The Process of Learning the Dharma: From Quantitative Change to Qualitative Transformation

Regarding the content of a particular dharma, if the time spent studying it is short and the amount of material one has been exposed to is small, one cannot achieve a qualitative leap. At the beginning, the dharma meanings one has studied are not easy to recall and not easy to integrate into a coherent whole, because initial learning relies mainly on the mind consciousness; before the essentials have been grasped, the mind consciousness is basically engaged in rote recitation and memorization, and the material has not reached the manas. What is recited and memorized is easily forgotten—after all, what has not been realized is not yet one's own. Only after the manas has understood it does it become hard to forget; one can recall it anytime and anywhere, and speak it out as soon as one opens one's mouth. Therefore, what has been truly understood and realized does not need to be memorized or recited; when it is needed, the principle immediately becomes clear and one can expound it. What has been memorized and recited takes a period of time to reproduce and cannot be presented immediately; one needs to recollect it, and even what is recollected may not be complete.