What Are Gradual Cultivation and Sudden Enlightenment?

The Buddha states in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: "Principle requires sudden awakening; practice requires gradual cultivation." This means that the principle of the Tathāgatagarbha is realized in an instant of sudden awakening. However, although one may suddenly awaken to this true principle, the mind's conduct is not yet completely purified, and ignorance has not been fully eradicated. These obscurations of ignorance and the dust-like afflictions require gradual removal through contemplation upon encountering conditions and objects after sudden awakening. But this does not mean that one can achieve sudden awakening without having eliminated any ignorance or afflictions whatsoever. If that were the case, one would be an ordinary being bound by all fetters, unable to become a sage who has suddenly awakened to the sacred path.

Before sudden awakening, there must be a process of gradual cultivation. This gradual cultivation differs entirely in nature from the gradual cultivation after awakening. The gradual cultivation before sudden awakening involves practicing the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment and the six pāramitās of a bodhisattva, cultivating precepts, concentration, and wisdom, and fully developing the four wholesome roots of heat, summit, patience, and supreme worldly phenomena. Only then can one suddenly awaken to the Dharma of either the Mahāyāna or Hīnayāna. This principle can be clarified with an analogy. For instance, to fell an ancient tree a thousand years old with a thick trunk, one must use tools to gradually cut through the trunk bit by bit. This process is analogous to gradual cultivation. Finally, when the old tree is suddenly felled, this corresponds to sudden awakening. Therefore, without gradual cultivation, there can be no sudden awakening.

The processing after felling the tree—such as stripping the bark, cutting it into planks, sanding, polishing, waxing, and staining—is analogous to the gradual cultivation after awakening. Finally, assembling the planks into pleasing furniture and crafts corresponds to the ultimate sudden awakening of Buddhahood. Felling the ancient tree is extremely laborious and arduous, requiring patience, endurance, physical strength, sharp tools, and skilled technique. This is analogous to the provisions needed for the path of seeing. Without sufficient provisions, one cannot attain the path of seeing. Some practitioners retreat, fall behind, or stop progressing along the way; others simply turn back. On this path of cultivation, the number of people diminishes as one advances further. Ten thousand may begin with the initial resolve, but few persevere to the end, and those who attain the Way may be fewer still. Thus, sages are as rare as phoenix feathers, exceedingly precious and difficult to encounter. When met, they should be cherished.

Some conflate the gradual cultivation before awakening with that after awakening, believing there is no gradual cultivation before awakening and that cultivation only occurs after awakening. However, a sudden awakening without gradual cultivation does not even qualify as genuine understanding; it is merely intellectual speculation and conjecture, devoid of any meritorious benefit or realization—unless one is a highly advanced bodhisattva with immense wholesome roots, whose profound foundations from past lives enable direct sudden awakening. Gradual cultivation before awakening is precisely the process of transforming an ordinary being's mind into that of a sage. It is a process of complete rebirth, like the metamorphosis before a carp leaps through the Dragon Gate. Without this process, how can transformation occur? Therefore, to discern whether someone has genuinely awakened, observe their mind and character, their essential nature—not their superficial brilliance, eloquence, or boastful talk. The essence is paramount.

Gradual cultivation gradually aligns one's body and mind with those of sages. Only upon meeting the standards of a sage can one suddenly awaken and see the path. This is the process of mind cultivation. If the mind does not change, if it does not embody the conduct of a sage, one cannot become a sage. Thus, gradual cultivation is crucial; it is the key step in generating the wisdom attained through cultivation. Before this, the wisdom gained from hearing and reflection is very shallow and utterly incapable of withstanding the karmic obstacles of birth and death. Only when the wisdom attained through cultivation is complete can the wisdom attained through realization arise, enabling one to avoid the three evil destinies, eradicate afflictions, and transcend the suffering of samsara.

Dedication Verse:

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