Suffice it to say that there are many approaches to meditation in Buddhadharma that are to be found under the headings of Ch'an and Ch'an Ting. Ch'an Ting alone is an umbrella name for many methods: the Four Dhyanas, the Four Infinities, the Four-Void Worldly Ch'an, the Nine Observations, the Samadhi of Nine Degrees (supramundane), the Ch'an of Self-Nature and the Ch'an Ting. These approaches can lead one to deep dhyana, where real wisdom is to be found; and with real wisdom, there can be self-enlightenment, enlightenment of others and the Ultimate Perfect Enlightenment.

It has been suggested that to sit alone in a forest or on some remote mountainside to meditate would seem to abnegate the Bodhisattva vow of saving all sentient beings. In answer to that, consider that even a Bodhisattva who is far away from all sentient beings still retains them in his mind. Therefore, it is in this way, when you meditate in the quiet place of Ch'an Ting and have acquired real Wisdom, that you can truly help sentient beings. If you are still curious as to why you must practice in solitude, consider this analogy. It is somewhat like trying to light a lamp in a strong wind, as opposed to taking it to a room where the air is still. Just as it is so very difficult, if not impossible, to light a lamp in a storm, it is equally hard to find wisdom in a disordered mind. Thus, even Bodhisattvas live apart from sentient beings and stay in quiet places, so that they can practice Ch'an Ting and develop and purify their wisdom.

You have to concentrate or focus your attention on whatever you do in the everyday world, if you want to do it properly. The same applies to the quiet inner world, as well, although not in quite the same way. To make another analogy, let us say that you have a lamp that is in good working order and that all the surrounding conditions contribute to its producing a good, bright light. It is only then that you will have a good, bright light. However, the practice of Buddhadharma assuredly is far more subtle than the act of lighting a lamp. The mind of confusion is much lighter than even the lightest feather and moves so swiftly that it is gone before anything can be done about it. It cannot be controlled, because any such attempt is, in itself, an act of confusion. As quickly as lightning, the objects of the mind appear and disappear, and this frenetic activity does not stop. Indeed, it cannot stop! The only way out of this tangle is made possible through meditation.

In The Commentary on the Dhyana Paramita, it is written that a Bodhisattva must abandon his family and all his worldly possessions, be ready to give up his very life, and then stay in a quiet place to prepare his mind for dhyana by remaining still and calm in body and mind. When he is free of thought, there is no way for evil to arise. In preparing for dhyana, one must endure whatever happens, never tiring, always persevering. When confronted with evil (an obstacle to samadhi), he must exercise great patience in not responding with the defilement of anger. This is accomplished by not discriminating and by neither grasping at nor rejecting anything. In his quest for dhyana, he concentrates on the one Mind (the one mind being no-mind). Nothing sways him from his course. He sits, never lying down, sits even though tired, never resting; and, though seemingly gaining nothing by his apparent efforts, he, thereby shows, indeed, his great progress. A Bodhisattva practices and completes all of the Six Paramitas, concentrates on the one Mind, which is no-mind, and can finally understand all the aspects of birth and death in the world through Prajna.

Counting the Breath

All of the Six Wonderful and Profound Dharma Gates can produce many kinds of dhyana. The first of these is attained by the practice of counting the breath, because, in this way, you will arrive at the Four Dhyanas of Form, the Four Immeasurable Minds and the Four Formless Dhyanas. When you have attained the last stage of Neither Thinking Nor Not Thinking is Not Nirvana, you have only attained The Way of The Three Vehicles, because this worldly Ch'an Ting is not yet real, still having some defilement. Using The Wonderful Dharma Gate of counting the breath and neither discriminating nor grasping, you can attain all three Vehicles at the level of Hinayana.

Following The Breath

By this second practice, you can produce the Sixteen Special Dharmas:

1. When inhaling, knowing that you are inhaling;
2. When exhaling, knowing that you are exhaling;
3. Knowing when you are breathing a long or a short breath;
4. Knowing the whole body as the breath;
5. Knowing the movement of the body;
6. Knowing the delight of the mind;
7. Knowing the happiness of the mind;
8. Knowing mind activity;
9. Knowing comfort of the mind;
10. Knowing concentration of the mind;
11. Knowing freedom of mind;
12. Knowing impermanence;
13. Knowing all things (dharmas) as dispersed;
14. Knowing desirelessness;
15. Knowing nothingness or the property of vanishing;
16. Knowing what it is to abandon and give up everything.

Stopping

If you practice stopping, you can obtain five kinds of dhyana, as follows:

1. Earth-Wheel Samadhi (which is not yet to have arrived at the tenth stage);
2. Water-Wheel Samadhi (which enables you to have good conditions for all kinds of dhyanas);
3. Space-Wheel Samadhi (which consists of five expedient ways of dhyana practice, whereby you come to understand space as being without any nature);
4. The Wheel-of-Golden-Sand Samadhi (which frees you from misleading views, so that you no longer grasp after right wisdom);
5. The Wheel-of-Diamond Samadhi (which is also known as The Completely-Without-Obstacles Tao,a practice that lets you sever your bondage to the three realms of desire, form and formlessness forever).
Furthermore, by stopping, you can attain Birthless Wisdom, whereby you can gain entrance to Nirvana.

Contemplation

Through contemplation, you can take part in the Nine Thinkings, the Eight Lines of Thought, the Freedom From Eight Forms, the Eight Stages of Mental Concentration, the Ten Universals, the Samadhi of the Nine Degrees, the Samadhi of the Powerful Lion's Roar, the Transcendental Samadhi, the Practice of Ch'an, the Fourteen Transmutations of Mind, the Triple Bright Samadhi, the Six Transcendental Powers, and the Eight Liberations, all of which enable you to acquire the Samadhi of No-Sensation and No-Thought.

Returning

The meditator, through Prajna, is freed of defilements by returning to the void of the Original Source, which is no source and in which there is nothing but void-without form and with non-action-indicating an absence of self-nature. Without any self-nature, there is no longer a subject or an object, and distinctions are no longer made because there is no one to make them and nothing to make them about.

In this way, the thirty-seven conditions leading to Bodhi are satisfied, as well as those contained in the Four Noble Truths, the Twelve Nidanas and in the Right Contemplation of the Middle Way, whereby Nirvana can be attained.

Purification

If a meditator knows, through Prajna, that all Dharmas are originally pure, he can acquire the Dhyana of Self-Nature because he has attained what is known as Hinayana Nirvana, or Two- Vehicles Nirvana. If a Bodhisattva can enter the stage of the Iron-Wheel King, has completed the Ten Grades of Bodhisattva Faith and continues to practice, he can produce the following nine kinds of Great Dhyana:

1. Self-Nature Dhyana
2. All Kinds of Dhyana
3. Difficult Dhyana
4. All-Kinds-of-Doors Dhyana
5. Good-Person Dhyana
6. All-Active Dhyana
7. Rid-of-Defilement Dhyana
8. The-Joy-of-This-Life-and-The-Next-Life Dhyana
9. Pure-and-Clean Dhyana (Since a Bodhisattva depends on this kind of Dhyana, he can attain The Fruit-of-Great-Bodhi Nirvana)

In Sudden Enlightenment, the nature of mind is realized as being originally pure. Dharmas are neither grasped at nor rejected; there is neither being nor non-being; there is neither birth nor death; there is neither this nor that; and there is neither void nor existence, Then, there is the knowing afforded by the awareness of non-duality, where nothing is grasped, there being neither someone to grasp nor anything to grasp at. If Original Substance is known, there is freedom from attachment to the objects of the sense organs. Once there is no longer any illusion of the existence of a permanent self, there are no longer any encumbrances. There is no grasping at the void and no holding to stillness; there is simply whatever is, without defining or choosing. Short of this, there might still be a somewhat encumbered level of awareness where there is a recognition of still being in the midst of causes and conditions, without attachment; but it is to be understood that even this recognition is a kind of grasping.

The Sastra of Entering The Tao of Sudden Enlightenment, by Ch'an Master Hui Hai of the T'ang Dynasty, asks what method should be used to understand Original Dharma. The reply is that one need only to practice dhyana. Referring to The Sutra of the Ch'an Door, one reads that if you seek the wisdom of the Buddha, you need Ch'an-Ting; for without it, you will have a great abundance of false thoughts and will be in danger of destroying your good roots. To understand this more clearly, Ch'an-Ting is defined as follows: When there are no false thoughts, that is Ch'an; and to see one's Original Nature is Ting. Original Nature is also known as Non-Birth, or Unborn Mind, where there is no longer any oneto be moved by the eight winds of gain, loss, defamation, fame, praise, ridicule, sorrow and joy. Thus, even if one is worldly but attains Ting, he already approaches being a Buddha.

Elsewhere it is written that if you are free of attachment and if you no longer think of things (dharmas) during meditation nor discriminate between good and evil, then past things are past. If you do not think of them, the mind of the past vanishes. This is called no past. Furthermore, the future has not yet arrived; and when it is not necessary to wish to obtain it, the mind of the future is no more. This is called no future. Finally, the present is already present, and there is no need to grasp at anything. When you are free of thoughts, there is no longer any grasping. Without grasping, the mind of the present vanishes. This is called no present. Then your mind dwells on nothing, and this is Original Mind and Original Nature. This Mind that dwells on nothing is the Mind of the Buddha, the Mind of liberation and the Mind of no-birth. Ch'an Master Kuei-Feng said that True Nature is neither pure nor impure and that there is no difference between the holy and the worldly.

Varieties of Ch'an

Master Kuei-Feng, also, said that when shallow and deep stages of Ch'an are referred to and that when a person chooses to practice the deep ones because he looks down on the shallow stages and then finds a way to do so, what he engages in is called heterodox Ch'an. Holding to cause and effect and practicing with like and dislike are known as Worldly-People Ch'an. However, when only the illusion of the personal self has been eliminated through Enlightenment but not that of the self-nature of dharmas (things), this is called Hinayana Ch'an. On the other hand, when the ego and all dharmas are enlightened, this is called Mahayana Ch'an. Here, the self-nature of one's self and the self-nature of everything else, or all dharmas, are known to be unreal. If one's own mind is suddenly enlightened, it is in its original purity, free of defilement and not outside the stream.
This mind is the Buddha, and practicing in this manner is called Supreme Ch'an.

The Sixth Patriarch, Hui-Neng, described sitting Ch'an by stating that being without obstacles in the Dharma and being beyond all ideas of good and evil, without a single thought arising, is called sitting, whereas seeing into the stillness of one's Original Nature is called Ch'an. Regarding Ch'an-Ting, he said that the absence of external form (i.e., no object) is Ch'an, and to be free of the confusion of thought (i.e., no subject) is Ting. Furthermore, he said that if one grasps the forms (the apparent objects outside), this is evidence of a confused mind and adds to the confusion of what the mind conceives of as being inside. If one is no longer attached to objects and to there being an outside, then there is no longer any such confusion of mind. Original Nature is pure and still, but is disturbed by thinking and, it follows, by objects. When there are no things, no outside and no confusion in the mind, that is real Ting. The Sutra of Bodhisattva Discipline is a bit more succinct. There, it simply says that originally your own nature is clean and pure.

Observing The Mind

We are ordinarily concerned with things that are conceived of as being outside of us, or, essentially, the objects of our thoughts; and we never think of observing the place within, as it were, whence thoughts seem to arise. By looking inward at the source of thought, the workings of your mind are still evident but are no longer so commanding, and a more and more passive sort of observation develops that reduces false thought and can help to reveal your own True Nature. In all Mahayana sutras, it can be seen that Prajna (Wisdom) must be accompanied by Universal Illumination. In one such sutra entitled Observing the Ground of the Mind, it is stated that one who observes the mind can be liberated but that one who does not is always bound by birth and death. Along somewhat similar lines, one finds in The Sutra of Nirvana that Supreme Dhyana is described as observing the nature of the mind. Chih-Kuan, in Buddhadharma, is translated as either Dhyana and Wisdom (Ting-Hui)or Stillness and Illumination. In The Maha-Chih-Kuan the stillness of Dharma Nature is called Chih, and stillness with illumination is called Kuan; and it concludes, therefore, that Chih-Kuan is the supreme method for purifying the mind. There are, however, many ways to practice Chih-Kuan. Just to mention a few, there are Deep and Shallow, Sudden and Gradual, Cultivation and Principles and Complete and Incomplete; and to complicate matters even further, there are three different categories of Chih-Kuan in the T'ien T'ai tradition: gradual, unfixed and perfect.

Gradual Chih-Kuan

In The Commentary on the Dhyana Paramita of Gradual Chih-Kuan, practice is described as being shallow at first and deep later, which implies a gradual development. Understanding, however, is said to come suddenly.

Unfixed Chih-Kuan

Unfixed Chih-Kuan, also known as The Six Wonderful Dharma Gates ,is sometimes described as the step-by- step method leading to sudden understanding. Here, practice is gradual at first and then sudden.

Perfect Chih-Kuan

In The Maha-Chih-Kuan, it says that in Perfect and Sudden Chih-Kuan, all conditions and reality are merely three contemplations in one mind, and that there is only sudden understanding and action, with no distinction as to when it began or as to how it progressed thereafter.

The practices of The Maha-Chih-Kuan method are thorough, assuredly, but are too subtle to be done without the aid of an accomplished teacher. However, until such time as the reader may discover such a teacher, he might practice the following effective method of observing the mind. Sit comfortably in the lotus position or in any other position that is suitable for you. Lay down all things, and even give up the thought of laying everything down. In this way, thinking of neither good nor evil, close your eyes gently and lightly observe where your thoughts seem to issue from. This permits you passively to be aware of your false thoughts as they suddenly come and just as suddenly go, neither grasping at them nor driving them away; thus, in time, you can come to understand profoundly that false thought has no self-nature (is empty) and that it is originally void. When false thought is then illuminated by your mind, a stillness becomes evident, which then becomes suchness. Then if another thought suddenly arises, using the same approach, just observe lightly to see where the thought seems to come from. Do this at least once a day for at least half an hour.

If you continue to reinforce your knowledge of Buddhadharma, as well, through reading and finding people who are inclined to hear what you might have to say about Buddhism or practice, then, over a period of time, this meditation can help reduce false thought (known as using wisdom to support Ting)and increase the power of illumination (known as using Ting to beget wisdom).If you continue in this way, you will, eventually, be able to sit without a single thought arising. When there is awareness, with no dwelling and no grasping, the source of mind is void and still. Then, Wisdom (Prajna) and Original Nature respond as one from moment to moment. In The Hand-Flower Sutra, it states that when you observe the mind, you see the birth and death of thought after thought as having the quality of being magical and unreal. The subject of Wisdom is Prajna, which is like saying that Prajna is Wisdom, while its object is ignorance (confusion or false thought). The perfume of Prajna is then said to permeate ignorance more and more until there is just Prajna and a return to Original Nature. Whether walking, sitting or lying down, one should always be aware of the Substance (stillness) of Original Nature.

The function of illumination is Enlightenment, which is sometimes referred to as right thought about reality. It is like a pearl that emits light and, thereby, also illuminates the substance of the pearl. If a false thought arises in an illuminated mind, it vanishes as quickly as a snowflake in a blazing furnace. Then, even strong habits no longer present any obstacles. With such practice, your Original Nature appears stronger and stronger. There should be no needor intention to have illumination, because need and intention stand in the way of its ever coming about. When there is real illumination, there is no longer any involvement with words. Then, mind is no-mind. Then, there is simply Suchness. Without thought, there are no conditions; and Original Nature, known directly, is reality. However, even if you can concentrate on one thought and observe the mind for just a moment or two, you still have benefited by knowing Prajna, and have, thereby, planted the seed of Bodhi. In The Lankavatara Sutra, it says that you should rely fully on the teachings and then find a quiet place where, practicing free of all doubt, there can be Enlightenment. In The Sutra of Complete Enlightenment, it says that all Tathagatas arise from the ground cause of correct practice; and so, again and again, proper understanding and right practice are advised.