How to Practice Beneficially

Practicing the Dharma is like going into a cornfield to pick corn. Your goal is to pick corn, bring it back to cook and eat, and fill your stomach—not to tour or sightsee in the cornfield. Therefore, picking corn is the primary task. Of course, before you start picking, you can briefly survey and observe the field: which ears are ripe and should be picked, which are unripe and should be left, and then decide where to begin. Yet some people are not like this; they wander around the cornfield all day, starving, touching this and looking at that, but never actually picking any corn. Such people are fools.

It is the same for those learning Buddhism. After roughly browsing, reading, or gaining some exposure to the Dharma, you must begin genuine practice. Choose the nearest and easiest point to start, then apply yourself diligently and steadfastly to the path. Gain what you can, attain what you can. You must not spend your entire life, year after year, stuck in the stage of merely hearing and studying the Dharma, tirelessly learning others' methods while counting others' money. Having your own treasure is what truly matters; otherwise, you will starve to death and become a hungry ghost.

To possess your own spiritual attainment and avoid becoming a hungry ghost, you must start from the foundation and apply yourself diligently. Practice the Thirty-seven Aids to Enlightenment—gain one point is one point. Abandon evil and cultivate goodness—subdue one affliction is one affliction. Purify your mind—attain one degree of clarity is one degree. Even if you have not yet attained the path of insight, these cultivated merits can be carried into future lives for your benefit. Practicing is always far more useful than not practicing, and far better than counting others' treasures. Happily counting others' money and indulging in it, only to realize when the time comes that not a single penny belongs to you—by then, regret will be too late. Those who are wise and discerning should now have a very clear understanding of how to study and practice the Dharma.