Spiritual Practice Should Be Pragmatic

Based on the cultivation practices of the twenty-five sages in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, practitioners of the past were very pragmatic in their cultivation. They did not study an extensive amount of theory; after briefly familiarizing themselves with some teachings, they immediately engaged in actual contemplative practice within meditation. Their cultivation primarily focused on dhyāna (meditative concentration) and contemplative practice, with meditation and investigative inquiry constituting over eighty percent of their practice. Their cultivation was exceedingly solid and earnest. Consequently, they were able to quickly realize the truth, attain samādhi, and achieve results rapidly. Many realized the truth, yet few expounded theories.

In contrast, people today devote over ninety percent of their energy to studying theoretical knowledge. While they may possess strong abilities in recitation and memorization, they lack the capacity for independent practice. They dislike cultivating concentration, and their minds are too scattered and chaotic to achieve meditative stability. Their contemplative practice relies solely on intellectual understanding and emotional reasoning from the conscious mind. They believe that knowing much equates to possessing the Way, and that grasping a superficial answer means they have attained realization. They are completely unaware of the consequences of being mere "disciples of intellectual understanding" or of "talking about food without eating it." Then they write books, establish doctrines, and widely gather disciples, giving no thought whatsoever to whether they might mislead students or lead sentient beings astray. This is the result of the restless minds and shallow thinking of sentient beings in the Dharma-ending Age. Looking around, one sees only rhetoricians expounding theories, with practitioners who have realized the truth almost nowhere to be found. The less merit and virtue sentient beings possess, the more severe these phenomena become. Speaking too much about these matters incurs resentment and criticism. The desire to return to antiquity and follow the path of the ancient sages is exceedingly difficult. Few are able to recognize the significant crisis within Buddhism or grasp how severe these detrimental phenomena truly are.