Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, Volume 34 (72)

Original text:终不求请外道为师。亦不于彼起福田想。于他沙门婆罗门等。终不观瞻口及颜面。唯自见法得法。知法得法。证法源底。越度疑惑。不由他缘。于大师教。非他所引。于诸法中得无所畏。终不妄计世瑞吉祥。以为清净。终不更受第八有生。具足成就四种证净。如是行者。乃至世第一法已前。名胜解作意。

Explanation: Such a practitioner will never take refuge in non-Buddhist teachers as masters, nor will they regard them as fields of merit. Toward other śramaṇas and brāhmaṇas and the like, they will never look up to their faces, watch their countenances, value what they say, or obtain the Dharma from their mouths; they only see the Dharma and attain the Dharma on their own. Seeing and attaining the Dharma by themselves, they realize the very source and depth of the Dharma, transcend all doubts—not through the agency of external conditions. Being able to realize the depth of the Dharma is due to the teaching of the World-Honored One, the good teacher, not drawn from anywhere other than the World-Honored One. The practitioner is fearless amid all dharmas, and will never falsely cling to the various auspicious signs and omens of the world as being pure. They will never again undergo an eighth birth in existence, and they perfectly accomplish the four purities of realization. Such a practitioner, up until before the first of the worldly dharmas (laukika-agradharma), is said to be engaged in the mental engagement of determination (adhimokṣa-manaskāra).

After a practitioner has attained the four wisdoms of direct realization, they cultivate the four aids to enlightenment; all contemplative practice before the fourth aid, the first of the worldly dharmas, is called the mental engagement of determination. This means that all reflection and investigation prior to direct, empirical realization should be called determination and comprehension of the Dharma. Only after such determination can one observe and attain it directly, which is called realization. Realization occurs from the stage of the stream-enterer and above, while determination occurs at the stage of stream-entry aspiration or at the stage of the first of the worldly dharmas among the four aids; only after the four aids can one realize and see the path. Therefore, one must observe one's own wisdom as it truly is: is it wisdom of direct observation, or determination, or mere conjecture, inference, and analysis? Only by understanding the level of one's own wisdom can one properly plan the next step of one's cultivation.

A practitioner who possesses the four wisdoms of direct realization never obtains or knows the Dharma from elsewhere, nor takes what others say as the ultimate refuge; they rely on their own direct observation to realize it. Seeing and attaining the Dharma can only be accomplished through one's own investigation and contemplative practice; others cannot help with this. Whatever others point out or teach cannot substitute for one's own direct contemplative observation. Doubts must be resolved by oneself through contemplative practice; what others say cannot dispel the doubts in one's own mind, because it is not what one has personally seen and realized. Some people try every means to extract the fruits of others' cultivation, but the Buddha-Dharma is such that whoever cultivates it attains it; what is extracted from others cannot become one's own, nor can it yield the wisdom of seeing the path. With the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra as a guide, the principles of the Dharma become ever clearer. As for realizing the fruits and awakening to the true mind, no matter who refuses to accept it, there is nothing to be done—otherwise, go find Bodhisattva Maitreya and debate it with him.