Miscellaneous Discourses on the Dharma (Part II)
Chapter 9: On Practice
1. How to Practice So That It Brings Benefit
Practicing the Dharma is like going into a cornfield to pick ears of corn. Your purpose is to pick the corn, bring it back, cook it, and fill your belly—not to sightsee and stroll around the cornfield. Therefore, picking the corn is the primary task. Of course, before starting to pick, you may first take a general look at the situation in the field—which ears are ripe and should be picked, which are not yet ripe and should not be—and then choose where to begin. But some people are not like this: they wander back and forth in the cornfield all day long, hungry, touching here and looking there, yet never getting down to picking. Such a person is a fool.
Buddhist practitioners are the same. After roughly browsing, reading, and being exposed to some Buddhist teachings, you should set about genuine practice and real training, choosing the nearest and easiest point of entry, and apply yourself solidly to the work of the Path—gaining whatever you can gain, realizing whatever you can realize. You cannot spend years and a whole lifetime always remaining at the stage of extensive listening and exposure, tirelessly studying the teachings of others and counting money for others; having your own wealth and treasure is the true way. Otherwise you will starve to death and become a hungry ghost.
If you want to have your own attainment on the Path and not become a starving ghost, you must begin from the foundations and apply yourself solidly. Cultivate the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, gaining a bit at a time; remove evil and cultivate goodness, subduing afflictions a bit at a time; purify the mind, a bit at a time. Even if you have not yet seen the Path, what you have cultivated in this way can be carried into future lives for your benefit. Practicing is far more useful than not practicing, and far better than counting others' treasures. Happily counting other people's money, immersed in it—only when the time comes to use it do you discover that not a single cent belongs to you, and then it is too late for regret. For the intelligent and wise, how to study the Dharma and practice should now be very clear.
2. The Difference Between Practitioners of the Dharma-Ending Age and Practitioners of Ancient Times
The further into the degenerate age, the thinner sentient beings' merit and the shallower their good roots, so that in the realization of the Buddha's teachings, gradually there are many who talk about the principles but few who penetrate them, many who understand the Way but few who walk it, and those who genuinely attain realization through practice are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. Liezi said: "On the great road, sheep are lost through many forks; students lose their lives through many methods." When the study of Dharma is too scattered and confused, because one cannot go deep, one sees no thread or order. In practice, often the more one knows, the less one realizes, because without meditative concentration (samādhi) there can be no actual realization, whereas broad listening and learning does not require meditative concentration to intellectually understand much of the Dharma—but actual realization is out of the question. Modern people cannot cultivate meditative concentration; if we do not expound more correct principles for sentient beings, many people will go around broadly listening and learning, picking up theories that are not in accord with the truth. If even the principles that guide realization are wrong, realization becomes even more impossible.
What we should most emulate are the practitioners of ancient times. We should investigate how they cultivated the Way, how they applied effort—did they all learn piles of theory and then, with eloquent gushing, debate everywhere, or eloquently preach everywhere, taking up the role of teachers? Without one's own realization, how can one teach others to realize? Why would one wish to be a teacher? Is there not in this a mind that seeks to display the self? We see that the ancient sages, even after attaining the Way, remained humble and low-key and continued their own cultivation; they would not lightly occupy a mountain stronghold or accept the staff of Dharma transmission handed down by a master. Because they were without self and had self-knowledge—with so many sages propagating the Dharma, sentient beings could be sufficiently delivered; if one's own Way was not yet firm, why insist on thrusting oneself forward? Modern people are just the opposite: regardless of whether it is the Way or not, as long as they can come to the fore, that is fine.
3. The Difference Between Buddhist Practitioners Past and Present
People of ancient times had better spiritual faculties (indriya); their minds were simple and practical, willing to pay the price for practice, genuinely cultivating and genuinely working without regard for personal gain, able to see through and let go, with light afflictions, few desires, and a strong mind of renunciation. Modern people are restless and ungrounded, with high eyes and low abilities, empty-bellied and lofty-minded, their mouths sharper than their brains, using the mind consciousness entirely for broad listening and broad interpretation, unable to investigate deeply within meditative concentration, floating on the surface of consciousness, unable to penetrate within. The investigation of the manas and the interpretation of the mind consciousness are as different as heaven and earth. Because they interpret so much, arrogance blazes, afflictions are not dissolved, and this becomes the heaviest obstruction to cultivating the Path.
People of ancient times had solid foundations in the Buddha's teachings and cultivated well even in the fine details. Modern people today ignore foundational Buddhism, considering the Four Noble Truths dispensable, aiming high while reaching far, craving the great and abandoning the small. Because they lack foundational practice, afflictions cannot be subdued, mental conduct cannot be transformed, and their bodily, verbal, and mental actions carry heavy afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, causing karmic obstructions to grow heavier rather than lighter; their Buddhist practice makes no progress. Modern people all look down on non-Buddhists, yet apart from Buddhist knowledge and views, in every other respect they cannot match even half of what non-Buddhists have. Those non-Buddhists have minds of renunciation, hearts that are honest and simple, profound meditative concentration, extremely light afflictions, strict self-discipline, and moral character—in all these respects they surpass modern Buddhist practitioners.
Non-Buddhists merely had not encountered the true Dharma of liberation; once they encountered it, many could immediately realize the first through the fourth fruit. Modern people are in contact with Buddhism their whole lives yet cannot even see the shadow of the first fruit—except for those with false realization. How can they compare with non-Buddhists? Non-Buddhists simply lacked wisdom and had not met the corresponding Dharma; they were just one step short of realizing the fruit and liberation. Many non-Buddhists, upon meeting Buddhism and hearing the Buddha's voice of Dharma, had their hair and beard fall out, the kasaya robe don itself upon them, and their afflictions severed completely. In those past eras, despite such harsh living conditions, the non-Buddhists did not care; they sat in meditation and entered samādhi deep in the mountains and forests. When they met the Buddha teaching the Dharma, tens of thousands or even more would follow the Buddha into homelessness to cultivate the Way, and those who realized the fruits were extremely many.
But we, in contact with Buddhism year after year, after decades cannot even cultivate the Eightfold Path, do not even have the most basic desire-realm concentration, our minds full of afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, with disputes over self and others and gossip unceasing day after day, unwilling to endure the slightest hardship, unwilling to give up the slightest enjoyment, grasping at wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep in every way—our theories in the mouth can ascend to heaven, while our bodily conduct draws near the evil destinies. If so-called Mahāyāna Buddhists are all like this, they are disgracing the Mahāyāna Dharma and destroying the Mahāyāna Dharma, and hardly anyone can awaken to this fact.
4. Studying Buddhism and Practicing Is Not That Easy
Studying Buddhism and practicing is extremely difficult, because the ignorance, afflictions, and karmic obstructions accumulated over beginningless kalpas are extremely deep and heavy, and the grasping at self and grasping at dharmas are extremely severe; removing and breaking through them is by no means easy—without great strength, great courage, and great wisdom it cannot be done; without the kalpa-spanning blessing and support of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions it cannot be done; without the long-lasting protection of the Dharma-protecting deities it cannot be done. If someone says that practice is very easy—that by just doing something in one area, taking in a little here and there, one can become a Buddha, enter the house of the Tathāgata, or attain enlightenment, and that nothing else needs to be cultivated, no deep and systematic cultivation, no laying of foundations step by solid step, no keeping of precepts, no cultivating of concentration, no paying of any price, no great hardship, and that one can accomplish it happily while living and studying Buddhism—then we should know that this person has achieved nothing at all, because he certainly has never paid any price, is unwilling to break free from the bonds of the five worldly desires, and his craving and attachment are still very serious.
Keeping precepts—no good; meditative concentration—no good; foundational practice—no good; having never genuinely cultivated anything, he certainly has never genuinely gained anything. That is why people say one can become a Buddha through a lifetime of practice, become a Buddha in this very body, become a Buddha in this very life, become a Buddha simply by rebirth through reciting the Buddha's name; that among precepts, concentration, and wisdom, no precepts and no concentration are needed—only prajñā wisdom, and with wisdom one can directly become a Buddha. We must be vigilant toward all such claims and not be deceived. Those who have never walked that road often say that road is easy to walk; those who are truly walking on it will understand the scenery along the way as it really is and will speak truthful words to others.
We must be vigilant toward those who make the Buddha's Dharma sound very simple and practice sound very easy. Those who have never experienced it imagine from fantasy that everything is easy. For example, looking at the moon overhead at night, one feels it is very close to oneself, that wherever one goes the moon follows, seemingly within arm's reach. But when one climbs a ladder to the clouds or boards an airplane toward the moon, one knows that no matter how far one flies, the moon remains just as far away—always that far. The feeling is of closeness, but feeling is after all only feeling, hazy and vague; the reality differs from the feeling far too much.
Studying Buddhism and practicing is the same. It feels easy to become a Buddha, easy to attain realization, but in reality, once one sets out on the road and takes the first steps, entangled by ignorance and karmic obstructions, not a single step is easy. We need to continually discard some worldly burdens, renounce some worldly enjoyments, and pay the corresponding price before we can exchange for some attainment. Without giving up, there is no gaining. Truly good things can never be obtained cheaply.
5. The Habits of Practitioners Run Counter to Worldly Habits
There is a saying: "What the Way treasures, the world discards; what the world prizes, the Way avoids." Cultivating the Way is precisely an act that runs counter to the worldly; only by going against the worldly can one break through the world's confinement and attain liberation. If one blindly conforms, this is not cultivating the Way—it is no different from the worldly, and one cannot transcend the mundane and leave the world.
Because practitioners have cultivated over long kalpas, they develop habits distinct from worldly habits—for example, frugality, diligence and vigor, not cherishing or clinging to the body, not craving food, drink, sleep, and enjoyment. Most of their behavior may be opposite to that of worldly people. Many worldly people find this strange, cannot get used to it, think themselves right and practitioners wrong, and thus want to correct them.
If one becomes accustomed to the life of cultivating the Way, the habits of practitioners no longer seem strange, while the worldly greedy habits of worldly people become strange. Going against the worldly is what is normal; conforming to the worldly is what is abnormal. Looking at it now, who is actually normal and who is not? What, after all, is normal?
Anyone accustomed to worldly life will consciously or unconsciously conform to worldly dharmas in everything. In fact, they have not yet cultivated to the point of having the power of introspection (pratyavekṣā-bala). Worldly people are greedy, and they greedily follow along without knowing it is greed; worldly people cling, and they cling too without knowing it is clinging; worldly people love enjoyment, and they love enjoyment too, even thinking it is normal—that is precisely abnormal. Being too accustomed to worldly dharmas, without the slightest thought of resistance, feeling everything is natural—such a person is still very, very far from practice. When in contact with practitioners, if one feels that practitioners do not conform to worldly norms, lack human warmth, and one even constantly wants practitioners to conform to one's own worldly habits, such a person is still very, very far from cultivating the Way. When a person has gotten somewhat onto the road of practice, they will feel that worldly dharmas are not quite right, feel uncomfortable—only then does a bit of awakening begin.
"The belt loosens, the person grows haggard"—this is the language of olden times describing practitioners of Chan investigation. When one genuinely applies effort to practice, the body will certainly be affected: eating less, drinking less, resting less, even staying awake all night, vigorously pursuing the Way. Only thus can the Chan-investigation effort become continuous, progress quickly, and one day lead to seeing the mind and enlightenment. People today all cherish their bodies, unwilling to let the body suffer; then only the mind can suffer—and suffering life after life, unbearably.
6. People of Different Spiritual Faculties Progress at Different Rates in Practice
A: In this Dharma-ending age, those who have attained results have all come again by virtue of their vows. Those without results can only lay a good foundation for practice, establish good and correct practice habits, and plan for the long term.
B: Even Bodhisattvas who have come again need several years of diligent practice before producing results again. Those who are not returning Bodhisattvas need even longer—ten, twenty, thirty years; results cannot be achieved in a short time. Each person can only compare with themselves; if the present shows a fairly big improvement over the past, the practice has been effective. One cannot become fat in one bite. In the intermediate transitional stage, one needs to fulfill the various causal conditions for seeing the Path, which is extremely difficult. Of course, the mind consciousness seeing the Path is very simple and easy—it requires no intermediate process, no fulfilling of the conditions for seeing the Path; one only needs a good brain.
7. Only by Practicing by Means of False Appearances Can Attainment Be Achieved
Some people say: since all dharmas in the world are illusory false appearances, all unborn, then there is no need for us to strive to do anything anymore; nothing we do has meaning. Is this right? Of course it is not right. Striving in practice upon false appearances is precisely in order to realize that worldly dharmas are unborn; only after realizing this can one break free from the bondage of worldly dharmas and attain liberation. Only by practicing by means of false appearances can attainment be achieved; before attainment, one must strive very hard to practice upon false appearances. All the good deeds done on the path of studying Buddhism are for the sake of realizing the Path, realizing the unborn, realizing the markless and the ultimate reality (dharmatā); only after realization does one truly know the unborn, and only then can one attain liberation and become a Buddha.
The conditioned is for the sake of the unconditioned. Therefore, before one has the ability to be unconditioned, all meaningful conditioned actions that should be done must be done diligently. Whatever you do, you do for yourself; you yourself receive the benefit—you harvest the fruit of the unconditioned. On the surface it seems you have benefited others, that others have received your help, that you have protected the Three Jewels and benefited the Three Jewels and sentient beings; in reality, you yourself have received the greatest benefit. If the Three Jewels do not benefit and sentient beings do not benefit, then everything you have done is without benefit, all wasted effort. So-called benefit only arises on the basis of benefiting the Three Jewels and sentient beings; if others have not received benefit, you will not gain blessings, merit, or wisdom.
For example, giving to sentient beings brings a return of a thousandfold or more; but if the other party does not accept it, there is not even a onefold return. The other party has not benefited, so there is no return at all. It is like giving ten thousand yuan to empty space: space receives nothing and benefits nothing, equivalent to losing ten thousand yuan yourself. What return is there in losing money? You get not a cent back, let alone a thousandfold or ten-thousandfold return. It is like giving ten thousand yuan to the great ocean: the ocean receives nothing and benefits nothing, and the money is even ruined; you have simply wasted ten thousand yuan for nothing—and deliberately destroying printed banknotes is even an offense. It is like giving ten thousand yuan to a great fire: the fire burns it up; the giving not only brings no benefit but is even an offense.
Some people never forget their own acts of giving, always feeling they have bestowed favor on others; but in reality it is precisely the other party who has bestowed favor on them. If others were not willing to accept your generous giving, by what would you receive a thousandfold or ten-thousandfold return? By what would you accumulate bit by bit so many provisions of merit for seeing the Path? So that sentient beings could accumulate more merit, as the Buddha was about to enter parinirvāṇa, he specially had several arhat disciples remain in the world with their forms, accepting offerings from sentient beings and providing them the opportunity to cultivate great merit. Those arhats actually did not wish to receive offerings: first, they found it troublesome; second, it consumed their own merit. But as disciples of the Buddha, first they had to respect the Buddha's arrangement, and second they had to benefit sentient beings. That is why they did not enter nirvāṇa without remainder but remained in the world.
Some people make the gift of Dharma, posting messages to guide those with affinity into proper study and practice, feeling as if they were doing work for the master, as if others were the ones benefiting while they paid out their own time and energy, feeling they were losing out. They do not understand what the result of their gift of Dharma is, how supreme it is, and how great the benefit they will finally receive—perhaps beyond counting and calculating. It is precisely because of this merit and these blessings that one can swiftly accomplish the Buddha Way in one's study and practice in this and future lives, sparing oneself the suffering of birth-and-death in saṃsāra for countless kalpas. This retribution cannot be exchanged even for treasures as numerous as empty space; the resulting retribution cannot be fully described. And those who benefit from one's gift of Dharma are far inferior to oneself in blessings, merit, and wisdom. The greater the benefit the Three Jewels and sentient beings receive from your giving, the greater your blessings and merit, and the highest your future wisdom. As long as one's vision is not short-sighted, one should observe this as it truly is, considering one's own future and greatest benefit.
A Bodhisattva's blessings exceed an arhat's by ten-thousandfold, hundred-millionfold, immeasurably, because the Bodhisattva is together with sentient beings life after life, and with every gesture can benefit sentient beings, thereby simultaneously obtaining blessings and merit multiplied by tens of millions, hundreds of millions, immeasurably. Therefore the Bodhisattva is a greatly wealthy elder whose riches and honor no one in the world can match. When blessings and wisdom are perfectly complete, one will accomplish the Path through the eight marks of a great man and become the Teacher of Gods and Humans, the Buddha, the World-Honored One.
8. The Difference Between Modern and Ancient Buddhist Practitioners
The characteristics of modern people: their environment is complex, the six sense-object realms are too alluring, the Dharma is easy to learn, knowledge is abundant, the mind consciousness is extremely clever—extremely clever—yet meditative concentration is hard to cultivate, so they cannot cultivate the Way or attain the Way; hence they can only be called students of Buddhism, rarely practitioners of the Way. Ancient people lived in a simple environment; the Dharma was hard to obtain, knowledge was scarce, theory was scarce, their minds were simple, and meditative concentration was easy to cultivate; hence there were many practitioners of the Way and many who attained it. Abundant knowledge ultimately became an obstruction to cultivating the Way, turning into the obstruction of the knowable (jñeya-āvaraṇa): theory is sufficient, but the Way does not appear—one dies beneath theory, like dying of thirst at the edge of the sea.
The ancients asked: How do you modern people die? The moderns answered: crushed to death by theory, poisoned to death by knowledge, dead from being too clever. There is also another kind of death: death by research.
9. Only With a Solid Foundation Can There Be Realization
After each person studying the Dharma has mastered the theoretical knowledge needed for practice to a certain degree, they should not spend more time and energy on theory, because no matter how much theory is studied, it remains theory in the end; it cannot become one's own most genuine wisdom with which to withstand birth-and-death and attain liberation. Only by actually realizing the Buddha's Dharma can great wisdom arise and liberation be attained. And to realize it, one must begin cultivating step by step from the foundational Dharma of the Four Noble Truths, realizing it bit by bit; one cannot practice in leaps.
We should now start from the foundations. The foundation is very important; it must be laid well. Because if the foundation is not laid well, no matter how deep a Dharma you study, you cannot study it to completion; it can only form a kind of view, at most reaching the level of understanding, and cannot be actually realized. If the theory one studies cannot be realized, true wisdom will not arise; only the wisdom of personal awakening can lead us out of the mire of birth-and-death.
Therefore we should now begin cultivating from the contemplation of the four foundations of mindfulness, first realizing the liberation of the Small Vehicle, and then, using this method, devote ourselves to the Chan investigation of the Great Vehicle, and we can awaken to the tathāgatagarbha. Afterwards, observing the functions and operations of the tathāgatagarbha, we then obtain the wisdom of specific characteristics; as wisdom further grows, and after passing the final barrier, we investigate Consciousness-Only, immersing ourselves in the functions and operations of the seeds of the tathāgatagarbha, possessing a portion of the Consciousness-Only seed-wisdom and the wisdom of the varieties of paths—that wisdom would then be truly remarkable. But such great wisdom cannot be obtained in one or a few lives; it is accomplished through the accumulation of good roots and merit over life after life, even over countless kalpas, realized step by step upon the very solid foundation of the initial fundamentals of the Buddha's Dharma.
10. Without Diligence, Through Indulgence, the Work of the Path Does Not Advance
If one indulges oneself in practice, one will lose oneself in daily trivialities, so that the work of the Path cannot advance, and perhaps through carelessness one may even regress. If one can constantly hold oneself, introspect upon oneself, examine oneself, and reflect on oneself, so that the mind has no cracks, afflictions cannot creep in, and meditative concentration and wisdom will gradually arise. If the work of the Path has not advanced, there is certainly a problem. The problem has been sitting there all along, yet one cannot discover it—what does this show? Discovering the problem yet not wanting to solve it—what does this show? Wanting to solve it yet being unable to—what does this show? Worldly affairs most easily cause people to sink; to break free is the hardest. When the mind's strength is insufficient, what is it lacking?
11. How to Most Quickly Attain the Perfect Fulfillment of Worldly Dharmas
Almost everyone pursues worldly dharmas, hoping to be the most outstanding and finest in the world—most talented, most wealthy and honored, most wise, most virtuous, most cultivated, most respected, with everything most perfect, including family and relatives. Then how can this goal be achieved, and achieved most quickly? That is to come and practice—to practice single-mindedly and earnestly, practicing with as much relinquishment of self as possible. Only practice is the one path that can swiftly and perfectly fulfill one's wishes; there is no other path. Other paths cannot remove greed, hatred, and delusion, and one's virtue, cultivation, and worldly dharmas cannot be perfected. Only when practice is cultivated well will one's blessings, wisdom, talents, wealth, relatives, and so forth all be perfectly complete; one's aesthetic sense, eloquence in language and writing, unobstructed powers of debate, and various refinements will all be elevated.
The Buddha is the supreme honored one of the three realms, perfectly complete in all dharmas, including worldly dharmas; in worldly dharmas, in everything he is the utmost, the pinnacle, with no one surpassing Him. Compared with the Buddha, the Bodhisattva is not the utmost; but compared with all worldly people, the Bodhisattva is the utmost in everything, surpassing all worldly people. Whatever worldly people hope for and admire, the Bodhisattva possesses—it is only a matter of whether the Bodhisattva manifests it and uses it. We should take the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas as our model, and we must devote our minds as much as possible to cultivating the Path, no longer applying the mind to worldly dharmas—the loss outweighs the gain. When one's practice skill rises, the mind becomes extremely subtle and minute, feeling very keen and intelligent; whatever one does, inspiration arises; one has spiritual vitality. Cultivating the Way is the greatest and quickest shortcut to obtaining supreme worldly dharmas.
12. After Hearing the Dharma, Actual Practice Is the True Way
Broad study and extensive hearing is called counting others' treasures while oneself not owning half a cent. After seeing others' treasures, one must find a way to obtain one's own treasure. What state of mind is it to count one's own treasure? Rather than standing at the water's edge envying the fish, better to go back and weave a net. No matter how many fish you see in the deep pool, none are yours; the intelligent person should turn back and weave a net, using the net to catch fish—only then can you enjoy them. But in this world, people of intelligence and wisdom seem few: they only admire others' treasures without wanting to own their own, never mind going hungry. Some people relish hearing the Dharma day after day but are never willing to apply effort to obtain the Dharma. Having finished looking at others', one should turn back to work on one's own—how solid it would be to own it oneself! Only what you yourself have counts as having; how can what others have be counted to your credit?
The ancients said, "Learning without thinking leads to confusion." We should say, "Learning without practicing leads to confusion." Because many people do think, but their thinking is very shallow; without meditative concentration, their contemplation stays only on the surface of the Dharma, unable to penetrate deeply, knowing only the skin and fur, and then they claim they have realized, have realized—pitiable in their shallowness and arrogance. That bit of thinking cannot be called practice at all. Practice means repairing and rectifying—repairing one's own body and mind. Only when the body and mind, after being rectified, undergo a corresponding degree of change can it be called practice. If the person is still the original person, the mind still the original mind, with the same afflictions as before, it can in no way be called practice—let alone expecting the fruit of practice; that is impossible. A fruit self-conferred easily melts away and rots.
13. Eliminating Feeling and Sensation Is Not the Primary Goal of Practice
Some people always think that eliminating feeling and sensation, having no more sensations, is the basis and hallmark of realizing the Path. In fact, subduing and eliminating feeling and sensation relies mainly on profound meditative concentration; whether or not one has realized the Path, as long as one has very deep meditative concentration one can eliminate feeling and sensation—even non-Buddhists with the four dhyānas and eight samādhis can do this. Even with first-dhyāna concentration one cannot eliminate feeling and sensation; the feeling within first dhyāna is only blissful feeling, feeling very comfortable, but it still belongs to the category of sensation. Eliminating all feeling and sensation requires cultivating to the point where the aggregate of feeling is exhausted; only concentration above the fourth dhyāna can exhaust the aggregate of form, and only afterwards can the aggregate of feeling be eliminated, realizing the exhaustion of the aggregate of feeling; only after that can the aggregate of perception and the aggregate of volitional formations be eliminated.
Attaining liberation is liberation of the mind; there is no need to eliminate feeling and sensation. As long as one does not cling to sensations, one can attain liberation. Eliminating sensation is not the primary goal of our practice; the primary goal is to eliminate the mistaken views and wrong views (mithyā-dṛṣṭi) held since beginningless kalpas—that is, the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi) that takes the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) as the self. When the view of self is eliminated and one is no longer bound by the view of self, one can attain preliminary liberation, and one's subsequent practice will be on the right track.
