The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra presents meditation as an inward transformation of consciousness, rather than a reliance on external rites or supports. Central to this is a sustained contemplation of “mind-only,” in which all perceived phenomena are examined as manifestations or projections of consciousness rooted in the storehouse consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna). By repeatedly observing thoughts, perceptions, and apparent external objects in this way, attachment to a solid “self” facing a solid “world” is gradually undermined, allowing the intrinsically pure nature of mind—spoken of in terms of Buddha-nature—to become evident. This contemplative orientation is closely tied to analytical insight into impermanence and the lack of self in the aggregates, sense bases, and elements, but it ultimately aims at a direct, experiential realization rather than a merely conceptual understanding.

Alongside this, the text emphasizes an inward, non-conceptual insight that turns awareness back upon itself. Meditation is described as a “self-realization” that does not depend solely on scripture or logical reasoning, but on directly examining the arising and passing of mental states until subject–object duality loosens its grip. This is expressed in practices such as pratyātma-dharma or pratyātma-gati, where the practitioner enters the “realm of self-realization” by looking deeply into consciousness itself. In this process, discriminative thinking is gradually relinquished, and a non-dual awareness emerges in which the distinction between perceiver and perceived is seen as a construction of mind-only.

A further strand of practice is the cultivation of meditation on emptiness and non-self, applied even to the eight consciousnesses themselves. All dharmas are contemplated as empty, like illusions, dreams, or magical displays, which erodes grasping at both a real ego and truly existing phenomena. This emptiness meditation is not nihilistic; it is paired with the rejection of both eternalism and annihilationism, so that the practitioner rests in a middle insight where things are empty yet function conventionally. In this balanced vision, the purified storehouse consciousness is recognized as nothing other than the tathāgata-garbha, the Buddha-nature that is naturally pure but obscured by adventitious defilements.

The Laṅkāvatāra also speaks of non-discriminative samādhi, a meditative absorption free from conceptual elaboration and from grasping at names, categories, or a substantial self. In such samādhi, language and dualistic thought fall silent, and noble wisdom (ārya-jñāna or prajñā) can directly discern reality beyond conceptual constructs. This contemplative work is supported by ethical discipline and the cultivation of compassion for all beings, who are seen as bound by ignorance of the true nature of mind. Through this integrated path—mind-only contemplation, inward non-dual insight, meditation on emptiness, and direct contemplation of tathāgata-garbha—the practitioner gradually uncovers Buddha-nature as the essential purity of consciousness itself.