Gathering the faculties together

The Method of Hearing is in keeping with the fundamental principle that if one sense-organ is intensely concentrated, all the other five sense-organs would be also held still automatically. This is the most fundamental tenet of the reciting method, as said in the Surangama Sutra: "when the six sense-organs are simultaneously held in concentration, there will be every pure thought in succession." (Hsu Heng Chi, What's Buddhism, p.56.)