How to Determine Whether One Has Realized or Not

Question: When a hand touches an electric current and gets shocked into numbness and trembling, does this count as realizing the electric current? When a blind person touches a light bulb with his hand, does he realize the lamp but not the lamplight?

Answer: Whether it counts as realization or not depends on the specific circumstances; it differs from person to person. For instance, when a scientist gets an electric shock, he one hundred percent understands the principles of electric current—his realization is very profound, comparable to the seed-wisdom of Yogācāra in Buddhism. When a small child gets an electric shock, he does not necessarily know why this phenomenon occurs; even if he knows he has been shocked and will avoid it next time, he still may not understand the principles of electric current, nor necessarily understand its function. When a blind person's hand touches a light bulb, he does not necessarily know it is a light bulb. First of all, he must have the relevant concept of a light bulb—he must have seen a light bulb before going blind, or someone must have told him what a light bulb looks like—only then can he know it is a light bulb. Otherwise, no matter how many times he touches a light bulb, he will not know what it is. Sentient beings have been dealing with the tathāgatagarbha for beginningless kalpas, living within the tathāgatagarbha, using the tathāgatagarbha at every moment, yet they do not know that the tathāgatagarbha exists, nor do they know what the tathāgatagarbha is like.

The Sixth Patriarch heard a single sentence and attained enlightenment, whereas others might hear a hundred sentences of explanation of that sentence and still remain far, far away from enlightenment. The key lies in the person himself; wisdom and spiritual faculties are extremely important. An arhat hears a single sentence spoken by a worldling studying Buddhism and realizes the fourth fruit, while a worldling may study the Āgamas for a hundred years without even attaining the direction of the first fruit. There is simply no basis for comparison between one person and another.