The Difference Between Conceptual Understanding and Direct Realization

There is a great difference between intellectual understanding and realization. Realization means genuinely attaining it, being able to personally observe one's own true mind of thusness in the present; what is observed is all fact, a matter of direct perception. Intellectual understanding merely comprehends the principle, feeling that the tathāgatagarbha is just like that, but has not personally attained it; therefore one cannot observe thusness directly in the present. If one cannot engage in genuine contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) through direct present observation, then one cannot truly achieve the transformation of the basis upon the principle of thusness.

To better understand where the difference between the two lies, let us use an analogy. Intellectual understanding is like studying theoretical knowledge about apples. One may research the theory quite well, perhaps quite exhaustively, including the apple's place of origin, variety, transportation, storage, appearance and form, color and luster, and so on. But after all, one has never personally eaten one, so one does not know what an actual apple tastes like, does not know how sweet and pleasing it is, and one's body and mind have received no real benefit. Realization means having personally eaten the apple, genuinely knowing the apple's sweet flavor; one's experience of the apple is real and true, and one's body and mind have already received its benefit.

However, it is possible that the person who has eaten the apple cannot yet express its flavor well, let alone know various information such as the apple's place of origin. Meanwhile, the person with intellectual understanding may know all the theories about apples, yet has not tasted a single bite; all his theories are merely theories, and his body and mind have gained no real benefit. It is like the dullest disciple of the World-Honored One Śākyamuni, who, after realizing the fourth fruit of arhatship, could not expound the dharma principles of the path of liberation, yet he had already attained genuine liberation, could truly end birth and death, transcend the cycle of birth and death, and in the future would not experience even a trace of suffering. But the ordinary beings of today have flourishing theories; they can not only talk eloquently and produce writings stacked as high as themselves, expressing themselves in language like a sage, yet within their minds there is not even a shadow of liberation. They speak like sages, but when they act they are thoroughly ordinary beings; their inner greed, anger, and delusion have not been subdued at all, their arrogance blazes fiercely, and others dare not provoke them at all.

Understanding and direct realization are two levels, and the distance between them may be very great. It is like many people who are clear about the concept, connotation, place of origin, and variety of apples, and can even write papers about apples, yet have never eaten one, and therefore do not know the specific, real taste. Meanwhile, someone has already eaten the apple, though much information about apples is still unknown to him, yet he can personally enjoy the apple and has genuinely tasted its sweet, fragrant flavor. The difference between intellectual understanding and realization is just like this.

During the Buddha's time, Cūḍapanthaka was an arhat of the fourth fruit, yet he could not expound the dharma principles of the path of liberation; whereas ordinary beings today have countless papers and books, yet do not even have a shadow of the first fruit. Nowadays there are very many people studying Buddhist theory, who can expound one grand theory after another, but after all they have not attained realization; they merely circle outside the gate, like scratching an itch through a boot, just like the person who studies apples—only the one who has eaten the apple can accurately describe its taste. Liberation is a realm of actual realization, not something that understanding can resolve. Only one who has actual realization can receive real benefit, regardless of whether he can articulate it. Liberation is not on the lips but within the mind.

The difference between understanding and what is directly realized is enormous, though others cannot see it. The one who merely understands can express things very well, and others will think his wisdom is very deep, but in fact it is not. One who has realized the mind through enlightenment speaks of the tathāgatagarbha based on direct realization, whereas intellectual understanding contains an element of imagination. With intellectual understanding, perhaps it is even worse—it would be better not to be "enlightened" for the time being, and to wait until conditions ripen before attaining true realization. The road after intellectual understanding is hard to walk, quite arduous; that is picking unripe fruit—having picked unripe fruit and taken it home to ripen artificially, it still does not taste as good as naturally ripened fruit.