What Is the Dharma-Discriminating Eye?

The second of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment is the enlightenment factor of discrimination. When one cultivates to this stage, one gains the discerning eye, enabling one to know whether the Dharma one encounters is correct and whether the Dharma teacher one meets possesses the Way. Only then can one make correct choices and avoid going astray. This is the awareness one should possess before attaining fruition and enlightenment; otherwise, one can neither attain fruition, nor achieve enlightenment, nor realize the Way.

Before cultivating to the stage of possessing the enlightenment factor of discrimination and gaining the discerning eye, one's practice lacks efficacy. One is deficient in merit, meditative stability, and wisdom. One cannot discern whether a teacher possesses wisdom or the extent of that wisdom, nor distinguish whether the Dharma is right or wrong, orthodox or heterodox. With a confused and unawakened mind, one fails to recognize the true Dharma to learn it and fails to recognize false Dharma to avoid it, thus preventing the attainment of correct knowledge and views. Some people without the discerning eye fail to remove the hindrance of doubt; they doubt both the Dharma and the teacher. Being uncertain about both the Dharma and the teacher, their cultivation and study cannot progress or succeed. A heavy doubt is not a wholesome state; it arises from a deficiency in merit. Only when one has the capacity to discriminate can one eliminate doubt, allowing one's practice of the Way to advance.

Only after truly mastering the Consciousness-Only (Yogācāra) teachings can one reach the level of Bodhisattva Maitreya. This is by no means an overnight achievement. At the very minimum, one must realize the Eighth Consciousness (Ālaya-vijñāna). Subsequently, one must combine this with the cultivation and realization of meditative absorption (dhyāna), eradicate afflictions (kleśa), and eliminate habitual tendencies (vāsanā). Gradually, one will realize all dharmas and exhaustively shatter ignorance. All the dharmas expounded in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra require experiential realization. If the foundational dharmas are not realized, the dharmas of the next level cannot be realized, and the dharmas of the level above that are even more impossible to realize.

Therefore, when studying Consciousness-Only, one must generate the great resolve to realize the mind and see its true nature (明心见性), treading the Bodhisattva path diligently and steadfastly. Both the internal and external approaches to the Six Perfections (Pāramitās) of a Bodhisattva must be cultivated to perfection. One must vow to become a great-hearted Bodhisattva who can truly benefit sentient beings. Only under the blessing of the Buddha's power can one complete the study of Consciousness-Only and reach the fruition stage of a Wonderful Enlightenment Bodhisattva (妙觉菩萨), awaiting only the final step of Buddhahood. Studying Buddhism is not merely learning theory; it also entails learning the Buddha’s pure and great vows, learning the Buddha’s mind of compassion, loving-kindness, sympathetic joy, and equanimity (慈悲喜舍) towards sentient beings, learning the Buddha’s precepts, meditative concentration, and wisdom (戒定慧), learning the Buddha’s profound meditative absorption, and learning and actualizing all the virtues the Buddha possesses. Only then can we ourselves become Buddhas.