What Are Gradual Cultivation and Sudden Enlightenment?

Before sudden enlightenment, there still needs to be a process of gradual cultivation, and this gradual cultivation differs from the gradual cultivation after enlightenment—their natures are entirely different. The gradual cultivation before sudden enlightenment is the practice of the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment and the bodhisattva's six perfections, the cultivation of precepts, meditation (samādhi), and wisdom, and the full development of the four roots of goodness: heat, peak, patience, and the supreme worldly dharma. Only then can one suddenly awaken to the Buddhadharma of both the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna. If this issue is illustrated with an analogy, the principle will become clearer. For example, when felling a thousand-year-old tree with a thick trunk, to bring the trunk down one must use tools to saw through it bit by bit; this process is analogous to gradual cultivation, while finally bringing the old tree down in one moment is analogous to sudden enlightenment. Therefore, without gradual cultivation there can be no sudden enlightenment.

The processing after the tree is felled—such as stripping the bark, cutting it into boards, sanding, polishing, waxing, coloring, and so on—is similar to gradual cultivation after enlightenment. Finally assembling the boards into pleasing furniture and crafts is analogous to the ultimate sudden enlightenment 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 solid. This is analogous to the provisions needed for seeing the Path; if the provisions are insufficient, one cannot see the Path. Some people, as they cultivate, regress, fall behind, or come to a standstill, while others simply turn back. On this path of cultivation, the further one goes, the fewer the people: of ten thousand who first generate the aspiration, hardly any persist, and among those, perhaps not even one attains the Way. That is why 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 enlightenment with that after enlightenment, believing there is no gradual cultivation before enlightenment and that cultivation is a matter for after enlightenment. But a sudden enlightenment without gradual cultivation does not even count as an intellectual awakening—it is entirely emotional speculation and mental conjecture, with not the slightest benefit of merit, unless one is a bodhisattva of the bhūmis with immense roots of goodness who, due to a deep foundation from past lives, can achieve sudden enlightenment directly. Gradual cultivation before enlightenment is precisely the process of transforming the ordinary person's mental disposition into the mind of a sage; it is a process of being reborn and transformed, a metamorphosis before the carp leaps over the Dragon Gate. Without this process, how can the transformation occur? Therefore, to observe whether a person has genuinely awakened, one must observe their mental disposition and examine their bones—not look at the superficial gloss, eloquence, or glib talk. The essence is what matters most.

Gradual cultivation is making one's body and mind gradually approach and resemble the body and mind of sages; only when one reaches the standard of the sages can one suddenly awaken and see the Path. This is the process of cultivating the mind. If the mind does not change, if one's mental conduct is not that of a sage, one cannot become a sage. Therefore, gradual cultivation is very important; it is the key step for generating wisdom acquired through cultivation (bhāvanā-mayī-prajñā). Before this, there is only wisdom acquired through hearing (śruta-mayī-prajñā) and wisdom acquired through reflection (cintā-mayī-prajñā), which are very shallow and cannot withstand the karmic obstructions of birth and death. Only when the wisdom acquired through cultivation is complete can the wisdom of realizing the Way arise, and only then can one be free from the karma of the three evil destinies, sever afflictions, and escape the suffering of saṃsāra.