Without Śīla and Samādhi, There Can Be No Realization

Precepts are the prerequisite and foundation for meditative concentration. Practicing concentration without upholding precepts is like cooking sand hoping to obtain rice—it will never become rice. In this Dharma-ending age, those who uphold precepts are exceedingly rare, and those who have attained the precept substance are vanishingly few. This is because those who confer precepts either lack the precept substance themselves or have violated precepts and lost it; thus, others cannot receive the precept substance from them.

Therefore, among Buddhist practitioners today, very few can achieve meditative concentration, and it is even harder for them to possess the wisdom arising from contemplative practice. Most can only rely on reading texts to gain intellectual understanding, believing they have attained some realization. Without meditative concentration as the essential foundation and necessary condition for contemplative practice, genuine realization is utterly unattainable. They can only play at verbal Chan like three-year-old children, merely discussing lofty principles.