Is the Consciousness's Solitary Analytical Reasoning and Comprehension of Dharma Pratyakṣa Wisdom?

The conclusions derived from conscious reasoning are not empirically verified or personally realized; lacking genuine and applicable evidence to substantiate them, the inner doubts remain unresolved. When encountering contradictory facts at some point, one will regret and overturn previous conclusions. Moreover, the profound doubts deeply rooted in the mental faculty (manas) cannot be detected at all by consciousness when it lacks wisdom. Therefore, inferential reasoning by consciousness cannot eliminate doubts or inspire faith in the mental faculty, rendering it neither practical nor beneficial.

Even if the result of reasoning is entirely correct—one hundred percent accurate—it remains non-conclusive evidence. Why? For example, suppose you reason that I must have stolen your belongings, and in fact, I did steal them. Yet, since you did not witness it firsthand or catch me in the act, your reasoning is useless. A court will not convict or sentence me based solely on your reasoning or anyone else’s. Even if I admit to the theft myself but cannot provide compelling evidence to prove it, the court still cannot convict me. Some people, wishing to absolve those connected to them of karmic retribution, volunteer to bear the punishment in their place. However, without genuine and persuasive evidence, even if they go to court to confess and claim sole responsibility for the offense, asserting it has nothing to do with others, the court cannot convict based solely on their testimony.

In the context of Buddhism, if one infers the existence of the eighth consciousness during the activities of the five aggregates and eighteen realms without having attained samadhi, and imagines that the eighth consciousness possesses certain functions, such reasoning remains devoid of meritorious benefit and brings no transformation. It changes nothing: the view of self persists, the three fetters continue to bind one, and the karmic retribution of falling into the three evil destinies upon death remains unavoidable. Even if your inference about the eighth consciousness is correct, even if you grasp fifty to sixty, sixty to seventy, or seventy to eighty percent of it through imagination, great wisdom still does not arise. There remains no state of samadhi, no meritorious benefit, and one remains an ordinary person. Never will such imagination and reasoning eradicate ignorance and afflictions.

The methods and paths of practice employed by patriarchs throughout countless eons are absolutely correct, conforming to direct perception (pratyakṣa). Their achievements are genuine and credible, exerting immensely positive influence and impetus on Buddhism. The teachings of these patriarchs reveal the truth of cultivation and realization, demonstrating that genuine knowledge arises from practice. Later generations of sentient beings, due to meager merit and deep karmic obstructions, cannot exert the same level of physical and mental dedication as the patriarchs in pursuing the path. Mostly driven by an opportunistic mentality, they seek shortcuts. Cultivation requires relinquishing the self at all costs—how could there be any shortcut? Taking one step less on the path means gaining one measure less of merit, experiencing one measure less of physical and mental realization, and suffering one measure more of loss. In truth, this is a practice of self-deception that further deceives others. If shortcuts existed, wouldn’t the Buddha have told us and guided us? Sentient beings suffer so profoundly—wouldn’t the Buddha wish for them to swiftly accomplish the Buddha Way and avoid detours?

Any practice that does not accord with the Buddha’s teachings, that contradicts the Buddha’s original intent and harms the interests of sentient beings, will ultimately be destroyed and expunged from Buddhism. It is only a matter of time.