Is the Understanding of Dharma Through Consciousness’s Sole Acts of Thinking, Analysis, Comprehension, and Reasoning Considered Pratyakṣa-Prajñā?

The conclusions derived from conscious reasoning are not empirically verified nor personally realized; they lack genuine and applicable evidence to substantiate them, and the inner doubts remain unresolved. When encountering contradictory facts at a certain point, one will regret and overturn their previous conclusions. The profound doubts deeply rooted in the mental faculty (manas) remain entirely undetected when consciousness lacks wisdom. Therefore, inferential reasoning by consciousness cannot eliminate doubt nor cause the mental faculty to generate faith. Consequently, it holds no practical utility or benefit.

Even if the result of reasoning is entirely correct, one hundred percent correct, it is still non-definitive cognition (non-pramana). Why? For instance, suppose you reason that I must have stolen your belongings, and indeed I did steal them. However, since you did not witness it firsthand nor catch me in the act, your reasoning is useless. The court will not convict and sentence me based on your reasoning or anyone else's reasoning. Even if I confess to the theft myself but cannot provide compelling evidence to prove I committed it, the court still cannot convict me. Some people, seeking to absolve the karmic offenses of those connected to them, willingly take the blame and punishment upon themselves. Yet, without genuine and convincing evidence, even if they go to court to confess, claiming they personally committed the offense and that it is unrelated to others, the court cannot convict and sentence based solely on their testimony.

In the context of the Buddha Dharma, if one lacks meditative concentration (dhyana) and deduces the existence of the eighth consciousness (alaya-vijnana) through the activities of the five aggregates and the eighteen elements, imagining that the eighth consciousness possesses certain functions, such reasoning yields no karmic merit or benefit due to the lack of personal realization. It changes nothing. One's self-view (sakkaya-ditthi) remains intact, the three fetters (trini samyojanani) still bind them, and they cannot avoid the karmic retribution of falling into the three lower realms after death. Even if you are permitted to reason correctly about the eighth consciousness, even if your imagination grasps fifty to sixty percent, sixty to seventy percent, or seventy to eighty percent, you still will not give birth to great wisdom. You will still lack the state of samadhi, still lack karmic merit and benefit, and remain an ordinary person. You will never eradicate ignorance and afflictions through such imagination and reasoning.

The cultivation methods and paths used by patriarchs throughout countless eons are absolutely correct, conforming to direct perception (pratyaksa), and their achievements are genuine and trustworthy. They have exerted an immensely positive influence and driving force on Buddhism. The teachings of these patriarchs reveal the truth of cultivation and realization; they are genuine knowledge born of practice. Sentient beings of later times, due to their meager merit and deep karmic obstructions, cannot exert effort in the Dharma with the same wholehearted dedication of body and mind as the patriarchs did. Mostly, an opportunistic mentality prevails; all seek shortcuts. Cultivation requires abandoning the self, regardless of the cost. How could there be any shortcut? Taking one less step on the path means gaining one less measure of merit, experiencing one less measure of physical and mental realization, and suffering one more measure of loss. In reality, this is an act of self-deception that further deceives others. If a shortcut existed, would the Buddha not have told us and guided us towards it? Sentient beings suffer so greatly; would the Buddha not wish for them to swiftly accomplish the Buddha Way and take fewer detours?

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