The Great Difference Between Understanding and Realization

Question: "If one sees all appearances as non-appearances, then one sees the Tathāgata." If someone understands it this way—that everything they perceive (like the images displayed on a television screen) is constantly recognized as the illusory manifestation of the substance and function within the Tathāgatagarbha (like the television screen itself)—then this person has realized the Tathāgatagarbha. Is this correct?

Answer: The above understanding represents the most superficial grasp by the conscious mind; it is not an actual realization, nor is it observed through direct perception. Regardless of who claims it, it remains mere intellectual comprehension. Because those concepts are mentioned in the scriptures and repeated by others, ideas articulated by others do not constitute personal realization. Personal realization requires understanding the specific role the Tathāgatagarbha plays within the five aggregates through Chan meditation, involving concrete effort and investigation. Without applying any effort whatsoever, relying solely on personal feelings and conjectures to grasp a little bit—actually, one remains entirely ignorant of the specific functions of the Tathāgatagarbha, and all fundamental ignorance remains intact.

Believing that all phenomena are like images on a television screen is not direct realization; it cannot be called attainment. Thinking that all phenomena are created by the Tathāgatagarbha and that we all live within the One True Dharma Realm—this is not enlightenment. If the Buddha’s words could enable sentient beings to become enlightened so easily, the Dharma would be far too facile. Even a three-year-old child hearing this statement could roughly understand a little and be considered enlightened. Then attaining Buddhahood would be incredibly effortless; kalpa upon kalpa of karmic obstacles from birth and death would pose no hindrance whatsoever, and so much fundamental ignorance would amount to nothing. In reality, such ease does not exist.

Without practicing Chan meditation, without investigation and verification, without collecting evidence and data, how could the mental faculty confirm these statements as truth and accept them? Genuine awakening requires knowing the detailed workings of the eighth consciousness—specifically, how it gives rise to all phenomena, how it generates the five aggregates and eighteen realms of sentient beings. One must understand and know all these aspects, and cultivate the six pāramitās of a Bodhisattva. It is not about comprehending certain parts derived from the Buddha or others; no matter how much one understands or elaborates, if it is not personally investigated, contemplated, and realized through one's own effort, without direct perception, the mind cannot find solid footing and remains deeply unsettled.

The distance between this kind of understanding and actual realization might be one year, thirty years, a hundred years, ten thousand years, or even an incalculable kalpa—it is impossible to say. Intellectual understanding is useless; it can vanish in an instant. Even the conscious mind does not perceive or realize the details, let alone the mental faculty. At critical moments, it is the mental faculty that takes charge. If the mental faculty has not confirmed it, fundamental ignorance persists. All the conscious mind's understanding becomes like child's play at the time of death, vanishing like a bubble, unable to determine the destination of future lives.

Frequently ask yourself "why" inwardly, and resolve all such "whys"—this might bring you close to realization, but it still may not necessarily be realization itself. The Dharma is indeed this profound and beyond conjecture.