What Is Gradual Cultivation and Sudden Enlightenment

In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the Buddha taught: principle requires sudden awakening, while practice requires gradual cultivation. This means that the principle-substance of the tathāgatagarbha is awakened to in a single instant; yet although one has suddenly awakened to this true principle-substance, the mental conduct is not yet fully purified, and ignorance has not been completely eliminated and extinguished. These afflictions of ignorance and dust-like ignorance must, after the sudden awakening, be progressively removed through contemplative observation when encountering conditions and circumstances. However, this does not mean that one can achieve sudden awakening without having severed even a single trace of ignorance and affliction; if so, one would remain a completely bound ordinary being, unable to become a sage who has suddenly awakened to the noble path.

Before sudden awakening, there must first be a process of gradual cultivation, which differs from the gradual cultivation after awakening—the two are of entirely different natures. The gradual cultivation before sudden awakening is the cultivation of the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment and the bodhisattva's six perfections, the cultivation of precepts, meditation, and wisdom, and the full development of the four roots of goodness—warmth, summit, patience, and the foremost worldly stage—only then can one suddenly awaken to the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna teachings. If this issue is illustrated with an analogy, the principle will become clearer. For example, in felling a thousand-year-old tree, the trunk is very thick; to bring the trunk down, one must saw through it bit by bit with tools—this process is analogous to the process of gradual cultivation. And when at last the old tree is brought down in one stroke, this is analogous to sudden awakening. Therefore, without gradual cultivation there is no sudden awakening.

The processing after the tree has been felled—such as stripping the bark, cutting it into boards, grinding, polishing, waxing, and coloring—is similar to gradual cultivation after awakening. Finally, assembling the boards into pleasing furniture and handicrafts is analogous to the ultimate sudden awakening and attainment of buddhahood. Felling an old tree is extremely laborious and arduous, requiring patience, endurance, and physical strength; the tools must be sharp, and the skill must be superb. This is analogous to the provisions needed for seeing the path; if the provisions are insufficient, there is no way to see the path. Some people, as they cultivate, fall back, drop out, and come to a standstill; some simply turn around and leave. On this path of cultivation, the further one goes, the fewer the people: of ten thousand who first give rise to the aspiration, hardly any persevere, and of those who attain the Way there may not even be one. Thus sages are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns—extremely rare and precious—and when you encounter one, you should cherish it.

Some people mix up the gradual cultivation before awakening with that after awakening, believing there is no gradual cultivation before awakening, and that cultivation is a matter for after awakening. But a sudden awakening without gradual cultivation does not even count as intellectual understanding; it is entirely emotional thinking and intellectual conjecture, imagination and speculation, without the slightest merit or beneficial effect—unless one is a bodhisattva of the various bhūmis with supremely great roots of goodness, who, due to a deep foundation from past lives, can directly achieve sudden awakening. Gradual cultivation before awakening is precisely the process of transforming the ordinary person's mind-nature into the mind of a sage; it is the process of shedding the old self and being reborn, the metamorphosis before the carp leaps over the dragon gate. Without this process, how could the transformation take place? Therefore, to observe whether a person has truly awakened, one must observe their mind-nature, observe their very bones—not look at the superficial gloss and polish, the eloquence and glib talk. The essence is what matters most.

Gradual cultivation is the process of gradually bringing one's body and mind close to and similar to the body and mind of sages; only when one reaches the standard of a sage can one suddenly awaken and see the path. This is the process of cultivating the mind: if the mind does not change, if it is not the mental conduct of a sage, one cannot become a sage. Therefore, gradual cultivation is very important; it is the key step for giving rise to wisdom attained through cultivation. Before this, the wisdom attained through hearing and the wisdom attained through reflection are extremely shallow and cannot resist the karmic obstructions of birth and death in the slightest. Only when the wisdom attained through cultivation is complete can the wisdom attained through realization of the Way arise, sparing one from the karma of the three evil destinies, severing afflictions, and freeing one from the suffering of saṃsāra.