Miscellaneous Discussions on Buddhism (Part One)
Chapter Eleven: Attaining Fruition and Seeing the Mind
1. Taking Shortcuts Results in Attaining Paper-Mache Fruits
In truth, everywhere and anywhere, the eyes are full of green mountains without a blade of wild grass. Every stem and leaf, every blade of grass, every single thread—truly real and without falsity, yet without a trace. Sought him a thousand times in the crowd; suddenly turning one's head back, the lantern lights are dim—everywhere and anywhere, where is it not? In the past the mind was blind and the eyes even blinder; now the eyes are full of golden light. This is the lament of one who has awakened to the Way.
When the conditions for attaining fruition and seeing the mind are complete, upon encountering causes and conditions—no matter what kind of causes and conditions—one can attain fruition and see the mind. If one encounters the Buddha expounding the Dharma, one can all the more attain fruition and see the mind and see self-nature; the Buddha's majestic virtue and power of blessing are extremely great, and the magnetic-field effect of the Dharma assembly where the Buddha expounds the Dharma is also considerable. Moreover, practitioners in the Buddha's time generally possessed profound meditative concentration (dhyāna), their minds were very pure, they all had the mind of renunciation, their afflictions were slight, and their roots of goodness and merit were deep; therefore, upon hearing the Dharma once, they could follow the Buddha's voice in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) and deliberation, and immediately attain fruition and see the mind.
We sentient beings of the Dharma-ending age cannot compare in spiritual faculties (indriya) with the sentient beings of the Buddha's time; our roots of goodness are scanty and our merit thin, our minds restless; most of us lack meditative concentration, so no matter how detailed the Buddha's teachings are, they cannot enter the mind, and thus no one can truly realize any fruition; at most one can understand it a bit, which is already quite good. Precisely because sentient beings generally lack meditative concentration and cannot perfect it, a saying has emerged that one need not cultivate concentration but can directly engage in contemplative practice of the Buddha's teachings. But without meditative concentration, how can there be the ability for contemplative practice? What can one contemplate out? How long can one contemplate? To what degree can one contemplate? Everyone can test this themselves: how great is the difference in effect between contemplative practice before having meditative concentration and after having it? It can be said the difference is enormous—they are essentially not the same thing.
For a single Dharma principle, deliberating with meditative concentration versus without it is as different as heaven and earth. Therefore many people, when deliberating on the Dharma, cannot truly understand its real meaning; they misinterpret and misunderstand far too much, and to actually realize it and contemplate it in direct perception is truly extremely difficult. Even so, many people greatly trust their own comprehension, readily citing a passage of sutra text to prove their viewpoint. In fact the meaning of the sutra text and their viewpoint are not consistent; they have misinterpreted much without knowing it themselves. Many who study the scriptures simply cannot truthfully and thoroughly understand the true meaning of the classics, yet think themselves quite capable. In fact the Buddha's teachings can never be researched out through study; one must, within profound meditative concentration, deliberate in accordance with reality and engage in contemplative practice and investigation to truly understand and truly realize. Study cannot yield realization.
Some people, seeing the records in the Buddhist sutras that sentient beings attained fruition and saw the mind at the very moment of listening to the Buddha's exposition of the Dharma—those people had not cultivated meditative concentration yet directly attained fruition—seem to think that as long as one can hear the Dharma, a little deliberation suffices to attain fruition, without needing to specifically cultivate concentration. This misunderstanding is quite serious. They do not know that those who attained fruition at the moment of hearing the Dharma had already perfected meditative concentration, their roots of goodness and merit were deep, lacking only the causal condition; encountering the most supreme causal condition of the Buddha expounding the Dharma, of course they could attain fruition and see the mind and see self-nature very easily.
These people can only see the final result of those who attained fruition; they cannot see how long a path of cultivation those people had already walked, how they applied effort before listening to the Buddha's exposition of the Dharma, how they made aspirations and practiced, how they strove to cultivate meditative concentration. Ignoring all these necessary conditions, they exclusively excerpt this final segment of attaining fruition—this is the most serious form of quoting out of context.
Modern people are so restless they all want to take shortcuts; the simpler and more direct the better. They do not want to walk the road the Buddha walked, believing their own methods are more practical and more direct than the Buddha's, not requiring such hardship. Could it be that an ordinary person is superior to the Buddha, has more wisdom than the Buddha? Was the Buddha's cultivation all roundabout detours, while one's own path is the most direct, requiring no foundation-laying, no payment of any price, no arduous cultivation of concentration to subdue one's own mind—just doing some research can yield great results? The fruits produced by research are all paper-mache; they scatter and break at a blow of the wind, and melt when meeting fire. Nowadays in the world there are too many fake fruits, all stamped with radish seals, unable to withstand the slightest stir of wind and grass; after death, the karmic retribution will be known to oneself.
Because sentient beings differ in ignorance and karmic power, they attract different karmic retributions, having different physical bodies as direct retribution and different living environments as circumstantial retribution. When a karmic retribution ends, one enters into another karmic retribution. Because the karmic retributions differ, the physical bodies differ, the brain's organizational structures differ, the wisdom manifested differs, and behavioral expressions differ.
2. The Anxious Mind Longing for Enlightenment Possesses the Nature of Self
Before enlightenment it is best to eliminate much karma, so that after enlightenment one will not be crushed and swept away by karmic power, wasting the enlightenment in vain. If merit is insufficient at the time of enlightenment, once one awakens, karmic obstructions quickly appear, and all kinds of māra-obstructions and disturbances will appear. Those whose power of concentration is also insufficient will be dragged down, regress, and even lose the mind for the Way. Even if one does not regress in the Way, the changes to the physical body and in all aspects are considerable, and the pressure one must bear is not small.
For enlightenment, it is best that it come steadily and naturally, as water flows and a channel forms. If all conditions are incomplete and merit is lacking, yet one anxiously longs to awaken, then even if one awakens very barely, māra-obstructions will come thick and fast, and ordinary people can hardly bear it. Most fearsome is regressing from the Way under enormous pressure; when one might come back, no one knows. In ordinary times one should cultivate more merit, eliminate more karma, do more repentance, and enjoy less felicity. At the critical moment, with merit supporting one, those with great vows have vow-power supporting them, and with Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and dharma-protecting deities protecting them, one can get through the ordeal.
3. Those Heavy with Self Like to Put Tall Hats on Themselves
Eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) is the sixth abode stage; seeing the mind is the seventh abode stage. Without eradicating the view of self, one cannot see the mind. If one sees the mind without eradicating the view of self, two selves appear before one; with conceit deep and heavy, one will make a great uproar.
If one has not realized the falsity of the self of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), how can one accord with no-self? Feeling accord without realizing it is merely the mind consciousness's self-conviction, without basis, belonging to emotional thinking and intellectual understanding. The mind consciousness's delusive perception is precisely the manifestation of the nature of self; not understanding oneself and the actual situation, one puts tall hats on oneself. Many people are like this: having realized not a single dharma, they believe their mind is emptied, that the four marks are gone, that things are like dreams and illusions, that they are about to enter nirvāṇa, that the precepts with marks need no longer be cultivated and they can begin cultivating the mind-ground precepts, and so on—very quickly they become lofty and grand. This is an enormous misunderstanding of Buddhist cultivation and realization.
4. Those Heavy with Self Like to Make Fake Fruits
For the Dharma body to live, one must eliminate the wrong thought that the five aggregates are the self; not establishing the self of the five aggregates, the Dharma body can easily be discovered. But in the process of searching for the Dharma body there is the thought of investigation, which suppresses the worldly thoughts of greed, hatred, and delusion. Applying effort thus, one day one will be able to see the Dharma body.
But as for an enlightenment that has not gone through the process of investigation—whether it truly counts as awakening to the Way, and what its ultimate result is—not even the Buddha has the final say; cause and effect and King Yama have the final say. The god of death best illustrates the matter and holds the greatest power. If one very much hopes oneself to be a person who has attained fruition and seen the mind, very much hopes oneself to be a sage, disregarding the truth of facts, this is still a very serious self—"I must be such and such"—this is precisely self. If one has truly eradicated the view of self and there is no self, has truly seen the mind and realized the emptiness of the five aggregates, one should fully display one's mind of liberation; what fruition one holds or does not hold does not matter, it makes no difference. With no self, there is also no fruit; only with a self is there fruit.
Some will say that both eradication of the view of self and seeing the mind are the first fruit; the first fruit has not eradicated afflictions, which are the same as an ordinary person's, and there is no merit of liberation. Then what is the difference between having and not having eradicated the view of self? Attaining the first fruit without even a bit of meritorious benefit of liberation; seeing the mind and realizing the tathāgatagarbha without even a bit of meritorious benefit of liberation, the same as an ordinary person—then what is called the virtue of the fruit? All fruits have virtue. After attaining a fruit, if there is no fruit-virtue, then it is merely a name, a nominal designation, without any meaning. Even if this name were given by the Buddha, it is not inherently existent, not unborn and unceasing, and therefore has no substantive meaning. But both genuine realization and false speech each have their own cause and effect.
At the time one truly begins cultivating the Way there is already a certain meritorious benefit; throughout the process of cultivating the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, there are meritorious benefits of varying degrees—only at that time there is no meritorious benefit of liberation, because without eradicating the view of self there is no liberation. But after eradicating the view of self and seeing the mind, there is meritorious benefit of liberation in varying degrees: the first fruit has the liberation-virtue of the first fruit, the second fruit the liberation-virtue of the second fruit, the third fruit the liberation-virtue of the third fruit, the fourth fruit the liberation-virtue of the fourth fruit. Although eradicating afflictions is a matter of the third fruit and beyond, the afflictions of a first-fruit person differ greatly from an ordinary person's, and the afflictions of a Buddhist practitioner in the process of cultivating the Way also differ to a degree from those who have not begun cultivating. Otherwise, what use is learning Buddhism and cultivating practice?
So many people like fruits—why do they like fruits and not pay attention to facts? Because a serious self and self-grasping are at work. Even if the Buddha specially bestowed a fruit, and one's own virtue does not correspond to that fruit, and in fact one has not truly attained the fruit, yet one still greatly cares about and grasps at this fruit—that too is the view of self and self-grasping, still a self. Obtaining a fake fruit this way, feeling delighted in one's heart, propagating it everywhere, swaggering everywhere—this shows the nature of self is still very heavy, one will not escape birth-and-death; this is called deceiving oneself and deceiving others.
A true practitioner should pay no heed to what fruit; one should attend to whether one's mind has changed, whether one has truly been liberated, whether one's cultivation has yielded meritorious benefit. If one truly has meritorious benefit, even if the Buddha issues no certificate and no one acknowledges one's attainment of fruit, in fact you yourself still have the fruit, the realization-measure of liberation, and can attain liberation. Conversely, if one has no meritorious benefit, no genuine realization-measure of liberation, even if the Buddha issues a certificate and everyone reveres you as a great virtuous one, an arhat, a bodhisattva, in fact one is still an ordinary person, still within the karmic obstructions of birth-and-death.
What everyone learning Buddhism and cultivating practice seeks is true liberation and true progress on the Way, not vanity. What is vain is unreliable; what it brings is still vanity, like a soap bubble. We should not gaze at how beautiful the soap bubble is, should not love bubbles and shadows; we must seek the actual, must obtain the real. Saying is one thing; actually doing it is very hard. Only after the tide of attaining fruits has passed can the Buddhist community begin to be pragmatic. Now is a period of vehement pursuit of fruits and glory; true practitioners are hard to encounter. Only when the splendor fades can the real be revealed.
5. The Dignified Bearing of Monastics
Practitioners of the two vehicles divide into those who have seen the Way and those who have not. Practitioners who have seen the Way, because they have realized that the five aggregates and eighteen realms are subject to arising, ceasing, and change, without real substance, without any sovereign self, have realized the samādhi of no-self, broken through the four marks—no mark of self, mark of person, mark of sentient being, or mark of life span—and obtained purity of the Dharma eye; therefore in their minds there is toward the four marks a feeling of emptiness, of unreality, and conditioned dharmas involving the four marks of self and person grow fewer. Because of the precepts concurrent with the Way, greed naturally lessens in their minds, disputes of self and other lessen, and they can subdue afflictions. After cultivating the first dhyāna, afflictions are eradicated, the afflictions of greed and hatred extinguished; at that time, in contact with the opposite sex there is no mind of lust, and the mind is free and unobstructed. But because of the monastic precepts, and in order to demonstrate a model for sentient beings, and also to avoid sentient beings' misunderstanding, those of the third and fourth fruits abide by the precepts in speech and conduct, conforming to the norms, while inwardly unrestrained.
Monastics are the refuge of sentient beings; in outward appearance they must observe dignified bearing, so that sentient beings who see them will give rise to reverence toward the Three Jewels and plant roots of goodness. In the Buddha's time, the World-Honored One founded the saṅgha, first, so that sentient beings could leave the worldly and attain liberation, and second, to serve as sentient beings' refuge, guiding them to leave the worldly and take refuge in the Three Jewels, planting the seeds of liberation. Every monastic, whether or not they have seen the Way, leads by example, models strict observance of the precepts, with regulated speech and conduct and complete dignified bearing. When they go alms-begging with their bowls, they contact many sentient beings and should all the more maintain complete dignified bearing, lest they be ridiculed by sentient beings, creating evil karma and reaping evil retribution. So when they beg for food, walking along the road, they lower their heads and eyes on the path ahead, not glancing left or right, not looking sideways, not raising their heads to stare directly at the crowd before them; upon meeting a donor, of course they do not distinguish whether the person is male or female, beautiful or ugly; taking the bowl of food, they turn and leave, without polite pleasantries. Because the practitioners single-mindedly wish to liberate themselves from birth-and-death, their minds are not on the realms of the six sense objects, nor on worldly affairs; only thus can they realize the Way and be assured of not being entangled by the worldly five desires and six sense objects.
For śrāvakas after the third fruit, afflictions are eradicated, not merely suppressed; because they are eradicated, they are not entangled by the five desires and six sense objects, and can leave the three realms and attain liberation. Suppression of afflictions means pressing down afflictions; it occurs before the second fruit, especially subduing afflictions before seeing the Way. Only at the third fruit can afflictions be eradicated. Suppression cannot leave afflictions behind and cannot attain liberation.
As for the cultivation of Mahāyāna bodhisattvas, it likewise cannot depart from what śrāvaka practitioners practice; departing from the Hīnayāna cultivation, one is not called a bodhisattva but can only be an ordinary person. At the very beginning, in the course of their personal cultivation, bodhisattvas too, like śrāvakas, observe the precepts, maintain complete dignified bearing, and serve as models for sentient beings. Only by observing the precepts can they attain meditative concentration, and thereby see the Way. Bodhisattvas must also begin cultivation from the Hīnayāna eradication of the view of self; without attaining fruition, they cannot see the Way in the Mahāyāna. The Hīnayāna precepts, concentration, and wisdom, and seeing the Way and obtaining purity of the Dharma eye—Mahāyāna bodhisattvas cannot bypass any of these; otherwise there would be neither Mahāyāna bodhisattvas nor Hīnayāna practitioners.
After bodhisattvas see the Way in the Hīnayāna and attain the first fruit, they must continue additionally cultivating the first dhyāna in order to eradicate the five lower fetters—the three fetters plus the afflictions of greed and hatred. Only then are they qualified to pass the three barriers of the Chan school in the Mahāyāna Dharma, as well as the barrier of heat-shimmer illusions and the contemplation of things being like a dream, and further to be qualified to enter the first bhūmi. After entering the first bhūmi, they deliberately do not exhaust afflictions, do not take up the noble state of separation from birth of the arhat—that is, do not realize the fruit of the fourth-fruit arhat—but retain the tiniest afflictions un-eradicated, so as not to enter nirvāṇa without remainder; entering nirvāṇa without remainder would sever the seed of Buddhahood.
No matter how anxious a bodhisattva is to become enlightened, they cannot bypass the various checkpoints of the Hīnayāna. If one deliberately wishes to bypass them, then such a person is not a true practitioner, let alone a Mahāyāna bodhisattva. A bodhisattva complete with the four marks and afflictions is no bodhisattva, equivalent to an ordinary person. If a bodhisattva has the mental conduct of being anxious for enlightenment, this mind is a mind with something sought, not a mind of non-action. A mind with private aims certainly has the four marks and afflictions—that is an ordinary person's mind. Corresponding to the ordinary person's mind, one cannot become a true bodhisattva. A true bodhisattva is certainly one who has broken through marks: no mark of self, person, sentient being, or life span, and also no mark of attaining fruition and no mark of enlightenment. Whoever has these marks is an ordinary person.
6. Eradicating the View of Self Comes First, Seeing the Mind Comes After
The cultivation and realization of all dharmas begins from subduing the view of the body and eradicating it. When sentient beings first encountered the Buddha's teachings, countless eons ago, they all began from understanding the aggregate of form of the five aggregates. After who knows how many eons of cultivation, when their roots of goodness and merit had become deep, they encountered the Mahāyāna bodhisattva Dharma and gradually recognized that within their own bodies there is a true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, as their original mind. But even then they still had not subdued the view of the body and the view of self, let alone eradicated them.
Since eradicating the view of self precedes seeing the mind—that is, it is before the bodhisattva's seventh abode—after the view of self is eradicated and the false self topples, the true mind can be discovered; seeing the mind at this point is the fruit of the seventh abode of the abode stages. Therefore it must be that eradicating the view of self comes first and realizing the true mind comes after. Even when Mahāyāna bodhisattvas investigate Chan, in the process of investigation they likewise must gradually subdue the view of body and view of self, then eradicate them. There is no such principle that after seeing the mind the view of body and view of self still remain; if such a phenomenon exists, it shows this person has not seen the mind, has not gone through a genuine stage of investigating Chan, and has not investigated deeply; their fruit came somewhat oddly, or one might say its provenance is unknown.
7. Two Kinds of Repentance Based on Ultimate Reality
Wherever one created karma, there one must sincerely repent, vowing not to commit it again; before however many people one created karma, before that many people one must sincerely repent. If the influence of the evil karma is very great and one's study of the Dharma has reached a considerable level, one may adopt repentance based on ultimate reality. This repentance has two kinds. One is repentance based on the principle of non-arising according to the Hīnayāna: in concentration, contemplating the unreality of the five aggregates and the unreality of the bodily, verbal, and mental actions created by the five aggregates; realizing the first fruit or the direction of the first fruit, and obtaining purity of the Dharma eye, one can repent to purity.
The other is repentance based on the principle of non-arising of the tathāgatagarbha according to the Mahāyāna Dharma: contemplating how the just-committed bodily, verbal, and mental actions arose, and finally realizing that one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions are all bit by bit produced by the tathāgatagarbha, that there is no reality to bodily, verbal, and mental actions, that the five aggregates are false, and that the bodily, verbal, and mental actions dependent on the five aggregates are therefore also false—then the karma is dissolved. Of course one must possess preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi) to have any hope of truly realizing the tathāgatagarbha; only afterward can one observe exactly how bodily, verbal, and mental actions are produced by the tathāgatagarbha. Once one realizes the Buddha's teachings in this way, the karma leading to the three evil destinies is all eliminated, including the offenses of the three evil destinies from beginningless eons. But this is extremely difficult, requiring quite excellent roots of goodness, merit, meditative concentration, wisdom, and causal conditions.
8. The Importance of the Power of Concentration for Seeing the Mind
Lacking the power of concentration and merit, even if one barely sees the mind, subsequent progress will be very slow. If concentration is insufficient when one sees the mind, the period of awakened clarity is very short, subsequent meditative concentration does not easily arise, and the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion cannot be lessened; because the power of concentration is insufficient, the wisdom of contemplative practice also does not easily arise, and many dharmas cannot be contemplated. Attaining fruition and seeing the mind must be achieved under excellent power of concentration; then meditative concentration can arise swiftly, and taking advantage of this opportunity, before long one can cultivate to the first dhyāna. Past this moment, the first dhyāna does not easily arise, the second and third fruits are not easily attained, the second and third barriers of the Chan school are not easily passed, and then entering the first bhūmi in this life is without hope.
9. The Three Barriers of the Chan School
The three barriers of the Chan school are checkpoints for the advancement of wisdom. The first barrier is realizing the tathāgatagarbha; the second barrier is seeing the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, that is, the buddha-nature, seeing in all six sense objects the functions manifested by the tathāgatagarbha. The third barrier is the adamantine barrier; passing this barrier, the great matter of birth-and-death can be resolved, and one has the ability to enter nirvāṇa. Once the Chan school's investigation of Chan is concluded, further on one must study the vaipulya consciousness-only teachings.
Realizing enlightenment in the Chan school is equivalent to the Hīnayāna first fruit; the third barrier is equivalent to the Hīnayāna third or fourth fruit. Taking the Mahāyāna fruit simultaneously entails the Hīnayāna fruit, whereas attaining the Hīnayāna fruit does not necessarily entail the Mahāyāna fruit—showing that the Mahāyāna encompasses the Hīnayāna. The arhat's seeing emptiness is seeing the emptiness of the self of the person, knowing the five aggregates and eighteen realms are empty, not the self, but has not yet realized the tathāgatagarbha. The bodhisattva's seeing emptiness is realizing that the tathāgatagarbha is real, is the mind of emptiness (śūnyatā), while simultaneously knowing that the dharmas of the five aggregates and eighteen realms produced by the tathāgatagarbha are empty. Both realize emptiness, but the content is not entirely the same.
10. Only After Seeing the Way Can Root Afflictions Be Eradicated
The defilements of affliction and the stains of defilement can be cultivated away only after eradicating the view of self or seeing the mind and seeing self-nature; before that, afflictions are only suppressed—though not manifest on the surface, they in fact remain hidden. After eradicating the view of self or seeing the mind and seeing self-nature, knowing that the five aggregates are truly not the real self, the self within the mind loosens, and meditative concentration can arise and gradually deepen. After cultivating the first dhyāna, the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion can be eradicated one by one, and the manas's grasping at self can be extinguished bit by bit; after the afflictive stains of the mind-ground are removed, the mind becomes pure.
After eradicating the view of self, knowing that the dharmas of the five aggregates and eighteen realms are all false, when one later investigates Chan and realizes the true mind, one no longer takes false dharmas as real; most importantly, one no longer takes the various subtle marks of the mind consciousness as the eighth consciousness and awakens to them, and thus will not awaken erroneously. Upon finding the eighth consciousness, one can observe whether He is subject to arising and ceasing, whether He belongs to dharmas within the eighteen realms, whether He has mutability, whether He has the characteristic of impermanence; discovering that He is indeed real and forever unchanging, greatly different in nature from the seven consciousnesses; and one can further observe how the eighth consciousness produces the five aggregates, and how He cooperates with the five aggregates and seven consciousnesses to produce the myriad dharmas. Thus one can confirm that this mind is the true mind, the eighth consciousness—this is true seeing of the mind and realization.
At the very moment of eradicating the view of self, can afflictions be eradicated all at once? Not necessarily; it depends on the degree to which afflictions were subdued before eradicating the view of self and the degree of cultivation of meditative concentration. If afflictions are still very heavy, always tending to become manifest, and the power of concentration is not very good, eradicating afflictions requires a certain length of time; therefore the duration for eradicating afflictions varies from person to person and cannot be generalized. When the World-Honored One was in the world, some people had already cultivated to very high meditative concentration before listening to the World-Honored One's exposition of the Dharma, their afflictions effectively subdued; at the moment of confirming in their minds, upon hearing the Dharma, that the five aggregates are not the self, all their afflictions dropped away at once, and they immediately became arhats. If our cultivation lacks the skill of meditative concentration, even if we eradicate the view of self and become first-fruit persons, eradicating afflictions requires a long time; perhaps a whole lifetime may pass without eradicating afflictions, and we remain merely first-fruit persons complete with the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion.
11. Hīnayāna Seeing of the Way Precedes the Mahāyāna
Truly realizing the tathāgatagarbha is also not easy, because throughout eons we have clung without release to the false appearances of the five aggregates and eighteen realms, grasping the functions of the seven consciousnesses as the self, as real; this obscures our own self-nature, making us not recognize the true Dharma and acknowledge only false appearances. If we can first eradicate the view of self and then investigate Chan searching for the tathāgatagarbha, it becomes relatively easier. That requires cultivating the Hīnayāna Āgama sutras, eradicating the view of self, and after becoming a first-fruit or second-fruit person, eliminating one by one the false appearances of the five aggregates and eighteen realms, and then searching for the truth within these false appearances.
Within the false dharmas of the arising and ceasing of the five aggregates, one must search for that pearl that is unborn and unceasing; only after eradicating the view of self can it be found easily. Because once the false appearances are all eliminated, the truth can be revealed. Before eradicating the view of self, one easily takes these false appearances of the five aggregates as the pearl; if one takes the five aggregates as the pearl, then the true pearl of the self-natured pure tathāgatagarbha is not easily found, the true and false mixed together being hard to distinguish. Once we have eliminated all the five aggregates and eighteen realms, it becomes easy to find the self-natured pure mind, and one quickly enters the gate of Buddhism.
12. The Buddha's Power of Embracing and Receiving Is Similar to Hypnosis
The story of Yongshe committing grave offenses and awakening to non-arising tells that after the bodhisattva Yongshe left home and received the full precepts, he violated two grave precepts—the killing precept and the sexual precept—and at death should fall into hell to suffer. Because he feared his karmic retribution, he went to seek rescue from Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, who led him to see the Buddha. The Buddha then analyzed for Yongshe Bodhisattva: whether there truly existed this person, the monk Yongshe; whether there truly existed this person whom monk Yongshe killed; whether there truly existed this event of killing. After Yongshe Bodhisattva deliberated on the spot, he saw the mind, became enlightened, and awakened to non-arising, becoming a true bodhisattva—not merely eradicating the view of self and realizing the first fruit. Yongshe Bodhisattva was extremely fortunate to meet the Buddha: not only was his karma dissolved so he would not fall into hell, he also attained realization and became a bodhisattva, with all karma of the three evil destinies exempted.
When the World-Honored One expounded the principle of non-arising to Yongshe Bodhisattva, he used the method of hypnosis. Yongshe Bodhisattva was at that time in extreme panic, fear, and shame, his mind tangled like hemp; yet the Buddha was able to steady his state of mind, guiding him to deliberate on the no-self of the person, guiding him to deliberate on the creator behind. Finally the manas of Yongshe Bodhisattva confirmed the principle of no-self, realized the creator, and he both eradicated the view of self and saw the mind. To meet the Buddha and be hypnotized by Him—what great roots of goodness and merit that requires. We should all cultivate more merit, so that in the future, meeting the Buddha and being hypnotized by Him, we can become bhūmi-stage bodhisattvas and become sages.
Also in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the portion on eradicating the view of self that the World-Honored One taught while untying King Ajātaśatru's mental knots is quite excellent. After King Ajātaśatru killed his father, he suffered retribution in this life, his mind extremely terrified and uneasy. After seeing the Buddha, the Buddha dissolved his karma, asking King Ajātaśatru: does this person, your father, truly exist? Do you truly exist? Does this event of killing one's father exist? King Ajātaśatru listened and deliberated, saying no; afterward he attained the rootless faith, but did not realize the first fruit or the direction of the first fruit—still because the karmic obstruction of killing his father obstructed it. With rootless faith, too, the karma of hell can be dissolved, and at death one can be born in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī). This too was the method of hypnosis the Buddha used on sentient beings; only those with merit can encounter it. Therefore merit is extremely, extremely important. Some people act only for themselves, unwilling to cultivate merit; selfishness is foolishness—one will not gain any benefit for oneself.
13. Seeing the Way in Consciousness-Only Comes After Attaining the Third and Fourth Fruits
Seeing the Way in consciousness-only mainly refers to attaining a portion of the seed-wisdom of consciousness-only. In Hīnayāna cultivation it comes after the third fruit, approaching the fourth fruit; in Mahāyāna cultivation it comes after the three barriers of the Chan school and the contemplation of things being like a dream. A first-bhūmi bodhisattva must be a Hīnayāna third-fruit person with afflictions eradicated, though perhaps a bit of conceit of self and grasping at the five aggregates or the three-realm world remains un-eradicated.
Ordinary people studying the consciousness-only Dharma can likewise awaken to the Way, and once enlightened, their view is deep, subtle, and definitive. Awakening through the Chan school yields wisdom somewhat coarser and shallower, because prajñā wisdom is not as deep and subtle as consciousness-only wisdom.
Bodhisattvas from the first bhūmi up to the seventh bhūmi, in order to retain afflictions to moisten continued rebirth, may not enter the definite position of the Hīnayāna fourth-fruit arhat, may not realize the fourth fruit; otherwise they would inevitably enter nirvāṇa. For bodhisattvas, retaining a little craving is beneficial for continuing cultivation and propagating the Dharma in the Sahā world; beyond that there is no necessity whatsoever.
14. Understanding a Theory Does Not Mean Having Realized It
Any theory, after you have learned of it, understood it, grasped it, known it, can apply it, can answer questions fluently, can explain it to others, can explain it clearly, with everything clear in your mind—yet, does that equal having realized it? Does it equal it being your own theory, your own knowledge and view, your own insight? Reaching the point where the theory is thoroughly familiar in the mind is not difficult; answering fluently and drawing inferences from one instance is also not difficult. What is difficult is being able to reach the stage of seeking verification, to realize it step by step; and most difficult is being able to smoothly pass through the stage of realization and truly realize and obtain it.
15. The Difficulty of Attaining Fruition
For sentient beings to attain the fourth fruit and become a great arhat liberated in both ways is no simple matter. For ordinary people, attaining the first fruit is already a gratifying achievement, exempting one from the karma of the three evil destinies, never going to the three evil destinies. For such a result, even paying all everything in the world would be very, very worthwhile. If one tried to exchange money for such karmic retribution, not even hundreds of millions of kotis could buy it; this is a priceless treasure. For beings in the hells and three evil destinies, even possessing all the assets of the earth, they might not be able to exchange for a human body. To extinguish a person's attachments accumulated since beginningless eons within one lifetime is like taking an airplane—even an airplane is not that fast.
Third- and fourth-fruit persons who have eradicated worldly greed and grasping, before learning Buddhism, living in the world, often could not tolerate everything in the world, sometimes feeling very distressed, their behavior everywhere differing from ordinary sentient beings, as if they were oddballs, often not understanding why it was so. Only after learning Buddhism could they understand: it turns out they were different from the crowd. If a person's bodily, verbal, and mental actions at all times and places are no different from others—if sentient beings are greedy, hateful, and deluded and one is equally greedy, hateful, and deluded; however heavy sentient beings' afflictions, one's own afflictions are equally heavy—then for such a person, attaining the first fruit in this life is already difficult; as for the fourth fruit, don't even think about it.
16. The Four Kinds of Nirvāṇa
There are four kinds of nirvāṇa. The first is the nirvāṇa of the self-natured pure mind, realized when bodhisattvas see the mind. This nirvāṇa is the unborn-and-undying nature, purity, and tranquility (praśama) of the original mind of self-nature.
The second kind of nirvāṇa is nirvāṇa with remainder (sopadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), realized by those of the third and fourth fruits—that is, while the arhat still has a physical body existing, there is remaining suffering to depend on; the physical body still has some feelings of suffering, such as the suffering of illness, the suffering of hot weather, the suffering of mosquito and insect bites, and so on. Arhat-bodhisattvas can also realize this kind of nirvāṇa.
The third kind of nirvāṇa is nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), realized by fourth-fruit arhats: at death they extinguish their own five aggregates and enter nirvāṇa, the body reduced to ashes and wisdom extinguished, with no more feeling of suffering of any kind—suffering then has no aggregate-body to depend on. Arhat-bodhisattvas will also realize this kind of nirvāṇa, but will not enter nirvāṇa, will not extinguish themselves forever.
The fourth kind of nirvāṇa is the nirvāṇa of no abiding, realized by the Buddha. The Buddha does not abide in nirvāṇa, nor abide in birth-and-death; it is the great liberation, the ultimate liberation, with liberated form (mokṣa-rūpa); because of compassion for sentient beings, He manifests countless physical bodies to rescue sentient beings, never abandoning sentient beings.
17. The Difference Between Expounding Principle and Realizing Principle
When Patriarch Bodhidharma met Emperor Wu of Liang, why was he unwilling to deliver him? After hearing him say a few words, he turned and left; even when Emperor Wu sent troops to pursue him, he did not turn back. He would rather face a wall alone for nine years in a stone cave at Mount Song in Henan than come out to deliver people, still less Emperor Wu. What kind of person was Emperor Wu of Liang? One can look him up online: he built monasteries, sponsored people to leave home, made offerings to the Three Jewels, personally lectured on the Diamond Sutra; when Layman Fu ascended the hall to expound the Dharma, Emperor Wu crouched down, using his back as a step for Layman Fu to walk up into the lecture hall. Such a figure, with deep merit and no shallow roots of goodness—why did Patriarch Bodhidharma not guide him? If Emperor Wu were in today's age, he would have "awakened" eighteen or nineteen times already; such indriya is hard to encounter even in today's society, yet Bodhidharma simply took no notice of him, refusing even to guide him into saying a few more words—why exactly? During the nine years of wall-gazing, how many people could the patriarch have delivered, yet he did not come out to expound the Dharma—why exactly?
Emperor Wu of Liang's merit was indeed great; his protection of the Three Jewels was especially devoted, and his roots of goodness could not be called shallow. But after all they were not deep enough for him to see the mind and become enlightened, to recognize the school at a word; therefore Patriarch Bodhidharma had no means to gradually teach him step by step upward—he was not the material for the Chan school; saying more was useless. The Chan gate delivers those who wish to liberate themselves from birth-and-death and whose causal conditions are also complete; those whose conditions are incomplete cannot be forcibly guided into awakening, otherwise it harms Buddhism and sentient beings.
Patriarchs who truly attained the Way most detest expounders of principle who can talk but cannot practice; what they seek are disciples who can truly realize principle, suitable vessels for the Path. So Patriarch Bodhidharma, seeing that the person whose conditions had matured had not yet appeared, faced the wall for nine years to wait. Although Emperor Wu could at the time ascend the platform and lecture on the Diamond Sutra, could serve as a seat-master of the Diamond Sutra, he was after all merely an expounder of principle, still unable to realize principle. Expounding principle without having realized it—the words are mostly water, without real meaning; whatever mental effort Bodhidharma applied to him would have been useless, because Emperor Wu was after all not yet a suitable vessel for the Path.
It is like Chan master Deshan in the old days before his enlightenment: he had lectured on the Diamond Sutra who knows how many sessions, was known as "Zhou Vajra," and shouldering two loads of Qinglong commentaries and subcommentaries, rushed south to defeat māras. But after being delivered to enlightenment by Chan master Longtan, he resolutely and decisively burned with one torch the two loads of commentaries that were the fruit of years of his heart's blood, muttering: "穷诸玄辩，若一毫置于太虚；竭世枢机，似一滴投于巨壑。" The meaning: however much principle one has expounded and however many arguments one has debated, it is like a single hair thrown into empty space—utterly weightless; exhausting all one's wisdom and ability is like a drop of water cast into a vast ravine—insignificant. Before true enlightenment, however many books one writes, they are all waste paper.
What is the difference between expounding principle and realizing principle? The expounder of principle uses the mind consciousness; the realizer of principle uses the manas. In Patriarch Bodhidharma's Bloodline Treatise there is a sentence: "若不见性，说得十二部经教，尽是魔说，是魔家眷属，不是佛家弟子，既不辨皂白，凭何免生死？" The meaning: even if one can lecture on the twelve divisions of the Buddhist canon, if one has not seen self-nature (become enlightened), it is the same as māra's speech.
The phenomenon of much expounding of principle and little realizing of principle is very common, especially now in the Dharma-ending age: everywhere are expounders of principle, realizers of principle almost invisible; expounding fills the sky and covers the earth, quite helplessly. As for those expounders of principle, calling them "understanding-awakened" already raises them several steps, and they are still dissatisfied with the name "understanding-awakening." Those understanding-awakened all have a process of genuine actual practice; they simply have not reached the final level of realization, the final result not being realized—they reasoned it out and imagined it—but they do have meditative concentration, only not quite complete; they have wisdom, only with more water content; they have cultivated the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, only not perfectly; they have cultivated the bodhisattva's six pāramitās, only not finished. Why, when even the conditions for understanding-awakening of the Dharma are not complete in modern times, would so many realization-awakened people appear? The answer, everyone may ponder themselves.
18. The Drawbacks of Inference and Speculation Are Great
Investigating Chan requires the perfection of the bodhisattva's six pāramitās; the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment must all be cultivated to completion; especially one must possess preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi). Only when investigating Chan at that time, with conditions complete, can one realize enlightenment. Otherwise one is either expounding theory or making inferences and guesses; even if the result produced is reasonable, there is no meritorious benefit of liberation, one cannot eradicate the three fetters, and cannot truthfully contemplate the operation of the eighth consciousness.
With a result produced by inference, the five aggregates do not die, the mental conduct is not emptied, afflictions remain as before; if one additionally gains a conceit of self, afflictions become worse than before. How many so-called sages have afflictions worse than before, with two selves in their minds—all because they lacked meditative concentration, did not go through the arduous process of investigation, their mental conduct not quietly turned and subdued; a fruit suddenly appeared in their minds, and so conceit arose and afflictions increased.
Whether the Mahāyāna fruit or the Hīnayāna fruit, the fruit itself is not the most important thing; most important is, when the fruit appears, whether it touches one's mind greatly, whether it changes oneself more or less, to what degree, and whether from then on one can forever benefit from this fruit, using it as a starting point to step onto a solid, real, bright road of liberation. To obtain the greatest benefit, one must value the manner, channel, and process of attaining the fruit; the process represents the arduousness of gathering evidence—the more arduously obtained, the sweeter it feels, the more one cherishes it, the more firm the mind, the more tranquil, the more at ease, the more without self, the less likely to regress. The more one invests, the greater the harvest; attaining the fruit easily, without effort, the feeling of no-self is slighter, the less able to eradicate the fetters of birth-and-death, the less easily one attains liberation.
