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—the two are completely different in nature. 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 foremost 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 very thick trunk, to bring the trunk down one must use tools to saw through it bit by bit; this process is equivalent to the process of gradual cultivation, and finally bringing the old tree down in one moment is equivalent to sudden enlightenment. Therefore, without gradual cultivation there can be no sudden enlightenment.

The processing after the tree has been felled—such as stripping the bark, cutting it into boards, sanding, polishing, waxing, coloring, and so on—is similar to gradual cultivation after enlightenment; and finally assembling the boards into pleasing furniture and handicrafts is equivalent 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 equivalent 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 a few persist, and of those who attain the Way there may not even be one. Thus 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 the gradual cultivation after enlightenment, believing that 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 intellectual awakening; it is entirely emotional conjecture and mental speculation, without the slightest benefit of merit—unless one is a bodhisattva of the bhūmis with extremely great roots of goodness who, due to a deep foundation from past lives, can directly achieve sudden enlightenment. 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 remade, the metamorphosis before the carp leaps over the dragon gate. Without this process, how could the metamorphosis occur? Therefore, to observe whether a person has genuinely awakened, one must observe their mental disposition and observe their bones—not look at the superficial gloss, eloquence, or grandiose 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 actions are not those 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 attained through realizing the Path arise; only then can one be freed from the karma of the three evil destinies, sever afflictions, and escape the suffering of saṃsāra.