Catchphrases are not equivalent to practice and realization.

Practice before enlightenment has many stages, and practice after enlightenment likewise has many stages. If one practices before enlightenment using the methods meant for after enlightenment, it is futile and useless, because without having entered the gate, one cannot do the things that are done inside the gate. For someone who has just attained enlightenment, or has not yet attained it, to practice according to the methods of the bhūmi bodhisattvas will be even less effective. Holding lofty theories in one's hands and believing one has already realized them, imagining oneself to be like a sage or like the tathāgatagarbha—this is purely self-deception. Many people, upon seeing the statement "afflictions are themselves bodhi," think that regarding afflictions as transformations of the tathāgatagarbha constitutes practice, and make no effort to subdue their afflictions. As a result, afflictions remain afflictions, and bodhi remains bodhi; after death they still sink in the cycle of birth and death—what benefit is there in that?

Some people, understanding that the tathāgatagarbha is beyond cultivation and beyond realization, think that the seven consciousnesses and the five aggregates should also be beyond cultivation and realization, and that since the tathāgatagarbha is originally a Buddha, they might as well just be a Buddha at home. Others hear that all dharmas arise from discrimination, and so they no longer wish to discriminate, believing that as long as they do not discriminate, the mind will be empty and without dharmas. Since the tathāgatagarbha does not discriminate, they too will not discriminate—then even if they go hungry for seven days, they should have no complaints.

All dharmas are indeed like illusions and transformations, but this is the realization level of bodhisattvas at the tenth abode stage and above. If one has not reached this level of practice and does not possess this actual realization, then one should not keep the words "illusion and transformation" on one's lips every day, turning them into mere lip-service Chan. The tathāgatagarbha does not keep precepts, so some people think they too, like the tathāgatagarbha, need not keep precepts, and can roam free and unrestrained, indulging without discipline. They do not realize that their own mind is replete with all greed, hatred, and delusion—how could they possibly roam free and unrestrained? Empty talk often ruins a nation. Those who can talk a foot high but cannot walk an inch are best off practicing earnestly and practically, and should no longer spout lofty rhetoric with eyes high and abilities low.