What's Wrong with Comprehension

Question: Why is it said that if Buddhist study and practice are confined to intellectual understanding alone, the true Dharma will gradually vanish and perish? The vast majority of us haven't even touched the periphery of intellectual understanding. Isn't gaining intellectual understanding of the Dharma also quite good?

Answer: Let me give an analogy. Suppose everyone buys a book to learn driving techniques, or listens to someone explain driving techniques in person. Everyone feels they understand and believe they can drive. Yet, they have never actually driven a car themselves; they have never touched a steering wheel.

Then these people write books and teach others how to drive. If this happens, what will driving techniques become when passed down later? Will such techniques still have any practical value? Will anyone drive in the future? Will there still be people who know how to drive? After this, won't driving skills be lost, turning into a mere armchair strategy or game?

The same is true for the Dharma. If everyone focuses solely on intellectual understanding without actual realization, passing it from one to another, eventually, even those with intellectual understanding will disappear. Even the intellectually understood Dharma will become distorted, and the true Dharma will be lost. This is a situation the Buddha cannot bear to see, and as true disciples of the Buddha, it would cause us deep grief.