Is Learning Buddhism and Practicing the Path Really That Easy?

Practicing and cultivating the Buddha's teachings is by no means easy, 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. It is very difficult to untangle and break through them all—this cannot be accomplished without great strength, great courage, and great wisdom; it cannot be accomplished without the kalpa-spanning blessings and support of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions; it cannot be accomplished without the long-lasting protection of the Dharma-protecting deities. If someone says that practice is extremely easy—that by doing something in a certain area, by taking in just a little, one can become a Buddha, can enter the Tathāgata's household, or can attain enlightenment, and that nothing else needs to be cultivated, no deep and systematic cultivation is needed, no solid foundation needs to be laid step by step, no precepts need to be kept, no meditative concentration (samādhi) needs to be cultivated, no price needs to be paid, no great hardship is required, and Buddhahood can be accomplished while living and studying Buddhism happily and joyfully—then we should know that this person has not achieved anything at all, because he certainly has never given anything, is unwilling to break free from the bondage of the five worldly desires, and his craving and attachment are still very serious.

Keeping precepts—no good; meditative concentration—no good; even foundational practice is no good; he has never truly cultivated anything, and certainly has never truly attained anything. That is why such people claim that one can become a Buddha within a single lifetime of practice—becoming a Buddha in this very body, becoming a Buddha in this very life—or that by reciting the Buddha's name one can be reborn and thereby become a Buddha, or that among precepts, concentration, and wisdom, neither precepts nor concentration are needed, only prajñā wisdom, and that with wisdom alone one can directly become a Buddha. Regarding all such claims, we must be vigilant and must not be deceived. Those who have never walked that path often say that the path is easy to walk; those who are truly walking on the path will understand the scenery along the way as it really is, and will speak truthful words to others.

We must be vigilant toward anyone who describes the Buddha's Dharma as very simple and describes practice as very easy. Those who have never experienced it imagine, based on speculation, that everything is easy. For example, looking at the moon overhead at night, one feels it is very close to oneself, and that wherever one goes, the moon follows—seemingly within arm's reach. But when one boards a cloud-ladder or an airplane and speeds toward the moon, one realizes that no matter how far one flies, the moon remains just as far away—always that far. The feeling is that it is close, but feeling is, after all, only feeling—hazy and vague—and the reality differs from the feeling far too greatly.

It is the same with studying Buddhism and practicing. It feels as though one could easily become a Buddha, easily attain realization and enlightenment, but in reality, once one sets out on the path and takes the first steps, entangled by ignorance and karmic obstructions, not a single step is easy to take. We need to continually cast off some of the burdens of the secular world, relinquish some of the worldly enjoyments, and pay the corresponding price in order to obtain some measure of accomplishment. Without giving up, there can be no gaining. Truly good things can never be obtained cheaply.