The Reason Why Those Who Slander the Buddhadharma Cannot Attain Liberation

In a certain Buddhist community, there are those who exclusively believe in the Hīnayāna dharma and exclusively cultivate the path of liberation, yet do not believe in the Mahāyāna dharma, do not believe in the tathāgatagarbha, and do not believe in the manas — in fact, they are proponents of the six-consciousnesses doctrine who only acknowledge the six consciousnesses. They slander the Mahāyāna dharma as not spoken by the Buddha and deny the Mahāyāna patriarchs and bodhisattvas. In doing so, they not only slander the Buddha and the Dharma but also slander the Saṅgha — slandering all Three Jewels. Those who slander the Three Jewels are offenders within the Buddha-dharma, and offenders incur karmic retribution; cause and effect are manifest and clear, failing not in the slightest. If they do not repent and eliminate their karmic offenses, they cannot obtain the supreme benefits of the Buddha-dharma, that is, they cannot attain liberation. If slandering the Three Jewels could enable one to eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and attain liberation, then it would show that the world has no cause and no effect, or has cause but no effect. Yet cause and effect have never been absent, and the karmic retribution of wholesome and unwholesome actions has never failed to operate.

If one does not acknowledge the existence of the tathāgatagarbha, then when an arhat enters nirvāṇa, it would become annihilatory emptiness/nihilistic emptiness (uccheda-śūnyatā), no different from the non-Buddhist paths. Those arhats who turn from the Hīnayāna toward the Mahāyāna, dwelling in nirvāṇa without remainder, when their Mahāyāna karmic conditions ripen and they must take rebirth in the human world to continue studying and cultivating the Mahāyāna — how would they obtain a body of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha)? If they cannot obtain a body of the five aggregates, then all arhats would become fixed-nature arhats; there would be no unfixed-nature arhats, nor any arhats who turn from the Hīnayāna toward the Mahāyāna. Then would not the Mahāyāna dharma that the World-Honored One specially taught to arhats before they entered nirvāṇa have been effort in vain? Yet the World-Honored One's immeasurable great wisdom has never been expended in vain; whatever He spoke and whatever He aspired to would surely come to fruition.

If one does not acknowledge the existence of the manas, claiming that the manas is just the mind consciousness and that there is no manas, then when contemplating the five aggregates and eighteen realms in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), among the six faculties one cannot contemplate the manas but only the five faculties; the twelve sense bases cannot be fully contemplated — only eleven bases; the eighteen realms cannot be fully contemplated — only seventeen realms. Such an incomplete and fragmentary contemplative practice cannot eradicate the view that the manas is the self. How then can one eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi)? The manas is one of the six faculties; it has the function of a faculty as well as the function of a consciousness. Not acknowledging the existence of the manas, the contemplative practice is abandoned halfway, and liberation cannot be attained.

Those who casually claim to have attained the fourth dhyāna, those who casually claim to have realized the fourth fruit — how great must their misunderstanding be? Because sentient beings' pride is too heavy, they always like to exalt themselves and elevate themselves, never willing to honestly examine themselves or honestly assess themselves. As a result, the world is full of so-called sages, leaving Buddhism fragmented and its order thrown into disarray, leaving sentient beings with nothing to rely on and unable to truly discern what is right and wrong in the Buddha-dharma! In the Dharma-ending age, sentient beings' karmic obstructions are so heavy — how could there be so many sages dwelling in the world? May the wise reflect carefully, deliberate prudently, and choose well — do not drift along with the current!