Learning Buddhism Is Not Doing Research

Studying Buddhism is not about acquiring knowledge or doing research; rather, one must have the ability to investigate and personally verify, not merely seek understanding. If meditative concentration (samādhi) is insufficient and the various conditions for seeing the Way are not complete, then if by cleverness one happens to tease out the tathāgatagarbha, and the result of that teasing out is more or less accurate, it may become difficult to continue doing the work of investigating Chan, while one still believes oneself to have awakened—that would be real trouble. When the conditions are not yet complete, it is better to keep the tathāgatagarbha covered up and concealed for now, so that one can later investigate Chan and attain realization.

I do not want you to engage in research, because the Dharma is already quite clear. If clever people keep researching and arrive at more or less correct results, it really is troublesome. Better to wait until a bodhisattva's conditions are complete and investigate within meditative concentration.

Among those who excelled in worldly schools, how many have become pillars of society after entering the world? Knowledge can only help one survive well; it does not necessarily bring creativity. If one wants to attain realization in studying Buddhism, one's approach should differ from worldly scholarship; otherwise, studying Buddhism becomes merely acquiring knowledge, and knowledge cannot liberate anyone—only personal realization can bring liberation.

The Buddha's great disciple Cūḍāpanthaka was a great arhat of the fourth fruit. Before he attained the fruit, he was very dull, and even after attaining the fruit he could not expound the Buddha-dharma; yet he was a great arhat liberated in both ways (ubhayato-bhāga-vimukta). None of us are that dull, so when it comes to comprehending and learning knowledge, moderation is enough.