Intellectual Understanding Is Not Realization

Permanence, bliss, self, and purity are the four virtues of nirvāṇa. Permanence means that the Buddha's undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna) has no seed mutation anymore; it forever remains constant and unchanging. Bliss means that in the Buddha, all karmic obstructions have been exhausted without remainder; there are no seeds of suffering feeling left in the undefiled consciousness, and all that remains are wholesome karmic seeds of blissful feeling and neither-painful-nor-pleasurable feeling, with retributive feeling being the bliss of cessation. Self means that in the Buddha's undefiled consciousness, all karmic seeds of arising and ceasing have been extinguished, no longer burdened by karmic obstructions; it is the complete nature of self, and can thus be called "self." Purity means that the Buddha's undefiled consciousness has extinguished all defiled seeds, having become thoroughly pure and undefiled.

The eighth consciousness is also obscured by karmic obstructions. If there were no karmic obstructions, it would manifest boundless meritorious functions, its light illuminating the great thousand worlds—just like the Buddha's undefiled consciousness, with not a single dharma it does not pervade, not a single dharma it does not encompass, not a single dharma it does not manifest. But sentient beings' eighth consciousness is limited by karmic obstructions: it cannot manifest extremely many sublime and wondrous states, cannot transform and create emanated bodies of sentient beings, cannot transform and create buddha-lands, and cannot pervasively cognize all objects. What is meant by the eighth consciousness being limited is that it has endless meritorious functions that cannot be brought forth—not that it lacks superior meritorious functions. At the buddha-stage, the eighth consciousness is no longer subject to any limitation, and all its meritorious functions are brought forth in full. 

Do you understand and know all the principles above? Could you explain them to others? In the study of the Dharma, all understanding and knowing fall upon the mind consciousness, and do not fall into the mind of the manas. Even though one has understood and known, one is still a hundred thousand miles away from realization—indeed perhaps even farther than a hundred thousand miles. Even if one can explain to others and write a hundred books, one is still a hundred thousand miles away from realization. Regarding the non-self of the five aggregates (pañcaskandha), even if one can understand it all and know it all, and one's understanding may be very deep and thorough, it is still not realization; perhaps one is still extremely far from realization. Regarding the eighth consciousness, no matter how one understands and knows it—perhaps one's understanding is very deep, and one can even infer and work out the functions of the eighth consciousness—it still counts as intellectual understanding, not realization; perhaps one is still extremely, extremely far from realization. Many people take this kind of understanding as realization. Those with good eloquence, in the capacity of good teachers, go around expounding the sutras and speaking the Dharma with a torrential flow of words. But no matter what, a Dharma that enters through the ears and exits through the mouth is not realization. 

Su Dongpo's understanding of the Buddha-Dharma was: "The eight winds cannot blow me; I sit upright on a purple-gold lotus." As a result, the Chan master's assessment was: "Fart!" When Su Dongpo saw this, he immediately became displeased: I wrote something so good, and you call it a fart? So he crossed the river to find the Chan master to argue the matter. The Chan master said: "Aren't you the one whom the eight winds cannot blow? How is it that a single word, 'fart,' sent you running across the river to settle accounts with me?"