Common Misconceptions of Mahāyāna Practitioners

Some practitioners of the Mahāyāna do not pay attention to foundational practice, do not value the foundational liberation path of the Āgamas, and sharply sever the Mahāyāna from the Hīnayāna, insisting that this is this and that is that, with little connection between them—the phenomenon of fragmenting the Buddha's Dharma is very serious. It is like students of middle school courses who regard themselves as lofty and disdain elementary school courses, not understanding that one cannot graduate and advance to middle school without finishing elementary school; without an elementary foundation, one cannot keep up with or master middle school courses, nor graduate from middle school.

These Mahāyāna students despise the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment, the Eightfold Noble Path, and so forth, treating them all as Hīnayāna dharmas cultivated by Hīnayāna practitioners, considering them dispensable, and so they skip over them and go straight to cultivating the eighth consciousness. Because they lack precepts and meditative concentration (samādhi), even after studying for ten or twenty years or even longer, their body and mind have not transformed in the slightest, and they have gained no real benefit; yet like seasoned "Buddha-hands," they talk glibly and fluently—their erudition is high enough to win first place in the imperial examination. However, the theory they have learned is like a castle in the air: the principle is up in the high sky while the person crawls on the ground below, the two having nothing to do with each other. In such a case, how can one accord with principle and enter the Path? The result of aiming too high is that not a single dharma can be cultivated successfully; one merely wastes time, and at death, because of having no cultivation and no realization, one drifts along with the winds of karma, unable to control oneself.

We should all calm down and think about this rationally: should Mahāyāna practitioners not be endowed with the seven factors of enlightenment? Without the factor of investigation of dharmas, one is like a blind person feeling an elephant. Without the factor of joy, it shows that what has been learned has not entered the mind; if it does not enter the mind, the mind does not give rise to joy; without joy in the mind, the body does not experience tranquility; if the body is not tranquil, the mind is not concentrated; if the mind is not concentrated, it is not empty—then what wisdom is there to speak of? Should Mahāyāna practitioners not cultivate the four right efforts (samyag-vyāyāma)? If evil is not severed and good does not increase, the mind does not transform, and one remains an ordinary being bound by afflictions and karmic obstructions; if not even a single portion of affliction has been eliminated, how can one advance toward the initial orientation to the stream-enterer fruit, let alone the fruit of stream-entry itself? Without the fruit of stream-entry, how can one attain Mahāyāna awakening to the true mind?

Do Mahāyāna practitioners not cultivate the Eightfold Noble Path? Without right view, what path is there to cultivate? Without right thinking, how can one investigate Chan? Without right speech, how can one guard the mind and keep the five precepts? Without right effort, one will run counter to the Path; without right mindfulness, how can one rectify the mind? If the mind is not upright, how can one enter the Path? Without right meditative concentration, how can there be right wisdom? Only when both body and mind are upright can one enter the correct Path. Therefore it is said that those who do not cultivate the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment have not yet entered the gate of practice, and count as neither Mahāyāna nor Hīnayāna practitioners. Nowadays in this world it is very, very difficult to encounter a true practitioner of the Path. People's minds are restless and impetuous, fond of taking shortcuts and pursuing short-term gains. This is due to sentient beings' shallow faculties from past lives and their lack of merit, compounded by the incitement of those who transmit the Dharma, which has created this situation. If it is not reformed, Buddhism will be able to produce no talents.