Introduction to Lamrim’s Serenity & Insight 广论止观初探

《声闻地》说于佛所许或床、或座、或草敷上，结跏趺坐，有五因相

Asanga’s Sravaka Levels gives five reasons for sitting as the Buddha taught, cross-legged on a seat, stool, or grass mat

其中足者，谓全跏趺，如毘卢遮那佛坐，或半跏趺，应如是行。

(1) Cross your legs in the manner of the venerable Vairocana, using either the full-lotus posture or the half-lotus posture as appropriate.

《道炬论》亦云：“失坏止支分，虽励力修习，纵经多千年，不能成正定。”

Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment states:
　　When you lack the elements of serenity,
　　Even if you meditate assiduously,
　　You will not achieve concentration
　　Even in thousands of years.

五、清净尸罗，于别解脱及菩萨律，皆不应犯性罪、遮罪，破坏学处；设放逸犯，速生追悔，如法还净。

(5′) Pure ethical discipline
You do not violate precepts, doing deeds that are wrong by nature or wrong by prohibition, either in the case of vows of individual liberation or in the case of bodhisattva vows. If you do violate them through carelessness, you restore them promptly with regret in accordance with the teaching.

如《庄严经论》亦云：“具慧修行处，善得贤善处，善地及善友，瑜伽安乐具。”

Maitreya’s Ornament for the Mahayana Sutras states:
　　The intelligent practice in a place
　　Which is accessible, is a good place to live,
　　Offers good ground and good companions,
　　And has the requisites for comfortable yogic practice.

一、住随顺处，谓住具五德处：易于获得，谓无大劬劳得衣食等；处所贤善，谓无猛兽等凶恶众生，及无怨等之所居住；地土贤善，谓非引生疾病之地；伴友贤善，谓具良友戒见相同；具善妙相，谓日无多人，夜静声寂。

The area should have five attributes: (a) easy access, so that necessities such as food and clothing may be readily obtained; (b) being a good place to live, where there are no wild beasts such as predators, no enemies, etc.; (c) being on a good piece of ground, in that it does not breed sickness; (d) offering good companionship insofar as your companions are ethically disciplined and likeminded; and (e) being well-situated inasmuch as there are not many people about in the day and little noise at night.

《本地分》云：“又已如实善知从苦至道，然未能得初静虑等，彼便宴坐，无间住心，更不择法，是依增上慧而修增上心。”

For Asanga’s Levels of Yogic Deeds says:
　　Moreover, you can accurately know the reality of the truths from suffering to path, without having attained the first meditative stabilization, etc. As soon as this knowledge of the truths occurs, you stabilize your mind and do not analyze phenomena. Based on this higher wisdom, you pursue the practice of higher states of consciousness.

此非说未得第一静虑近分定所摄之止，是说未得第一静虑根本定以上之止。

This means that they have not attained the serenity of the actual first meditative stabilization, or beyond; it does not preclude their having attained the serenity which is included in the access to the first meditative stabilization.

若不以别别观察之观修引发轻安，作为发观之理，则先求止，次乃依之修观，全无正理。

Accordingly, the way insight develops is that discerning analytical meditation generates pliancy. If this were not so, there would not be the slightest good reason to seek serenity first and then cultivate insight based on it.

虽缘空性为境，若但由其住一所缘，引生轻安，仍未能出修止之法，仅此不立即得毘钵舍那。

So generating pliancy by setting your attention on a single object of meditation – even if the object is emptiness – is nothing more than a way to achieve serenity (止); that alone does not count as attaining insight.