Samatha is a meditative study of all is void. Before that you need remove false mind. Samatha purpose is to reveal substance for samadhi. But to do it you need remove also false seeing.
False thinking rises from external objects.
Some headlines from "The Surangama Sutra"
*Probe into the false mind
*Thinking is unreal
*The sixth consciousness is empty
*The seventh consciousness is unreal
From commentary:
ânanda used to rely on his Sixth Consciousness, that is his clinging mind which he mistook for his
True Mind. As he was scolded by the Buddha (for self-conceit), he was completely bewildered and
thought that if he had no mind, he would be like earth or a log. The Buddha, out of compassion for
the whole assembly, taught them how to develop non-creating mind; He extended His hand to touch
ânandas head to reassure him and to wipe out his perplexity, saying: Why do you think that you
are without a mind and are like a lifeless thing? I have always said that all phenomena are manifestations
of the mind and that all worldly causes and effects, either direct or indirect, take shape because
of the mind. This is True Mind; why do not you waken to it? All phenomena in the world, as well as
the smallest things, are (made of) matter and have qualities, and even the empty void has its name
and appearance; then how can the wondrous pure and clean Bright Mind which is the underlying
nature of all mental states, have no substance? Instead of understanding the substance of True Mind,
you grasp firmly at your false thinking that discriminates (aimlessly) about True Mind; is this not inversion?
If it was True Mind, it should have a nature of its own even after all sense data have ceased to
exist. Since it is no more when there are no sense data, is it not false? As you listen to my sermon on
the Dharma, you differentiate solely because of my voice, but when I stop speaking, this mind of
yours will cease to exist. This is the differentiating mind which arises when you hear my causal voice;
this is your (discriminating) Sixth Consciousness which vanishes when sense data disappear. This
wiped out the third aggregate, sa¤j¤à, to expose the unreality of the Sixth Consciousness.
In the list paragraph of the text, the unreality of the Seventh Consciousness is exposed. It is
not only the discriminating Sixth Consciousness which is false but If you put an end to all seeing,
hearing, feeling and knowing to stop using all six senses and so preserve your inner quiet, there is
still the shadow of (your) differentiation of things. This is the Seventh Consciousness which grasps
at the innermost self as an ego and which is the organ of the Sixth Consciousness; it is precisely the
root of birth and death, so How can you hold it as Reality? The Buddha was about to expose the
falseness of the fourth aggregate, saüskàra, and so wipe out the Seventh Consciousness, so He
said: I do not want you to hold that it is not mind; what I want you to know is that false thinking is
not True Mind; you should examine carefully and minutely this: that which has its independent
substance when sense data cease to exist is your True Mind, but that which vanishes with sense
data is (simply) non-existent, like the hair of a tortoise and the horns of a hare, in which case your
Dharmakàya should also be subject to destruction, and if so, who will practise and realize the
patient endurance of the Uncreate?
