Miscellaneous Discussions on Buddhism (Part One)
Chapter 3: Afflictive Obstructions and Afflictions (2)
24. Craving and Attachment Are the Cause of Birth-and-Death and Saṃsāra
What is the cause of birth-and-death? This must be understood clearly. Birth-and-death and saṃsāra arise because of the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion—because of craving and attachment to the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) and the eighteen realms, and because of craving and attachment to the worldly dharmas of the three realms. If there is no attachment, no craving, no afflictions—if all afflictions are completely eradicated—one can naturally escape birth-and-death and saṃsāra. If one's reverence for others is in reality the manifestation of one's own afflictive nature rather than genuine reverence, then there is birth-and-death; if it is not a manifestation of afflictions, then it has nothing to do with birth-and-death. This includes reverence for the Buddha: if it is done with a pure and sincere mind, it can instead increase merit and help dissolve the afflictions of birth-and-death. The first volume of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra records that the cause of Ānanda's leaving home was his craving for the Buddha, not merely reverence. That is why the Buddha sought out which mind it was that loved and delighted in the Buddha and where it was, and only by subduing this craving mind could the problem of birth-and-death be resolved.
25. Can Cultivating the Four Dhyānas and Eight Meditative Concentrations Attain Nirvāṇa and Liberation?
Nirvāṇa is the realm realized by arhats who have attained liberation of mind and liberation by wisdom. It is not only related to meditative concentration (dhyāna); it is mainly related to the wisdom of liberation. Even if one cultivates the first, second, third, and fourth dhyānas, one cannot attain liberation and remains within birth-and-death and saṃsāra. This is because the root of birth-and-death—the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi)—has not been eradicated, and therefore the afflictions related to self have not been eradicated. One remains bound by afflictions, the mind is not liberated, and nirvāṇa has not been realized.
Liberation of mind is the realm of a third-fruit practitioner of the Small Vehicle: such a person not only possesses meditative concentration at the level of the first dhyāna or above, but has also eradicated the view of self, and has eradicated the afflictions of greed and hatred as well as the three fetters—this is attaining nirvāṇa with remainder (sopadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa). If one further eradicates the arrogance of self and grasping at self, completely severs all craving for the three realms, and obtains the wisdom of liberation, one can enter nirvāṇa without remainder (Anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa).
Therefore, meditative concentration alone cannot eradicate afflictions; it can only suppress them. The mind is not liberated, and wisdom is not liberated either. Liberation of mind is the liberated state attained through wisdom plus meditative concentration, by eradicating afflictions. Liberation by wisdom is likewise the liberated state attained through the wisdom of liberation plus meditative concentration, by eradicating all afflictions.
26. Only When There Is a Self in the Mind Will There Be Various Afflictive Emotions
Many people speak every day just for the sake of speaking—in order to assert themselves and display themselves—speaking without restraint, with a heavy sense of "I" in their minds, never knowing to turn the light around and examine their own bodily, verbal, and mental actions. What is cultivation actually cultivating? They shout "no-self" every day, yet the "I" in their minds remains very heavy. Let each examine himself: what exactly has your cultivation cultivated? Has it had any force?
Examine your own mind: why are there displeased emotions? If there were no self in the mind, if the self were not heavy, could one be displeased? When things go along with me, there is joy; when they do not go along with me, there is sorrow, worry, hatred, and suffering—this is the self in full measure, the exact opposite of no-self. The ultimate aim of cultivation is to reach no-self. Melting away the "I" in one's mind day by day—this is the best cultivation. Studying thousands of sūtras and treatises is precisely to reach no-self, not to study the Buddha-dharma for the sake of studying the Buddha-dharma. The purpose of studying the Buddha-dharma is to achieve no-self. If every day one studies the Buddha-dharma for the sake of one's own "I," and to show oneself off, is that not running contrary to cultivation?
The reason the grasping at self of the seventh consciousness, the manas, is heavy is attachment to the mark of self, constantly wanting to stand out and assert oneself—"I am this and that." When told he is wrong, that it is not so, he immediately defends himself, or walks away in anger—all these are serious manifestations of the self-mind. If you truly want to cultivate quickly and advance the Path swiftly, you should examine every day whether your mental factors of affliction have decreased compared to before; whether emotional displays have decreased; whether arrogance and the self-mind have lightened. Only this is right cultivation. It is not about learning a pile of views and then increasing the self-mind and arrogance—that is learning wrongly, learning in reverse.
27. What Are the Delusions of View and the Delusions of Thought?
The delusions of view (dṛṣṭi-kleśa) refer to afflictions of views—views that are impure and incorrect are called delusions of view, and they are severed at the moment of seeing the Path. The delusions of view refer to sentient beings taking the five aggregates and eighteen realms as a real self, as an unarising-and-unceasing self, and thus clinging without letting go. Severing the view that the five aggregates and eighteen realms are the self is called severing the delusions of view.
The delusions of thought (kleśa of cultivation) refer to confusion and inversion in thinking: the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, afflictive habitual tendencies, and all the delusions of ignorance, which can only be eradicated after cultivating the Path. In the Small Vehicle, the delusions of thought refer to the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, and craving for the world of the three realms. In the Great Vehicle, the delusions of thought include, besides these, all the dust-and-sand delusions of ignorance in the minds of sentient beings. When the Small Vehicle's delusions of thought are fully severed, one is an arhat of the fourth fruit; when the Great Vehicle's delusions of thought are fully severed, one is the World-Honored Buddha.
28. All Afflictions Arise from the Self
Worldly disputes leave everyone physically and mentally exhausted. After all the wrangling, what is fought over in the end is a "self." Let go of the self—you are well, I am well, everyone is well—how delightful! Why must one insist on being well while others are not? The "I" in each person's mind is as heavy as a boulder, so heavy one can hardly breathe; every day, every month, every year, every life, every existence, one lives in hardship, exhaustion, and heaviness. From now on, we should learn to use the tool of no-self to chip away at this boulder of self bit by bit—turning the great stone into a small stone, the small stone into gravel, and letting the gravel gradually leave the mind and disappear. Then the mind becomes light without any sense of heaviness, the mind becomes liberated and at ease, and the mind becomes joyful, happy, and peaceful.
All contention and struggle arise because of the self; without self there would be no contention or struggle. The nature of no-self has degrees, and the nature of self also has degrees. The lighter one's nature of self, the easier it is to sever the view of self; conversely, the harder it is. In the process of severing the view of self, the nature of self must gradually diminish, approaching no-self, so that at the final stage of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) the view of self can be severed.
In the course of daily cultivation, one should constantly check whether one's self is gradually weakening. In dealing with people and affairs, observe whether one's afflictions are still heavy, whether arrogance and attachment are still heavy. If you observe that your arrogance and self-mind are heavy, you must find ways to subdue yourself and suppress yourself.
Why does each person have arrogance? Because one believes one's own aggregate-body is superior to others', that oneself is more important than others—thus arrogance arises. If this view is not subdued, it is very hard to sever the view of self. Only by taking one's aggregate-body as real, taking one's perceiving mind as real, taking what one possesses—form, sound, smell, taste, touch, dharmas, wealth, beauty, fame, food—as real, does arrogance arise in the mind, consciously or unconsciously, overwhelming others, with the mind holding high and low unevenness. In the course of cultivation, one must strive to overcome these arrogances; only after arrogance and the self-mind have become slight is it possible to sever the view of self.
All afflictions come from the self; without self there are no afflictions. The more without self, the fewer the afflictions. In ultimate no-self, afflictions and habitual tendencies are all completely severed.
29. Only by Revolting Against Yourself Can You Attain Liberation
One who does not know how to contemplate the mind, cannot contemplate the mind, is unable to contemplate the mind, cannot awaken to one's own mind; and if one cannot awaken to one's own mind, one cannot change one's own mind. Many people who study Buddhism simply let their minds drift along, following their afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, following their own nature of self, never having thought that they have evil minds and unwholesome mental factors, and thus never having thought of changing themselves. Consequently, they never go against the self anywhere or anytime, never go against their afflictive habitual tendencies, never go against their own delusion and ignorance—not knowing that following one's own mind and nature of self is following birth-and-death, following the three evil destinies, following karma of suffering.
Revolution—whose life is to be revolted against? It is revolt against one's own life, against the life of the manas. Only thus can one attain liberation and great ease. Yet many people every day revolt against others' lives, striving to change others so as to follow their own nature of self and satisfy their selfish desires and greed. Such people are precisely those deeply mired in ignorance. Whoever cannot contemplate the mind is a person with severe afflictive habitual tendencies, a person heavy in the nature of self, arrogant and self-important. In such a person, even the mind consciousness has not awakened—how could the manas deep within attain awakening, liberation, and ease?
Most people, before encountering the Buddha-dharma, are inwardly lost and unawakened; having encountered the Buddha-dharma, they remain just as lost and unawakened. They grasp at external objects as "mine" and for "my use," increasing the view of self and arrogance of self, not hesitating to use base means to achieve personal selfish desires and interests, yet brazenly considering themselves to have cultivation, to have means, to be intelligent and capable. They never turn the light around to examine themselves; after studying the Dharma, they use Buddhist knowledge as a disguise to inflate and strengthen the self—truly deluded, without knowing it.
30. How to Catch the Thief of Afflictions
A practitioner who has attained some degree of awakening will frequently turn the light around to examine himself, and can discover that the "I" deep in his mind always wants to poke its head out. This is a good thing; one without awakening cannot discover it. When you discover that self poking its head out, observe this self: see where it comes from and where it goes, how it arises, how it ceases, how it operates, what its mental activity is like, what its purpose is. Observe like this often, and there will surely be major discoveries.
For one cultivating in this way, do not deliberately suppress yourself; let the afflictions poke their heads out, then seize them and put them on trial—clarify their whole story from beginning to end, and there will be great gains. Later, when severing afflictions, do the same: do not deliberately suppress the afflictions; watch where they arise, quickly grab them, put them through a good trial and examination, and they can surely be reformed. Cultivation is actually easier to practice in this Saha world—everywhere are opportunities to catch the thief. As long as you can catch the thief, you can recognize him, and your own family treasure will no longer be lost.
31. Only Because of the Four Marks Are There Conflicts and Disputes
People's minds are uneven, full of conflicts and disputes. Why uneven? Because the four marks exist in the mind; marks have good and bad, concave and convex, residing in the mind—therefore the mind is uneven. The mind is originally even; what is uneven is that mind which sees marks. How to even the mind? Smooth out the marks. How to smooth them out? Contemplate the marks as equal and identical; see through the substance and essence of marks. What is the substance and essence of marks? Nothing but combinations of the seeds of the seven great elements, nothing but what the tathāgatagarbha has fashioned—how could there be real marks for us to see? When the eyes have cataracts, one sees high and low, up and down, beautiful and ugly; diseased eyes gaze at flowers in the sky—when the disease is gone, the sky-flowers vanish. Cultivation is removing the disease and seeing the true marks—apart from this there is nothing else! This is to encourage others, and also to encourage myself.
Then what to do when encountering people who love to quarrel and fight? Bear with them, yield to them, and in a few years look at them again. Let them quarrel, let them fight, let them be first, let them be tall and great—let them place all the marks in their hearts. But we must empty all the marks—the emptier the better, the weaker the better, the more without self the better. When the four marks are emptied and purified, with nothing to hang onto and no obstruction, the mind attains liberation, the eternal, blissful, self, and pure—more than enough to become a Buddha! In the end, then, who is first, who wins? The wise act without contrivance; the foolish have cravings!
All contention is contending with one's own mind, fighting with one's own mind; one cannot fight others, only oneself. When the mind is ignorant, one sees others, sees a self, sees benefits to be fought over. Without ignorance, one does not see self and other, but only sees the tathāgatagarbha upholding all dharmas, seeing only the one true dharma-realm.
When we face conflicts, face others' faults, and cannot empty or avoid these states, and must resolve these human matters, what to do? One should contemplate the illusory, unreal nature of the realm of people and affairs, contemplating that all dharmas have no self, no person, no sentient beings, no marks of affairs. If one must discuss people and affairs verbally, it should only be an objective evaluation at the level of the mind consciousness, resolved in a reasonable manner reasonably, without inner agitation, without being dragged along by the plot of the affair and sinking into it unable to extricate oneself—otherwise one loses all the power of awareness; the mark of self, mark of person, mark of sentient beings, and mark of affairs all manifest, and one takes them as real; the mind is defiled by the marks of affairs, and the defiled karma seeds are stored in one's own tathāgatagarbha, with the retribution to be personally experienced in later lives—an utter loss.
How could there be a wise person who stores others' faults in his own mind, polluting his own field, burdening later lives, unable to attain purity? Seeing others' faults, turn the light around to examine your own mind—do not blame others and not yourself. Whoever cultivates, that person completes it; who can cultivate in another's place, achieve attainment for another, while oneself bearing the karmic results? There is no such principle!
32. Studying Buddhism Is for Awakened Awareness of One's Own Mind and Subduing Afflictions
Many people have studied Buddhism for over a decade, even twenty or thirty years, and still do not know what studying Buddhism is for. They have learned much Buddhist theory, yet still do not know to use it to awaken awareness of their own minds, subdue their own minds, and change their own minds—instead they insist on using it to scrutinize others. Consequently, when encountering troublesome people and affairs, great waves arise in the mind that cannot calm down for a long time, conflicts and disputes never cease, deviating from the purpose and direction of studying and cultivating Buddhism. The theory learned remains theory; the affairs encountered remain affairs; principle and affairs cannot be combined or harmonized, and one gains no meritorious benefit for one's own mind. If a Buddhist's view of affairs seriously departs from principle, becoming affairs existing independently, then the theory learned loses its meaning.
Then how should one face the human disputes and afflictions of the Saha world? Those who have studied the Great Vehicle Dharma all know that all dharmas are conjured forth by the tathāgatagarbha; there is no actually existing people, affairs, objects, or principles—all are generated by the tathāgatagarbha, this magical illusionist, outputting the seeds of the seven great elements according to conditions. It is like a painter splashing ink to produce picture after picture: we should not take the pictures as real things, nor take the figures and landscapes in the pictures as real and thereby crave or loathe them. All the pictures are merely sprayed and painted with colored ink, just piles of pigment—what wise person would grasp at and discriminate among piles of pigment, giving rise to mental activity? A truly wise person likewise should not, facing the people, affairs, objects, principles, mountains, rivers, and great earth piled up by the tathāgatagarbha with the seeds of the seven great elements, give rise to grasping thoughts.
Practice this contemplation often, maintain awareness frequently, and you will not let your own mind sink into human disputes unable to extricate itself, thereby failing to obtain the true benefit of studying and cultivating Buddhism, laboring in vain at accumulating various Buddhist theoretical knowledge—a painted cake cannot satisfy hunger.
33. Sentient Beings Are Deluded and Do Not Know How to Save Themselves
Everyone in this present life has experienced hardship, distress, setbacks, and frustrations, yet sentient beings still do not awaken. Even when they encounter the Buddha-dharma and the Buddha taught the true meaning of the Noble Truth of Suffering, sentient beings still do not awaken, still clinging to suffering and refusing to escape. Such is the delusion and ignorance of sentient beings: no matter how much suffering they personally experience, they do not know to reflect and save themselves, and even when the Buddha comes to rescue them, they do not accept it. Those with thin ignorance, deep good roots, and light afflictions, upon encountering afflictions, will seek to resolve and avoid them; deluded people will continue to endure, sinking deep in and refusing to pull themselves out. They remember the food but not the beating.
Do sentient beings know to save themselves? If they did, there would have been no need for the Buddha to come to the Saha world and teach the Noble Truth of Suffering. But after the Buddha finished teaching the Noble Truth of Suffering, what use is it for us inferior-facultied people of the Dharma-ending age? If either the mind consciousness or the manas knew how to save itself, knew suffering, knew to escape suffering, there would be no need for the Buddha to come rescue us. But now even if the Buddha came in person again, it would not help much—sentient beings' ignorance is too deep and heavy, their delusion beyond saving.
As described in the Kṣitigarbha Sūtra:佛告阎罗天子。南阎浮提众生。其性刚强。难调难伏。是大菩萨。于百千劫。头头救拔如是众生。早令解脱。是罪报人。乃至堕大恶趣。菩萨以方便力。拔出根本业缘。而遣悟宿世之事。自是阎浮众生结恶习重。旋出旋入。劳斯菩萨。久经劫数。而作度脱。The beings of Jambudvīpa have heavy knotted evil habits, popping out of hell and popping back in, going out and coming in as frequently as returning home. 劳斯菩萨。久经劫数。而作度脱。The bodhisattvas are patient enough—yet the sentient beings feel no shame whatsoever! How lowly!
34. How to Repent to Demons and Remove the Nightmare of Sins
Many people, after studying the Buddha-dharma, shift from pursuing worldly benefits to pursuing the benefits of studying the Buddha-dharma—but in reality it is still pursuit and attachment to self. The "I" in the mind is not severed, grasping at self is not severed, increasing the view of self and grasping at self. "I want more and more disciples, I want greater and greater power, I want higher and higher fame, I want the reverence of more and more sentient beings"—all aims are just for the mind to feel comfortable. But does this comfortable feeling have any real significance? When the crowd fawns on me, I feel comfortable; this comfortable feeling is a sensation of the mind consciousness, and this mind consciousness is arising-and-ceasing, illusory and conjured, inherently false, unable to exist long—arising and ceasing, extinguished day and night.
A true practitioner should often quiet the mind, constantly introspecting: what am I really pursuing? I grasp at wealth—what is the purpose of grasping wealth? I now crave enjoyment and crave sensations—what is the purpose? What meaning does it have? What faults does it have? I have various desires—what is the final outcome of these desires? See your own mind clearly, and bravely face your own mind; clarify what the ultimate purpose of your studying the Buddha-dharma is, and how to reasonably and dharmically reach that purpose through study and cultivation, without running contrary to your ultimate goal. If the mind seeks nothing, the goal can be reached quickly—so what am I still pursuing? One must often ask oneself: what do I want? What is all this fighting and grabbing for? Can it bring liberation? Does it have real meaning? Are all the things pursued images conjured by the tathāgatagarbha? Will what is gained be lost again, or lost even more? Such unreasonable attention and pursuit—do they add more shackles binding yourself, or more liberating merit and benefit?
The more a person wants to gain, the more one usually loses. Studying Buddhism is meant to lighten the burden on the mind; we must not let the false marks of the world blind our eyes. See others clearly, but see yourself even more clearly—introspect like this often. If in studying Buddhism one only craves at the level of marks, not working on the mind, then because of craving at the level of marks, fighting and grabbing in the world, selling one's soul, acting against conscience—this only increases one's afflictions and mental burdens. Using the Buddha-dharma as a tool for competing for worldly benefits, a tool for personal greed, a tool for overpowering others—this is truly a sin, with endless calamity. If a practitioner, instead of finding ways to lighten the afflictions on his own mind and the minds of sentient beings, adds layer upon layer of shackles onto afflictions and commits various unwholesome karmas, thus harming Buddhism and sentient beings—seeking ascent but falling instead, an utter loss—this is truly a witless act. One should quickly repent and reform, removing the nightmare of sins.
35. Conditioned Dharmas Are Not Necessarily All Tainted
The bodily, verbal, and mental actions of a fourth-fruit arhat are conditioned dharmas; the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of bhūmi-attained bodhisattvas are conditioned dharmas, yet they accord with the untainted (anāsrava)—untainted means without afflictive nature. But habitual tendencies are unavoidable. The Buddha's bodily, verbal, and mental actions are completely and thoroughly untainted, yet they are conditioned dharmas. The Buddha saving sentient beings and manifesting immeasurable Buddha-lands are all conditioned dharmas, all untainted. If conditioned dharmas could not be untainted, sentient beings' studying and cultivating Buddhism would be useless. When the sixth and seventh consciousnesses eradicate afflictions, their mental activities accord with the untainted; after the sixth and seventh consciousnesses transform consciousness into wisdom, they accord even more with the untainted, and their wisdom is also untainted—not untainted only in mental activity.
36. Those Who Have Seen the Path in the Great and Small Vehicles Have Light Afflictions
After attaining the fruits, the karma of the three evil destinies is eliminated, but this karma must be retributed in the human realm; however it is retributed among humans, it is lighter than in the three evil destinies. The greatest evil retribution among humans is a short lifespan; even being killed or tortured to death is lighter than the suffering of the three evil destinies. Where there is a mind of the six consciousnesses, there is feeling—one can feel suffering, happiness, and neither-suffering-nor-happiness. Sages are the same, only sages use the mind less, the mind not dwelling on the five desires and six sense objects, so feelings of suffering and happiness are very light. If they care about the six sense objects, feelings of suffering and happiness are somewhat more.
Where there are afflictions there are karmic formations, and one will do wrong things—even after enlightenment and attaining the fruits, it is the same. If afflictions are light, fewer wrongs are done; if afflictions are eradicated, even fewer. After afflictions are eradicated, there remain afflictive habitual tendencies, so there will still be some slight errors. Only when an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva has completely severed grasping at self and completely severed afflictive habitual tendencies are there no more karmic formations related to self. From the fourth bhūmi upward, having the four dhyānas and eight meditative concentrations and supernatural powers, there is hardly any suffering; they do not casually come to the human world—especially seventh and eighth bhūmi bodhisattvas, who have no need at all to come to the human world.
37. The Influence of Diet on Meditative Concentration
Diet is also an important factor affecting meditative concentration. If the body takes in too many nutrients beyond what it needs, the body will react; afterwards this affects the consciousness-mind, whose reactions become somewhat restless and agitated, with impure thoughts, emotions hard to control, or requiring forced control. These nutrients include not only meat and fish, tobacco and alcohol, onions and garlic and other pungent substances, but also vegetarian food. If vegetarian nutrition is excessive, it will likewise cause excessive reactions in body and emotions, increasing physical and mental burdens, making the mind hard to purify, and thus affecting meditative concentration.
So many people complain that meditative concentration is hard to cultivate—they should examine their dietary structure for excess nutrition. Now, because material life is rich and colorful, people crave palate and nutrition, cherishing the physical body and delicious flavors too much, resulting in impurity of body and mind; greed and hatred are both hard to subdue, afflictions are heavy, and of course meditative concentration cannot be accomplished, making the contemplative practice and realization of the Buddha-dharma all the harder. Then although such a person studies Buddhism broadly and eruditely, fluent in theory and eloquent, the inner realization ultimately does not come to fruition—he becomes merely a disciple of intellectual understanding and a jack-of-all-theories.
In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the World-Honored One required his disciples to abstain from pungent and meat substances, subdue the mind of desire and the mind of hatred, so that the Path could advance swiftly. But in modern society, material life is too abundant; even vegetarian food likewise affects the purity of body and mind, increasing the mind of desire and the mind of hatred, so the Path cannot advance swiftly. This should draw the attention of us broad masses of Buddhist disciples: adjust your dietary structure to benefit cultivation.
38. The Process of Severing Afflictions
The prerequisite for the mind to soften is understanding the principle of cultivation. Having learned correct views in the Buddha-dharma, knowing that all worldly dharmas are false marks, and then tempering and dissolving this mind through every condition and circumstance encountered, the mind can gradually soften. To realize no-self, one must first know that the self is false, contemplating how the self is false; only when genuinely accepted can no-self be realized. However, afflictions remain unsevered, requiring continued deep contemplative practice before afflictions become thin. When the demands of the desire realm decrease and the first dhyāna is attained, one then begins to sever various afflictions bit by bit. Before this, it is all suppression of afflictions, not severing.
Only after severing the view of self and realizing no-self does one have the ability to break the manas' grasping at self, becoming a person without self. And after breaking the false view of the self of the five aggregates and eighteen realms, one has the ability, amid all activities of body, speech, and mind, to discover a true mind that is real and not false, functioning at every moment—the true mind, the tathāgatagarbha. Attaining the first fruit and seeing the mind differ by only one stage, yet the merit and wisdom involved differ greatly. The latter requires greater merit and deeper wisdom—requiring the wisdom of no-self plus Great Vehicle wisdom. Easier said than done. But as long as you firm up your faith, you will unknowingly satisfy these conditions and become a bodhisattva of true meaning. As long as one strives unremittingly, all can achieve it.
39. Even a Cooling Agent Can Become a Poison of Afflictions
The Buddha-dharma is originally a dose of cooling medicine that can cool people's minds and bring liberation. Under what circumstances does this cooling medicine become poison, which, when taken, increases birth-and-death and leads toward the hells and the three evil destinies?
When one studies the Dharma with an afflictive mind of greed, hatred, and delusion—not for the purpose of gaining the liberating merit of no-self, but to add weight to one's own side of the scale, to overpower everyone, to crush everyone, to control everyone, to dominate everyone—then as one learns more and more Buddhist doctrine, the nature of self grows ever stronger, and one cannot help wielding the knife and staff of the Buddha-dharma to slash at everyone, so that afflictions and karmic obstructions grow ever more exuberant, greed, hatred, and delusion ever more severe, the nature of self ever more robust. Having thus committed evil karma within the Buddha-dharma, one ultimately heads toward the hells, toward the three evil destinies—not only failing to attain liberation, but increasing the suffering and peril of birth-and-death.
Some people pursue seeing the mind and seeing the nature just to be above others, to transcend everything, to stand on everyone's shoulders. Such people not only fail to break the mark of self, the mark of person, the mark of sentient beings, and the mark of a life span, but instead increase them, increasing grasping at self, with the bonds of birth-and-death tightening ever more—these are inverted sentient beings.
The only cooling agent that can most save sentient beings from the afflictions of birth-and-death is the Buddha-dharma. But when Buddhist knowledge is treated as one's own weight for gaining worldly dharmas, the Buddha-dharma becomes a powder of afflictions. Such people can then never be saved by any medicine—studying Buddhism would be worse than not studying it.
40. The Retribution of Habitual Greed
A Buddhist who truly wants liberation should, in daily life, carefully examine the various feelings in his own mind—examine what he is craving, what he cares about, what he spends thought and energy on. After discovering these, analyze what kind of mentality it is, what meaning it has, what the result is. Then find ways to counteract one's own craving and feelings; cultivation will then sweep away obstructions, and the Path will advance quickly.
Our habitual greed since beginningless kalpas is very heavy and very hard to detect ourselves, because we are accustomed to it, it has become second nature. Only those who have been through it, who have removed and subdued habitual greed, can detect their own and others' greed. Just as one who long dwells in a fragrant hall does not notice the fragrance, and one who long stays in a dung pit does not notice the stench—only someone outside the fragrant hall can smell the fragrance, only someone outside the dung pit can smell the filth.
The scope of greed is very broad: any dharma in the desire realm, if liked, is greed. Those literary masters skilled in poetry and song, those painters of free and easy brushwork, almost all go off to the ghost realm to frolic, because those all belong to greed—let alone other aspects; romantic love is even more greed, unable to escape taking birth in the ghost realm. Those who often paint horses, painting them with lifelike spirit, after death take rebirth in a horse's womb; those who often write ghost stories, writing them vividly, after death take rebirth as ghosts; whatever the mind often thinks about, after death one goes to keep company with it. A painter painting horses with great concentration, the mind resonating with horses, will in the next life be reborn as a horse; one who often writes ghost and spirit stories, the mind poured into ghosts and spirits, resonating with them, will become a ghost after death; we now recollect the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), the mind resonating with the Buddha, and will be born beside the Buddha. When the mind resonates with the wholesome, one takes rebirth in a wholesome destiny; when the mind resonates with the unwholesome, one takes rebirth in an unwholesome destiny.
When the karmic retribution of the ghost realm ends, if some merit remains, one takes birth in the animal destiny; when the animal destiny's retribution ends, only those with some merit remaining return to the human realm for birth. So the time of obtaining a human body is very brief, while the time in the three evil destinies is very long; every sentient being has much suffering and extremely little happiness. So we should still think of future lives: enjoy less blessing, leave more blessing for later lives; only with great blessing can one be reborn as a human quickly.
People of deep good roots and merit are beside the Buddha, supervised and edified by the Buddha, and cultivate very quickly. Without the Buddha, beside bodhisattvas who have severed afflictions, beside arhats, cultivation is also very fast—as they say, near vermillion one becomes red, near ink one becomes black. Great greed in the mind, being coarser, can still be observed; subtle greed is extremely abundant, and almost no one can observe it—unless one has severed afflictions. How rare is the opportunity to obtain a human body, how brief the time of having a human body, how rare and difficult to obtain a human body, attain the fruits, and gain liberation. Having already obtained human bodies, how should we seize this rare opportunity, diligently cultivate and realize, and gain even slight liberation? This is a question we should often ponder deeply.
41. Self-Conceit Is Delusion
When wisdom is insufficient, there is no way to make judgments based on direct perception. Accurate judgment requires very high wisdom and a rather good Dharma-selecting eye. Many people take their mind consciousness's understanding to be direct perception; if the evidence is not conclusive, it cannot be the result of direct perception. Over ninety percent of people lack the wisdom of direct perception—even in worldly dharmas this is so. So to propose direct perception and to judge according to direct perception is also an extremely difficult matter.
Many people cannot honestly observe that they lack the wisdom of direct perception, that they cannot directly perceive many dharmas—especially the more profound dharmas, which they certainly cannot directly perceive. But sentient beings are usually self-assured, believing they have direct perception—and then there is nothing to be done. Just as many people say: "The Dharma I study is the true Dharma; what others study is all false Dharma. My master is a true teacher; other masters are all false teachers. My views are all correct; others' views are all wrong." Because of such severe grasping at self and grasping at what belongs to self, they never reflect on their own mistaken attachments.
The difficulty of saving sentient beings lies in their deluded nature: because of delusion, they do not know they are deluded. The scope of delusion is extremely broad, extremely subtle—so subtle that even ninth- and tenth-bhūmi bodhisattvas still have deep, subtle delusion and ignorance to break. All afflictions are triggered by delusion—including greed, hatred, arrogance, doubt, and all wrong views (mithyā-dṛṣṭi). So when delusion is extinguished, afflictions are extinguished and ignorance is extinguished; then in the Buddha-dharma there is nothing more to learn—completely graduated.
Among the beings of the three evil destinies, the beings of the animal destiny are the hardest to save, because animals have extremely heavy deluded natures; language cannot communicate, they cannot absorb any Dharma meaning, and they cannot reflect. Beings of the ghost realm and hell realm, though their evil karma is heavy, can still understand human speech and can think, so there are ways to save them.
If a person lacks the wisdom of direct perception, wanting to rely on valid scriptural testimony is also not easy. The Buddhist sūtras are in black and white—how many people misread them, how many misunderstand them? Even reciting the sūtra text verbatim, word for word without a single character changed, once the sound comes out with its cadences and inflections, the meaning of the text can be altered. In today's Tripitaka, many texts have been re-edited and proofread by modern people, and even the punctuation has been marked wrongly. The punctuation of classical Buddhist texts was generally periods; after modern people proofread them, they changed it to modern punctuation, and then the meaning of the text got twisted, and the original meaning can no longer be seen. In a word: with delusion, wisdom is insufficient; with insufficient wisdom, nothing can be done well.
42. The Harmfulness of Arrogance
Many people cannot withstand praise or criticism; the root cause is still the self-mind, which gives rise to arrogance. Before the third and fourth fruits, everyone has arrogance; it is only when conditions are not ripe that arrogance lies hidden as a latent tendency. When conditions manifest, arrogance will become active. Almost everyone must pass through this stage, differing only in duration and depth.
The most humble people, once they gain power, are often the most arrogant. Because humility and inferiority are also a form of manifestation of the self-mind and arrogance; without the self-mind, one would not feel inferior. So the more inferior one feels, the more arrogant one is.
Almost all arrogance manifests in worldly aspects. For example, some are arrogant because of wealth and riches, some because of high status, some because of power, some because of looks, some because of agreeable family relatives, some because of broad experience, some because of some special talent, some because of their own intelligence and ability; many are arrogant because of their physical bodies, most because of their mental acuity. These kinds of arrogance are numerous, all caused by having self and what belongs to self within, by heavy view of body and view of self.
Arrogance obstructs the Path most; arrogance most easily leads into demonic states. Some people have a pockmarked face they themselves cannot see, yet all day long they stare at others' faces, inspecting others daily—this is because within their minds there is self and other.
43. Why Slandering the True Dharma Prevents Rebirth and Liberation
The Eighteenth Vow of the Infinite Life Sūtra (conditions for rebirth in the Land of Bliss):设我得佛。十方众生。至心信乐。欲生我国。乃至十念。若不生者。不取正觉。唯除五逆。诽谤正法。
The five heinous deeds are: shedding the Buddha's blood, killing an arhat, splitting the harmonious Saṅgha, killing one's father, killing one's mother. The true Dharma is the correct dharma-meaning that can liberate sentient beings, including both Great Vehicle and Small Vehicle dharmas.
Why can those who commit the five heinous deeds not be reborn in the Land of Bliss, and even fail to attain the fruits, fail to see the mind, fail to attain liberation? Why can those who slander the true Dharma not attain the fruits, not see the mind, not attain liberation?
First, consider shedding the Buddha's blood. Because the Buddha's karma seeds have been completely purified, he attracts no evil karma or evil conditions whatsoever, and has no evil retribution at all. Therefore no sentient being can kill the Buddha, nor harm the Buddha so that blood flows from his physical body. Why then is there still the notion of "shedding the Buddha's blood"? The Buddha's bloodline is the Dharma lineage, the transmission of the Buddha-dharma; shedding the Buddha's blood means causing the Dharma lineage to be lost and cut off, unable to spread normally. The Buddha-dharma can enable sentient beings to escape birth-and-death and attain liberation, so shedding the Buddha's blood is extremely grave; the retribution of this evil karma is the karma of the Avīci hell. Those who commit this evil karma cannot attain liberation and cannot escape the suffering of birth-and-death.
An arhat is a liberated sage who has exhausted all afflictions; because of his virtue of liberation, humans and gods should all make offerings to him—hence "one worthy of offerings" (arhat). The liberation realization of bodhisattvas of the eighth bhūmi and above is equivalent to a fourth-fruit great arhat; the liberation realization of bodhisattvas from the first to seventh bhūmis is equivalent to a third-fruit sage, retaining a thread of delusive karma, not taking the fruit of liberation, not entering the true position of liberation, so as to ensure not entering nirvāṇa without remainder. The retribution for respecting and making offerings to an arhat is the severing of afflictions, attaining liberation, and ending birth-and-death. Conversely, killing an arhat means one cannot sever afflictions, cannot attain liberation, cannot escape birth-and-death; all paths of liberation that could lead out of the suffering of birth-and-death are completely blocked—therefore one cannot be reborn in the Land of Bliss, cannot attain the fruits, cannot see the mind and see the nature.
The harmonious Saṅgha: "Saṅgha"—Sanskrit "Samgha," fully "Saṅgha"—refers to male Buddhist practitioners who have left home to cultivate, meaning assembly, community, fellowship; broadly it also includes women; male and female renunciants together are called bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs. A Saṅgha is a religious organization formed by a group of four or more renunciants who follow the Buddha-dharma. Without the status and qualification of renunciation, one does not belong to the bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs; no matter how many people, they do not constitute a community. As for the noble-meaning Saṅgha, it must be renunciants who have truly attained the fruits and truly seen the mind and seen the nature; those with false attainment of fruits and false seeing of the mind at the level of the mind consciousness still belong to ordinary renunciants. When the mind consciousness is not operating, what is fully revealed is the nature of the manas that has not attained the fruits or seen the mind, and such a person must undergo birth-and-death and saṃsāra according to the manas' views and afflictions.
"Harmonious" means dwelling together according to the principle of the six principles of harmony: harmony of views in shared understanding, harmony of precepts in shared practice, harmony of body in shared dwelling, harmony of speech without contention, harmony of mind in shared joy, harmony of benefits shared equally. If views and opinions are not consistent, that is not harmony; if none observe the three refuges and five precepts, the eight precepts, the bhikṣu precepts, the bhikṣuṇī precepts, and the bodhisattva precepts—if the precepts practiced are inconsistent and do not accord with what the Buddha established—that is not harmony; if the physical bodies cannot dwell in a common place but are scattered north, south, east, and west—that is not harmony; if internally they quarrel with each other, curse each other, attack and undermine each other, with conflicts and disputes unceasing—that is even less harmony; if even meeting together feels uncomfortable, with inner anger and displeasure and much estrangement—that is not harmony; if benefits among the members are unequal—whatever kind of benefit—one side only sacrifices and gives without return while the other only takes and possesses—that likewise is not harmony. If any one of these is violated, it cannot constitute a harmonious Saṅgha.
A truly harmonious Saṅgha can, on behalf of the Buddha, transmit the true Dharma through the ages and save sentient beings from the fiery sea of birth-and-death; to destroy it is to destroy the vessel for ferrying beings across birth-and-death; the retribution is inability to attain liberation and escape the suffering of birth-and-death—therefore one cannot be reborn in the Land of Bliss, cannot attain the fruits or see the mind. A non-harmonious Saṅgha does not carry this fault; a non-harmonious Saṅgha brings sentient beings afflictions and bitter fruits, adding afflictions upon afflictions, adding bonds and shackles, making birth-and-death even more bitter.
Parents gave us this physical body; with this body we can encounter the true Dharma and study it, can have the opportunity to attain liberation and permanently escape birth-and-death. Therefore the kindness of parents is heavy as mountains—being ground to powder and bones could hardly repay the kindness of parents' bearing and raising us. That sentient beings not only fail to support them but even kill them—the sin of killing father and mother is incomparably heavy; after death, in the Avīci hell, there is no liberation—therefore those who kill father and mother cannot be reborn in the Land of Bliss, cannot attain the fruits or see the mind.
The correct Buddha-dharma, when sentient beings study and cultivate in accordance with it, is the cause of liberation, enabling liberation and the ending of birth-and-death. If one slanders these dharma-meanings, that is disbelief in the true Dharma; if faith is insufficient, how can one study and cultivate? Without study and cultivation, how can there be liberation? The Dharma is like a vessel for crossing the sea of birth-and-death; if the vessel is destroyed, by what can sentient beings cross the sea of birth-and-death? Slandering the true Dharma means not only disbelieving oneself but also preventing others from believing and accepting—the sin is very great; one certainly cannot escape birth-and-death and attain liberation—therefore one cannot be reborn in the Land of Bliss, cannot attain the fruits, cannot see the mind.
The dharmas that can liberate sentient beings include the Small Vehicle's Four Noble Truths and twelve links of dependent origination, and also the Great Vehicle's tathāgatagarbha series of dharmas, such as Prajñā, Vaipulya, and Yogācāra, the theories of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth consciousnesses, and the three untainted studies of precepts, meditation, and wisdom. The Four Noble Truths and twelve links of dependent origination give sentient beings small liberation, not permanent and ultimate liberation; the Great Vehicle tathāgatagarbha dharma can give sentient beings permanent, true, ultimate liberation. And the dharma of the seventh consciousness, the manas, can guarantee sentient beings small liberation as well as great liberation, even ultimate liberation. All liberation, whatever degree, lies in the liberation of the manas; if the manas is not liberated, all is false liberation—afflictions cannot be severed, birth-and-death cannot be ended, the sea of suffering cannot be escaped, and one cannot attain the cool tranquility and peace of nirvāṇa.
Those who commit the five heinous deeds are very few, while those who slander the true Dharma grow ever more numerous, seen everywhere, universally so. Therefore I exhort everyone: since your meditative concentration and wisdom are insufficient and your realization inadequate, you should be cautious in speech and conduct at all times and places. When you are not qualified to be a judge, quietly cultivate yourself. Even if for now you cannot attain the fruits or see the mind, and lack the seed-wisdom of Yogācāra, still be a wise person in the world—do not invite disaster upon yourself, do not set up roadblocks on your own path to liberation.
The manas' afflictions from beginningless kalpas permeate the six consciousnesses, causing the six consciousnesses to unknowingly create karmic formations (directed by the manas); the karma seeds are then stored in the eighth consciousness, which in turn permeates the manas. Permeated back and forth like this, sentient beings truly have no day of liberation. When sentient beings create karma, they are reckless, fearing neither heaven nor earth, making one shudder to behold. A bodhisattva can directly feel what retribution various karmic formations will bring; those retributions are truly painful to undergo—even bhūmi-attained bodhisattvas can hardly bear them.
44. Only with a Broad Vision Can the Mind Be Vast
Now we all know that in the Saha world there are one billion Jambudvīpa earths; our mind should expand to encompass the saṃsāra of all life on all those earths—considering not only our own birth-and-death and saṃsāra, but also the birth-and-death of all sentient beings in the six realms. The mind should stand at a commanding height observing all dharmas, no longer confined to one small earth, much less confined to one's own personal self-interest. If confined only to the small benefits before one's eyes, one's mind and wisdom are too narrow, bewildered and blocked by one's own five aggregates of grasping; then in later lives there will be only the suffering of birth-and-death, without a shred of happiness.
Those with heavy arrogance, take a look: among one billion earths, are you not as insignificant as can be? Possessing a skill, knowing some theory, having some power, status, and assets—what does that amount to? Beyond the sky there are more skies; beyond people there are more people. The half-full bottle is the easiest to be arrogant, because having a little, yet not enough, leaves room to slosh around. Those who are full, because their vision is broad and their knowledge vast, with wide horizons filling their eyes and a great capacity of mind, no longer take themselves too seriously. In fact, among one billion earths, what rank does each of us hold? Even if you cultivate to some bhūmi as a bodhisattva, you must ask yourself: what rank am I? Eighth-bhūmi bodhisattvas in the worlds of the ten directions are beyond count; tenth-bhūmi bodhisattvas are beyond count—what are you?
But on the other hand, in the bodhisattva precepts the Buddha also requires bodhisattvas to recognize the nobility of being a bodhisattva; a bodhisattva must not belittle himself, must protect himself well, and must not casually place himself in dangerous situations. Because a bodhisattva who has given rise to bodhicitta, from the moment of giving rise to bodhicitta until becoming a Buddha, can benefit countless sentient beings; boundless, immeasurable sentient beings will, because of the bodhisattva's resolve, be rescued from the fiery pit of birth-and-death.
Let us calculate: on one billion earths, how many sentient beings are there exactly? How many humans, how many ghosts, how many hell beings, how many animals, how many great animals like the golden-winged Garuḍa, down to the tiniest bacteria invisible to the naked eye—no one can possibly imagine it, let alone calculate it; countless computers could not compute it. The bacteria on a single sentient being's body alone are countless, let alone those in the air and on the bodies of all sentient beings. So each of us bodhisattvas bears a heavy responsibility and has a long road—take good care of yourselves, only do not have too heavy an arrogance. We have all been rescued by many Buddhas and bodhisattvas; therefore we should resolve to rescue other karmically connected sentient beings in the same way, to repay the kindness of the Buddhas' and bodhisattvas' rescue, and to repay the kindness of the countless sentient beings who nurtured us and our loved ones.
45. How to Sever the Afflictions of Craving
Cultivation is for severing craving. Craving arises where the six faculties contact the six sense objects, so craving must be stopped where the six faculties contact the six sense objects. When the eye faculty contacts form, if the mind does not give rise to craving, craving is stopped; when the ear faculty contacts sound, if the mind does not give rise to craving, craving is stopped; when the nose faculty contacts smell, if the mind does not give rise to craving, craving is stopped; when the tongue faculty contacts taste, if the mind does not give rise to craving, craving is stopped; when the body faculty contacts touch, if the mind does not give rise to craving, craving is stopped; when the mental faculty contacts dharmas, if the mind does not give rise to craving, craving is stopped. According to the mind's habitual craving, craving for form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharmas would normally arise, but because cultivation has force, the arising of craving is checked and craving is stopped—this is the merit of cultivation; having no craving is the virtue of cultivation, and thus cultivation gives birth to merit and virtue. Virtue means character, virtuous conduct—the wholesome mental pattern of the mind. With wholesomeness one tends toward liberation; with wholesomeness one nears ease; the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion are bondage—no liberation, no ease.
Merit and virtue do not arise easily, because the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion from beginningless kalpas are deeply rooted, with heavy habitual tendencies, not easy to subdue and uproot; it requires long, many kalpas of contemplative reflection and contemplative practice, contemplating the suffering of craving, subduing craving bit by bit. If one does not know the suffering of craving, one cannot subdue craving. Because sentient beings all like pleasure, all tend toward pleasure and avoid suffering; only by directly observing suffering in the present will they choose to avoid suffering and eliminate the peril of suffering. So the first step of cultivation is to observe suffering, know suffering, feel suffering; only then can the mind be drawn back from where the six sense objects are contacted, not plunging deep into the six sense objects, and the suffering of craving will not arise. Without the first step of observing and knowing suffering, there is no second step of severing its origin, no third step of yearning for cessation, cultivating the path (nirodhābhiprāya-mārga-bhāvanā), and no fourth step of cultivating the Path. So for a person to give rise to the mind for the Path is extremely difficult—such is the force of craving habit.
46. With a Self in the Mind One Cannot Realize No-Self and Liberation
So many people all day long say the great Way is utmost simplicity—where is the simplicity? The simplicity is here: just let go of the self, remove the self, and no-self is reached. But doing it is not simple. Why? Habitual tendencies are deeply rooted, and the mind's obstructions are so severe that it is very hard to let go of the self—even seeing through the self is that difficult, let alone letting go.
The goal of studying and cultivating Buddhism is to realize no-self and liberation. Then why do we still pursue personal self-interest? Is this not running contrary to our original intention? The reason studying Buddhism fails to realize the fruit of no-self is that there is a self in the mind, not according with no-self. Having a self is a stumbling block and an obstruction—why not remove it as quickly as possible?
The wise should not, while pursuing the fruit of no-self, still be self-centered, defending and shielding the various selves, pursuing the private gain of the small self, going against and contradicting the Path—that is not clever. Why such contradiction? Is it not caused by the afflictive habitual tendencies of grasping at self from beginningless kalpas? If one does not know and does not observe this afflictive filth in one's own mind, does not find ways to counteract it, and always follows one's own self-mind and nature of self, then when will one attain the liberation of no-self? Which is more comfortable: liberation and ease, or self-bondage and ease? Comparing the two, which do you choose? So many people think clearly but act muddled—that is why they cannot realize the principle of no-self and cannot obtain the fruit of liberation.
Studying and cultivating Buddhism requires merit and good roots. Those who have never planted good roots and merit in the Buddha-dharma naturally cannot benefit from the Buddha-dharma. Those who do not take refuge in the Three Jewels, who do not take refuge in the Buddha, however clever in worldly debate, cannot attain the wisdom of liberation. So no matter how clever worldly people are, they still lack the wisdom of the Buddha-dharma and are not people of the Buddha-dharma. The Buddha-dharma can only save those who take refuge in Buddhism, who have faith in and value Buddhism, who are willing to plant good roots and merit in the Three Jewels. Those unwilling to take refuge in the Three Jewels are very hard to transform; even if they come to study the Dharma, they are doing research, taking the Buddha-dharma as amusement, unable to attain the fruits or enlightenment so as to gain the benefits of the Buddha-dharma. Because they have no faculty of faith, they have no five faculties; without the five faculties there are no five powers, and they cannot fulfill the thirty-seven aids to the Path; therefore they cannot deeply engage in contemplative practice, attain the fruits, or see the mind, and become people of the Buddha-dharma.
47. The Purpose of Studying and Cultivating Buddhism
The purpose of cultivation is liberation of the mind; do not fixate on the fruits—the fruits are by-products. Take subduing afflictions and removing ignorance as the goal, take gaining great wisdom and immeasurable wisdom as the goal, take saving sentient beings as the goal—with such goals, one is pure and without obstruction.
Precepts, meditation, and wisdom are in essence a disciplined mind and a concentrated mind, causing the mind to give rise to wisdom. Precepts mean cutting off afflictions, cutting off the nature of self, cutting off obstructions—this is the fundamental function of precepts. Only by cutting off obstructions, so the mind does not give rise to wrongdoing, can there be concentration, with deep and thorough reflection, thereby giving rise to wisdom.
The purpose of cultivation is to break all ignorance and attain liberation. Without ignorance there are no afflictions, no birth-and-death, no bondage; all afflictions come from ignorance. If cultivation is linked to other things, that is ignorance, and there is no liberation.
And to remove ignorance, sever the self-mind, and attain liberation, one cannot do without helping others attain liberation together. While helping others, one gains the resources of merit, gains all the resources of seeing the Path of no-self, cultivates one's own liberating mind of no-self, cultivates one's own bodhicitta of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. So helping others is helping oneself; the two are not opposed but unified.
How many people study Buddhism just to gain knowledge, using the knowledge and theory they master to obtain worldly fame and gain, to obtain others' reverence, to obtain the power to dominate others, to obtain a stronger self. This increases ignorance, increases bondage, decreases liberation—such knowledge and theory are afflictions. But after true realization, it is not so: one's own mind gains a corresponding measure of liberation and tranquility, and can also bring coolness to others, improve the surrounding environment, benefit others—both self and other gain benefit.
Modern people do not know how to cultivate in a down-to-earth way; all day long they open their mouths and talk, talking everywhere—regardless of what they say, what for, and what they are after? Is studying and cultivating Buddhism really just to display oneself, to make others think one has cultivation and knows much? Some people have quite a rich imagination but are far too lacking in actual practice and realization; they often speculate about the Buddha-dharma rather than actually contemplating it, and are still very confident. All reflection without meditative concentration belongs to speculation; reflecting on Buddha-dharma far removed from one's own realization is also speculation; taking one's speculated Buddha-dharma to debate with others—all belong to that category of people who display the self.
If there is no practice, merely lecturing to others is like a deaf man without ear faculties playing music for others: however beautiful the music, he himself cannot hear it at all—so it is with one who has not cultivated the Buddha-dharma. It is like a boatman on the great sea who often ferries people across the sea, yet may himself perish in the sea—so it is with one who has not cultivated the Buddha-dharma.
The ignorance of sentient beings could not be exhausted in telling over many great kalpas. If one had the leisure to enumerate it bit by bit, how many people would be astonished, never having imagined that their minds are full of ignorance. One cannot find any dharma that does not arise from ignorance; everyone has ignorance, at all times there is ignorance, in all matters there is ignorance—ignorance exists broadly and universally. Even finding "enlightenment" is difficult; when someone believes he has no ignorance but only enlightenment, that itself is ignorance. Delusion fills the sky and covers the earth—from beginningless kalpas until beginningless kalpas hence, far too much, far too much.
