Buddhist Practitioners Should Skillfully Make Use of Delusive Thoughts

How many people, in the course of studying Buddhism, are constantly battling with deluded thoughts, believing that if they eliminate deluded thoughts, they will realize the Buddha's Dharma. Yet even if they struggle against deluded thoughts for a hundred years and subdue them, in the end they still do not understand the Buddha's Dharma; no wisdom is born, and they cannot attain liberation.

The correct method of practice is to let the manas shift its attention to contemplation of the Buddha's Dharma; deluded thoughts will naturally decrease. By shifting attention, by shifting the object of mental grasping, practice can succeed quickly. Always fussing back and forth over deluded thoughts is of no help for practicing the Buddha's Dharma and gaining wisdom. The most direct method is to shift the mind's object of grasping—from grasping at worldly phenomena to grasping at the Buddha's Dharma—transferring one's attachment to worldly phenomena onto the Buddha's Dharma, changing one's interests, changing the objects of one's craving, transforming the petty cleverness of worldly intelligence and eloquence into the wisdom of contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) of the Buddha's Dharma. In this way, meditative concentration and wisdom will immediately appear—why worry about failing to attain the Path? Those who are skilled at studying Buddhism should be skilled at utilizing deluded thoughts: not crushing thoughts to death, but knowing how to transform thoughts, transforming them into thoughts of contemplating the Buddha's Dharma, so that every thought and every moment of the mind rests upon the Dharma, and every thought and every moment of the mind is the Dharma itself. In this way, meditative concentration and wisdom will be accomplished.

If one battles deluded thoughts every day, this is no different from the practice methods of non-Buddhists, and one cannot even catch up with the profound meditative concentration of non-Buddhists. In the past, non-Buddhists cultivated concentration and attained the four dhyānas and eight concentrations, and also cultivated the five superknowledges. But because they had not yet eliminated the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi), they still took some dharma among the five aggregates and eighteen realms as the self, as real; their wrong views and inverted views were not broken through in the slightest. Relying on these wrong views, they could not avoid transmigrating through birth and death.

Even if one can remain in concentration for as long as eighty thousand great kalpas, after emerging from concentration at the end of eighty thousand great kalpas, one will still fall into the three evil destinies and still cannot escape the suffering of birth-and-death transmigration. It is precisely because of the wrong view of grasping at a self that sentient beings create karma and undergo birth-and-death transmigration. If the self-view is eliminated, the bond that ties oneself up is untied, and one can be assured of not entering the three evil destinies. In practice, breaking through wrong views and gaining right view and right knowledge is extremely important; otherwise, even after practicing for countless kalpas, one is still walking the wrong path, unable to return to the correct path, and unable to attain liberation.

As long as one's merit is complete, one's goal is correct, and one's method is proper, attaining enlightenment is not such a difficult thing. Each person's spiritual faculties are different, so the methods of practice differ. Those who from childhood have enjoyed tranquility (praśama), enjoyed solitude, and have relatively few interests and hobbies will cultivate concentration relatively quickly; even without sitting in meditation, their minds rarely grasp at things, and their energy is focused. As soon as they encounter the Buddha's Dharma, they can contemplate the Dharma single-mindedly and go deep into it. After they have been steeped for a period of time in the right view and right knowledge of the Buddha's Dharma, having acquired right view and right knowledge, they understand the method of investigating Chan and spontaneously and consciously begin to investigate Chan. Conversely, some people sit in meditation for ten or twenty years and still cannot contemplate the Buddha's Dharma single-mindedly, do not know how to engage in contemplative practice of the Dharma, and cannot distinguish whether a dharma is correct or wrong, or its level.