Dual Cultivation of Merit and Wisdom Accomplishes the Path

If one does not diligently cultivate merit and does not diligently cultivate wisdom, if the faculty of faith is not complete and the roots of goodness are not complete, then as one cultivates along the way, demons will possess one, and the person will not even know that he is possessed by a demon. The ninth volume of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra describes many cases of demon possession; you should examine yourself against them frequently. When a demon possesses someone, at the very beginning it will give you many benefits of worldly dharmas, making your body and mind pleasant and happy, letting you attain meditative concentration (samādhi), letting you gain wealth, curing people's illnesses so their health recovers, making you seem to have supernatural powers, making you feel that you are extraordinary — but in fact all of this is the demon's power, not your own attainment on the Path. When the demon has finished using you and you no longer have any value to be exploited, the demon's mind will grow weary and it will abandon you. Then what are you? Your true form is fully exposed, and after death you fall into hell.

The Buddha said that those who attain a human body are as few as the soil in a fingernail, while those who fail to attain a human body are as many as the soil of the great earth. Is the Buddha's statement entirely accurate? Observing sentient beings today, those with roots of goodness and merit are far too few; even among those who study Buddhism, countless afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion cling to their minds. Therefore, countless Buddhist practitioners still undergo retribution in the three evil destinies after death; only those who have truly eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) can be spared from the three evil destinies. Yet how many people can truly eradicate the view of self? Extremely, extremely few. If one slanders the Buddha and slanders the Dharma, then it is no longer an ordinary three evil destinies — it is the Avīci hell destiny, an extremely long stretch of years of torment, with no end in sight. Sentient beings are indeed pitiable, but the pitiable must have something hateful about them.