Can Bodhi Be Attained Without Cutting Off Afflictions?

Some people say that when seeing the mind and attaining the first fruit, if afflictions have not been eradicated, the body and mind will not transform, and there will be no change—this is normal. Yet in worldly affairs, when the manas truly comes to know something, one can become extraordinarily excited, with great changes in the body, the mind stirred to the utmost—perhaps tears welling up in the eyes, perhaps the body and mind trembling, perhaps a solemn expression, and so on. During the process of cultivating the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment before attaining the fruit, the body and mind will change bit by bit, greatly differing from before. If the difference becomes very evident and the five grades of afflictions of the desire realm have been eradicated, then one has become a candidate for the first fruit (srotāpanna-phala-pratipannaka). If the body and mind never undergo any change, then one has not cultivated in accordance with the Dharma—the direction of practice is wrong, or one is simply not diligent, or one has merely remained at broad learning and intellectual speculation, and the Dharma principles have never truly entered the mind. 

The Abhidharmakośa-śāstra states that as long as one genuinely cultivates the path, cultivating it in accordance with principle, one will certainly subdue afflictive delusions and then eradicate them. This is how it is during the process of cultivating the path, and even more so with the results of cultivating the path; only then can one become a candidate for the first fruit, and subsequently attain the first fruit itself. Without eradicating even a trace of afflictive delusion, without any transformation of body and mind, one still remains a bound ordinary being, tied up hand and foot by afflictive delusions, unable to move—how could one advance along the path of bodhi and transform one's status? If one forcibly claims such a status, it can only be in name but not in reality—a counterfeit. 

Many people believe that as long as one can expound the Dharma, one has already realized it, but the facts are not so. If one expounds the Dharma without having realized it, there is no genuine guiding value. Having never walked that stretch of the road oneself, one cannot guide others on how specifically to walk it. If one's own mind is blazing with the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, there is no way to guide others in subduing and eradicating afflictions—leaks and lapses appear everywhere. 

There is a Zen koan about the "one-finger Chan": the master attained enlightenment the moment someone else raised an index finger. The young novice saw this and thought: So this is what enlightenment is! Thereafter, whenever the master was away and someone came asking about the Dharma, the novice would likewise raise his index finger and tell the person that this was that true suchness (tathatā), imitating the parrot's mimicry quite convincingly. People's enlightenment nowadays is no different from this novice's "enlightenment." Although they can gesture and pose, quite resembling the maneuvers of the patriarchs, appearing to be Zen repartee and seemingly able to guide people, the layman watches the excitement while the expert sees the doorway—these tricks can only deceive some laypeople. All Zen repartee involves the harmonious functioning of the eight consciousnesses, containing both the true and the false. If one cannot distinguish the true from the false and takes the false as the true, then no matter how one gestures, it is not Zen repartee. 

One hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, Ānanda heard a young novice reciting the conditioned dharmas of arising and ceasing as "water-old-crane." He corrected him, but when the novice asked his master which was right, the master said: Don't listen to Ānanda; he has become senile with age. Just recite it the way I taught you. So the novice continued reciting as before. Hearing this, Ānanda thought: Only one hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, and the Buddha's Dharma has already been transmitted erroneously—sentient beings are far too deluded. Grieved by this, Ānanda decided to enter parinirvāṇa immediately and depart, unwilling to witness the tragic scene of the Buddha's Dharma being gradually destroyed. Even at that time the Buddha's Dharma had already begun to degenerate—how much more so today, several thousand years later! The present age is by no means an age when sages fill the streets; many people have severely misunderstood the cultivation and realization of the Buddha's Dharma.

Nowadays neither the Mahāyāna nor the Hīnayāna Dharma is treasured; they are no longer rare dharmas. One merely needs to hear the Dharma and ponder it a bit, and the fruit of realization is obtained in hand—no need for precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom, no need to cultivate the six perfections and myriad practices; those who keep the precepts and cultivate concentration are fools. Now any fruit can be easily obtained. For instance, even the fruit of the tenth dedication stage with its contemplation of all things being like dreams and illusions is no difficult matter. As for the method of cultivating and realizing the tathāgatagarbha through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), as long as it is passed on by word of mouth, the fruit can be taken home. The delusion and perversity of sentient beings have already left one speechless.