Is the Knowledge Acquired by Consciousness Alone Through Contemplation, Analysis, Comprehension, and Reasoning Regarding Dharmas Direct Perceptual Wisdom?

The conclusions derived from the reasoning of the conscious mind are not empirically verified, not personally realized, and lack genuine, usable evidence for support. The deep doubts within the mind are not eliminated. When encountering contradictory facts at some point, one will regret and overturn previous conclusions. Moreover, the profound doubts deeply rooted in the mental faculty (manas) cannot be detected at all by the conscious mind when it lacks wisdom. Therefore, the inferences of the conscious mind cannot resolve doubts or cause the mental faculty to generate faith, rendering them impractical and unbeneficial.

Even if the result of reasoning is entirely correct, one hundred percent correct, it is still non-conclusive evidence (non-pramāṇa). Why? For example, suppose you reason that I must have stolen your belongings, and in reality, I did indeed steal them. However, since you did not see it with your own eyes or catch me red-handed, your reasoning is useless. The court will not convict or sentence me based on your reasoning or anyone else’s reasoning. Even if I admit to stealing myself but cannot produce strong evidence proving that I stole, the court still cannot convict me. Some people, seeking to absolve the karmic offenses of those connected to them, are willing to take the blame and punishment themselves. Without genuine and convincing evidence, even if they go to court to confess, claiming the offense was committed solely by themselves and unrelated to others, the court cannot convict based solely on their testimony.

In the context of the Buddha Dharma, if one lacks meditative concentration (dhyāna) and deduces the existence of the eighth consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna) through the activities of the five aggregates and eighteen elements, imagining that the eighth consciousness possesses certain functions, but since it is not personally realized, such reasoning yields no meritorious benefit or practical use. It changes nothing. The view of self still persists, the three fetters still bind one, and one cannot avoid the karmic retribution of falling into the three lower realms upon death. Even if you correctly deduce the eighth consciousness, even if your imagination is fifty or sixty percent, sixty or seventy percent, or seventy or eighty percent accurate, it still will not give rise to great wisdom. There will still be no state of samādhi, no meritorious benefit, and one remains an ordinary being. One will never eliminate ignorance and afflictions through such imagination and reasoning.

The cultivation methods and paths used by patriarchs through countless eons and generations are absolutely correct, conforming to direct perception (pratyakṣa). Their achievements are genuine and credible, exerting immensely positive influence and impetus on Buddhism. The teachings of the patriarchs all reveal the truth of cultivation and realization, born of genuine knowledge through practice. Sentient beings of later times, due to meager merit and deep karmic obstructions, cannot exert effort in the Dharma like the patriarchs, relinquishing body and mind. Mostly, the psychology of seeking shortcuts prevails; all wish to take the easy path. Cultivation requires abandoning the self, regardless of the cost. How can there be any shortcut? Taking one step less on the path means gaining one less portion of merit, experiencing one less portion of physical and mental realization, suffering one more loss. In reality, this is self-deception that further deceives others. If there were a shortcut, would the Buddha not have told us and guided us? Sentient beings suffer so greatly; would the Buddha not wish for them to swiftly accomplish the Buddha Way and avoid detours?

Any practice that does not accord with the Buddha’s teachings, that violates the Buddha’s original intent and harms the interests of sentient beings, will ultimately be destroyed and expunged from Buddhism. It is only a matter of time.