Only When Causes and Conditions Are Ripe Can One Attain Enlightenment

If the conditions for attaining the fruition and realizing the mind are complete, encountering any corresponding condition—whether artificially designed or naturally occurring—that touches the heart can lead to the attainment of fruition and realization of the mind. Hearing the Buddha expound the Dharma makes it even more conducive to attaining fruition and realizing the mind to perceive the true nature. The Buddha’s majestic virtue and blessing power are immense, and the magnetic field effect of the Dharma assembly where the Buddha teaches is also extremely powerful. Moreover, practitioners during the Buddha’s time generally possessed profound meditative concentration (samadhi), had pure minds, cultivated renunciation, had minimal afflictions, and possessed deep virtuous roots and blessings. Therefore, upon hearing the Dharma, they could immediately engage in contemplation and practice (contemplation and practice) in accordance with the Buddha’s voice, and instantly attain fruition and realize the mind.

If one’s Buddhist practice has not yet reached the required level, the mind lacks doubt and perplexity (doubt and perplexity), lacks the aspiration to investigate, and is not single-mindedly focused (constantly mindful), even if one encounters many conditions that should lead to enlightenment, they will be missed in vain, and enlightenment will not be attained. Sentient beings in this Dharma-ending age cannot compare to those during the Buddha’s time. Their virtuous roots are shallow and blessings thin, their minds are restless and agitated, and they lack meditative concentration. Even if the Dharma is explained in the finest detail, it cannot enter their hearts. Consequently, they cannot genuinely realize any fruition; at best, they might gain some intellectual understanding, which is already quite fortunate.

Precisely because sentient beings generally lack meditative concentration and are unable to attain it fully, a notion has arisen claiming that one can directly contemplate and practice the Dharma without cultivating concentration. But how can one possess the capacity for contemplation and practice without meditative concentration? What can one truly contemplate and realize? How long can one sustain such contemplation? Each person can test this for themselves: compare contemplation before cultivating concentration with contemplation after cultivating concentration, and observe how vastly different the effects are—the difference is immense, and the results are fundamentally distinct.

Contemplating a Dharma principle with meditative concentration versus without it is like heaven and earth apart. Therefore, many people who contemplate the Dharma cannot truly understand it; they misinterpret and misunderstand far too much, failing to grasp the true meaning. To actually realize and engage in direct perception through contemplation and practice is exceedingly difficult. Despite this, many people place great faith in their own understanding, readily citing scriptural passages to support their views. In reality, the meaning of the scriptures often does not align with their interpretations; they harbor many misunderstandings without realizing it. Many who study the scriptures cannot thoroughly comprehend their true principles as they are, yet consider themselves quite capable. In truth, the Dharma cannot be realized through mere academic study; it requires contemplation, practice, and investigation grounded in profound meditative concentration and right reasoning to achieve genuine understanding and realization. Study alone cannot lead to realization.

Some often see in the Buddhist scriptures accounts of sentient beings attaining fruition and realizing the mind instantly upon hearing the Buddha teach. It appears that those individuals did not cultivate meditative concentration yet directly attained fruition, as if merely hearing the Dharma and contemplating it slightly was sufficient, without specifically cultivating concentration. This is a considerable misunderstanding. They fail to realize that those who attained fruition upon hearing the Dharma had already fully developed meditative concentration, possessed deep virtuous roots and blessings, and only lacked the right condition. Encountering the supremely auspicious condition of hearing the Buddha teach, they naturally attained fruition and realized the mind to perceive the true nature very easily. These observers only see the final result; they do not see how long a path of practice those who attained fruition had already traversed before hearing the Buddha teach—how they diligently applied themselves, how they aroused the aspiration and maintained their conduct, how they strenuously cultivated meditative concentration. Ignoring these essential prerequisites and focusing solely on the final moment of attaining fruition constitutes the most severe case of taking words out of context.

Modern people, restless and eager for shortcuts, seek the simplest and most direct path. They do not wish to tread the path the Buddha walked, thinking their own methods are more practical and direct, requiring no hardship. Could it be that an ordinary being is superior to the Buddha, possessing greater wisdom? Was the Buddha’s practice circuitous, while their own path is direct—requiring no foundation, no cost, no arduous effort to cultivate concentration and subdue their own minds? Can mere study yield great results? This is the talk of a deluded person. The fruits gained through study are like paper paste—scattered and ruined by a gust of wind, melted away by fire. Nowadays, the world is full of false fruits, stamped with radish seals (easily blown away), unable to withstand even the slightest disturbance. The karmic retribution after death will be known to them.