[Lamrim·Meditation] SERENITY AND INSIGHT P6

(d) Why it is necessary to cultivate both
Why is it insufficient to cultivate either serenity or insight alone? Why is it necessary to cultivate both? I will explain.

　If you light an oil-lamp for the purpose of viewing a picture in the middle of the night, you will see the depictions very clearly if the lamp is both very bright and undisturbed by wind. If the lamp is not bright, or is bright but flickering in the wind, then you will not see the images clearly. Likewise, when looking for the profound meaning, you will clearly see reality if you have both the wisdom that unerringly discerns the meaning of reality and an unmoving attention that stays as you wish on the object of meditation. However, if you do not have wisdom that knows how things are – even if you have a non-discursive concentration in which your mind is stable and does not scatter to other objects – then you lack the eyes which see reality. Hence, it will be impossible to know how things are no matter how much you develop your concentration. And even with a perspective that understands reality – selflessness – if you lack a firm concentration that stays one-pointedly on its object, then it will be impossible to clearly see the meaning of the way things are because you will be disturbed by the winds of uncontrollably fluctuating discursive thought. This is why you need both serenity and insight. Kamalasila’s second Stages of Meditation says:
　　With bare insight that lacks serenity, the yogi’s mind is distracted by objects; like an oil-lamp in the wind, it will not be stable. For this reason, what sublime wisdom sees will not be very clear. As this is so, rely equally on both. Therefore, the Great Final Nirvana Sutra says:
　　　　Sravakas do not see the lineage of the tathagatas because their concentration is greater than their wisdom; bodhisattvas see it, but unclearly, because their wisdom is greater than their concentration. The tathagatas see everything because they have serenity and insight in equal measure.

　　With the power of serenity, your mind – like a lamp placed where there is no wind – will be unmoved by the winds of discursive thought. With insight, others cannot divert you since you have abandoned the infinite entanglements of bad views. As the Moon Lamp Sutra says:
　　　　The power of meditative serenity makes your mind steady; insight makes it like a mountain.

So, the mark of meditative serenity is that your attention stays right where it is placed without distraction from the object of meditation. The mark of insight is that you know the reality of selflessness and eliminate bad views such as the view of self; your mind is like a mountain in that it cannot be shaken by opponents. Therefore, you should distinguish these two marks.
　Before you achieve meditative serenity, you may use discerning wisdom to analyze the meaning of selflessness, but your mind is extremely unsteady, like a lamp in the wind, so your concept of selflessness is unclear. On the other hand, if you analyze when you have achieved serenity, you avoid the fault of extreme unsteadiness, so your concept of selflessness will be clear. Thus, the mental state of insight has a quality of steadiness which derives from non-discursive meditative serenity and a quality of knowing how things exist which does not derive from meditative serenity. For example, a lamp’s ability to illumine forms derives from the wick and the preceding moments of flame; it does not derive from such things as the screen that protects it from the wind. However, the stability of the steady flame of the lamp does derive from this screen. Thus, if you engage in analysis with a wisdom possessed of the meditative equipoise of serenity – a state undisturbed by laxity or excitement –  then you will understand the meaning of reality. With this in mind, the Compendium of the Teachings Sutra states:
　　When your mind is in meditative equipoise, you will understand reality just as it is.

Kamalasila’s first Stages of Meditation says:
　　Because your mind moves like a river, it does not rest without the foundation of meditative serenity; a mind that is not in meditative equipoise cannot understand reality just as it is. Also, the Bhagavan says, “With meditative equipoise, you know reality just as it is.”

When you achieve serenity, you not only stop the fault of movement in the wisdom consciousness that properly analyzes selflessness, you also stop the fault of distraction from the object of meditation whenever you use discerning wisdom to conduct analytical meditation on topics such as impermanence, karma and its effects, the faults of cyclic existence, love, compassion, or the practice of the spirit of enlightenment. No matter what your object of meditation, you engage it without distraction, so that any virtue you cultivate is much more powerful. On the other hand, before you reach serenity, you weaken all of your virtuous deeds by frequent distraction to other objects. As Santideva’s Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds says:
　　The person whose mind is distracted
　　Lives between the fangs of the afflictions.

And:
　　The One Who Knows Reality has said that
　　Prayers, austerities, and such –
　　Even if practiced for a long time
　　Are pointless if done with a distracted mind.

Lamrim Chenmo Vol. 3 Pg19L07-Pg22L02