Miscellaneous Discourses on the Dharma (Part II)
Chapter Seven: Taking Refuge in the Dharma, Not in Persons
I. True Taking Refuge in the Dharma, Not in Persons Means Not Even Relying on the Buddha
Original text of the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra, the Fourteenth: The Entry into the Womb Assembly:佛言。（如来）是知道者。是识道者。是说道者。是开道者。是大导师。如来。应正等觉。明行足。善逝。世间解。无上士。调御丈夫。天人师。佛世尊。世间之人无知无信。常与诸根而为奴仆。唯见掌中。不观大利。易事不修。难者恒作。难陀。且止。如斯智慧境界。汝今应以肉眼所见而观察之。知所见者皆是虚妄。即名解脱。
难陀。汝莫信我。莫随我欲。莫依我语。莫观我相。莫随沙门所有见解。莫于沙门而生恭敬。莫作是语。沙门乔答摩是我大师。然而但可于我自证。所得之法。独在静处。思量观察。常多修习。随于用心。所观之法。即于彼法观想成就。正念而住。自为洲渚。自为归处。法为洲渚。法为归处。无别洲渚。无别归处。
Explanation: The Buddha said that the Tathāgata is one who deeply knows the path that is cultivated, is one who proclaims the path, is one who develops the path of cultivation, and is the great teacher of the world—the Tathāgata, the Worthy One of Perfect and Complete Enlightenment, the One Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, the Well-Gone One, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed One, the Tamer of Beings, the Teacher of Gods and Humans, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. People of this world lack both knowledge and the faculty of faith; they constantly serve as slaves to the six sense faculties, seeing only the small benefit in the palm of the hand and not perceiving the greater benefit. They do not cultivate the easy task of practicing the Path, yet they perpetually engage in the difficult work of creating the suffering karma of birth and death.
Nanda, first stop and say no more. Regarding such a realm of wisdom, you should now observe the dharmas seen with the fleshly eye, and you will know that everything seen is false and illusory—this is called liberation. Nanda, do not believe what I say, do not follow my wishes, do not rely on my words, do not observe my appearance, do not follow whatever views the śramaṇas hold, do not feel reverence toward the śramaṇas, and do not say that the śramaṇa Gautama is my great master.
However, you must take the dharma that I have realized and attained for myself, and alone in a quiet place, deliberate and observe it much, cultivating it frequently and abundantly. As for the dharma you observe, if you can cultivate it with great dedication, you will accomplish the contemplation of that observed dharma. A dharma whose contemplation you have personally accomplished is one you have personally realized; from then on you will abide in the dharma with right mindfulness. In this way, you yourself can become the dry land of an island, you yourself become the place of refuge; the dharma you have personally realized is the dry land of the island, the place of refuge—there is no other dry land, no other place of refuge.
What the Buddha said in this passage is truly brilliant: he is telling his disciples that they must personally realize the truth, relying on dharma that they have personally verified, and not blindly believe in and rely on external dharmas that have not been personally realized. Whatever the dharma may be, and whoever may have spoken it, it must be brought out for observation and examination; only after observation, when it can be personally realized, may it be believed and relied upon. Even the dharma spoken by the Buddha himself must be continuously observed and deliberated upon, and only after realization may it be fully relied upon. This is called taking refuge in the dharma, not in persons—even the Buddha may not be relied upon; one must rely on the dharma, on truth, on facts. If it has not been examined, then it is blind reliance, which does not open wisdom.
By contrast, sentient beings in the Dharma-ending Age have meager merit (alpa-puṇya) and no wisdom, and they insist on relying on persons. As soon as a person becomes famous and gains a reputation, they will unconditionally lean on him to gain a sense of belonging, yet they have no ability to examine and discern the dharma—it is entirely emotional attachment. Those who always hold up some treatise or other as absolute truth should wake up: judging the correctness of the dharma based on a famous person's name is complete reliance on persons, not right faith. Right faith is what the Buddha spoke of: one must observe and deliberate, examine and personally realize; if it accords with fact, then it may be relied upon as truth; if it cannot be examined or realized, then one had best not open one's mouth to judge, lest one create the evil karma of slandering the Three Jewels.
II. Those of Low Wisdom Can Hardly Truly Rely on the Teachings and the Dharma
If one's own wisdom is low, then even if one relies on the teachings, one cannot actually do so, because one cannot understand the teachings, not knowing their true meaning and direction, and one will often misunderstand and misinterpret them. Relying on such misinterpreted teachings and then comparing them with what others teach, the reference point is wrong, so the results of the comparison are of course wrong, and one cannot accurately judge whether what others teach is correct or not.
If one's wisdom is low, even if one wants to rely on the dharma, one has no way to do so; likewise one cannot judge the true meaning and direction of the dharma principles—either one misunderstands them or one only dimly and vaguely fails to understand. One cannot understand the dharma meanings taught by others, cannot truly comprehend them, and thus cannot accurately judge whether what others teach is correct or not, and one gains no benefit from the dharma. If one then insists on thrusting oneself forward and judging everywhere, one easily creates the karma of slander, which not only obstructs one's own progress on the Path but also brings the evil retribution of foolish slander. Therefore, while one's wisdom is still insufficient, one should bury oneself in study and practice, not judge any dharma or any person, be a wise person, not create evil karma, and not receive evil retribution.
III. The Problem of Taking Refuge in the Dharma, Not in Persons
If one has personal realization and can engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) through direct perception, then one relies on the factual truth of all dharmas and not on any person. Only factual truth is the true dharma, the ultimate dharma; yet factual truth is not something ordinary people can know and realize, so ordinary people have no choice but to rely on the words of persons. However, the words of persons all have flaws and deficiencies. Even the Buddha's words have a surface meaning (the words) and an ultimate meaning (the significance); ordinary people cannot distinguish them, and so they cannot rely on the ultimate significance.
In short, only through personal realization can one rely on a portion of the facts, and in the future gradually come to rely on the whole of the factual truth. Those of great wisdom certainly do so; all Buddhas rely on factual truth. In particular, the first Buddha, Buddha Vipasyin, relied entirely on personally realized truth, with no person to rely on. Therefore, we should still find ways to cultivate meditative concentration (samādhi), engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) within concentration, and strive for personal realization. Relying on persons is after all unreliable. The Buddha warned his disciples, "Take heed not to believe your mind; your mind is not to be believed"—only upon attaining the fruit of arhatship may one trust one's own mind. Even quotations from Buddhist sutras are not necessarily correct. If a bodhisattva's treatise, such as the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, is inconsistent with the Buddhist sutras, then the sutras are the standard. Yet the sutras are also stratified, and relying on the meaning rather than the words is very difficult; without personal realization it is hard to understand the true meaning. One can imagine in what state of mind the Buddha spoke the four reliances when he instructed them at the time of his passing, and how deeply worried he must have been.
If the Buddha has not certified a certain bodhisattva's realization level as such that one may rely on him completely, one hundred percent, then one cannot rely on him completely or one hundred percent. After all, bodhisattvas do not possess the full wisdom of a Buddha; their wisdom still has flaws and deficiencies. Even Bodhisattva Maitreya was once rebuked by the Buddha for a deficiency in wisdom. All the dharma spoken by bodhisattvas can certainly be relied upon, but not one hundred percent; bodhisattva treatises surely contain some flaws and deficiencies that those without the dharma eye cannot detect. Even the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra was not personally spoken by Bodhisattva Maitreya himself when he came to the human world; rather, it was relayed through the mouth of an intermediate bodhisattva. If that bodhisattva's realization level was not extremely high, his relay would also contain errors. Thus, one sentence relayed by ten people may come to have ten meanings. Therefore, each student of the Dharma should still devote effort to contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) to eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), and then see the mind and realize the nature—this is the safer course.
IV. Taking Refuge in the Dharma, Not in Persons
Relying on the dharma means relying on facts and truth, which is an extremely difficult matter, because with insufficient wisdom one cannot realize and verify the facts. That one's exposition of the dharma does not conflict with facts is extremely important; that it does not conflict with what the Buddha taught is very important. Personal realization means realizing the facts and according with them—this is the most crucial point of practice. The so-called evidence is that you have personally examined it and become certain without doubt; only then may you believe and follow it. If a dharma cannot be examined, or if you lack the ability to examine it, then it cannot serve as the dharma and fact you rely upon.
Relying on persons means taking famous people as the standard, establishing the rightness or wrongness of the dharma based on persons rather than judging it purely from the standpoint of dharma principles, dharma meanings, and facts. If the person's name were covered up, the vast majority of people would be at a loss regarding the dharma that person taught, unable to make a determination. Such reliance on persons carries enormous faults. Studying Buddhism and practicing the Path require relying on the dharma and on facts, not on persons. Apart from the Buddha, no one can be followed one hundred percent; otherwise, the Buddha's dying instruction and earnest teaching—"rely on the dharma, not on persons"—would become empty words, and we would be violating the Buddha's teaching and his painstaking intentions.
If the Buddha has not certified that what a certain person taught is such-and-such, or is one hundred percent correct, then one must make one's determination and judgment cautiously. Only the Buddha alone taught the dharma with one hundred percent correctness and may be relied upon one hundred percent; everyone else, including Bodhisattva Maitreya of the wondrous enlightenment stage, is not one hundred percent correct. Every sentient being, every bodhisattva, has more or fewer defects and errors. When one lacks wisdom and sufficient evidence, one should not lightly pass judgment; when one has wisdom, one should use one's own contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) through direct perception to clarify the issue.
Moreover, no matter whom one is evaluating, the evidence must be complete and conclusive; one must spell out points one, two, three, four, five, and articulate the problem clearly. If one cannot, then one has no contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) through direct perception and no evidence; one should then work hard in private to raise one's level of wisdom and improve one's contemplative wisdom. If one has no realization, no wisdom of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) through direct perception, then choose silence and refrain from making evaluations. If one insists on saying something, without a basis one is prone to misjudging, and if the judgment is wrong, the retribution is also great.
If one cannot engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) through direct perception oneself, one has no choice but to rely on the words of famous people—but this belongs to relying on persons, not on the dharma. Many people believe only in fame and authority; this is a matter of necessity, because without the wisdom to discern, they can only rely on fame and authority. If a famous authority's dharma teachings contain errors and omissions, later generations will have to follow those errors forever, and no one can make up for or correct the dharma teachings in any way—this is how the Buddha-dharma has been strangled and brought to a standstill. In the secular worlds of science and academia, no one ever relies on persons; science and technology are always leaping forward, changing with each passing day. Yet the rules of relying on persons practiced in Buddhism have kept Buddhism from developing for thousands of years.
V. The Preciousness and Rarity of Observational Wisdom
"Many highly intelligent people tend to rely on intuition rather than rational thinking when making decisions." This statement reflects the understanding of worldly people. Why is it that among the many of us who study Buddhism, no one has such observational power and understanding—including all the Buddhist masters?
Those in society who work in philosophy, psychology, and sociology possess observational wisdom far out of the ordinary, far surpassing the practitioners in our Buddhist community. Why is the wisdom of people in Buddhist circles so feeble? The various debaters, professional and amateur alike, have thinking and observational abilities that are painful to behold. They only know how to rely on persons and cannot rely on the dharma. With observational power so weak, how could they possibly rely on the dharma? If all kinds of elites from society came to study Buddhism and practice, what would Buddhism look like?
