four fruition levels of the arhat1, and think they are liberated.
While experiencing samadhi, they will have no greed, no doubt, no burden of body and mind, and will think they have been liberated. But once they come out of samadhi and deal with loved ones, family, property and wealth, their vexations inevitably return. When this happens they will want to enter samadhi and experience bliss again. The main difference between the first two kinds of dhyana is whether or not the practitioner has been exposed to the teachings of Buddhadharma.
Third Dhyana Level
The third dhyana is that of the Hinayana, also called the dhyana of liberation. This dhyana is guided by the teachings of karma and emptiness, but it still requires the practice of the four dhyanas2 and the eight samadhis.3
In this dhyana one practices according to the four fruition levels of the arhat.
So one can apply the gradual practice of the four dhyanas and the eight samadhis of the realms of form and no-form. After attaining the level of the eight samadhis in the realm of no form, one will be able to enter the ninth samadhi, which is the dhyana of cessation (of sensation and thought), and thus attain arhatship and liberation.
Entering the dhyana of cessation requires the practice of the four dhyana heavens, which I will not explain, but I will explain how to practice in accordance with the four dhyana heavens using the seven expedient means.
The Seven Expedient Means
The first expedient means are the basic practices of the Five Methods of Stilling the Mind. The second expedient means are the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. The third are the four mindfulnesses practiced together, as described below. The fourth through sixth expedient means are warmth, summit, and forbearance. I will not discuss these but go straight to the seventh, supreme in the world.
As we said, the first expedient means correspond to the Five Methods of Stilling the Mind. The remaining six means are actually based on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, with the stages from one to the next being manifestations of one’s level of practice.
Among the Five Methods the most commonly used are the first two:
contemplation on the breath and contemplation of the impurity of the body. The remaining methods are supplementary: third is contemplation of causes and conditions, and the fourth is contemplation of the four boundless mentalities (including compassion). Depending on your source of information, the fifth method will be either the contemplation of mindfulness of the Buddha, or the contemplation of the kinds of dharmas.
Of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the first is mindfulness of the body, the second is the mindfulness of sensation, the third is the mindfulness of the mind, and fourth is the mindfulness of dharmas.
Let’s look again at the Five Methods of Stilling the Mind. The first method is the contemplation of breath. The second method is contemplation of the impurity of the body. Thus, the first two of the Five Methods are definitely related to the first of the Four Foundations, having to do with the body.
When we contemplate impurity, it is the mind that contemplates. When using the method of breathing, one is really contemplating the sensation in the nostrils. When thoughts arise in one’s mind, mindfulness of such phenomena or dharmas is the fourth foundation practice.
Thus, the Four Foundations of Mindfulness are really the continuation of the Five Methods of Stilling the Mind, and practicing them as a whole can actually lead to liberation. Very often, people think mindfulness is a simple, low-level practice, but being related to the seven expedient methods, it can lead to liberation.
The seventh stage-- supreme in the world-- is the first fruition level of Buddhist sainthood, or arhatship. The distinction between the dhyana of ordinary beings and the dhyana of the Hinayana is that the former utilizes the four dhyanas and eight samadhis, while the latter employs the seven expedient means.
Basics Aspects of Dhyana Practice
The basics of dhyana practice can be summarized in six aspects: seeking, waiting, enjoyment, bliss, oneness, and putting down.
Seeking is the starting point of practice, wherein one actually engages in contemplation. For example, if we are practicing counting the breath, the mind is aware of, and focused on, counting the breath. This is seeking.
Waiting is the state of stillness, when one stays on the focus of the meditation, such as the breath. This is not the literal meaning of “waiting.”
Moment after moment one is clear of being on the method. Having the same thought after thought after thought is waiting.
Enjoyment, bliss, and oneness are states one may experience during dhyana that one should not attach to, and should put down. Whatever one experiences at this stage should be let go. So, these six aspects are the entry to practicing the four dhyanas and eight samadhis. After getting to the sixth stage, one continues putting down until there's nothing left, and that is when one enters to the seventh and last stage, supreme in the world.
Before entering the first dhyana, one must use the Five Methods of Stilling the Mind and the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. Seeking and waiting are present during the first dhyana, and persist after leaving the first dhyana.
Prior to entering the second dhyana, the dhyana of in-between, there is only seeking and no waiting.
In the second dhyana, there is neither seeking nor waiting. Only enjoyment, bliss, oneness, and putting down remain. One lets go of everything, including ideas of existence and emptiness, and continues practicing to attainenlightenment.
The Fourth Dhyana Level
The fourth dhyana is the dhyana of the Mahayana (Great Vehicle) also known as the dhyana of the bodhisattva. The main difference between the dhyana of the Hinayana and the Mahayana lies in the meaning of liberation.
Hinayana practice is for the sake of liberation from samsara—the three realms of existence.4 According to the dhyana of the Mahayana, transcendence means neither attaching to, nor fearing the cycle of birth and death, and this distinguishes it from the Hinayana.
Not attached to birth and death, one does not fear birth and death and will have the compassion to return to the world to deliver sentient beings. Could one at this stage be practicing the four dhyanas and eight samadhis? Of course one could, as those are among many methods for attaining transcendence.
For example, sitting meditation is one of the practices in the dhyana of Mahayana, but is only one gate of entry. In fact, one can be practicing in any situation—reading and reciting sutras, prostrating, walking meditation, or engaging in any task or work as long as one’s mind is concentrated on the task at hand. One can be doing anything and still be practicing.
In The Great Cessation-Contemplation (shamata-vipassana), Master Zhizhe talked about four kinds of samadhi: the samadhi of always sitting, the samadhi of always walking or standing, the samadhi of half walking and half sitting, and the samadhi of neither walking nor sitting. The first samadhi is always cultivation through sitting meditation, specifically the cultivation of the four dhyanas and eight samadhis. The second samadhi of always walking or standing is rarely practiced, because it requires practitioners to be standing all the time—one cannot lie, sit, or sleep, only move around or stand. The third samadhi of half walking and half sitting allows sitting, standing, and moving, and that is largely the practice in Chan. In the fourth samadhi of neither walking nor sitting, any posture or situation is appropriate so long as one is applying the principle of Chan.
Fifth Dhyana Level
The fifth dhyana is the dhyana of the Supreme Vehicle, also called the dhyana of the Tathagata.5 It is also called the dhyana of the Patriarch because it refers to Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Chan Buddhism. This is the dhyana of sudden enlightenment and does not require the four dhyanas and eight samadhis. In fact, it is basically the method of no method. When there is no wandering thought in the mind, that is, the wisdom of Chan.
Though originally transmitted by Bodhidharma, it underwent further development within the Chan School. The dhyana transmitted by Bodhidharma has two aspects: entry by practice, and entry by principle.
Entry by practice is through cultivation of the methods of enlightenment; entry by principle is through directly perceiving emptiness.
The sixth patriarch Huineng, on the other hand, describes the fifth dhyana level in this way: as long as there is no attachment or self-centered thought in the mind, it is liberation or sudden enlightenment. In Huineng’s Platform Sutra, there is this very important sentence: "Prajna and dhyana are the same. Where there is prajna there is dhyana, where there is dhyana, there is prajna.” This view characterizes the school of sudden enlightenment.
In the gradual enlightenment school, one must sequentially cultivate dhyana for prajna to arise. On the other hand, the sixth patriarch talks about dhyana and prajna arising simultaneously, and importantly, says that sitting meditation is not necessary as long as one’s mind and body are not in conflict or contradiction. When that happens, it is the Dhyana of the Patriarchs. Such a person is always in dhyana—while eating, sleeping, working. The idea is that life itself is dhyana.
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1Four fruition levels of the arhat: 1) The stream-entrant, who has erased all doubts about the path. 2) The once-returner, who will be reborn in samsara only once more. 3) The non-returner, who will not be reborn in the human realm. 4) The arhat, who has attained liberation in nirvana.
2Four dhyana stages: 1) relinquishing of desires, 2) joy and one-pointedness, 3) equanimity, and 4) equanimity and wakefulness. 3There are nine Samadhi levels, of which the ninth is the liberation experience of true emptiness by an arhat. 4The three realms of existence constitute samsara, where sentient beings are subject to the cycles of birth and death. The three realms are desire, form, and formlessness.
5Tathagata: one of the epithets of the Buddha, meaning ‘thus come.
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